Assessment of air quality benefits from national air pollution control policies in China. Part I: Background,emission scenarios and evaluation of meteorological predictions

Under the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP, 2006–2010) for national environmental protection by the Chinese government, the overarching goal for sulfur dioxide (SO₂) controls is to achieve a total national emissions level of SO₂ in 2010 10% lower than the level in 2005. A similar nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emissions control plan is currently under development and could be enforced during the 12th FYP (2011–2015). In this study, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA)’s Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (Models-3/CMAQ) modeling system was applied to assess the air quality improvement that would result from the targeted SO₂ and NO_x emission controls in China. Four emission scenarios — the base year 2005, the 2010 Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario, the 2010 SO₂ control scenario, and the 2010 NO_x control scenario—were constructed and simulated to assess the air quality change from the national control plan. The Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale Model (MM5) was applied to generate the meteorological fields for the CMAQ simulations. In this Part I paper, the model performance for the simulated meteorology was evaluated against observations for the base case in terms of temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation. It is shown that MM5 model gives an overall good performance for these meteorological variables. The generated meteorological fields are acceptable for using in the CMAQ modeling.     

Sustainable soil remediation by refrigerated condensation at sites with “high‐concentration” recalcitrant compounds and NAPL: Two case studies

Remediation of recalcitrant compounds at sites with high concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or nonaqueous‐phase liquids (NAPLs) can present significant technical and financial (long‐term) risk for stakeholders. Until recently, however, sustainability has not been included as a significant factor to be considered in the feasibility and risk evaluation for remediation technologies. The authors present a framework for which sustainability can be incorporated into the remediation selection criteria focusing specifically on off‐gas treatment selection for soil vapor extraction (SVE) remediation technology. SVE is generally considered an old and standard approach to in situ remediation of soils at a contaminated site. The focus on off‐gas treatment technology selection in this article allows for more in‐depth analysis of the feasibility evaluation process and how sustainable practices might influence the process. SVE is more commonly employed for recovery of VOCs from soils than other technologies and generally employs granular activated carbon (GAC), catalytic, or thermal oxidation, or an emerging alternative technology known as cryogenic‐compression and condensation combined with regenerative adsorption (C3–Technology). Of particular challenge to the off‐gas treatment selection process is the potential variety of chemical constituents and concentrations changing over time. Guidance is available regarding selection of off‐gas treatment technology (Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, 1996; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2006). However, there are common shortcomings of off‐gas treatment technology guidance and applications; practitioners have rarely considered sustainability and environmental impact of off‐gas treatment technology selection. This evaluation includes consideration of environmental sustainability in the selection of off‐gas treatment technologies and a region‐specific (Los Angeles, California) cost per pound and time of remediation comparisons between GAC, thermal oxidation, and C3–Technology. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Improved methodology to assess modification and completion of landfill gas management in the aftercare period

Municipal solid waste landfills represent the dominant option for waste disposal in many parts of the world. While some countries have greatly reduced their reliance on landfills, there remain thousands of landfills that require aftercare. The development of cost-effective strategies for landfill aftercare is in society’s interest to protect human health and the environment and to prevent the emergence of landfills with exhausted aftercare funding. The Evaluation of Post-Closure Care (EPCC) methodology is a performance-based approach in which landfill performance is assessed in four modules including leachate, gas, groundwater, and final cover. In the methodology, the objective is to evaluate landfill performance to determine when aftercare monitoring and maintenance can be reduced or possibly eliminated. This study presents an improved gas module for the methodology. While the original version of the module focused narrowly on regulatory requirements for control of methane migration, the improved gas module also considers best available control technology for landfill gas in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, and emissions of odoriferous compounds. The improved module emphasizes the reduction or elimination of fugitive methane by considering the methane oxidation capacity of the cover system. The module also allows for the installation of biologically active covers or other features designed to enhance methane oxidation. A methane emissions model, CALMIM, was used to assist with an assessment of the methane oxidation capacity of landfill covers.     

Exploring nationality and social identity to explain attitudes toward conservation actions in the United States and Australia

Understanding human attitudes toward wildlife management is critical to implementing effective conservation action and policy. Understanding the factors that shape public attitudes toward different wildlife management actions is limited, however, which can result in unpredictable public responses to interventions. We drew on comparisons between residents of 2 countries on separate continents to explore differences in attitudes toward wildlife management and determine factors important in shaping these attitudes. We surveyed representative publics via market research panels in Australia (n = 881 respondents) and the United States (n = 1287). We applied a social-identity approach and demography to identify factors that explained variance between responses about wildlife management. We compared responses between countries overall and within subgroups of respondents who strongly identified as environmentalists, animal rights activists, wildlife conservation advocates, and farmers. We created aggregate scores for the management-related response items per respondent and used regression analyses to identify the relative importance of country, identity, age, and gender in explaining variance between responses. These factors accounted for 15.3% of variance among responses. Australians overall were generally more accepting of lethal wildlife management actions than U.S. respondents. Differences in national attitudes reflected differences between United States and Australian wildlife management and policy, highlighting the importance of understanding social attitudes in shaping conservation policy. Identifying as a farmer followed by identifying as an animal rights activist most shaped attitudes toward wildlife management. Identity-related conflicts could be initiated or exacerbated by conservation interventions that fail to consider identity-related processes.     

Using the Price Equation to partition the effects of biodiversity loss on ecosystem function

Species loss can impact ecosystem functioning, but no general framework for analyzing these impacts exists. Here I derive a general partitioning of the effects of species loss on any ecosystem function comprising the summed contributions of individual species (e.g., primary productivity). The approach partitions the difference in ecosystem function between two sites (a "pre-loss" site, and a "post-loss" site comprising a strict subset of the species at the pre-loss site) into additive components attributable to different effects. The approach does not assume a particular experimental design or require monoculture data, making it more general than previous approaches. Using the Price Equation from evolutionary biology, I show that three distinct effects cause ecosystem function to vary between sites: the "species richness effect" (SRE; random loss of species richness), the "species composition effect" (SCE; nonrandom loss of high- or low-functioning species), and the "context dependence effect" (CDE; post-loss changes in the functioning of the remaining species). The SRE reduces ecosystem function without altering mean function per species. The SCE is analogous to natural selection in evolution. Nonrandom loss of, for example, high-functioning species will reduce mean function per species, and thus total function, just as selection against large individuals in an evolving population reduces mean body size in the next generation. The CDE is analogous to imperfect transmission in evolution. For instance, any factor (e.g., an environmental change) causing offspring to attain smaller body sizes than their parents (imperfect transmission) will reduce the mean body size in the next generation. Analogously, any factor causing the species remaining at the post-loss site to make smaller functional contributions than at the pre-loss site will reduce mean function per species, and thus total function. I use published data to illustrate how this new partition generalizes previous approaches, facilitates comparative analyses, and generates new empirical insights. In particular, the SCE often is less important than other effects.     

The use of ozone in the remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contaminated soil

The potential of using ozone for the removal of phenanthrene from several different soils, both alone and in combination with biodegradation using a microbial inoculant (Pseudomonas alcaligenes PA-10), was examined. The greater the water content of the soil the less effective the ozone treatment, with air-dried soils showing the greatest removal of phenanthrene; while soils with higher levels of clay also reduced the effectiveness of the ozone treatments. However, at least a 50% reduction in phenanthrene levels was achieved in air-dried soil after an ozone treatment of 6 h at 20 ppm, with up to 85% removal of phenanthrene achieved in sandy soils. The biodegradation results indicate that P. alcaligenes PA-10 may be useful as an inoculant for the removal of PAHs from contaminated soils. Under the conditions used in our experiments, however, pre-ozonation did not enhance subsequent biodegradation of phenanthrene in the soils. Similar levels of phenanthrene removal occurred in both non-ozonated and ozonated Cruden Bay soil inoculated with P. alcaligenes PA-10. However, the biodegradation of phenanthrene in ozonated Boyndie soil was much slower. This may be due to the release of toxic products in this soil during ozonation.     

Off‐gas treatment carbon footprint calculator: Form and function

The quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be a powerful sustainability measurement indicator for assessing environmental impacts of various operations, which can include remediation of chemically impacted media or construction projects. A carbon footprint calculator was developed and is presented in this article as one tool for applying sustainable practices to environmental remediation—specifically to assess the GHG footprint for remediation projects. The calculator is constructed from a compilation of published metrics and “standards.” © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Pesticide exposures and respiratory health in general populations

Human exposures to pesticides can occur in the workplace, in the household and through the ambient environment. While several articles have reviewed the impact of pesticide exposures on human respiratory health in occupational settings, to the best of our knowledge, this article is the first one to review published studies on the association between pesticide exposures and human respiratory health in the general populations. In this article, we critically reviewed evidences up to date studying the associations between non-occupational pesticide exposures and respiratory health in general populations. This article also highlighted questions arising from these studies, including our recent analyses using the data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS), for future research. We found few studies have addressed the impact of environmental pesticide exposures on respiratory health, especially on lung function, in general populations. In the studies using the data from CHMS Cycle 1, exposures to OP insecticides, pyrethroid insecticides, and the organochlorine pesticide DDT were associated with impaired lung function in the Canadian general population, but no significant associations were observed for the herbicide 2,4-D. Future research should focus on the potential age-specific and pesticide-specific effect on respiratory health in the general population, and repeated longitudinal study design is critical for assessing the temporal variations in pesticide exposures. Research findings from current studies of non-occupational pesticide exposures and their health impact in general population will help to improve the role of regulatory policies in mitigating pesticide-related public health problems, and thereafter providing greater benefit to the general population.