RATES OF RECENT SEDIMENTATION IN LAKE PEPIN1

ABSTRACT: Sedimentation rates since 1954 in Lake Pepin, as determined from the content of fallout cesium-137 in the sediment profile, have exceeded 2.5 cm/yr in the upper part of the lake. These rates, although somewhat less than those of the previous half century (1895–1954), are sufficiently large that the upstream portion of Lake Pepin is threatened with conversion to a marsh within a century. The density of the sediments measured increased with depth in the sampled profile from 1.1 to 1.2 g/ml at the sediment surface to 1.4 to 1.5 g/ml at 2- or 3-m depth. There was little or no change in the patterns of textural composition or density of the sediment profile with depth and age over the past 80 to 150 years.     

QUANTITATIVE METHODS FOR PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF WATER QUALITY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT: To assure attainment and maintenance of desired water quality levels in our rivers and streams, systematic monitoring must be performed. A preliminary phase of the design of water quality surveillance systems is the specification of sampling frequencies and station locations throughout the basin; that is, the development of an adequate space/time sampling plan. The purpose of this paper is to present some quantitative methods which have been developed to identify candidate sets of sampling frequencies and station locations, and to establish priorities for implementing the different frequencies and locations. These methods are useful in the cost/effectiveness trade-off analyses in surveillance system design, and are based on the surveillance system objective of pollution abatement in which it is desired to detect violations in state-federal water quality standards. A spatial priority measure is developed which is dependent both on the water quality profile in the stream and on the information obtained from monitoring stations located in other reaches. Also, a temporal sampling priority rating is presented which is a measure of the effectiveness of the surveillance system with respect to its ability to detect the violations in the standards. To illustrate the quantitative methods, the procedures are applied to the Wabash River Basin.     

Distribution verticale des euphausiacés (crustacés) dans les courants équatoriaux de l'Océan Pacifique

This paper examines data obtained from 80 stations in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean; material was collected with a 10 foot Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT), an opening-closing Omori larval net (LN) and a neuston surface net. The smaller fauna (average length <10 mm) appears to remain permanently in the 0 to 160 m water layer. As far as larger fauna is concerned, by night 86 % of the euphausiids occur in the 0 to 160 m water layer, 11 % between 160 and 300 m, and 3 % in deeper water layers. In terms of biomass, these percentages are 75, 19 and 6 %, respectively, suggesting that larger animals tend to dwell in deeper water layers. The vertical distributions of the larger species by night fall into 4 main types: (1) nearly all individuals occur inside or above the thermocline (i.e., 0 to 160 m): Thysanopoda tricuspidata, T. aequalis, Stylocheiron carinatum, Euphausia diomedae, E. paragibba, E. tenera; (2) species occupy the 0 to 300 m layer, some animals crossing the thermocline and others not: S. affine, Nematoscelis microps, T. pectinata, T. monacantha, T. orientalis, S. abbreviatum, Nematoscelis gracilis, Nematobrachion flexipes; (3) whole populations remain under the thermocline (160 to 300 m): S. longicorne, S. maximum, Nematoscelis tenella; (4) deep-living species (300 to 800 m): S. elongatum, T. cristata, Nematobrachion boopis, Bentheuphausia amblyops. The specific composition of the fauna of the various layers has been deduced from these considerations. For 9 species it is evident that older individuals tend to live deeper than the younger stages. The duration of the nocturnal stay in subsurface layers, as well as the upper diurnal limits of the species, have been estimated from a series of consecutive tows. Occurrence of the larger fauna (>10 mm average length) can be considered as quantitatively negligible during daytime hours in the 0 to 200 m water layer, except where swarming occurs. The data have been used to establish whether species belong to migrant or non-migrant types, and to determine the vertical ranges of their distributions.     

REGIONAL SCALE MODELING OF SURFACE AND GROUND WATER INTERACTION IN THE SNAKE RIVER BASIN1

ABSTRACT: Changes in irrigation and land use may impact discharge of the Snake River Plain aquifer, which is a major contributor to flow of the Snake River in southern Idaho. The Snake River Basin planning and management model (SRBM) has been expanded to include the spatial distribution and temporal attenuation that occurs as aquifer stresses propagate through the aquifer to the river. The SRBM is a network flow model in which aquifer characteristics have been introduced through a matrix of response functions. The response functions were determined by independently simulating the effect of a unit stress in each cell of a finite difference groundwater flow model on six reaches of the Snake River. Cells were aggregated into 20 aquifer zones and average response functions for each river reach were included in the SRBM. This approach links many of the capabilities of surface and ground water flow models. Evaluation of an artificial recharge scenario approximately reproduced estimates made by direct simulation in a ground water flow model. The example demonstrated that the method can produce reasonable results but interpretation of the results can be biased if the simulation period is not of adequate duration.     

The Roles of Photooxidation and Biodegradation in Long-term Weathering of Crude and Heavy Fuel Oils

Although spilled oil is subject to a range of natural processes, only combustion, photooxidation and biodegradation destroy hydrocarbons and remove them from the biosphere. We present laboratory data that demonstrate the molecular preferences of these processes, and then examine some oil residues collected from previously documented releases to confirm the important roles that these processes play in removing spilled oil from both marine and terrestrial environments.     

Biodegradation of Fuel Oil Under Laboratory and Arctic Marine Conditions

The aerobic biodegradation of the components of a fuel oil under Arctic summer conditions follows a pattern that is indistinguishable from that exhibited under temperate conditions. Straight chain alkanes and small aromatics are degraded first, followed by branched alkanes and larger and alkylated aromatics. We present data on the biodegradation of heptadecane as a representative n-alkane, pristane as a representative iso-alkane, and naphthalene, phenanthrene, and chrysene and their alkylated forms as representative two-, three- and four-ring aromatic hydrocarbons. In particular, the pattern of degradation of the alkylated aromatics allows the identification of biodegradation in samples collected from the field and the estimation of the extent of biodegradation that occurred in the In-Situ Treatment of Oiled Sediment Shorelines Field Trials.     

Toxicity Evaluation with the Microtox Test to Assess the Impact of In Situ Oiled Shoreline Treatment Options: Natural Attenuation and Sediment Relocation

Changes in the toxicity levels of beach sediment, nearshore water, and bottom sediment samples were monitored with the Microtox^® Test to evaluate the two in situ oil spill treatment options of natural attenuation (natural recovery--no treatment) and sediment relocation (surf washing). During a series of field trials, IF-30 fuel oil was intentionally sprayed onto the surface of three mixed sediment (pebble and sand) beaches on the island of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway (78°56^′ N, 16°45^′ E). At a low wave-energy site (Site 1 with a 3-km wind fetch), where oil was stranded within the zone of normal wave action, residual oil concentrations and beach sediment toxicity levels were significantly reduced by both options in less than five days. At Site 3, a higher wave-energy site with a 40-km wind fetch, oil was intentionally stranded on the beach face in the upper intertidal/supratidal zones, above the level of normal wave activity. At this site under these experimental conditions, sediment relocation was effective in accelerating the removal of the oil from the sediments and reducing the Microtox^® Test toxicity response to background levels. In the untreated (natural attenuation) plot at this site, the fraction of residual oil remaining within the beach sediments after one year (70%) continued to generate a toxic response. Chemical and toxicological analyses of nearshore sediment and sediment-trap samples at both sites confirmed that oil and suspended mineral fines were effectively dispersed into the surrounding environment by the in situ treatments. In terms of secondary potential detrimental effects from the release of stranded oil from the beaches, the toxicity level (Microtox^® Test) of adjacent nearshore sediment samples did not exceed the Canadian regulatory limit for dredged spoils destined for ocean disposal.     

柯达--安全第一

柯达公司1995年在上海投资电子设备厂,1998年开始与中国感光业合作,投资12亿美元成立了柯达(中国)股份有限公司,柯达无锡股份有限公司;2000年又投资建立了柯达(厦门)有限公司。目前有职工4000多名,生产传统和数码照相机,彩色胶卷和彩色相纸,黑白X光片,照相用冲印套药,以及符合环保再制造概念的一次性相机,涵盖化工,精细化学,机械制造和机电设备等多种行业,至今没有发生过一起“失工时事故”(即员工因工负伤,在24小时内不能返回工作岗位),安全生产达到4383万小时,实现中国柯达安全生产5000年,创造了制造业安全生产的奇迹。     

Best available techniques (BAT) for the fruit and vegetable processing industry

Best available techniques (BAT) are an important reference point in the environmental permit regulation for industrial installations in the European Union Member States, which have to implement the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC)-directive (96/61/EC). BAT correspond to the techniques and organisational measures with the best overall environmental performance that can be introduced at a reasonable cost. In the Flanders part of Belgium, BAT are usually determined at the sector level. The ‘Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industry’ [BAT for Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industry. Gent, Belgium: Academia Press, 1999] is one of the industries for which a BAT report has been drafted. In this paper, the main results of this study are presented. Special attention is given to the use of high quality water¹, as this is the key environmental issue of the industry.     

Evaluating your environmental audit—moving beyond band-aids in developing corrective actions

Although audit programs have helped companies make big improvements in performance, more progress is still necessary and available. In this article the authors show how still bigger improvements are possible by expanding the corrective action process and utilizing total quality principles in developing corrective actions and evaluating company performance. With sufficient knowledge about the nature of its problems, not just the degree of its problems, a company should be able to rethink its basic management approaches and achieve dramatic improvements in performance.