Abatement systems for SOx,NOx, and particles — Technical options

Summary This technical paper summarizes the various systems currently available for the removal of SO_x, NO_x and particles from possible acid rain emission sources associated with industrial processes. Preferred systems are outlined in the conclusions.This paper was first presented at the Institution of Environmental Sciences Seminar An Update on Acid Rain which took place in London during November, 1984. Stanley Wallin is a Principal Scientific Officer at Warren Spring Laboratory. He is an engineer working in the environmental field, and his main interests and research are in the measurement and control of pollution from stationary sources. He acts as a consultant for the European Economic Community, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the UK's Health and Safety Executive.     

Fate of heavy metals and radioactive metals in gasification of sewage sludge

The fates of radioactive cadmium, strontium, cesium, cobalt, arsenic, mercury, zinc, and copper spiked into sewage sludge were determined when the sludge was gasified by a process that maximizes production of char from the sludge (ChemChar process). For the most part the metals were retained in the char product in the gasifier. Small, but measurable quantities of arsenic were mobilized by gasification and slightly more than 1% of the arsenic was detected in the effluent gas. Mercury was largely mobilized from the solids in the gasifier, but most of the mercury was retained in a filter composed of char prepared from the sludge. The small amounts of mercury leaving the gasification system were found to be associated with an aerosol product generated during gasification. The metals retained in the char product of gasification were only partially leachable with 50% concentrated nitric acid.     

SALT PICKUP BY OVERLAND FLOW IN THE PRICE RIVER BASIN,UTAH1

ABSTRACT: This study emphasized a field investigation of salt release to overland flow from Mancos shale lands of the Price River Basin, Utah. Although a high degree of natural variation existed in the data, which precluded the separation of factors affecting diffuse salt loading that occurs during overland flow, a simplistic nonpoint source loading function developed on empirical concepts was fit to the data. This function was then used to calculate the average annual salt yield to the Price River by overland flow. It was found that even under severe conditions, the salt yields from Mancos shale lands due to overland flow is relatively minor, accounting for less than 1.5 percent of the average annual salt mass transported from the basin by the Price River.     

ACCIDENTAL AND PLANNED WEATHER MODIFICATION IN ILLINOIS1

ABSTRACT: Weather modification, both planned by man and that accidentally produced by man, has been under intensive study in Illinois for ten years. Most everyone in Illinois and the Midwest is living in a climate that now is modified inadvertently from its natural state. State atmospheric scientists have tackled weather modification through a series of interrelated studies beginning with climatic studies (to establish the background), experimental design studies, experimental field studies to verify changes and their causes, and finally socio-economic and environmental studies to measure the impacts of weather modification. Studies at St. Louis show that the city acts as a trigger of summer clouds and rainfall leading to 4 to 6 summer days with 3 cm or more rain somewhere just east of the city. Power plants and jet aircraft also accidentally produce climatic changes. A focus on planned weather modification has been on the design of needed midwestern experiments in rainfall enhancement and hail suppression including the societal and environmental impacts.     

ATMOSPHERIC CONTROLS OF WATER EXCHANGE IN GREAT LAKES BASIN1

ABSTRACT Existing meteorological controls of water exchange by precipitation and evaporation on the Great Lakes are almost entirely inadvertent and related to man's urban-industrial complexes and their effect upon precipitation processes. These inadvertent effects have led to 10 to 40% increases in precipitation in localized areas within the basin. Envisioned growth of urban-industrial complexes within the Great Lakes region should lead to more inadvertent weather modification in the Basin. The only existing planned weather modification efforts are those at Lake Erie which are attempting to eliminate by redistribution the concentration of lake-derived heavy snowfall along the south shore. It appears reasonable to assume that practical increases of lake precipitation on the order of 5-20% could be achieved on an operational basis over the Great Lakes in the next 10 years, but the time of accomplishment will depend on national priorities, international cooperation, and economic factors. These activities would certainly produce a sizeable increase in the water quantity of the Great Lakes and should result in an improvement in water quality. Operational methods of evaporation suppression applicable to the lakes are just not available. Meteorological controls to ameliorate certain undesirable lake-effect snowstorms are a near reality.     

Motivations of aspiring male and female entrepreneurs

This study examines the motives that stimulate individuals into becoming business proprietors. More specifically, it aims to discover if entrepreneurs have multiple motives for creating their enterprises, if non-economic motives predominate over economic ones, and if men and women have similar reasons for business founding. Results, based on personal interviews with 35 men and 34 women, indicate that both genders have a variety of reasons for founding and that women, as well as men, are primarily motivated by autonomy, achievement, a desire for job satisfaction and other non-economic rewards. A desire to make money is not, however, an unimportant motive. Turning to differences in motives we find that women are less concerned with making money and often choose business proprietorship as a result of career dissatisfaction. They also see entrepreneurship as a means of meeting simultaneously their own career needs and the needs of their children.     

Environmental audit: III. Improving the management of environmental information for toxic substances

Environmental programs have been commonly driven by a preoccupation with the collection of data in the mistaken belief thatdata is synonymous withinformation. The distinction between data (that is, the quantified and qualitative attributes of a particular environment) and information (specifically, data processed so as to focus upon a particular environmental problem) will become far more important to environmental managers. They will increasingly manage their information through use of what has become known as information resource management (IRM) and the attendant use of critical success factors methodology. Environmental managers will thereby move away from concerns about data and specific EDP hardware and applications toward managing information as a valuable agency resource. In applying IRM, they will find it helpful to include a number of planning elements and to resolve early a number of issues critical to its successful use.     

USE OF CLIMATE PREDICTIONS TO DECIDE A WATER MANAGEMENT PROBLEM1

ABSTRACT: Seasonal precipitation predictions were utilized in a water management decision with major economic, societal, and political ramifications. A summer (1984) drought had created a situation calling for possible fall season use of state waters from two major multipurpose reservoirs with an ensuing effect on water price negotiations. Choices facing management and use of water from the reservoirs were to invoke expensive water restrictions with a 33 percent chance of being right, do nothing (66 percent chance of wrong outcome), or use the precipitation predictors (for above normal fall rain) having a 50 percent chance of error. Hydrologists chose to follow the precipitation predictions, which proved to be accurate for the fall of 1984, helping to reveal the long-term value of using well understood climate predictions in water management.     

A closure test for time-specific capture-recapture data

The assumption of demographic closure in the analysis of capture-recapture data under closed-population models is of fundamental importance. Yet, little progress has been made in the development of omnibus tests of the closure assumption. We present a closure test for time-specific data that, in principle, tests the null hypothesis of closed-population model M_t against the open-population Jolly-Seber model as a specific alternative. This test is chi-square, and can be decomposed into informative components that can be interpreted to determine the nature of closure violations. The test is most sensitive to permanent emigration and least sensitive to temporary emigration, and is of intermediate sensitivity to permanent or temporary immigration. This test is a versatile tool for testing the assumption of demographic closure in the analysis of capture-recapture data.