Comprehensive Environmental Investigation at Former Industrial/Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Sites in Long Beach,CA: A Forensic Perspective

Two industrial sites were investigated based on years of available hydrogeologic information and monitoring data for soil and groundwater. Collected data were forensically evaluated using age-dating and fingerprinting methods. The previous business uses of the project sites were as a gas station, laundry/dry-cleaning service, and car wash with petroleum underground storage tanks (USTs). As a result, these sites were exposed to a number of toxic contaminants at relatively high concentrations. Source control was necessary for successful remediation and the ultimate removal of the remaining compounds from these industrial sites. Although contaminated soil around the source was excavated during the remedial action and the high concentrations of contaminants were reduced, typical groundwater contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbons as gasoline (TPH-G), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX), and oxygenates including methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), diisopropyl ether (DIPE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME), and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) were persistently found at the studied sites around the source points. The plume and concentration of contaminants had changed their shapes and strength for all monitoring periods. Thus, additional source control seems to be a requirement for the complete removal of source contamination, which must be ascertained with groundwater and soil monitoring on a regular time base. For the study sites, monitored natural attenuation was relatively feasible for the long-term plan; however, it did not offer a perfect remediation solution for an ultimate goal because of residual toxic compounds that might have affected the surrounding residential areas at higher concentrations than their health limits. Therefore, as a remediation strategy, the combination of clean-up technology and natural attenuation with monitoring activities are more highly recommended than either clean-up or natural attenuation used separately.     

中国工业水污染及其成因的de Bruyn模型分析

选取废水、挥发酚、氰化物、COD、石油类和氨氮为中国工业水污染指标,利用分解分析方法将2004—2010年间的污染变化分解为规模效应、结构效应、污染治理效应、清洁技术效应和广义技术效应。结果显示,这5类效应的平均作用强度分别为2.08%、3.04%、15.61%、17.37%和32.88%,其中规模效应和广义技术效应是影响工业水污染的主导效应。各类效应对不同污染物的作用方向并不完全一致,规模效应促进污染物排放量的增加;结构效应以加重污染为主,污染治理效应和清洁技术效应以减轻污染为主;广义技术效应的平均作用强度和负向作用概率均最大,是现阶段中国工业水污染控制最为有效的手段。     

阳宗海沉积物中磷的稳定性

絮凝剂(Fe Cl3)治理阳宗海砷污染的过程中,水体中的磷被大量沉积进入底泥,弄清其是否会在环境条件变化后发生反溶形成二次污染对湖泊富营养化防治具有重要意义。通过模拟实验模拟泥-水界面p H变化、物理扰动和微生物活动的变化,旨在分析这些环境因子变化对沉积物中磷溶出的影响。结果表明,阳宗海水体在目前这种磷浓度下,底泥的磷会随时间的增加而溶出再次造成水体磷污染,当暴露在清洁水条件下时磷的释放率会增加;这种由于絮凝剂吸附沉淀到湖底的磷,在上覆水p H增加0.5时底泥磷解吸附释放速率增加;每年秋季湖泊上下层水的交换活动会造成水体磷浓度的季节性升高,形成不可忽视的磷内源。而夏季水温分层导致湖泊底部厌氧,使厌氧微生物活性增强,这将进一步促进底泥中磷的释放。     

纳米TiO2-石墨烯光催化剂的水热合成及其光催化性能

以钛酸四正丁酯和石墨为原料,通过水热法制备了锐钛矿型为主的纳米TiO2复合光催化剂（纳米TiO2-石墨烯）,并采用XRD,FTIR,FESEM,TEM技术对其进行了表征。通过紫外光照射降解溶液中的罗丹明B（RhB）研究了TiO2-石墨烯的光催化活性,分析了初始罗丹明B质量浓度、催化剂加入量、溶液pH和催化剂使用次数等影响降解效果的因素。实验结果表明：在初始RhB质量浓度为20 mg/L、溶液pH为7.10、催化剂加入量为1.000 g/L的条件下,紫外光照射30 min时,纳米TiO2-石墨烯对RhB的降解率高达98.69%,明显高于纳米TiO2的44.69%;纳米TiO2-石墨烯稳定性较强,可多次重复使用。     

Anthropogenic oligotrophication via liming: Long-term phosphorus trends in acidified,limed, and neutral reference lakes in Sweden

Restoration of acidified lakes by liming does not, in many cases, improve productivity to a pre-acidified state. We hypothesize that the poor recovery detected in many of these lakes is due to constrained in-lake phosphorous (P) cycling caused by enhanced precipitation of metals in higher pH, limed waters. Long-term (1990–2012) data for 65 limed, circum-neutral (pH 6–8), and acidified lakes in Sweden were analyzed to determine trends for P and potential drivers of these trends. Limed lakes not only had lower mean values and stronger decreasing trends for total P than non-limed lakes, but they also had the highest percentage of decreasing trends (85 %). A P release factor (Hypolimnetic P/Epilimnetic P) was developed to elucidate differences in internal P cycling between lake groups. Consistently, lower P release factors in limed lakes show limitation of internal P cycling during summer months that may be a factor limiting P bioavailability and thus productivity of these systems.     

Photocatalytic degradation of acetaminophen in modified TiO2 under visible irradiation

This study investigated the photocatalytic degradation of acetaminophen (ACT) in synthetic titanium dioxide (TiO₂) solution under a visible light (λ >440 nm). The TiO₂ photocatalyst used in this study was synthesized via sol–gel method and doped with potassium aluminum sulfate (KAl(SO₄)₂) and sodium aluminate (NaAlO₂). The influence of some parameters on the degradation of acetaminophen was examined, such as initial pH, photocatalyst dosage, and initial ACT concentration. The optimal operational conditions were also determined. Results showed that synthetic TiO₂ catalysts presented mainly as anatase phase and no rutile phase was observed. The results of photocatalytic degradation showed that LED alone degraded negligible amount of ACT but with the presence of TiO₂/KAl(SO₄)₂, 95 % removal of 0.10-mM acetaminophen in 540-min irradiation time was achieved. The synthetic TiO₂/KAl(SO₄)₂ presented better photocatalytic degradation of acetaminophen than commercially available Degussa P-25. The weak crystallinity of synthesized TiO₂/NaAlO₂ photocatalyst showed low photocatalytic degradation than TiO₂/KAl(SO₄)₂. The optimal operational conditions were obtained in pH 6.9 with a dose of 1.0 g/L TiO₂/KAl(SO₄)₂ at 30 °C. Kinetic study illustrated that photocatalytic degradation of acetaminophen fits well in the pseudo-first order model. Competitive reactions from intermediates affected the degradation rate of ACT, and were more obvious as the initial ACT concentration increased.     

Effect of temperature and particle size on the thermal desorption of PCBs from contaminated soil

Thermal desorption is widely used for remediation of soil contaminated with volatiles, such as solvents and distillates. In this study, a soil contaminated with semivolatile polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was sampled at an interim storage point for waste PCB transformers and heated to temperatures from 300 to 600 °C in a flow of nitrogen to investigate the effect of temperature and particle size on thermal desorption. Two size fractions were tested: coarse soil of 420–841 μm and fine soil with particles <250 μm. A PCB removal efficiency of 98.0 % was attained after 1 h of thermal treatment at 600 °C. The residual amount of PCBs in this soil decreased with rising thermal treatment temperature while the amount transferred to the gas phase increased up to 550 °C; at 600 °C, destruction of PCBs became more obvious. At low temperature, the thermally treated soil still had a similar PCB homologue distribution as raw soil, indicating thermal desorption as a main mechanism in removal. Dechlorination and decomposition increasingly occurred at high temperature, since shifts in average chlorination level were observed, from 3.34 in the raw soil to 2.75 in soil treated at 600 °C. Fine soil particles showed higher removal efficiency and destruction efficiency than coarse particles, suggesting that desorption from coarse particles is influenced by mass transfer.     

Environmental monitoring of alcohol sulfates and alcohol ethoxysulfates in marine sediments

The study describes the environmental monitoring of anionic surfactants―alcohol sulfates (AS) and alcohol ethoxysulfates (AES)—in marine sediments. Concentration values were obtained after pressurised liquid extraction (PLE) and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis (LC–MS/MS). Samples were collected from a range of wastewater discharge points along the coast of the provinces of Huelva, Málaga, Granada and Almería. Urban, agricultural and industrial wastewaters are discharged at the selected 38 sampling sites. Principal component analysis was carried out in order to evaluate the distribution and behaviour of these compounds in these coastal environments. Evaluation of the data revealed that the behaviour and sources of AS and AES in marine sediments are different, and that the distribution of AES depends on the length of the alkyl chain, while the number of ethoxylated units is not relevant. Additionally, the 38 sampling sites can be grouped into only two types of outfalls according to their AS distribution. The concentration of compounds in sediment samples ranged from 7.52 to 13.50 mg kg^?1 for AS, from 3.04 to 10.68 mg kg^?1 for AES–C₁₂E_x and from 3.83 to 11.56 mg kg^?1 for AES–C₁₄E_x.     

Some technical issues in managing PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were important industrial chemicals featuring high thermal and chemical stability and low flammability. They were widely used as dielectric and thermal fluid in closed electro-technical applications (transformers, capacitors…) and also in numerous dispersive uses, ranking from auto-copying paper to sealant or coatings. During the 1960s, severe environmental consequences started becoming apparent. The stability of PCBs contributed to their persistence in the environment, their lipophilic character to bio-magnification. Fish-eating species seemed threatened in their existence. In Japan and in Taiwan, thousands of people consumed PCB-contaminated oil. The production of PCBs stopped completely during the 1980s. Usage could continue in closed applications only. In this paper, particular attention is given to two issues: the cleaning of PCB electric transformers and the potential impact of PCB-containing building materials. Other contributions will cover the management and treatment of PCB-contaminated soil, sludge or fly ash. The complete survey is being prepared by request of the Knowledge Center for Engineers and Professionals.