Health risks from PAHs and potentially toxic elements in street dust of a coal mining area in India

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and potentially toxic elements (PTEs) (Ba, Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, Ni, As, Co) were determined in the road dusts of a coal...     

Analysis of leachate pollution index and formulation of sub-leachate pollution indices.

An index known as leachate pollution index (LPI) for quantifying the leachate contamination potential of municipal landfills had been developed and reported by the authors. It is a quantitative tool by which the leachate pollution data of landfill sites can be reported uniformly. LPI is an increasing scale index and has been formulated based on the Delphi technique. It provides a convenient means of summarizing complex leachate pollution data and facilitates its communication to the general public, field professionals and policy makers. However, it is observed that the LPI, like any other environmental index, fails to effectively communicate the details about the strength of various pollutants/pollutant groups present. In an effort to make the LPI more informative and useful, it is proposed to divide the LPI into three sub-indices. The aggregation of these three sub-LPIs will result in the overall LPI. The formulation and the application of LPI and its three sub-indices are presented in this paper. It has been concluded that the splitting of LPI into three sub-indices provides a better insight on the strength of various pollutants and can be useful to the experts in deciding various management issues regarding leachate treatment. The leachate characteristics of a UK landfill have been used as a case study to demonstrate the calculation of three sub-LPIs and the overall LPI.     

PREDICTIVE ASSESSMENT OF SEVERITY OF AGRICULTURAL DROUGHTS BASED ON AGRO-CLIMATIC FACTORS1

ABSTRACT: Past historical evidence indicates that droughts have had great impacts on human life. Drought (or scarcity of water) is assessed based on two key factors, namely, the estimated water demand, and the expected water supply. The formulation of these key factors for a region largely depends on the agro-climatic and economic conditions. Consideration of one such key factor is the relationship between the crop yield and water deficit in the assessment and prediction of agricultural droughts. The varying nature of this relationship from crop to crop adds to the complexity of agricultural drought analysis. To overcome this difficulty in analyzing agricultural droughts of a region, it is adequate to consider and place emphasis on a single crop (i.e., an index crop) grown homogeneously over the major area of the region. From one year to another year, the pattern of water requirement during the growing season of an index crop is rather stationary, and the water supply in arid and semi-arid area is mainly from seasonal random precipitation. In a region, grain yield of the index crop and, in turn, assessment of the severity of drought can reasonably be predicted as a function of the time of crop sowing and the distribution of rainfall, provided that temporal and spatial effects of other contributing factors (crop variety, soil fertility status, crop disease, pest control, cultivation practices etc.) on grain yield are considered to be uniformly distributed (i.e., stable). A predictive method of assessing agricultural droughts in an arid area of western India is presented. The major crop (Pearl Millet) of this region is grown from. July through September. The formulation of the proposed predictive method inherently implies that the grain yield of the main crop is a reliable indicator of agricultural drought. In the development of this predictive relationship (i.e., a regression type model) a number of potential yet simple variables affecting the grain yield in the region were investigated. The soil moisture index, although generally considered significant compared to the simple variables, has been found to account for insignificant variation in the grain yield. Results of our investigations suggest that it would be advisable to exclude the soil moisture index variable from the model. The proposed regression model can be used in the prediction of grain yield of the main crop several months ahead of crop harvesting operations and, in turn, the assessment of agricultural drought severity as mild, moderate, or severe. Such an assessment is expected to be helpful to planners for arranging appropriate measures to effectively combat agricultural drought situations.     

Detection of chlorophenolics in effluents from bleaching processes of rice-straw pulp

A number of chlorinated derivatives of phenols, catechols, guaiacols, syringaldehydes, have been detected and their concentrations estimated, using gas chromatography in the chlorination (C) and extraction (E) stage of spent bleach liquor generated in the laboratory by bleaching rice-straw soda pulp. The concentration of various compounds detected have also been compared with their reported 96LC50 values.     

Win-win opportunities and environmental regulation: testing of porter hypothesis for Indian manufacturing industries

This paper studies the effect of environmental regulation on the productive efficiency of water polluting industries in India. The panel data of 92 firms belonging to sugar industry of India during the period 1996-99 are used to test the Porter hypothesis of having win-win opportunities for the firms subjected to the regulation. The main empirical result is that the technical efficiency of firms increases with the degree of compliance of firms to the environmental regulation and the water conservation efforts there by supporting the Porter hypothesis.     

Subsampling program for the estimation of fish impingement

Federal regulations require operators of nuclear and coal-fired power-generating stations to estimate the number of fish impinged on intake screens. During winter months, impingement may range into the hundreds of thousands for certain species, making it impossible to count all intake screens completely. We present graphs for determinig the appropriateoptimal subsample that must be obtained to estimate the total number impinged. Since the number of fish impinged tends to change drastically within a short time period, the subsample size is determined based on the most recent data. This allows for the changing nature of the species-age composition of the impinged fish. These graphs can also be used for subsampling fish catches in an aquatic system when the size of the catch is too large to sample completely.     

Oceanographic Studies off Beypore Port, West Coast of India to Locate a Dredge Dumping Site

This study presents the salient results of the oceanographic investigations carried out along the west coast of India to locate a dumping site for the dredged material generated from the capital of the proposed development of the all weather port. Based on the results of movement of disposed material obtained from a 2 dimensional coastal circulation model and considering the possibility of having a navigational channel later on in line with the port, a dumping site is recommended at the 15 m water depth contour with coordinates: Latitude 11 degrees 07.00'; Longitude 75 degrees 45.60', where the environmental impacts on the ecosystem due to dumping operations is considered to be minimum.