Application of intrawell testing of RCRA groundwater monitoring data when no upgradient well exists

A statistical quality control approachto detect changes in groundwater quality from aregulated waste unit is described. The approachapplies the combined Shewhart-CUSUM control chartmethodology for intrawell comparison of analyteconcentrations over time and does not require anupgradient well. A case study from the U.S.Department of Energy's Hanford Site is used forillustration purposes. This method is broadlyapplicable in groundwater monitoring programs wherethere is no clearly defined upgradient location, thegroundwater flow rate is exceptionally slow, or wherea high degree of spatial variability exists inparameter concentrations. This study also indicatesthat the use of the Data Quality Objectives (DQO)process can assist in designing an efficient andcost-effective groundwater monitoring plan to achievethe optimum goal of both low false positive and lowfalse negative rates (high power).     

An Evaluation of Selenium Concentrations in Water, Sediment, Invertebrates, and Fish from the Republican River Basin: 1997–1999

The Republican River Basin of Colorado,Nebraska, and Kansas lies in a valley which contains PierreShale as part of its geological substrata. Selenium is anindigenous constituent in the shale and is readily leached intosurrounding groundwater. The Basin is heavily irrigated throughthe pumping of groundwater, some of which is selenium-contaminated, onto fields in agricultural production. Water,sediment, benthic invertebrates, and/or fish were collected from46 sites in the Basin and were analyzed for selenium to determinethe potential for food-chain bioaccumulation, dietary toxicity,and reproductive effects of selenium in biota. Resultingselenium concentrations were compared to published guidelines orbiological effects thresholds. Water from 38% of the sites (n = 18) contained selenium concentrations exceeding 5 g L^-1, which is reported to be a high hazard for selenium accumulation into the planktonic food chain. An additional 12 sites (26% of the sites) contained selenium in water between 3–5 g L^-1, constituting a moderate hazard. Selenium concentrations in sedimentindicated little to no hazard for selenium accumulation fromsediments into the benthic food chain. Ninety-five percent ofbenthic invertebrates collected exhibited selenium concentrationsexceeding 3 g g^-1, a level reported as potentially lethal to fish and birds that consume them. Seventy-five percent of fish collected in 1997, 90% in 1998, and 64% in 1999 exceeded 4 g g^-1selenium, indicating a high potential for toxicity andreproductive effects. However, examination of weight profilesof various species of collected individual fish suggestedsuccessful recruitment in spite of selenium concentrations thatexceeded published biological effects thresholds for health andreproductive success. This finding suggested that universalapplication of published guidelines for selenium may beinappropriate or at least may need refinement for systems similarto the Republican River Basin. Additional research is needed todetermine the true impact of selenium on fish and wildliferesources in the Basin.     

Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Network Design for Assessing Human Health Impacts from Exposures to Airborne Contaminants

Existing methods of establishing ambientair quality monitoring networks typically evaluateonly parameters related to ambient concentrations ofthe contaminant(s) of interest such as emissionsource characteristics, atmospheric transport anddispersion, secondary reactions, depositioncharacteristics, and local topography. However,adverse health risks from exposures to airbornecontaminants are a function of the contaminant andthe anatomic and physiologic characteristics of theexposed population. Thus, ambient air qualitymonitoring networks designed for the protection ofpublic health or for epidemiological studiesevaluating adverse health impacts from exposures toambient air contaminants should account for bothcontaminant characteristics and human healthparameters. A methodology has been establishedwhich optimizes ambient air quality monitoringnetworks for assessments of adverse human healthimpacts from exposures to airborne contaminants byincorporating human health risk assessmenttechniques. The use of risk assessment techniquesas the basis for designing ambient air qualitymonitoring networks will help to target limitedfinancial and human resources to evaluate humanhealth risks from exposures to airbornecontaminants.     

A Watershed-based Cumulative Risk Impact Analysis: Environmental Vulnerability and Impact Criteria

Swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have received much attention in recent years. As a result, a watershed-based screening tool, the Cumulative Risk Index Analysis (CRIA), was developed to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple CAFO facilities in a watershedsubunit. The CRIA formula calculates an index number based on: 1) the area of one or more facilities compared to the area of the watershed subunit, 2) the average of the environmental vulnerability criteria, and 3) the average of the industry-specific impact criteria. Each vulnerability or impact criterion is ranked on a 1 to 5 scale, with a low rank indicating low environmental vulnerability or impact and a high rank indicating high environmental vulnerability or impact. The individual criterion ranks, as well as the total CRIA score, can be used to focus the environmental analysis and facilitate discussions with industry, public, and other stakeholders in the Agency decision-making process.     

evaluation of a measurement method for forest vegetation in a large-scale ecological survey

We evaluate a field method for determining species richness andcanopy cover of vascular plants for the Forest Health MonitoringProgram (FHM), an ecological survey of U.S. forests. Measurementsare taken within 12 1-m² quadrats on 1/15 ha plots in FHM.Species richness and cover are determined for four height classes(strata) within each quadrat and aggregated by stratum over the entireplot. We estimated (1) the agreement between experienced trainers andinexperienced technicians who collected the data on this survey(accuracy) and (2) the agreement among the technicians (precision) forresults on species richness and cover from 3 test plots at 3 timeintervals. The methods appear to be highly precise, although somediscrepancies with the values obtained by the trainers were found.Trainers found significantly more species in the ground stratum (0–0.6 m) and measured significantly more cover in the uppermost stratum(>4.9 m). The proportion of variation due to measurement error andtemporal variability was less than 13% for species richness (all strata)and cover (all but one stratum). This indicates that the method issuitable for monitoring changes in species richness and canopy coverfor a large-scale synoptic monitoring project such as FHM.     

a study of the temporal variability of atrazine in private well water. part ii: analysis of data

In 1988, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, along withthe University of Iowa, conducted the Statewide Rural WellWater Survey, commonly known as SWRL. A total of 686private rural drinking water wells was selected by use of aprobability sample and tested for pesticides and nitrate. A subsetof these wells, the 10% repeat wells, were additionally sampledin October, 1990 and June, 1991. Starting in November, 1991,the University of Iowa, with sponsorship from the United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency, revisited the 10% repeat wellsto begin a study of the temporal variability of atrazine and nitratein wells. Other wells, which had originally tested positive foratrazine in SWRL but were not in the 10% population, wereadded to the study population. Temporal sampling for a year-long period began in February of 1992 and concluded in Januaryof 1993. All wells were sampled monthly, a subset was sampledweekly, and a second subset was sampled for 14 day consecutiveperiods. Of the 67 wells in the 10% population tested monthly,7 (10.4%) tested positive for atrazine at least once during theyear, and 3 (4%) were positive each of the 12 months. Theaverage concentration in the 7 wells was 0.10 µg/L. Fornitrate, 15 (22%) wells in the 10% repeat population monthlysampling were above the Maximum Contaminant Level of 10 mg/L at least once. This paper, the second of two papers on thisstudy, describes the analysis of data from the survey. The firstpaper (Lorber et al., 1997) reviews the study design, theanalytical methodologies, and development of the data base.     

Forest Health Assessment and Monitoring – Issues for Consideration

Part of this paper has been prepared for the lecture Forest Health Assessment-Criteria,Methods and Problems given by the author at the UIMPuniversity course Sanidad Forestal en el Bosques Mediterraneos yTemplados. Implicacion de la Contaminacion Atmosferica y del Cambio Global, held in Valencia, Spain, October, 1995. Assessment and monitoring of forest health representsa key point for environmental policy and for the management ofenvironmental resources. With the renewed interest in assessment andmonitoring of forest health generated by the suspected occurrence ofa widespread forest decline in Europe and North America, manyactivities have been undertaken: however, some questions should beconsidered and clarified when attempting to estimate forest health.Particularly, the objective(s) of the assessment and monitoringprogram should be carefully identified. Identification of a program‘stask has a number of implications and consequences: it implies adefinition of what concept of forest health (forest ecosystem health,forest health or forest trees health?) is assumed, what will be thetarget entity to be monitored, and therefore the identification of therelevant assessment questions and assessment endpoints.Consequences concern the definition of the spatial scale (frominternational to landscape and plot scale monitoring) and ecologicalcoverage (from single species population to population ofecosystems) of the program, which can have a considerable influenceon the choice of the proper sampling strategy and tactic, as well ason the most suitable methods, indicators and indices to be used.Although much of the work in the field of forest health and airpollution has concentrated on surveys on crown transparency anddiscoloration, there is an entire range of methods, indicators andindices developed to assess the health status of forests. The decisionas to which ones should be used will depend on the aim of theprogram and on economic and practical considerations. A furtherconsideration concerns the time span of the program, but anydecision in this field is subject to many limitations due to difficultiesin predicting future monitoring needs. All these points should becarefully considered and implemented according to a rigorousQuality Assurance procedure since any decision will influence futurework for many years.     

Modeling of non-point source pollution in a Mediterranean drainage basin

SWAT ver. 2000 was used to predict hydrographs, and sediment, nitrate and total phosphorus loadings from a 1349 km² mountainous/agricultural watershed in Northern Greece. The model was calibrated and verified using continuous meteorological data from eight stations within the drainage area, and runoff, sediment and nutrient concentrations measured at nine stations located within the main tributaries of the watershed, for the time period from May 1st, 1998 to January 31st, 2000. Model validation methodology and resulting input parameters appropriate for Mediterranean drainage basins are presented. Predicted by the model hydrographs, sedimentographs and pollutographs are plotted against observed values and show good agreement. Model performance is evaluated using the root mean square error computation and scattergrams of predicted versus observed data. The validated model is also used to test the effectiveness of three alternative cropping scenarios in reducing nutrient loadings from the agricultural part of the watershed. The study showed that this model, if properly validated, can be used effectively in testing management scenarios in Mediterranean drainage basins.     

镉─邻菲啰啉配合物吸附波的研究与应用

在ｐＨ３．３的盐酸－醋酸钠介质中．镉－邻菲啉配合物在－０．６５Ｖ（ｖＳ．ＳＣＥ）处产生一灵敏的吸附波，其二次导数波高与镉浓度在０．０００６～０．１ｍｇ／Ｌ范围内呈良好的线性关系，检出下限达０．０００３ｍｇ／Ｌ。极谱波性质的研究表明该波具有配合物吸附波的特征。方法已用于环境水样中微量错的测定，结果与其它方法吻合。     

博斯腾湖水质矿化度模型及预测研究

根据博斯腾湖１９８５～１９９５年水质监测数据和出入湖水量等水文数据观测值，采用水质扩散模型和盐量平衡关系推导出博斯腾湖大湖区（简称博湖）水质矿化度模型，并预测了几种情况下博湖水质矿化度及近几年变化趋势，分析了影响博湖水质矿化度的主要因素，为博湖的近期和远期环境保护规划、环境管理等提供科学依据．