The importance of temperature in assessing iron pipe corrosion in water distribution systems

Temperature is expected to play a significant role in the corrosion of iron pipes in drinking water distribution systems. Temperature impacts many parameters that are critical to pipe corrosion including biological activity, physical properties of the solution, thermodynamic and physical properties of corrosion scale, and chemical rates. Moreover, variations in temperature and temperature gradients may give rise to new corrosion phenomena worthy of consideration by water treatment personnel.     

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.     

Using environmental stressor information to predict the ecological status of Maryland non-tidal streams as measured by biological indicators

In Maryland, U.S., an interim framework has recentlybeen developed for using biologically based thresholds, or `biocriteria', to assess the health of nontidal streams statewide at watershed scales. The evaluation of impairment is based on indices of biological integrity from the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS). We applied logistic regression to quantify how the biotic integrity of streams at a local scale is affected by cumulative effects resulting from catchment land uses, point sources, and nearby transmission line rights-of-way. Indicators for land use were developed from the remote sensing National Land Cover Data and applied at different scales. We determined that the risk of local impairment in nontidal streams rapidly increases with increased urban land use in the catchment area. The average likelihood of failing biocriteria doubled with every 10% points increment in urban land, thus an increase in urban land use from 0 to 20% quadruples the risk of impairment. For the basins evaluated in this study, catchments with more than 40–50% urban land use had greater than 80% probability of failing biocriteria, on average. Inclusion of rights-of-way and point sources in the model did not significantly improve the fit for this data set, most likely because of their low numbers. The overall results indicate that our predictive modeling approach can help pinpoint stream ecosystems experiencing or vulnerable to degradation.     

Temperature and Concentration Effects in Biomonitoring of Organic Air Pollutants

Up to now only very few studies in biomonitoring of organic air pollutants have been published taking into account the strong influence mean temperatures have on the accumulation process into plants during the course of the exposition. Temperature governed sorption as well as the plants vitality pose a major source of uncertainty making inter-study comparisons difficult. Different surface-to-volume ratios of plant foliage lead to strongly varying concentration effects in different plant species. Moreover a plants content of waxes and lipids must be considered in order to relate xenobiotic concentrations to the compounds being most efficient in the bioaccumulation process. Some of these factors are evaluated in regard to the use of plants as biomonitors for organic air pollutants. Another aim is to deduce the mean ambient gas phase concentrations from PAH concentrations determined in the biomonitor plants using vegetation-air partitioning coefficients which have been corrected for temperature dependent sorption as well as the plants lipid content. Restrictions of such approaches and methods of biomonitoring in general are discussed.     

有机气溶胶的来源与形成研究现状

介绍了有机气溶胶来源与形成的研究现状,从有机气溶胶的化学组成特征、一次有机气溶胶的来源和二次有机气溶胶的形成机制论述其研究进展.一次有机气溶胶主要来源于烹调油烟、机动车排放、生物质燃烧、工业或民用燃油锅炉释放出的有机物,还有道路扬尘、沥青、刹车尘、轮胎屑、室外香烟烟雾、以及高等植物蜡、细菌活动和草本植物等.大气中的半挥发性有机物可通过物理和化学吸附形成二次有机气溶胶,一些挥发性有机物可通过气相化学反应转化为低挥发性的物质并形成二次有机气溶胶,其主要前体物是芳香族化合物,如苯、甲苯、二甲苯,以及烯烃、烷烃、环烷烃、萜烯和生物排放的非饱和氧化物.     

周边式二次沉淀池流态的计算模拟研究

通过计算模拟二沉池流态,解决了二沉池流态测定的难题,该模拟方法速度快、精度高、不需要实型池.通过对实际池的计算发现,周边式二沉池上溢流集中在靠池周边的区域,以垂直向上的流线为主,池中心上部存在着较大的水流死区,由此解释了该类型池澄清能力小的原因.     

城市环境系统的权重分配

本文将多目标二级决策法用于城市环境系统的权重分配，对城中环境系统各要素及各要素的表征参数进行客观自动赋权，克服了环境质量评价中权重分配的主观随意性。该方法物理意义清晰，算法简便，具有较好的应用价值。     

电极旋转放电条件下O3合成效率的理论研究

根据低温等离子体理论和电磁场理论，在实验的基础上研究了电极旋转条件下低温等离子体的产生机制和臭氧的合成机制，分析了放电过程中二次放电重叠对臭氧合成的影响，建立了旋转放电与二次放电的理论模型，并根据这一理论模型导出电极旋转条件下的臭氧合成效率与二次放电重叠概率以及电极旋转速度间的理论关系．这一理论结果表明：二次放电重叠使得臭氧合成效率降低，而电极以适当地速度旋转则可以有效地避免二次放电的重叠，从而提高臭氧的合成效率．理论值和实验结果能够较好地吻合．     

加强能力培养, 提高专业水平——论环境类中专的教学改革

介绍了环境保护中专办学２０年来所取得的成绩及其为环保事业的发展做出的积极贡献，并指出存在的问题．为适应环保事业发展的需要，对环保中专在专业设置、课程设置、教学计划和教材建设方面，均提出改革意见     

Effects of lead , cadmium , mercury chlorides and aquaticenvironmental samples on the growth of Escherichia coli

In this paper it was reported that PbCl₂ , CdCl₂ , HgCl₂, and aquatic environmental samples containing Al, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sr, Zn and other heavy metal ions as well as organic chemicals suppressed thegrowth of E. coli only at higher exposed concentrations. The stimulative effects of PbCl₂ and HgCl₂ on thegrowth of E. coli were clearly showed at lower concentrations and longer time. It suggested that the toxic effects of heavy metal ions and other pollutants on the growth of E. coli are variable according to the differentexposed levels.