POTENTIALS FOR REUSE OF WASTEWATER IN NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS1

ABSTRACT There are several possible ways in which wastewater from municipalities may be reclaimed and reused so as to minimize the need for imported water in North Central Texas. The rationale for reuse is enhanced by the fact that new water quality requirements in the Trinity River system will necessitate a very high degree of treatment at municipal sewage plants, just for discharge to surface streams. The largest potential market for municipal effluent is the steam-electric power industry. Within the next decade the generating capacity for electric power in North Central Texas will have to be more than doubled to meet increasing demand. Adequate supplies of condenser cooling water for such expansion will be difficult to obtain and assure. New large power stations might advantageously be located adjacent to municipal wastewater treatment plants, to utilize effluent as make-up water for cooling towers. Experience elsewhere has shown that well-treated wastewater can be used for cooling tower make-up with a minimum of trouble, with a considerable saving in overall cost, and with conservation of pristine water for other uses.     

DESIGN OF DESALTING PLANTS FOR CONJUNCTIVE OPERATION1

ABSTRACT The selection of an evaporator design must reflect the balancing of captial cost (primarily in heat exchanger surface and vessels) against operating cost (primarily steam cost) to achieve minimum cost. In a conjunctive plant the tendency is to select a low-capital cost, high-operating cost plant. In addition, it is advantageous to use a high-capacity plant which needs to be operated much less of the time than a plant which is sized just at the needed rate. For example, in the study of a possible system to satisfy a future increase of 450 MGD in water supply to New York Qty, a plant of 750 MGD capacity was selected as optimum. This plant, of the advanced VTE-MSF process type, would have a performance ratio of 9 lb product/1000 Btu as compared to 10-13 normally used for base-loaded plants. Steam would be supplied by a multi-unit dual-purpose nuclear power plant. The most economical type of energy supply would be “interruptible”; the steam would be used by a low pressure turbine to generate electricity during periods of peak electrical demand but would be available to the desalting plant at other times. The low pressure turbine would be available as spinning reserve during desalting plant operation. It is estimated that the desalting plant would have a load factor of 27 per cent over its life.     

沉水植物对富营养化水体的净化效果研究

通过建立小型围隔区,研究了沉水植物对富营养化水体中氮、磷等污染物的净化效果,以及对底泥中磷含量的影响.结果表明:(1)在放养沉水植物的围隔水体中各种营养盐浓度明显低于对照围隔;(2)沉水植物对磷的吸收能够有效地保持底泥中磷的含量,而在对照围隔中的底泥中磷元素含量却不断增加;(3)经50天后,水体中TN、NH4 -N、TP、PO43--P和CODMn平均去除率分别为36.3%、70.5%、54.6%、65.4%和43.1%.     

Coalition of injustice? Bodies,business, and the biosphere in struggles against unwanted land uses

Scholars of environmental injustice have pushed to see beyond the spatial distribution of environmental harms in studies of unwanted land uses. Building upon this work, this article examines how the complex geographies of environmental injustice play out in a coalition to prevent the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia. While spatially dispersed coalitions of negatively affected actors can strengthen efforts to prevent the construction of an unwanted land use, they can also perpetuate the environmental injustices surrounding it. To make this argument, particular attention is paid to the diverse reasons and ways differentially situated actors oppose an unwanted land use. It is demonstrated how the disparate concerns and differential tactics deployed by actors in coalitions against unwanted land uses are often embedded in and potentially contribute to longer histories of social injustice.     

Bacterial colonization of the phyllosphere of nineteen plant species and antimicrobial activity of their leaf secondary metabolites against leaf associated bacteria

Summary. The scope of this work was to examine whether leaf constitutive secondary metabolites play a role in determining bacterial colonization of the phyllosphere. To this aim, we surveyed nineteen native or cultivated plant species that share a common bacterial pool in a North Mediterranean area, and estimated the size of total and ice nucleation active (INA) bacterial populations on their leaves. Large differences in the colonization of their phyllosphere were found; the population size of epiphytic bacteria ranged from 7.5 × 10² to 1 × 10⁶ CFU/g fresh weight, in eucalypt and celery, respectively. Species native in Mediterranean-type climate areas, particularly those belonging to the group of aromatic plants, are characterized by scarce presence of INA bacteria. The antibacterial activity of essential oils, surface phenolics and leaf tissue extracts was also estimated against the INA strains P. syringae and E. herbicola, isolated from two of these plant species. E. herbicola proved more sensitive than P. syringae. Of the species examined, oregano [Origanum vulgare L. subsp. hirtum (Link.) Ietswaart], an aromatic plant, had the highest antimicrobial activity, whereas six species showed no activity at all. Further experiments were performed with oregano and bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) that represent two extremes in their secondary metabolite content. Both plants were inoculated with P. syringae. By the end of incubation, the bacterial population on bean plants was about 100 times higher than that on oregano leaves. Scanning electron micrographs showed that bacterial growth on oregano leaves was confined to sites away from glandular hairs. Results from the bacterial colonization survey together with those from the toxicity tests showed that all species rich in antibacterial secondary metabolites harbored low leaf bacterial populations. These results provide substantial evidence that leaf secondary metabolites function as constitutive defense chemicals against microbial invasions. However, the fact that species with non- or moderately active leaf secondary metabolites are not always highly colonized suggests mediation of other unknown factors, the contribution of which requires further investigation.     

Ecological Survey of Coastal I Water Adjacent to Nuclear Power I Plants in Taiwan

A total of six nuclear reactors installed in three power plants, two along the northern and one along the southern coasts of Taiwan, started their operations one after another since October 1977. Owing to the large quantities of cooling water intake into and discharge from the plants, some environmental factors such as water temperature, chlorine, environmental radioactivity and nearshore currents may be significantly changed. Variations of these abiotic environmental factors may influence the biological activities in the ecosystem, particularly doing some kinds of damage to marine biological resources. Therefore, the possible environmental impact upon the biological systems including the fishery resources along the northern and southern coasts of Taiwan should be studied before and during the plant operation.

We have started the long-term programmes of biological, chemical and hydro-graphical surveys of the nuclear power plant sites on both northern (since July 1974) and southern (since July 1979) coasts of Taiwan. the survey items include ocean currents, physical and chemical properties of sea water, primary productivity, specific compositions and interspecific relationships among phyto- and zooplankton, algae, invertebrates, corals, and fishes; and radionuclides in water and biological specimens, and fishery statistics. in general, except for a few events, the operations of the six units of nuclear power plants have not produced detectable effects on the marine ecosystem. Radio activity levels and radionuclides in water and the biological specimens remained the same as background levels throughout the survey period. However, the events of coral bleaching and fish body anomalies caused by thermal discharges were observed respectively along the outlets of third and second Nuclear Power Plants. the purposes of this paper are to report and evaluate these two events during the operations of nuclear power plants in Taiwan.     

基于月排放数据的北京3座区级污水处理厂年碳排放特征

以3座北京市某区代表性区级污水处理厂为研究对象,综合《城镇水务系统碳核算与减排路径技术指南》、《污水处理厂低碳运行评价技术规范》和《IPCC 2006 年国家温室气体清单指南 2019 修订版》碳排放核算方法,采用定量统计、相关性分析及敏感性分析等手段对污水处理厂正常运行状态下碳排放核算和影响因素进行特征分析和规律识别,并提出针对性减排路径建议。结果表明：C厂C-TECH工艺的吨水碳排放强度为三厂最低1.35 kg CO₂eq·m⁻³,处于我国较低水平,接近“双碳”目标要求;而B厂改良SBR工艺的单位污染去除碳排放强度较小,其COD碳排放强度为3.16 t CO₂eq·t⁻¹,TN碳排放强度为36.44 t CO₂eq)·t⁻¹,TP碳排放强度为176.69 t CO₂eq·t⁻¹,处于我国中上水平,从效能角度更接近“双碳”目标要求。不同工艺产生的温室气体、进水水质波动及用电消耗导致三厂碳排放强度上存在差异,但各工艺的主排碳因子均为间接碳排放 (A厂、B厂和C厂中分别占73%、59%和59%) ,间接碳排放的主贡献因子为电力消耗 (A厂、B厂和C厂中分别占33%、40%和40%) 。相关性分析发现,各水厂碳排放强度还与N₂O造成的直接碳排放有较大相关性,3座水厂年排放N₂O 2.48×10⁴ t CO₂eq,A厂、B厂和C厂中相关性系数值分别达到0.68、0.87、0.66。敏感性分析表明,整体碳排放强度对电力消耗、N₂O排放和药耗的变化更为敏感,药耗中葡萄糖溶液和多效高分子除磷剂对碳排放强度影响较大。以上结果表明,北京区级污水处理厂应从优化曝气系统、水泵效能等节电措施和调整水厂加药模式等节药措施上实现减排。     

活性污泥和生物膜复合模型的建立与模拟

针对近年来出现的城市污水处理厂活性污泥和生物膜复合工艺,首先建立了能同时描述碳氧化、脱氮和除磷的修正ASM1（Activated Sludge Model No.1）,以及与ASM1中微生物生长过程速率方程结构形式相同、物理意义明确的生物膜模型。然后将该生物膜模型与修正的ASM1相结合,形成了活性污泥和生物膜复合模型,利用VB6.0编写了相应的模拟软件。以西安市第五污水处理厂复合工艺为对象,对其碳、氮和磷的去除进行模拟,结果表明该模型可以较好地反映出水各污染指标的变化规律。通过对进水流量、填料区的位置及填料区填料的投加率进行模拟,为填料区的优化和系统运行提出了建议。