Advisory Committee: A Powerful Tool for Helping Decision Makers in Environmental Issues

/ It has been suggested that the general public should be moreinvolved in environmental policy and decision making. It is important forthem to realize that they will have to live with the consequences ofenvironmental policies and decisions. Consequently, policy makers shouldconsider the concerns and opinions of the general public before makingdecisions on environmental issues. This raises questions such as: How can weintegrate the perceptions and reactions of the general population inenvironmental decisions? What kind of public participation should weconsider? In the present study, using a new regional ecosystem model, weattempted to integrate these aspects in its decision making model byincluding the formation of an advisory committee to resolve problems relatedto waste management. The advisory committee requested the activeparticipation of representatives from all levels of the community: economic,municipal, and governmental intervenors; environmental groups; and citizens.Their mandates were to examine different management strategies available inthe region, considering all the interdisciplinary aspects of each strategy,elaborate recommendations concerning the management strategies that are mostsuitable for all, and collaborate in communication of the information to thegeneral population. The results showed that at least in small municipalitiessuch an advisory committee can be a powerful tool in environmental decisionmaking. Conditions required for a successful consultation process, such aseveryday lay language and the presence of a facilitator other than ascientific expert, are discussed.KEY WORDS: Public consultation; Environmental policies;Interdisciplinary aspects; Municipal sewage sludge management; Generalpopulation; Decision-making process     

Strategies for determining soil-loss tolerance

Excessive soil losses due to erosion or lateral displacement by machinery impair productivity. Some soil loss is tolerable, but not so much that plant productivity diminishes. Thus productivity is the dominant concern in determining soil-loss tolerance. The effects of soil loss on productivity, however, are difficult to determine. Therefore, two alternatives are discussed for determining the limits of soil loss, or soil-loss tolerance. These alternatives are the maintenance of soil organic matter and, for shallow and moderately deep soils, the maintenance of soil depth. They are not new strategies, but our rapidly increasing knowledge of the dynamics of soil organic matter and the rates of soil formation from bedrock or consolidated sediments warrants the reconsideration of these alternatives. Reductions in either soil organic matter or the depth of shallow or moderately deep soils will lead to declining productivity. Soil organic matter, considered to be a surrogate for productivity, is much easier to monitor than is productivity. Also, there are many computer models for predicting the effects of management on soil organic matter. Recently compiled data on rates of soil formation suggest that soil losses of 1 t/a (2.24 Mg/ha yr) are greater than the rate of replenishment by the weathering of lithic or paralithic material in all but very wet climates.     

城市生活垃圾的卫生填埋

随着经济的迅速发展及工业化与城市化进程的加快，城市生活垃圾急剧增多。垃圾污染环境，对城市居民的健康和生存构成了严重威胁，已成为社会一大公害，因此，对垃圾的处理刻不容缓。传统的垃圾填埋技术已远远满足不了社会对保护环境的要求。卫生填埋是在传统垃圾填埋技术基础上发展起来的处理城市生活垃圾的较为理想的方法。现代卫生填埋场是一项相当复杂的系统工程，涉及许多方面内容。根据收集到的资料，对城市生活垃圾特性、垃圾填埋场的功能和构造、垃圾填埋场的规划、选址及勘察、垃圾渗沥液、防渗工程、垃圾力学等诸多方面分别进行了阐述。     

The Effects of Ocean Disposal of Sewage Sludge On the Relative Abundance of Benthic Megafauna

Disposal of sewage sludge in the New York Bight Apex (12-Mile Dump Site) ceased at the end of December 1987. Previous efforts to quantify the effects of sludge were hindered by the inability to obtain true replication. the cessation of dumping afforded the opportunity to apply the technique of replication in time, also known as a Before/After, Control/Impact design. Conditionally, this method allows one to separate treatment effects from the natural differences that confound many environmental impact studies. the Environmental Processes Division of the Northeast Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service sampled the benthic environment of the New York Bight Apex from June 1986 through September 1989 using a sample design based on the technique of replication in time.

Three dominant species (rock crab, Cancer irroratus; little skate; Raja erinacea; and winter flounder, Pseudopleuronectes americanus) and total demersal finfish, collected by otter trawl, showed no statistically significant response to the cessation of disposal. American lobster (Homarus americanus) increased in local abundance, but this result was possibly confounded by a change in fishing effort.     

Environmental 238U and 232Th concentration measurements in an area of high level natural background radiation at Palong, Johor, Malaysia

Concentrations of uranium-238 and thorium-232 in soil, water, grass, moss and oil-palm fruit samples collected from an area of high background radiation were determined using neutron activation analysis (NAA). U-238 concentration in soil ranged from 4.9 mg kg(-1) (58.8 Bq kg(-1)) to 40.4 mg kg(-1) (484.8 Bq kg(-1)), Th-232 concentration ranged from 14.9 mg kg(-1) (59.6 Bq kg(-1)) to 301.0 mg kg(-1) (1204 Bq kg(-1)). The concentration of U-238 in grass samples ranged from below the detection limit to 0.076 mg kg(-1) (912 mBq kg(-1)), and Th-232 ranged from 0.008 mg kg(-1) (32 mBq kg(-1)) to 0.343 mg kg(-1) (1.372 Bq kg(-1)). U-238 content in water samples ranged from 0.33 mg kg(-1) (4.0 Bq L(-1)) to 1.40 mg kg(-1) (16.8 Bq L(-1)), and Th-232 ranged from 0.19 mg kg(-1) (0.76 Bq L(-1)) to 0.66 mg kg(-1) (2.64 Bq L(-1)). It can be said that the concentrations of environmental U-238 and Th-232 in grass and water samples in the study area are insignificant. Mosses were found to be possible bio-radiological indicators due to their high absorption of the heavy radioelements from the environment.     

晋陕蒙接壤地区的水土流失灾害及其防治

本文对晋陕蒙接壤地区的水土流失情况进行了简要论述,对水土流失的根源进行了探讨,并在此基础上提出了防治水土流失的基本措施。     

浅论垃圾处理工艺及场址选择

重点论述了垃圾处理工艺选择填埋场场址的重要性,结合云南省垃圾处理的实际状况,总结了垃圾处理项目在前期工作中存在的主要问题,并提出了垃圾处理工艺及选择场址的一些建议.     

两种掺气水流的计算模型比较

在污水压力输送管道中，污水中气体的存在会影响液体的流动，以污水管中的气、液相流为研究对象，运用集中空穴模型（气泡离散分布模型）和均匀分布模型两种计算方法，来研究停泵水锤过程的压力和流速的变化趋势，实例计算结果表，在设有止回阀的水锤现象中，利用离散分布模型所得的最高水位要比利用均匀分布模型的计算值高，在不设止回阀的水锤现象中，两者的结构基本保持一致。均匀分布模型假定气体在水中呈均匀分布，因此在计算断面上的气体量变化不如离散分布模型来得剧烈，其水位正峰值比离散分布模型低，负峰值比离散分布模型高。     

高效厌氧产甲烷颗粒污泥中微生物多样性及定量化研究

以小试高效厌氧反应器不同运行阶段的颗粒污泥为对象,利用变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)、荧光原位杂交(FISH)和实时定量链式聚合酶反应(RTQ-PCR)等技术研究了其中微生物种群的多样性、特征微生物的空间分布和定量关系,结果表明:随着反应器有机负荷逐渐提高,颗粒污泥中古菌的群落结构的变化较细菌更为明显;细菌多分布在颗粒外层,而古菌则主要分布在颗粒内层;古菌含量略少于细菌,但有逐渐增多的趋势;产甲烷丝菌在古菌中的含量增加明显.     

Binding of Pb(II) in the system humic acid/goethite at acidic pH

The study of Pb(II) binding to the system humic acid/goethite in acidic medium is reported in the present paper. From a macroscopic point of view, we have constructed the experimental sorption isotherms (using atomic absorption spectroscopy) and compared them with the prediction of the additivity rule. It is found that this system presents positive deviations, that is, the amount sorbed is about an order of magnitude higher than predicted. Apart from this, microscopic and structural aspects have also been studied using in situ and ex situ infrared spectroscopy. These results suggest that the presence of Pb(II) increases the amount of humic acid bound to the oxide. It is proposed that proton displacement due to the interaction between humic substances and the oxide, along with the formation of ternary complexes with the Pb(II) cation bridging the oxide and the humic substances (Type A complexes), cause the deviation from additivity.