Concrete is usually the preferred material for construction of structures in contact with water during their service life. Early age exposure to water is beneficial for curing of concrete structures. However, the pollution of water from freshly cast concrete in contact with water has not been investigated in detail. A significant increase in the alkalinity has recently been observed in a stream in contact with freshly installed concrete culverts. High alkalinity has caused distress to fresh water fish in the stream. A preliminary laboratory study was commenced to explore the effect of leaching of alkali into water from freshly placed concrete. Freshly cast concrete specimens were exposed to fresh water, covering a range of conditions observed in the field such as volume of concrete/volume of water, age of exposure and cement content. Analysis of the results indicated that early age contact with fresh concrete can lead to an increase in the pH levels of water up to 11, similar to the levels of pH observed in pore water inside freshly cast concrete. It was noted that until an age of 4 days from casting of concrete, the age of exposure does not significantly affect the changes in the peak pH levels of water. Continuous monitoring of water in contact with concrete also indicated that the pH levels diminish with time, which is attributed to the possible reaction of calcium hydroxide with atmospheric carbon. The paper will present the experimental study, the results, analysis and outcomes as well as planning of a more comprehensive study to observe possible ways of reducing the leaching of alkali from freshly placed concrete.

Changes in deposition exert effects on forests. Some evidence for a slow recovery of strongly alkalised forest soils after a reduction in alkaline pollution exists, but the recovery rate is little known. The objective of this study was to estimate temporal soil reaction changes. For this purpose, measurements of soil reaction under a beech forest near magnesite works in Central Slovakia were taken in 1991 and 2006, following the alkaline pollution reduction in 1992. As a result, the mean active soil reaction decreased from pH 7.8 to 6.6. Beyond the range of beech stemflow, which amplifies water and acid pollution inputs into soils locally, soil reaction dropped from pH 7.8 to 6.8. The effect of stemflow on local exchangeable reaction minima was detected even before the pollution reduction. The logarithmic function fitted on the pH data indicates considerable differences between neutralisation rates within and outside the stemflow zone.

This paper introduces a new stormwater quality improvement device, called the "Green Gully" that collects, purifies, and reuses stormwater throughout an automated system. The working principal of the Green Gully is divided into two parts. Firstly, diverting stormwater from roadways to the diverter channel by filtering litter and secondly, watering the gardens and roadside plants with the stormwater that is collected from diverter channel. Stormwater treatment is an important step before reusing the water for gardening purpose. Different treatment levels (primary, secondary, and tertiary) are applied depending on the application to make water suitable for long-term storage and watering purposes. In this study, stormwater samples from three sites of Rockhampton City have been tested and analyzed to determine the quality of water for reuse. The parameters tested were electrical conductivity, pH, salinity, concentration of oil and grease, total suspended solid, turbidity, alkalinity, sodium, and chloride. The results of on-site stormwater quality tests are compared with the Australian and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council (ANZECC) standards and quality data available in the literature for each parameter suitable for irrigating roadside plants and gardening. Although, the results of this study is comparable with the literature data, a significantly different quality data are found compared to ANZECC standards. However, the samples collected for this study gave a basic understanding of stormwater quality issues for potential inflows to the Green Gully. Further study is recommended in order to establish mathematical link between raw stormwater quality and water quality required for gardening and irrigating roadside plants and for adopting required level of treatment facility with Green Gully for purifying and reusing water through an automated network system.

Municipal wastewaters with industrial discharges typically contain heavy metals which may inhibit the biological processes in wastewater treatment plants. In this study, copper inhibition on strict nitrifiers in a suspended growth (SG) reactor and a combined attached and suspended growth (A''SG) reactor was compared. Both reactors were subjected to a continuous copper input of 5 mg/L. When the accumulated total copper concentration in the reactor were approximately 25 mg/L (due to sorption to the biomass), a sharp decrease in nitrification (increase in inhibition) were observed in the SG reactor while nitrification remained the same for the A''SG reactor indicating that attached growth systems were more robust against copper toxicity than suspended growth systems. Using MINTEQA2, the concentrations of various chemical species were estimated and, of the different species present, adsorbed copper in the biomass and aqueous Cu(NH₃)₄ ⁺² were found to positively correlate with percent inhibition of nitrification. Based on the changes in the concentrations of the two species, Cu(NH₃)₄ ⁺² was probably the main chemical species responsible for inhibition of nitrification. This study has implications for wastewater treatment plants treating wastewaters with high ammonia and copper present.

Background, aim and scope In the region of the Apuseni Mountains, part of the Western Carpathians in Romania, metal mining activities have a long-standing tradition. These mining industries created a clearly beneficial economic development in the region. But their activities also caused impairments to the environment, such as acid mine drainage (AMD) resulting in long-lasting heavy metal pollution of waters and sediments. The study, established in the context of the ESTROM programme, investigated the impact of metal mining activities both from environmental and socioeconomic perspectives and tried to incorporate the results of the two approaches into an integrated proposition for mitigation of mining-related issues. Study site The small Certej catchment, situated in the Southern Apuseni Mountains, covers an area of 78 km². About 4,500 inhabitants are living in the basin, in which metal mining was the main economic sector. An open pit and several abandoned underground mines are producing heavy metal-loaded acidic water that is discharged untreated into the main river. The solid wastes of mineral processing plants were deposited in several dumps and tailings impoundment embodying the acidic water-producing mineral pyrite. Methods The natural science team collected samples from surface waters, drinking water from dug wells and from groundwater. Filtered and total heavy metals, both after enrichment, and major cations were analysed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Major anions in waters, measured by ion chromatography, alkalinity and acidity were determined by titration. Solid samples were taken from river sediments and from the largest tailings dam. The latter were characterised by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction. Heavy metals in sediments were analysed after digestion. Simultaneously, the socioeconomic team performed a household survey to evaluate the perception of people related to the river and drinking water pollution by way of a logistic regression analysis. Results and discussion The inputs of acid mine waters drastically increased filtered heavy metal concentrations in the Certej River, e.g. Zn up to 130 mg L⁻¹, Fe 100 mg L⁻¹, Cu 2.9 mg L⁻¹, Cd 1.4 mgL⁻¹ as well as those of SO₄ up to 2.2 g L⁻¹. In addition, river water became acidic with pH values of pH 3. Concentrations of pollutant decreased slightly downstream due to dilution by waters from tributaries. Metal concentrations measured at headwater stations reflect background values. They fell in the range of the environmental quality standards proposed in the EU Water Framework Directive for dissolved heavy metals. The outflow of the large tailing impoundment and the groundwater downstream from two tailings dams exhibited the first sign of AMD, but they still had alkalinity. Most dug wells analysed delivered a drinking water that exhibited no sign of AMD pollution, although these wells were a distance of 7 to 25 m from the contaminated river. It seems that the Certej River does not infiltrate significantly into the groundwater. Pyrite was identified as the main sulphide mineral in the tailings dam that produces acidity and with calcite representing the AMD-neutralising mineral. The acid-base accounting proved that the potential acid-neutralising capacity in the solid phases would not be sufficient to prevent the production of acidic water in the future. Therefore, the open pits and mine waste deposits have to be seen as the sources for AMD at the present time, with a high long-term potential to produce even more AMD in the future. The socioeconomic study showed that mining provided the major source of income. Over 45% of the households were partly or completely reliant on financial compensations as a result of mine closure. Unemployment was considered by the majority of the interviewed persons as the main cause of social problems in the area. The estimation of the explanatory factors by the logistic regression analysis revealed that education, household income, pollution conditions during the last years and familiarity with environmental problems were the main predictors influencing peoples' opinion concerning whether the main river is strongly polluted. This model enabled one to predict correctly 77% of the observations reported. For the drinking water quality model, three predictors were relevant and they explained 66% of the observations. Conclusions Coupling the findings from the natural science and socioeconomic approaches, we may conclude that the impact of mining on the Certej River water is high, while drinking water in wells is not significantly affected. The perceptions of the respondents to pollution were to a large extent consistent with the measured results. Recommendations and perspectives The results of the study can be used by various stakeholders, mainly the mining company and local municipalities, in order to integrate them in their post-mining measures, thereby making them aware of the potential long-term impact of mining on the environment and on human health as well as on the local economy.