Changes in crude oil production and distribution have increased the incidence of oil spills throughout the world. Oil spills often cause destructive effects on aquatic and land ecosystems. The oil spill cleanup and recovery techniques are challenging and usually involve complex mechanical, chemical, and biological methods. Usually, mechanical removal of free oil is utilized as an effective strategy for cleanup in aquatic and terrestrial environments; however, they are expensive and need specialist personnel and equipment. The other commonly used method is the application of chemical materials such as dispersants, cleaners, demulsifiers, biosurfactants, and soil oxidizers. Nevertheless, these reagents can have potential harmful environmental impacts, which may limit their application. As an alternative, bioremediation can offer reduced environment risk; however, the limitations of microbial activity in the soil can make this option unsuitable. One area of bioremediation is phytoremediation, which offers potential for restoring large areas of contaminated ground. Plants are able to remove pollutants through processes such as biodegradation, phytovolatilization, accumulation, and metabolic transformation. This review presents the fate of crude oil spills in aquatic and land ecosystems and their environmental effects. Furthermore, the paper focuses on crude oil phytoremediation and its applications in polluted ecosystems.

The removal of fluoride from water by an aluminum-modified hematite and a zeolitic tuff using column adsorption techniques, as well as the effects of temperature, were investigated. Column experiments were carried out using aqueous solutions and drinking water with different bed depths. The dynamics of the adsorption process were fitted to Adams–Bohart, Thomas and bed depth service time (BDST) models. The Thomas model was found suitable for the description of breakthrough curve at all experimental conditions, while Adams–Bohart model was only useful for an initial part of dynamic behavior of the removal of fluoride from water by aluminum-modified hematite and zeolitic tuff columns. The highest uptake capacities (3.24 and 2.37 mg/g for the modified zeolitic tuff and hematite respectively) were obtained with a 4-cm bed depth column, an inlet 10 mg/L fluoride solution, and a flow rate of 1 mL/min, but the adsorption capacities decreased when drinking water were used. Experimental data were good fitted to both models, and the parameters of the processes calculated indicated that these materials are suitable for removal of fluoride from water in column systems. Thermodynamic parameters (ΔS, ΔG, and ΔH) were calculated for the aluminum-modified hematite and zeolitic tuff from the sorption data at temperatures between 287 and 333 K, indicating spontaneous and thermodynamically favorable adsorption and suggest that the sorption of fluoride ions by both adsorbents is an endothermic process and the mechanism is physical sorption.

This paper analyzes the implications for children’s health of shortcomings in the methods and results of a study of lead in the environment, “Quantity of Lead Released to the Environment in New Jersey in the Form of Motor Vehicle Wheel Weights,” by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (Aucott and Caldarelli, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 223, 1743–1752, 2012). The study significantly understates the amount of lead deposited in New Jersey streets as 12 metric tons per year and incorrectly concludes that only 40 kg per year of the lead from wheel weights is abraded into small particles. The 2012 New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) study misleads regulators and the public into believing that little toxic particulate lead from abraded wheel weights occurs on the streets of New Jersey and by implication that little occurs elsewhere in the United States, thus minimizing the potential health risk that lead wheel weights may have to our nation’s children and indeed all of us.

Bacterial antibiotic resistance has long been a public health concern worldwide. Although antibiotic abuse highly correlates with occurrence of resistant pathogens in hot spots like animal feedlots, it remains obscure how frequently these resistance genotypes would emerge and/or retain in natural circumstances. In this study, we monitored seven antibiotic resistance genes in various surface waters. All seven resistance genes were detectable in Puzih River samples, including strA (40.6 %), cmlA (29.7 %), blaTEM (9.1 %), tet(B) (8.5 %), sul1 (7.9 %), mecA (3.6 %), and tet(A) (2.4 %). Among these genes, strA was observed in four out of five sampling occasions during the 1.5-year monitoring period and most of the genes were detected at least two times over five samplings. These results imply that surface waters in Taiwan act as potential reservoirs for several resistance genotypes. Moreover, high prevalence of tet(A) (92.0 %) and sul1 (96.0 %) in swine farm wastewater samples suggests routine antibiotic usage and particularly, the fodder supplements could indeed be a risk factor to antibiotic resistance in environments. sul1, tet(A), blaTEM, and strA were detectable in domestic water treatment plants and reservoirs, suggesting that several resistance genotypes against antibiotics as streptomycin, ampicillin, tetracycline, and sulfonamides are likely to persist in natural circumstance and may consequently contaminate the drinking water systems.

The study provided a critical appraisal of the extended aeration process as a single-sludge system for nitrogen removal, emphasizing its inherent deficiencies. For this purpose, the system was designed first using the prescribed procedure in the German practice, ATV A-131. The design used the basic data reported in different studies related to conventional characterization and chemical oxygen demand (COD) fractionation defining the biodegradation characteristics of domestic wastewater. A critical appraisal of the design was made with emphasis on the fate of biodegradable COD and oxidized nitrogen in the anoxic phase by process modeling and evaluation. The results obtained were evaluated using basic stoichiometry and mass balance for major nitrogen fractions. The A-131 design based on a total sludge age of 20 days defined a system with a hydraulic residence time of 1.2 days where half of the volume was operated under anoxic conditions; the effluent nitrate concentration was reduced to 8.3 mg N/L with an internal recycle (nitrate) ratio of 4.9. Model evaluation of the prescribed design indicated that oxidized nitrogen was totally consumed within the first 25–30 % portion of the anoxic volume. The remaining volume was forced to operate under anaerobic conditions, where no appreciable endogenous decay would occur. ATV A-131 procedure, relying on empirical coefficients and expressions, was neither consistent with process stoichiometry nor justifiable by modeling. Evaluations based on modeling and process stoichiometry revealed significant inherent weaknesses of extended aeration for providing a sustainable basis for nitrogen removal.

A geochemical analysis and modelling was carried out to investigate the As occurrence and release in groundwater from two different geological environments on Lesvos Island: (i) the volcanic area of Mandamados (ignimbrite of rhyolithic to rhyodacitic composition) and (ii) the metamorphic area of Tarti (schists and marbles) that comprises the geologic basement under ignimbrite. Seven sampling campaigns were conducted between October 2010 and October 2011, including 65 groundwater samples from 11 wells and springs. Chemical analyses showed As concentrations exceeding the 10-μg/L national drinking water limit in 46 % of the samples from Mandamados. Groundwater composition in Mandamados evolved from Ca-HCO₃ type, to mixed type and finally to Na-Cl type along the groundwater flow direction, indicating the contribution of ion exchange in groundwater chemical composition, while Ca-HCO₃ type waters were observed in the Tarti area. Arsenic speciation analysis showed that As(V) was the main species in all samples, indicating that As was released under oxidizing conditions. Statistical analysis suggested silicate weathering as the prime mechanism of As release in groundwater in both cases, while, in the Tarti area, carbonate dissolution may represent a secondary mechanism which could be related to the observed relatively low As concentrations in the region. In both areas, pH-related desorption of As, primarily from Fe mineral phases, was found to be the most important factor controlling the mobilisation of As, while the contribution of the redox control to As release in groundwater was generally found to be less significant.

The aim of the study was to estimate the influence of soil pH on the uptake of copper, zinc, and manganese by Valeriana officinalis. Preliminary studies involved soil analyses to determine acidity, organic matter content, and copper, zinc, and manganese total and bioavailable forms. The study involved atomic absorption spectrometry to determine the concentration of the elements, and mineral soil of pH = 5.1 was used in the study, as being typical for central Poland. The copper, zinc, and manganese contents were determined in plants grown in soils which had been modified to cover a wide range of pH values 3÷13. The intensity of germination was strongly pH dependent with the highest yield obtained in original, unmodified soil. Surprisingly, high soil alkalinity stimulated copper and manganese uptake while at the same time resulting in a decrease in zinc content.

Ozone and ozone-based advanced oxidation processes were applied for the treatment of a recalcitrant wastewater generated by wood-based industries that contains different inorganic and organic constituents and high chemical oxygen demand (COD) varying between 3,400 and 4,000 mg/L. The investigation used a tubular ozone reactor combined with an UV reactor designed for different hydraulic retention times. The dependent variables addressed to evaluate the treatment efficiency were the reduction of COD and total organic carbon (TOC) and the biodegradability of the treated effluent based on respirometric studies using activated sludge from a wastewater treatment. The results showed that even though ozonation alone at acid pH promoted COD and TOC reductions of 65 and 31 % respectively, a decrease in the biodegradability was observed. The most effective treatment (COD and TOC reductions of 93 and 43 %, respectively) was obtained when applying ozone combined with UV light at basic pH. The ozone-UV combination was capable of increasing the amount of readily available COD by 75 % with an additional reduction of TOC by 60 %. In conclusion, ozonation at low pH effectively reduces the COD content in wastewater generated by the wood-based industry; however, in order to combine advanced oxidation with biological process, ozone combined with UV is recommended.

Exposure to benzene has been associated with multiple severe impacts on health. This notwithstanding, at most monitoring stations, benzene is not monitored on a regular basis. Data were used from two different monitoring stations located on the eastern Mediterranean coast: (1) a traffic monitoring station in Tel Aviv located in an urban region with heavy traffic and (2) a general air quality monitoring station in Haifa Bay located in Israel’s main industrial region. At each station, hourly, daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual data of benzene, NO ₓ , mean temperature, relative humidity, inversion level, and temperature gradient were analyzed over 3 years: 2008, 2009, and 2010. A prediction model for benzene rates based on NO ₓ levels (which are monitored regularly) was developed to contribute to a better estimation of benzene. The severity of benzene pollution was found to be considerably higher at the traffic monitoring station than at the general air quality station, despite the location of the latter in an industrial area. Hourly, daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual patterns have been shown to coincide with anthropogenic activities (traffic), the day of the week, and atmospheric conditions. A strong correlation between NO ₓ and benzene allowed the development of a prediction model for benzene rates based on NO ₓ , the day of the week, and the month. The model succeeded in predicting the benzene values throughout the year. The prediction model suggested in this study might be useful for identifying potential risk of benzene in other urban environments.

Soils exposed to long-term contamination with hydrocarbons may present extreme challenges to maintain the biological resilience to the stress. To elucidate the relationships between the initial event of contamination and the responsiveness to the stress, we investigated the extent of the microbial resilience of biological functions from two contaminated soils sampled from a petrochemical area (S1, underwent diffuse hydrocarbon contamination, and S2, from a land farming unit where an alkaline petrochemical sludge was treated) after the Cd, saline, and acid stresses. Both contaminated soils were characterized by low organic matter content compared with a pristine soil. Although similar Shannon diversity index and heterotrophic bacterial count were observed, different bacterial community structures (PCR-DGGE) and less enzymatic activities characterized the contaminated soils. Particularly, functional diversity determined by Biolog EcoPlates™ was not detected in S2 soil. Only the S1 soil showed resilience of the enzymatic activities and functional diversity, suggesting the presence of a well-adapted microbial community able to face with the stresses. The S2 was the most disturbed and less responsive soil. However, an increase in the functional diversity was evidenced after acidification, and it is possible to correlate this responsiveness with the sludge properties treated in the land farming unit. In addition, if the selected stress can reverse the soil condition provoked for the first disturbance, responsiveness could be expected.