The paper presents the role of spontaneous vegetation on the hydraulic performance of an infiltration basin. The objective of the research was more particularly to study this role of different types of spontaneous vegetation found in situ in an infiltration basin near Lyon. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of three areas covered by Phalaris arundinacea, Polygonum mite, Rumex crispus and similar non-vegetated zones was compared. Eight field campaigns were carried out from July 2010 to May 2011 in order to compare the performance of each type of vegetation and its evolution over time. The results suggest a positive impact of vegetation on hydraulic performance in particular in summer during the growth of the plants. The hydraulic conductivity in this period was twice to four times higher than in bare areas or in vegetated zones during the plant rest periods. Some species were also found more appropriate to limit clogging (Phalaris arundinacea) likely due to its specific structure and growth process.

Artificial radionuclides, such as iodine-131 (¹³¹I), cesium-134 (¹³⁴Cs), and cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs), as well as natural isotopes of beryllium-7 (⁷Be) and potassium-40 (⁴⁰K) have been registered in atmospheric aerosols over Vladivostok selected from 11 March to 17 June 2011. Additionally,¹³⁴Cs and¹³⁷Cs were detected in atmospheric aerosols over Tomsk selected from 16 March to 17 June 2011. Artificial radionuclides were also discovered in atmospheric wet depositions sampled in Vladivostok from 3 to 17 May 2011. Moreover, these radionuclides have been registered in atmospheric aerosols over the sea surface of the Sea of Japan selected from 3 to 31 May 2011 during an expedition of the “Nadezhda” sailing ship. From 18 March to 15 April, an increase in concentrations of atmospheric aerosols over Vladivostok from 108.8 to 321.5 μg/m³has been registered. It was accompanied by increased activity concentrations of¹³⁴Cs,¹³⁷Cs, and the¹³¹I. During the period from 18 March to 15 April, activity concentrations of¹³⁷Cs and¹³⁴Cs in atmospheric aerosols increased 100 times compared with the minimum detectable concentration (MDC) level and peaked in the weekly sample gathered from 8 to 15 April (145.0 and 105.3 μBq/m³, respectively). Variability of concentrations of natural isotopes of⁷Be and⁴⁰K was not greater than 1 order of magnitude throughout the sampling period. Maximal values of¹³⁷Cs and¹³⁴Cs concentrations (1,281.5 ± 141 and 384.4 ± 42.3 μBq/m³, respectively) in Tomsk were reached in samples taken from 1 to 2 April. For the atmospheric aerosol samples from the Sea of Japan, the largest concentration of¹³¹I (392.3 ± 215.7 μBq/m³) was detected from 13 to 19 May, while all other samples had much lower concentration values. Synoptic analysis of back trajectories movement of air masses showed that the radioactive cloud came to Vladivostok from the regions of Siberia and northeastern part of China. Synoptic analysis for Tomsk showed that during the period of maximal activity concentrations (1–9 April), air masses were arriving from the European part of Russia and north of Kazakhstan.

Long-term wastewater irrigation or solid waste disposal has resulted in the heavy metal contamination in both soil and groundwater. It is often separately implemented for remediation of contaminated soil or groundwater at a specific site. The main objective of this study was to demonstrate the hypothesis of simultaneous remediation of both heavy metal contaminated soil and groundwater by integrating the chemical immobilization and pump-and-treat methods. To accomplish the objective, three experiments were conducted, i.e., an incubation experiment was first conducted to determine how dairy-manure-derived biochar and phosphate rock tailing induced immobilization of Cd in the Cd-contaminated soils; second, a batch sorption experiment was carried out to determine whether the pre-amended contaminated soil still had the ability to retain Pb, Zn and Cd from aqueous solution. BCR sequential extraction as well as XRD and SEM analysis were conducted to explore the possible retention mechanism; and last, a laboratory-scale model test was undertaken by leaching the Pb, Zn, and Cd contaminated groundwater through the pre-amended contaminated soils to demonstrate how the heavy metals in both contaminated soil and groundwater were simultaneously retained and immobilized. The incubation experiment showed that the phosphate biochar were effective in immobilizing soil Cd with Cd concentration in TCLP (toxicity characteristics leaching procedure) extract reduced by 19.6 % and 13.7 %, respectively. The batch sorption experiment revealed that the pre-amended soil still had ability to retain Pb, Zn, and Cd from aqueous solution. The phosphate-induced metal retention was mainly due to the metal–phosphate precipitation, while both sorption and precipitation were responsible for the metal stabilization in the biochar amendment. The laboratory-scale test demonstrated that the soil amended with phosphate removed groundwater Pb, Zn, and Cd by 96.4 %, 44.6 %, and 49.2 %, respectively, and the soil amended with biochar removed groundwater Pb, Zn, and Cd by 97.4 %, 53.4 %, and 54.5 %, respectively. Meanwhile, the metals from both groundwater and soil itself were immobilized with the amendments, with the leachability of the three metals in the CaCl₂and TCLP extracts being reduced by up to 98.1 % and 62.7 %, respectively. Our results indicate that the integrated chemical immobilization and pump-and-treat method developed in this study provides a novel way for simultaneous remediation of both metal-contaminated soil and groundwater.

Biological treatment of antibiotic production effluents is an economical approach; however, there are still difficulties to overcome because of the recalcitrant characteristics of these compounds to biodegradation. This study aims to reveal that anaerobic treatment technology can be an option as pretreatment before the activated sludge system treatment to treat antibiotic production effluents. The ISO 8192 method was chosen to test the inhibitory effect of raw and treated antibiotic production effluents in this work. Inhibition tests, which were applied according to ISO 8192, highlighted that the anaerobic treatment effluent is less inhibitory than antibiotic production effluent for activated sludge system. Early EC₅₀ concentrations (30-min values) of raw and treated wastewaters were lower than 180-min values. Also, triple effects (sulfamethoxazole–erythromycin–tetracycline) of antibiotics are more toxic than dual effects (sulfamethoxazole–tetracycline). In light of the experimental results obtained and their evaluation, it can be concluded that anaerobic digestion can be applied as a biological pretreatment method for pharmaceutical industry wastewater including antibiotic mixtures prior to aerobic treatment.

Nitrate and nitrite are toxicants that have become increasingly significant environmental chemicals. Increase in environmental distribution of nitrogenous compounds, especially in surface and ground water, has been attributed to the intensive use of nitrate as agricultural fertilizers and to increasing amounts of nitrogenous wastes produced by municipalities, industries, and feedlots. The purpose of this study is to illustrate a fatal nitrate toxicosis in cattle associated with the consumption of fennels (Foeniculum vulgare). Fifteen cows from the same farm suddenly developed weakness, muscular tremors, respiratory distress, and finally convulsions. The affected animals died within 24 to 48 h from the onset of the clinical signs. Five cows underwent a complete post-mortem examination. In all examined animals, gross lesions included presence of dark unclotted blood around the nostrils and the anal region, moderate inflammation of the gastrointestinal mucosa, and brown discoloration of the skeletal muscles and kidneys. The histological examination showed tubular degeneration and congestion of glomerular vessels in the kidney. Toxicological analysis detected nitrates at 4 672.2 ppm in the fennels used to feed the animals. The source of exposure to nitrates was identified in the fennels. The fennels were grown in a polluted area of the Campania region in southern Italy and distributed in a public market for human consumption. The waste from the sale of the fennels was fed to the cows. The accumulation of nitrates in some vegetables poses a risk not only for animal health but also for human and environmental safety.

Contamination of the environment due to mining and mineral processing is an urgent problem worldwide. It is often desirable to establish a grass cover on old mine waste since it significantly decreases the production of leachates. To obtain sustainable growth, it is often necessary to improve several properties of the waste such as water-holding capacity, nutrient status, and toxicity. This can be done by addition of organic materials such as wood residues, e.g., compost. In this study, we focus on the solution chemistry of the leachates when a substrate containing historic sulfidic mine waste mixed with 30 % (volume) bark compost is overgrown by Agrostis capillaris. The pot experiments also included other growth-promoting additives (alkaline material, mycorrhiza, and metabolizable carbon) to examine whether a more sustainable growth could be obtained. Significant changes in the plant growth and in the leachates composition were observed during 8 weeks of growth. It was concluded that in this time span, the growth of A. capillaris did not affect the composition of the leachates from the pots. Instead, the composition of the leachates was determined by interactions between the bark compost and the mine waste. Best growth of A. capillaris was obtained when alkaline material and mycorrhiza or metabolizable carbon was added to the substrate.

Effective arsenic removal from highly laden industrial wastewater is an important but challenging task. Here, a combined coprecipitation/nano-adsorption process, with ferric chloride and calcium chloride as coprecipitation agents and polymer-based nanocomposite as selective adsorbent, has been validated for arsenic removal from tungsten-smelting wastewater. On the basis of operating optimization, a binary FeCl₃(520 mg/L)–CaCl₂(300 mg/L) coprecipitation agent could remove more than 93 % arsenic from the wastewater. The resulting precipitate has proved environmental safety based on leaching toxicity test. Fixed-bed column packed with zirconium or ferric-oxide-loaded nanocomposite was employed for further elimination of arsenic in coprecipitated effluent, resulting in a significant decrease of arsenic (from 0.96 to less than 0.5 mg/L). The working capacity of zirconium-loaded nanocomposite was 220 bed volumes per run, much higher than that of ferric-loaded nanocomposite (40 bed volumes per run). The exhausted zirconium-loaded nanocomposite could be efficiently in situ regenerated with a binary NaOH–NaCl solution for reuse without any significant capacity loss. The results validated the combinational coprecipitation/nano-adsorption process to be a potential alternative for effective arsenic removal from highly laden industrial effluent.

The occurrence and removal of six pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) including caffeine (CF), N, N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), carbamazepine, metoprolol, trimethoprim (TMP), and sulpiride in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Shanghai, China were studied in January 2013; besides, grab samples of the influent were also taken every 6 h, to investigate the daily fluctuation of the wastewater influent. The results showed the concentrations of the investigated PPCPs ranged from 17 to 11,400 ng/L in the WWTP. A low variability of the PPCP concentrations in the wastewater influent throughout the day was observed, with the relative standard deviations less than 25 % for most samples. However, for TMP and CF, the slight daily fluctuation still reflected their consumption patterns. All the target compounds except CF and DEET, exhibited poor removal efficiencies (<40 %) by biological treatment process, probably due to the low temperature in the bioreactor, which was unfavorable for activated sludge. While for the two biodegradable PPCPs, CF, and DEET, the anaerobic and oxic tank made contributions to their removal while the anoxic tank had a negative effect to their elimination. The tertiary UV treatment removed the investigated PPCPs by 5–38 %, representing a crucial polishing step to compensate for the poor removal by the biologic treatment process in winter.

The pryene-degradation bacterium strain USTB-X was newly isolated from the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated soil in Beijing Coking Plant, China. The strain was identified as Acinetobacter with respect to its 16S rDNA and morphological and physiological characteristics. The strain was Gram-negative, non-mobile, non-acid-fast, and non-spore-forming, short rods in young culture and 0.8–1.6 μm in diameter and 1.2–2.5 μm long in the stationary phase of growth. Strain USTB-X could utilize pyrene, naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, ethanol, methanol, and Tween 80 as sole source of carbon and energy. The strain could produce biosurfactants which enhanced the removal of pyrene and could remove 63 % of pyrene with an initial concentration of 100 mg·L⁻¹in 16 days without other substrates. Based on the intermediates analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we also deduced the possible metabolic pathway of strain USTB-X for pyrene biodegradation. Results indicated that the strain USTB-X had high potential to enhance the removal of PAHs in contaminated sites.

A series of treatment experiments were carried out to evaluate the applicability of a high-temperature melting treatment (GeoMelt process) to the destruction of polychlorinated naphthalene (PCN) formulation. We started with 10-kg-scale experiments in which a small melting furnace was used and then scaled up to a 1-t-scale experiment in which a melting furnace that resembled an actual treatment system was used. These runs were evaluated whether destruction efficiency (DE) of total PCNs was more than 99.999 % and whether concentrations of PCNs and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDDs/DFs) in vitrified materials, emission gas, and scrubber water were below the target levels. Because DE values and the target levels of PCNs and PCDDs/DFs in these runs were satisfactory, then we carried out a demonstrative experiment using the actual treatment system and confirmed destruction of PCNs. Based on good results of the demonstrative experiment, stock of PCN formulation was successfully treated continuously.