Resource added for the Environmental Engineering Waste and Water Technology program 105062.

A pilot-plant-scale study of combined sulfur dioxide/nitrogen oxides (SO₂/NOₓ) removal has been performed by the Dravo Lime Company at the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company's Miami Fort Station in North Bend, Ohio. This study used Dravo's patented Thiosorbic® lime process along with Argonne National Laboratory's (ANL's) patented process for combined SO₂/NOₓ removal using the chelate ferrous·ethylenediaminetetraacetate (Fe·EDTA). For approximately nine months, scrubbing tests were carried out, and waste samples were collected. Waste testing at ANL involved two types of long-term chemical stability experiments. In one test, the gas-phase composition above several different samples was studied by mass spectrometry over 22 months. Unexpectedly, production of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide was observed in some of the samples. The other experiment involved solid-phase leaching. Samples were stored for up to 14 months before leaching. Each leachate was tested for total Kjeldahl nitrogen and for the nitrogen-containing ions nitrite, nitrate, and ammonium. Significant amounts of ammonium ions were found in two of the samples. Total leachable nitrogen was found to stabilize after about the first 7 months of storage.

The work reported here deals with the study of interception/deposition and translocation of ⁸⁵Sr, ¹³¹I, and¹³⁷ Cs in three different types of vegetables i.e. beans (Phasoolus vulgaris), spinach (Spinicia olericia) and radish (Raphanous sative) following redionuclides release to the environment. Activity was injected in the experimental chamber in the form of aerosols having a size distribution of 0.3–1.0 µm (AMAD). Plant samples were collected soon after the injection for the evaluation of interception/deposition factors (IF/DF) for the different parts of the plants, as well as for the whole plant and the washable fraction of the deposited activity and its variation with time. The evaluated IF/DF shows a minimum value of 0.12 m³ kg⁻¹ for ⁸⁵Sr in case of spinach whole plant and maximum value of 1.93 m³ kg⁻¹ for ¹³¹I in case of beans whole plant. Translocation factors (TF) have also been evaluated for the activity that migrates from the above soil plant parts to the root and its variation with time. The evaluated TF shows a range of 7.27 × 10⁻³ to 136 × 10⁻³.

A study was carried out in order to estimate the presence of enteric and non-enteric indicators in the water distribution systems of Western Greece and to evaluate different methods for culture and isolation of coliforms in that region, under several incubation conditions and using different media. According to the different media and techniques used, the numbers of water samples found unsafe for consumption represented 21, 17 and 10% of the total, when mT7 agar, M-Endo agar LES (Membrane Filtration technique) and Most Probable Number (MPN) techniques were used, respectively. In one third of the samples oxidase positive microorganisms were present, which were almost eliminated by using anaerobic incubation of the media. Faecal streptococci were found only in 5% of the samples tested. The MPN technique proved to be significantly less efficient in recovering the coliform colonies than the Membrane Filtration (MF) technique (x² = 125.758 < 182.405). The use of m-Endo agar LES and mT7 agar showed no statistically significant difference in detecting total coliforms (x² = 162.55 > 162.422). However, a larger mean number of colonies per sample developed on mT7 agar, indicating that the latter medium should be used in our region for the detection of total coliforms.

Arsenic, an environmental pollutant, is present in minute but invariable amounts in food, drinking water and ambient air. Izmir is founded on a land of long extinct volcanoes, with vast areas of lava ground suitable for agriculture. It is located at close vicinity to high thermal activity, e.g., hot springs and thermal baths. In the present study, total arsenic level in breast milk was assessed in randomly chosen 35 lactating women of different socioeconomic levels who live downtown in Izmir and in milk of 36 cows grazing on shoulder grass of highways with heavy traffic. Total arsenic was assessed on an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AA-680 Shimadzu). Mean (± SEM) arsenic was found to be 4.219 ± 0.079 µg L⁻¹ in breast milk, and 4.932 ± 0.38 µg L⁻¹ in cow's milk. Conclusion: in Izmir, arsenic contamination of breast milk was not found so as to be considered noxious for suckling infants, whereas was found relatively higher in cow's milk. It would be prudent to remember breast and cow's milk arsenic contamination in breast fed or milk fed babies living in areas with higher thermal activity or in regions where ground water is with high arsenic content.

Batch adsorption experiments were carried out with samples from an A-, Bh- and C-horizon of contaminated sandy soil of podzolic character from the Kempen region at the Dutch-Belgian border. Cadmium sorption was studied on 3 soil samples at 3 different pH-levels (3.6, 4.3 and soil buffered pH) and 3 different additions of zinc (0–40 mg l⁻¹).Adsorption of cadmium by acid sandy soils can be fitted by a Freundlich adsorption isotherm. Although zinc competes with cadmium for the sorption sites, we observe a two to three times stronger competition effect of the proton cation, which is explained by the chemical properties of both ions. The cadmium adsorption coefficient KF decreases considerably by an increase of the proton activity used in the sorption experiments. Organic matter content explains for a large part the variation of KF of te three soil samples. Desorption data do not fit the proposed regression model for adssorption. Not all the cadmium, intitially present in the polluted soil, will fylly desorb reversibly. Thus, part of the cadmium may be irreversible bound.