Consumption of food crops contaminated with heavy metals is a major food chain route for human exposure. We studied the health risks of heavy metals in contaminated food crops irrigated with wastewater. Results indicate that there is a substantial buildup of heavy metals in wastewater-irrigated soils, collected from Beijing, China. Heavy metal concentrations in plants grown in wastewater-irrigated soils were significantly higher (P <= 0.001) than in plants grown in the reference soil, and exceeded the permissible limits set by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in China and the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, this study highlights that both adults and children consuming food crops grown in wastewater-irrigated soils ingest significant amount of the metals studied. However, health risk index values of less than 1 indicate a relative absence of health risks associated with the ingestion of contaminated vegetables. Long-term wastewater irrigation leads to buildup of heavy metals in soils and food crops.

Desalination is a growing activity that has introduced a new impact, brine discharge, which may affect benthic communities. Although the role of polychaetes as indicators to assess organic pollution is well known, their tolerance to salinity changes has not been examined to such a great extent. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of brine discharge over soft bottom polychaete assemblage along the Alicante coast (Southeast Spain) over a two year period. Changes in the polychaete assemblage was analysed using univariate and multivariate techniques. We compared a transect in front of the discharge with two controls. At each transect we sampled at three depths (4, 10 and 15 m) during winter and summer. We have observed different sensitivity of polychaete families to brine discharges, Ampharetidae being the most sensitive, followed by Nephtyidae and Spionidae. Syllidae and Capitellidae showed some resistance initially, while Paraonidae proved to be a tolerant family. The Polychaete assemblage is affected by the brine discharge of the Alicante desalination plant and we detect different sensitivity levels in polychaete families to brine impact.

Loss of nitrogen from the soil-plant system has raised environmental concern. This study assessed the fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) in the subsurface flow constructed wetlands (CWs). To better understand the mechanism of N2O emission, spatial distribution of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in four kinds of wetlands soil were compared. N2O emission data showed large temporal and spatial variation ranging from -5.5 to 32.7 mg N2O m-2 d-1. The highest N2O emission occurred in the cell planted with Phragmites australis and Zizania latifolia. Whereas, the lower emission rate were obtained in the cell planted with P. australis and Typha latifolia. These revealed that Z. latifolia stimulated the N2O emission. Transportation of more organic matter and oxygen for AOB growth may be the reason. The study of AOB also supported this result, indicating that the root structure of Z. latifolia was favored by AOB for N2O formation. Zizania latifolia has a large contribution to global warming.

Expansion of aquaculture has increased concern over its environmental impact. The composition of effluents from intensive aquaculture is well documented, but few data on extensive aquaculture are available. During 12 draining operations, 523 water samples were collected downstream from six extensively-managed fishponds in northeastern France. Study ponds had surface areas of 2-620 ha and were managed for production of Cyprinids and Percids. Concentrations of total suspended solids, total phosphorus, and Kjeldahl nitrogen in effluents from the ponds were greatest during the final stage of draining. Loads of phosphorus were higher than those reported for effluents of more intensive aquaculture ponds in the USA, but the source of the potential pollutants was catchments and sediment rather than feeds and fertilizer. It will be necessary to reduce the water drawdown rate during the fishing stage and possibly implement other best management practices to prevent the TSS concentration from exceeding 1 g/L. Effluent phosphorus loads were higher than those reported for more intensive aquaculture ponds, but the pollutant source was catchments rather than feeds and fertilizers.

Due to very high concentration of organic matter there is a great need for alternative solutions for drinking water disinfection in the world. Chlorine dioxide has been successfully used for almost 50 years for disinfection and later for taste removal, odor control, color reduction and oxidation of inorganic compounds such as iron and manganese. An advantage of using chlorine dioxide instead of chlorine is that it does not directly react with organic matter and form halogenated byproducts when it is used for disinfection. THMs, such as CHBr3, ChCl3 etc, are considered as most dangerous for people health. In this article we are to represent the results got from raw water disinfection treatment with chlorine dioxide.

Coagulation and flocculation can be efficiency applied in drinkling water treatment, in order to remove natural organic matter (NOM). However, in the experiments presented in this paper, the water used is very rich in NOM, and required investigations of additional processes. In order to increase the efficiency of coagulation and flocculation processes in removing NOM from groundwater, the following processes were investigated: adsorption on powdered activated carbon (5-30 mg PAC/l) and preozonation with applied ozone doses of 1.1-6.3 mg O3/l. The parameters used to evaluated the changes in NOM content during the experiment were: KMnO4 consumption, UV absorbance at 254 nm, pH and turbidity.

This study investigates the possibilities of using Lagenaria vulgaris biomass as a biosorbent for removal of heavy metals from wastewater and natural water. The experiments were carried out with model solutions of Pb2+, Cd2+, and Zn2+, in batch system. The effects of contact time, temperature, initial metal concentration and adsorbent doses, on the adsorption of heavy metals have been studied. Results show that biosorbent based on Lagenaria vulgaris represent efficient and low-cost means for pretreatment of heavy metals contaminated waters.

In the project Quality of Drinking Water of Banja Luka City, during 2007 the colony of zoobentos around the water factory is followed. The composition of colony is different in both season and horizontal profile. The quality of water in litoral area of river is much worse, because polluted water from ambiental settlement and that is indicated by major number of Tubificidae. During monitoring of the states there was a change of qualitative and quantitative composition of colony, also and the change of individual domination of taxons.