In order to find out a new effective accumulator of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) useful for monitoring studies on a large scale and low costs, the accumulation capacity of both biological and artificial matrixes (mosses and polyester fibers, respectively) has been tested. For this purposes, Hypnum cupressiforme and dacron® were exposed to pollution airborne in two sites located nearby an active iron industry and in center of the town of Trieste, where high PAH pollution spots, due to vehicular traffic, are usually detected. The samplers were exposed in six sampling sessions for 21 days. The results obtained were compared with data collected by active PAH samplers, usually employed for official widespread monitoring. The level of correlation between the data sets was calculated. Furthermore, a repeatability study of data was performed. According to the results, both matrixes are good PAH accumulators, though they show different skills.

The residual brine of the Cerro Prieto Geothermal Field (CPGF) is disposed in an evaporation pond. The seepage of this pond has contaminated the water and agricultural soil around it. The contamination of the groundwater towards the southwest by the evaporation pond, in the direction of the regional flow, has been shown before. Hydrogeochemical modeling (PHREEQCI) and Schoeller and Piper diagrams have been used in this work to show that the chemical composition of the groundwater in villages neighboring CPGF is the product of mixing between irrigation water from the Colorado River and brine from the evaporation pond. The high potassium concentration in the water and the relative increase in concentration of sodium and chlorides along the flow path as well as the hydrogeochemical models for this system explain this mixing process. This work will allow proposing new managing techniques to avoid the presence of the residual brine in the groundwater of agricultural lands.

A method that utilizes solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography (GC) and chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) was developed for analyzing a group of emerging pollutants, N-nitrosamines, in water. The developed analytical method requires a water sample of less than 5 ml and only 1.5 h for complete analysis. The method detection limits for N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosodiethylamine, and N-nitrosodi-n-propylamine were in the range of 3.2 to 3.5 ng/l; for N-nitrosomorpholine, it was 15.2 ng/l. The method was successfully employed to measure the N-nitrosamine concentration at trace levels of nanogram per liter in four water treatment plants (WTPs) and one water distribution system. In the WTPs, only NDMA was detected in the treatment processes. Within the treatment train, NDMA was observed after chlorination. The level of NDMA significantly declined after slow sand filtration due presumably to microbial degradation. The NDMA concentration collected from consumer tap water was about 40% higher on average than that in the finished water. The excellent performance of the SPME/GC/MS/MS method in various water matrices as well as the shorter analysis time and smaller sample volume compared to currently used extraction techniques makes it an alternative means for the analysis of N-nitrosamine in drinking water, wastewater, and laboratory research with small reactors.

The increasing number of degraded soil areas caused by open cast mining activities has brought about a critical damage to the environment. The mine spoil must be ameliorated with anthropogenic interferences which consist of revegetating soils after organic matter amendment and provision of microbial diversity, to guarantee basic conditions for a sustainable soil biological activity. Five woody species, Acacia mangium Willd., Inga edulis Mart., Mimosa caesalpiniaefolia Benth, Parkia multijuga Benth., and Schinus terebinthifolia Schlecht. & Cham were cultivated under greenhouse conditions to evaluate the potential of plant establishment on cassiterite mining waste, considering the contribution of mycorrhizal fungi inoculation, organic compost, and thermophosphate amendment. The shoot height, dry weight, and nitrogen and phosphorus shoot contents were determined. Three species of nodulating legumes, A. mangium, M. caesalpiniaefolia, and S. terebinthifolia showed a great positive response to organic compost, termophosphate, and mycorrhizal inoculation, increasing the plant height and the shoot dry weight. Plants inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and fertilized with organic compost also increased their nitrogen and phosphorus shoot contents. The addition of organic compost and mycorrhizal fungi were essential for plant development and the reforestation of mining areas should be initiated with mycotrophic and nodulating legumes.

This study evaluated the impacts of three sugarcane residue management techniques, namely postharvest burning of residue (BR), shredding of residue (SR), and full postharvest retention of residue (RR), on the water quality of surface runoff from February 2006 to September 2007 in Iberia, LA. Total runoff volumes recorded were 58,418, 57,923, and 46,578 L for the BR, SR, and RR treatments, respectively. Except for total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), which was higher for BR than RR or SR, there were no significant differences in total loads of total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), biological oxygen demand at 5 days (BOD₅), total phosphorus (TP), nitrate-N, nitrite-N, and sulfate among the three residue management techniques, although the RR treatment generally exported the lowest total loads. Regression analyses on the pollutant load and rainfall event showed that the load exported for each water quality parameter was positively correlated with precipitation, with the BR treatment being more sensitive to rainfall amount than the RR and SR treatments in TSS, TKN, TP, BOD, nitrate, and sulfate exports. Runoff TSS and turbidity were also highly correlated (R ² = 0.95, P < 0.001). The results suggested that the two sugarcane residue retention practices (RR and SR) had limited benefit on improving surface runoff water quality over the BR practice in subtropical region such as Louisiana.

Sorption equilibrium of phenol and aniline onto the granular activated carbon and hyperreticulated un-functionalized polymeric resin (MN200) was investigated in single and binary component aqueous systems. Higher loading was obtained for aniline than phenol onto both sorbents, which is probably due to hydrophobic difference between both solutes and the greater electronic density of the aromatic ring of the aniline. Granular activated carbon reported larger uptake than resin MN200 for both solutes, which may be attributed to the better physical properties of the granular activated carbon, for instance, larger surface area. The experimental sorption could be properly described by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Five models for predicting the binary equilibrium sorption isotherm were compared in order to determine the best fit model to correlate binary experimental data: the extended Langmuir isotherm with and without a constant interaction factor, a simplified model based on the single equilibrium factors, the empirical extended Freundlich isotherm and the modified extended Langmuir equation, which considers the synergistic interactions between sorbate-sorbate and not only the competition between them defined by the extended Langmuir model. The modified extended Langmuir model provides the best agreement between predicted and experimental data indicating that the synergistic interactions between solutes play an important role in the binary phenol/aniline sorption system.

It is well known that mass transfer of a solid compound into a liquid phase is characterized by mutual properties of both sides. Solubilization capacity of the liquid phase is primary affected by its composition in inorganic species inducing salting in/out effect evaluated by Setschenow constant, generally defined at 298.15 K. On the other hand, the equilibrium process is highly influenced by polar compatibility issue. Therefore, the study of such transfer is essential in order to set the role of each party participating in the solid-liquid equilibrium. Thus, a comparison of transfer magnitude and feasibility of carbaryl from pure water, to seawater, and lab-made seawater was held. To do so, solubility of the compound was experimented at different temperature in multiple media. Solubility determination is based on the saturation of a specific heated fluid passing through a saturation cell. The solute transported is subsequently trapped in a specific extraction column. Back flashing method is then applied to dissolve the compound. After validation, aqueous solubility of carbaryl was studied as function of temperature ranging from (273.15 to 318.15 K) at atmospheric pressure. In addition, solubility was determined in pure, seawater, and corresponding lab-made water, thus solubility values ranged from 3.57E-06 to 3.49E-05 in pure water, from 3.04E-06 to 2.53E-05 in seawater and from 6.51E-06 to 3.61E-05 in lab-made water. As a result, thermophysical properties of transfer and usage of lab-made water on the mass transfer properties divergence was spotted. The Salting out phenomenon observed for carbaryl was interpreted by the internal pressure theory that suggests the reduction of internal cavities in the presence of salt, making solubilization process more difficult to achieve. Thus, showing an overall endogenic process with a positive Gibbs free energy of transfer that is highly affected by the magnitude of salting out effect and the temperature. The molar entropy of transfer increases versus temperature caused by the disorder of solvent molecules due to the dissolution process.

Toxicity of contaminated soils cannot be assessed only by chemical analyses, therefore bioassays are increasingly used. Widely accepted ecotoxicological methods include organisms from all levels of the food-chain but plant-based ones are usually restricted to germination and growth tests. In our study the toxicity of heavy metal contaminated soil samples were examined not only by germination and bacterial tests of their extracts but also by the measurement of physiological parameters of two plant species (cucumber and wheat) that were grown directly on the contaminated substrate. Changes in chlorophyll concentration, stomatal conductance, fluorescence characteristics, and malondialdehyde (MDA) level (showing oxidative damage to lipids in leaves) undoubtedly indicated the mobilisation and toxic effect of contaminants. The results showed that the sensitivity of plant physiological parameters was higher than that of the extract-based ecotoxicological tests. Whereas these latter could not reveal the toxic effect of the highly contaminated soils the plants have reacted in a more complex way and their physiological parameters have changed significantly in all cases validating their use in such studies. The applied measurements also allow quicker and more reliable testing even under field conditions (stomatal conductance) or the detection of a more complex response if detailed analyses is needed (MDA, fluorescence imaging) thus underlining the importance of plant-based methods.

Several coagulants/flocculants have been studied in order to remove the color and turbidity of raw water, employing natural ones demonstrated advantages in relation to chemicals. Moringa oleifera Lam is a natural polymer that has been gaining prominence in water treatment. It acts as a clarifying agent, providing a cationic protein that destabilizes the particles contained in a liquid medium. The main objective of the present work is to study the efficiency in terms of removing color and turbidity of raw water in order to obtain drinking water. For this purpose, different coagulant solutions were obtained utilizing three solutions of KCl in different concentrations (0.01, 0.1, and 1 M) and pure water combined with M. oleifera Lam seed. Each coagulant solution obtained was studied with concentrations ranging from 50 to 600 ppm of Moringa in solution. The pH was varied (4.0, 6.0, and 8.0) with 25% and 50% sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH) and hydrochloric acid (HCl), respectively. The tests were conducted with the “Jar Test Device” and the efficiency of the process was evaluated regarding the reduction of color and turbidity. The best results were found employing the coagulant solutions extracted with 1 M salt solution, pH 8.0, and different concentrations of coagulant solution. It is important to explain that the best results were in various concentration ranges, as the concentration of protein in solution becomes higher, the greater is its power as a coagulant. The lowest content of protein was found in the solution extracted with water, which consequently had the lowest values of color and turbidity removal.

To clarify nitrogen (N) sources, the overall N budget in a forested watershed in Kanagawa Prefecture, Central Japan was estimated by measuring dissolved inorganic N (DIN; NH₄ ⁺ + NO₃ ⁻ + NO₂ ⁻) from Nov 2004 through Oct 2005. The estimated N budget (-1.43 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) showed that the N output rate (stream water N) was higher than the N input rate (bulk deposition N) in the watershed. The annual NO₂ ⁻ and NO₃ ⁻ input rates were 0.02 and 1.99 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, respectively. NH₄ ⁺ was the predominant source in this forested watershed, accounting for 71% (4.99 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) of DIN input rate. In addition, this study estimated rainfall pH, air temperature, and wind direction, which were considered as controlling factors related to the atmospheric deposition rate of NH₄ ⁺. This study showed that the rainfall NH₄ ⁺ was inversely proportional to the initial pH of the rainfall, which was calculated by adding the amount of H⁺ consumed by the dissociation process of NH₃₍aq₎ to the measured rainfall pH. This result implies that acid rain can elevate the solubility of NH₃₍g₎ and the dissociation capacity of NH₄ ⁺ throughout the process of precipitation. Also, this study provides strong evidence that the high NH₄ ⁺ deposition rate is mainly derived from NH₃₍g₎ emitted from livestock wastes under the NH₃ transport condition of warm summer and favorable wind direction.