Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are among the most efficient methods for wastewater treatment. To achieve the degradation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), AOPs have been developed that employ Fenton reactions promoted by ultrasound (US) or microwaves (MW). Integrated methods combining AOPs with biological treatments are also of great interest. The present paper describes such an integrated approach for the decontamination of water from nonylphenol (NP), a common pollutant that accumulates in aquatic organisms and is quite resistant to biodegradation. Polluted water (containing 1,000 ppm of NP) was sequentially subjected to a sonochemical Fenton reaction and biosorption by the filamentous fungus Paecilomyces lilacinus. Although these methods can be used separately, the sequential approach proved more advantageous. In 1 h the sonochemical oxidation, carried out in a 300 kHz US-reactor equipped with a cooling system, halved NP content in polluted water, as determined by GC-MS analysis. The water was then inoculated with pure cultures of the fungus, whose mycelial biomass further reduced NP content in 7 days. Thus an initial NP concentration of 1,000 ppm was reduced approximately by 90%.

Natural gas storage produced waters (NGSPWs) are brought to the surface when natural gas is reclaimed from underground storage. These waters may have a variety of constituents of concern that need to be treated before the water can be reused or discharged to receiving aquatic systems. The objective of this study was to characterize NGSPWs to discern potential constituents of concern that may limit surface discharge or beneficial reuse of these waters. We conducted a strategic review of literature, analyses of produced water composition records, and analyses of produced water samples provided by natural gas storage companies. Although NGSPWs varied widely in composition, primary constituents of concern included: chlorides (salinity), metals, metalloids, and organic compounds (e.g. oil and grease). Chlorides are the predominant constituent of concern in most NGSPWs. Strategies for risk mitigation of NGSPWs will need to be both robust and site specific to deal with the diverse composition of these waters.

Urban stormwater can be treated by infiltration at the source using systems like permeable paving. A critical component of such a system is the filtration media. Laboratory experiments were conducted using columns and boxes to evaluate the sediment retention efficiencies of different filtration media--crushed Greywacke, Greywacke mixed with 10% sand, and layered Greywacke and sand-Greywacke mix. Sediments of 0.001-6 mm were applied at concentrations of 460-4,200 mg/l along with water at flow rates of 100-900 ml/min. All columns showed between 96 and 91% sediment retention efficiency for single dry sediment applications, with lowered sediment retentions at higher flow rates. Decreasing the sediment loading, applying particles of <38 μm size, and suspending the particles in inflow as opposed to directly applying sediments to the column surface gave lower sediment retention efficiencies of 55 to 89%. Sediment retention primarily occurred in the top 20 mm of all columns and the 50th percentile value of retained sediments was 100-300 μm. The box tests showed little effect of flow and sediment loading on particle retention, with the tests showing an average retention of 93%. Similar to the column tests, the box tests showed lower sediment retention (84 to 88%) for <38 μm sediments and greater retention (approximately 95%) for larger sediments.

Concentrations of Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn have been measured, by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, in the fine fraction (<63 μm) of surface sediments collected in 30 sites in the Palermo Gulf (Sicily, Italy) in order to assess the levels and the spatial distribution of these elements. Enrichment factors calculated with respect to clean areas have been considered to discriminate between levels due to background or to pollution contributions. The sampling stations, which form a grid inside these areas, are characterized by geographic proximity and by the presence of pollution sources. Ratio matching technique along with hierarchical clustering, minimum spanning tree and principal component analysis have been used for the statistical analysis of data, allowing to better describe the spatial distribution of metal levels. Our work allowed to assess the anthropogenic contribution to the pollution of the area under investigation through industrial and domestic wastes, presence of an harbour area and river inflow.

Laboratory experiments were carried out to examine the effects of chelating agents on heavy metal extraction from slightly contaminated dredged sediments from the port of Livorno (Italy). Ethylene diamine tetraacetate (EDTA), citric acid (CA) and humic substances (HS) were tested in two different concentrations each: 120 and 480, 500 and 2,000, 500 and 1,000 mg/l, respectively. Solubilisation of heavy metals (Cu and Zn) was observed for both EDTA and HS in the extraction kinetic experiments: 58% of the total Cu and 50% of the total Zn in the sediment were mobilised from the solid matrix using EDTA (480 mg/l) and 32% of the total Cu and 5% of the total Zn, using HS (1,000 mg/l). It was observed that solubilized metal levels were positively related to the chelating agent concentration. HS performance in the heavy metals mobilisation and phyto-toxicity tests was considered promising. HS represent an innovation in enhanced phytoextraction techniques: they can be considered an environmentally non-impacting bio-agronomic amendment. CA induced no significant effects on heavy metal mobilisation and it also negatively affects seed germination (Germination Index < 40%). Laboratory experiments with plants showed that none of the treatments significantly affected the biomass production and a trend could only be detected for the heavy metal uptake into shoots of Paspalum vaginatum sp. Transplantation of seashore paspalum is useful as a pre-treatment of contaminated dredged sediments, since it is a salt-tolerant species and it can be easily adaptable on a nutrient poor and fine textured medium.

PM₁₀ particles were collected over three sites in France. The first one, Montagney was a rural site that was considered as a reference site. The second site Saclay, close to a highway, was used to study the influence of the traffic. The third site was Dunkerque, one of the most industrial areas in France for the production of steel, aluminium and petroleum refinement. More than 50 element concentrations were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Comparisons between Saclay and Montagney shown that some elements, considered as crustal elements had similar concentration variations and weak (close to 1) enrichment factors. Elements with enrichment factors higher than 10 shown in Montagney correlated variations, with a Winter maximum, that should be due to Winter heating sources. Over Saclay, most of elements with high enrichment factors were attributed to the dense traffic of the highway. This is particularly true for Mn, Fe, Zn, Ba, Sb, Cu. Some additional elements correlated also, without a particular origin that can be ascertained. In Dunkerque, the most important industry is steel production. Correlation studies shown that Tl, Cs, Ba, Ag, Cu, Rb, Se, Mn, Pb concentration variations were closely associated to the Fe concentration variations. The second polluting industry is aluminium production. Correlation studies allowed to associate Ni, Y, Co, V, rare earth elements, Ti, Sr, Th, U, Ca, Sc, concentration variations to the aluminium concentration variations. A third important industry is petroleum refinement. The only element observed here and that is suspected to be emitted more specifically is La, used in cracking processes. An important enrichment of La with respect to Ce is observed. A strong decrease of the ratio Cl/Na was observed over the three sites, between the beginning of the experiment in Autumn 2005, and its end in Spring 2006. This was attributed to a release of gaseous HCl, produced by acidification of aerosols by other pollutants like NO x and SO x , that should have been oxidized to NO₂ and SO₃, then dissolved in the aerosols. The effects responsible for the loss of Cl, represents a large surface and long-term pollution event over the North of France. This work allowed a characterization of the heavy metal concentrations of the aerosol that will sustain results published in a companion paper, and that concerned the bio-accumulation of metals by Scleropodium purum, simultaneously exposed in the same sites.

This paper reports a laboratory-scale investigation concerning the use of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in a semi-continuous process, where column packed-bed type bioreactors were used for the treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD). The use of different materials as solid matrices was tested and the performance of the bioremediation processes was discussed in terms of sulphate and metals removal and acid neutralization. The behaviour of a reactor filled with acidic soil from a mining area and organic wastes was compared with other three reactors where coarse sand, glass spheres and cereal straw were used as packaging materials. Batch experiments showed the presence and growth of SRB from the acidic soil in different pH conditions and the effect of the absence or presence of several added carbon sources: lactate, ethanol and lactose. The data showed that it is possible to grow SRB using the acidic soil as source of inocula, in the absence and in the presence of the carbon sources tested, since the pH of the media was previously increased to values of 5 or higher. When acidic soil from the mining area and organic wastes were utilised as column matrices, it is possible to remove the metals and to neutralise the acidity of AMD, although an inefficient sulphate removal was observed. When coarse sand or glass spheres were utilised, efficient metals sulphate removal were achieved. However, the incapacity of both systems to generate enough alkalinity does not allow maintaining their good performances in terms of iron removal and sulphate reduction. As a result, the incorporation of materials with neutralizing and buffer capacity to the matrix is recommended. Due to its low density, cereal straw was not suitable to obtain an anaerobic environment inside the column for SRB activity.

The increase of traffic and the rising energy consumption mean a challenge to the air pollution control and to environmental protection. Measures of air pollution control concentrated primarily on the reduction of gaseous pollutants. However, in the field of air hygiene in Central Europe, especially the load of near-surface atmospheric dust becomes threatening to human health. A SIMS microprobe for ultra fine feature analysis is used to image the elemental composition at the surface of submicrometer urban dust particles collected at two measurement stations in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The NanoSIMS 50 has been chosen because it creates one intensity image for each selected element in a high spatial resolution down to 50 nm. The atmospheric fine dust consists of a mixture of organic and inorganic compounds. The elemental composition at the surface of particles was studied using a global image segmentation technique to separate the signal from the background of the particles. The analysis of the binary intensity images was carried out using several shape and proximity measures. The patch shape complexity and distribution for industrial/urban particles were found to differ significantly from the solids collected from a forest site. We conclude that the methodology developed in the study is a reliable tool to differentiate between potential sources of airborne particulate matter.

Meteorological factors affecting concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen in rain were examined. Rain samples were collected on an event basis from a location 100 km east of the Los Angeles Basin. Analysis of the data demonstrated a double decay function where small increases in rain volume resulted in large decreases in nitrogen concentration. In separate time series collections of individual storms, storm wind direction also influenced nitrogen concentrations

Urban rainfall-runoff residuals contain metals such as Cr, Zn, Cu, As, Pb and Cd and are thus reasonable candidates for treatment using Portland cement-based solidification-stabilization (S/S). This research is a study of S/S of urban storm water runoff solid residuals in Portland cement with quicklime and sodium bentonite additives. The solidified residuals were analyzed after 28 days of hydration time using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and solid-state ²⁹Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate that the main cement hydration products are ettringite, calcium hydroxide and hydrated calcium silicates. Zinc hydroxide and lead and zinc silicates are also present due to the reactions of the waste compounds with the cement and its hydration products. ²⁹Si NMR analysis shows that the coarse fraction of the waste apparently does not interfere with cement hydration, but the fine fraction retards silica polymerization.