• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.55-60
• /
• 2015

As the water supply system has been installed over the country, the management of drinking water could be easier and controlled by experts. This helps to supply safe water to public. However, in rural area, small scale water treatment systems or groundwater haves been used as drinking water supplier. The drinking water including groundwater contains various contaminants. Private or small scale water treatment system can be contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic, selenium and strontium which are usually originated from natural source. Arsenic, selenium and strontium have been determined from the goundwater, small scale water treatment system in the Kyungpook area. The results have been compared with the Korean and international standards. The results were analyzed on the geological characteristics of the area. Among the total of 1,412 samples, 76 samples showed higher concentration of arsenic than WHO guideline and the Korean drinking water standard. Total 4 samples had higher contents of selenium than WHO guideline which was $10{\mu}g/L$. In the analysis of geological characteristics, arsenic was highly released from a few area and which are in order of biotite granodiorite > biotite granite > daegu formation. Selenium has been highly released from biotite granite > black shale > diluvium.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.481-487
• /
• 2016

In this research, a pilot scale hybrid rain garden system was developed in order to investigate the efficiency in the different components of the hybrid rain garden system and at the same time evaluate the initial efficiency of the system in treating urban stormwater runoff prior to its actual use in the field. Experimental runs were conducted using synthetic runoff having target concentrations similar to that of the typical runoff characteristics found in different countries and in Korea. With the employment of the hybrid rain garden system, hydrologic improvement was observed as the system demonstrates an approximately 95% reduction in the influent runoff volume with 80% retained in the system, and 15% recharged to groundwater. The reduction was contributed by the retention capabilities of ST and infiltration capabilities in PB and IT. With the combined mechanisms such as filtration-infiltration, biological uptake from plants and soil and phytoremediation that are incorporated in PB and IT, the system effectively reduces the amount of pollutant concentration wherein the initial mean removal efficiency for TSS is 87%, while an approximate mean removal efficiency of 76%, 46% and 56% was observed in terms of organics, nutrients and heavy metal, respectively. With these findings, the research helps in the further improvement, innovation and optimization of rain garden systems and other facilities as well.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.79-86
• /
• 2015

Korean territories has formed about 70% of mountainous areas that have acidified serious level to average pH 4-5. There are a number of abandoned metal mines about 1,000 in Korea. However, mine tailings and waste rock included heavy metals are exposed to long-term environment without prevention facility or treatment system. Thus, ongoing management and monitoring of soil environment are required. Most of abandoned mine scattered in forest areas of slopes. Soil erosion due to continuous rainfall in the slopy areas can cause the secondary pollution by the influence eutrophication of water system and the productivity loss of the plant. Therefore, this study would like to estimate pH leaching rate by artificial rainfall using waste neutralization-agent in lysimeter. Moreover, the potentially of secondary pollution related to precipitation is figured out through the experiments, and the optimal planting methods would examinate after neutralizing treatment in soil. Experiments composed three kinds of lysimeter; lysimeter 1 had filled only acidic soil, lysimeter 2 had neutralized soil, and lysimeter 3 had planting plants after neutralized soil. In the results, lysimeter 2 showed the lowest pH leaching, and there is not specific relativity with pH leaching of the seasonal characteristics.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.78-82
• /
• 2009

In this study, the feasibility of soil washing and soil flushing was investigated to treat Zn-contaminated railroad soil. Various organic acids including ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and citric acid as well as inorganic acids such as hydrochloric acid (HCl) and phosphoric acid were tested to evaluate washing efficiency. Generally, inorganic acid showed higher removal efficiency compared to organic acids. Particularly, EDTA, well known as the most effective washing agent for removal of heavy metals from soil, was not efficient to remove zinc in this study. Among washing agents tested in this study, HCl was the most effective. However, it is not effective to use HCl solution over 0.1 M concentration. Sequential process using HCl was effective to enhance the removal efficiency of zinc. In column test, the removal efficiency of Zn was 27%. Accordingly, it is feasible to treat Zn-contaminated railroad soil using soil washing or flushing with HCI.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2010

Field study to find appropriate species for phytoremediation and phytomonitoring with higher plants was carried out at four abandoned metalliferous mines. In order to know the tolerant degree of plant resources collected at heavy metal polluted sites, soil and plants were sampled at same sites and metal concentrations were determined. Most serious heavy metal polluted in the sites was As that showed range from 29.1 to 1372.2 mg $kg^{-1}$ in investigated area. The dominant species were Oenothera biennis, Commelina communis, Persicaria senticosa, Conyza annuus, Artemisia princeps, and Erigeron canadensis. These species were predominant species that were proliferated in any survey area. Compared with other sites, vegetational characteristics of Dal-Seong, a mine site abandoned early in 1973, showed higher diversity index and lower dominance index. Distributions of weed species according to life cycle indicated that the proportions of perennial plants were lowered in every investigated site. Although the polluted areas were distant from each other, similarity indices among these vegetation were relatively similar. These results means the vegetations of abandoned mine areas were beginning stage of vegetational succession, and the vegetations were adversely affected by disturbance with heavy-metals and lack of water in soil.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.171-184
• /
• 2016

In order to assess the level of contamination and identify the priority contaminants in the Busan coast, intensive sediment sampling was conducted and persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals were analyzed. The Sediment Quality Index (SQI) was derived based on the contaminant data by comparing with Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) established in Korea, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand. Toxic contaminants were found to be widely distributed across the coast. Among organic contaminants, PAHs showed the highest concentration, followed by butyltins, nonylphenols, PBDEs, DDTs, PCBs, HCHs and CHLs. Heavy metals were also abundantly detected with the highest concentration of Zn followed by Cu > Cr > Pb > Ni > As > Cd > Hg. Compared to organic contaminants, most heavy metals, except for Cu and Hg, were homogeneously distributed along the coast in a good relationship with total organic carbon of sediment particles. In general, the concentrations of organic compounds and heavy metals were highest at the inner part of harbor areas with a tendency to decline from inside areas to the outside, indicating the high loading of pollutants from harbors. A high exceedance for low-SQGs and high-SQGs was found for TBT, p'-DDT, p,p'-DDD, Cu and Zn. The SQI scores calculated from low-SQGs and high-SQGs were in the range of 18-100 and 54-100, respectively. The inner part of Busan Harbor, Dadaepo Harbor, and Gamcheon Harbor were observed as being regions of concern. Overall, TBT, Cu, and p,p'-DDT were the chemicals most frequently exceeding SQGs and influencing SQI scores.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.241-248
• /
• 2008

We studied concentrations of trace elements such as iron, zinc, copper, lead and cadmium in three shorebird species from Saemankeum mudflat, Korea$(1999{\sim}2000)$, and also analysed correlations between elements in livers. Iron(ANOVA, p=0.018), copper(ANOVA, p=0.043), lead(ANOVA, p=<0.001) and cadmium (ANOVA, p=0.016) concentrations significantly differed among shorebird species, but zinc concentrations wasn't different among species. We suggested that iron, zinc, and copper concentrations were within a range for normal and are maintained by normal homeostatic mechanisms for wild birds. Lead concentrations in Great Knots Calidris tenuirostris$(5.76{\pm}2.14{\mu}g/dry\;g)$ were at the background level but Red-necked Stints Calidris ruficollis$(29.4{\pm}10.6{\mu}g/dry\;g)$ and Terek Sandpipers Xenus sinereus$(15.9{\pm}11.9{\mu}g/dry\;g)$ were within the exposed level for wild birds. In particular, Red-necked Stints were nearly poisoned level. Cadmium concentrations in Terek Sandpipers and Great Knots were at the background concentration, but Red-necked Stints were greater than the poisoned level$(3{\mu}g/dry\;g)$. We found significantly correlations between lead and cadmium concentrations, but other elements didn't find.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.201-206
• /
• 2012

Horse manure general composition and contaminants, heavy metals content analysis was investigated as follows. The moisture content of horse feces was 76.1% and 96% for horse urine. The average T-N, T-P, T-K concentrations of the racing horse were 0.18%, 0.10%, 0.22% respectively and 2.88%, 0.0015%, 0.84% for urine. And the average BODs, COD, SS concentrations were 26,906 $mg/{\ell}$, 36,642 $mg/{\ell}$, 89,375 $mg/{\ell}$ respectively and 14,298 $mg/{\ell}$, 7,484 $mg/{\ell}$, 6,987 $mg/{\ell}$ for urine. In addition, the Cr, Cu, Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn concentrations of feces were 2.65 mg/kg, 7.05 mg/kg, 1.24 mg/kg, 0.07 mg/kg, 0.01 mg/kg, 45.11 mg/kg respectively and 1.52 mg/kg, 1.62 mg/kg, 0.00 mg/kg, 0.03 mg/kg, 0.03 mg/kg, 4.49 mg/kg for urine on the fresh matter basis. The end of the survey was that the quality of the compost can be used as a raw material, and manure is necessary to constantly driven forward horse manure composting research.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.10
• /
• pp.1034-1038
• /
• 2008

Degradative Solidification/Stabilization(DS/S) is a modification of conventional Solidification/Stabilization(S/S) that incorporates degradative processes for organic contaminant destruction with the low cost of conventional S/S. Inorganic contaminants are immobilized and chlorinated organic contaminants are destroyed by DS/S treatment. In this study, a DS/S using cement/slag/Fe(II) systems as binder was investigated to assess its effectiveness in degrading chloroform(CF) and methylene chloride(MC) contained in hazardous liquid wastes. The initial concentration of CF was 0.26 mM, 1.0 mM, 8.4 mM, 25 mM and 42 mM and Fe(II) was 200 mM. The result showed that degradation of CF in various concentration was in one kind reaction as pseudo-first-order and 95% of 0.26 mM initial concentration of CF was removed in five days. 50 mg/L of heavy metal was added in order to accelerate the rate of degradation of MC and initial concentration of MC was 3.50 mM however, degradation did not occur in system. Thus additional studies needed for degradation of MC and more studies on other reaction pathways products will help elucidate reaction mechanisms and pathways for chlorinated methanes in cement/slag/Fe(II) systems.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.31-41
• /
• 1997

This study was carried out to investigate the composition and the distribution of the benthic community in the coastal area of Inchon seasonally from May 1994 to February 1995, and to estimate the environmental factors that effect the temporal and the spatial changes of benthic species composition. In the present study, 231 species were collected with the average density of 455 ind./$m^2$. The dominant species were Heteromastus sp., Sternaspis scutata, Chaetozone setosa, Mediomastus sp., Glycinde sp., Glycera sp. and Nephtys oligobranchia, which are in the polychaete group; abundance of these species showed seasonal and spatial variations. The study area was divided into 4 regions by cluster analysis such as outside area of Palmido (I), main channel region and adjacent are of Shihwa sea wall (II), north-eastern area of Youngjongdo (III), and the Inchon harbor and the mouth area of Sorae harbor (IV). The particle size of sediment which generally influences the distribution of the benthic community, the differences of the concentration of heavy metals, and of the dissolved oxygen, the increase of the proportion of polychaetes and molluscs, the absence of the crustacean phoxocephalids, and the increase of the abundance of pollution indicator species, indicated that the environment of the areas have been degrading gradually from Group I to Group IV.