• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.423-430
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• 2008

As of September 2008,45 Automatic Water Quality Monitoring Systems (AWQMS) have been installed at different sites on the 4 rivers to detect early the presence of pollutants in water and to issue an alarm. We count the number of issuing alarms by AWQMS, however, we will find the alarm has hardly been issued. The reasons for the scarcity of alarm issue are extensively being examined. The National Institute of Environmental Research attributes wrong alarm criteria for each AWQMS station to one the reasons. In this study, a suggestion has been made to modify the current alarm criteria to correspond with characteristics of river water quality. The current system with only two criteria (low and high) should be replaced as four-criteria systems (low, medium, high, and severe) based on cases of other advanced countries and stream conditions of Korea. The highest value of data collected for 5 years was suggested as the alarm criteria for each parameter. Meanwhile the alarm criteria for VOCs, phenol and heavy metals were established as same as drinking water quality criteria.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2002

With rapid industrial development, railway has become a main traffic means. But, the railway noise has caused much annoyance for the residents living nearby railway track. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the environmental Quality criteria for railway noise like the environmental quality criteria for traffic noise. In this study, the domestic and foreign criteria for railway noise were investigated with analysis of existing data and an field survey of noise condition near a railway. Fundamental data are provided for establishment of environmental Quality criteria for railway noise.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.203-217
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• 2013

This study looked at how to establish effluent limitation standards for formaldehyde, a toxic chemical widely used in industries. To this end, we reviewed Water Quality Based Effluent Limitation (WQBEL), Technology Based Effluent Limitation (TBEL), and water quality criteria for protection of human health and aquatic organism. Based on the results, we estimated formaldehyde effluent limitation standards appropriate to control water quality of industrial wastewater in Korea. However, this study has limits due to the lack of some data necessary in estimating formaldehyde effluent limitation. For example, although water quality criteria based on non-carcinogenic properties of formaldehyde were calculated, those based on carcinogenic properties were not be able to estimate because of the absence of applicable cancer potency factor q1. Without applicable factor, we calculated water quality standards for formaldehyde based on water quality criteria of advanced countries including the United States, while with no water quality standard we referred to applicable drinking water quality standards of other countries. For eco-toxicity based on water quality criteria, proper figures could not be calculated since there have been few reliable data.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.7-14
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• 2010

Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) supports a decision-making process such as establishment of environmental quality criteria. Soil quality criteria (SQC) are essential to protect soil organisms from the exposure to various soil contaminants. In this study, ERA methodologies of advanced countries for soil pollution were extensively compared to propose the ERA approach suitable for soil ecosystem in Korea. The soil ERAs in European Chemical Bureau(ECB), The Netherlands, and Canada can be classified as deterministic ecological risk assessment (DERA), and probabilistic ecological risk assessment (PERA) based on species sensitivity distribution (SSD). We propose three ERA methods according to abundance and reliability of soil ecotoxicity data. The method considered land use such as residential/agricultural, and industrial/commercial uses. The taxonomic groups of soil organism were classified as 'Class' level including different trophic levels (Magnoliopsida or Liliopsida, Clitellata, and Insecta or Secernentea). This study can be used to estimate the soil quality criteria to protect soil biota.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2013

This study developed the classification of National Soil Quality Monitoring Network (NSQM) and its site selection criteria to meet the recently established purposes of the NSQM. The NSQM were suggested by this study to classify into the six-purposes site groups from the current classification of land uses. The six purposes site groups were 1) intensive observation sites, 2) contaminant loading sites, 3) human activity sites, 4) background sites, 5) river soil sites, and 6) sites near the groundwater quality monitoring wells. Furthermore, this study developed the site selection criteria of NSQM utilizing the accumulated NSQM data, road traffic data, chemical emission data, census, soil information, and the literature related to soil quality variation due to contaminant loads. For selecting suitable sites for NSQM, this study used road traffic, chemical emission, the distance from the contaminant sources, and population information as specific criteria. The suggested site classification and criteria were appled for the current 100 NSQM sites for evaluation. Forty sites were met to the criteria suggested by this study, but sixty sites were not met to the criteria. However, some of the sixty sites also included the obscure sites that their addresses were not apparent to find them.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.364-370
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• 2011

Water quality criteria for human health protection are derived based on the human health risk assessment. Water quality criteria in Korean freshwater bodies have been derived according to the equations developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The equations include the fish intake parameter, which is very important factor that significantly influences on the criteria derivation. So far, several fish intake values were used in human health risk assessment for water quality standards and effluent standards. However, these values are not consistent and they refer to various sources. Therefore, there is a need to suggest the most appropriate value of fish intake parameter to derive freshwater quality criteria in Korea. In this study, national and international fish intake values were widely collected and evaluated to select the adequate value of fish intake parameter that can be applied in Korea. The USEPA presented fish intake parameter as the 17.5 g/day for general adults and sport fishers and 142.4 g/day for subsistence fishers. In Korean reports, wide range values of 2 to 67.7 g/day were suggested as fish intake value. These values included finfish and shellfish intakes in common but had various habits. This study found that the 52.4 g/day suggested in Korean Exposure Factors Handbook published by the Ministry of Environment in 2007 seemed to be the suitable fish intake parameter to derive the freshwater quality criteria in Korea. The value is based on water corrected intakes of finfish and shellfish present in freshwater and coastal areas. We expect that this report can be useful to select suitable fish intake value in human health risk assessment for establishing freshwater quality standard in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.592-597
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• 2008

Current water quality standard (WQS) in Korea is based on the protection of human health, not considering the protection of aquatic organisms. Most of chemicals can be toxic to ecological biota as well as human. Health of aquatic biota is closely related to the human health via food chain, therefore ecological risk based-WQS needs to be developed to protect the aquatic ecosystem. In this study, we selected the 31 chemicals in the Project entitled 'Development of integrated methodology for evaluation of water environment'. The methodology for calculating water quality criteria was derived from the Australian and New Zealand processes for deriving guideline trigger value for aquatic ecosystem. The available ecotoxicity data were collected from US EPA's ECOTOXicology Database (ECOTOX), TOX-2000 Database, European Chemicals Bureau (ECB)'s International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID) and Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)'s report 'Ambient Water Quality Criteria (AWQC)'. The aquatic toxicity data for the Korean species were selected for risk assessment to reflect the Korean water environment. The monitoring values were calculated from the water quality monitoring data four main Korean rivers. We suggested the order of priorities of chemicals based on ecological risk assessment. We expect that these results can be useful information for establishing the WQS for the protection of aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.356-365
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• 2021

Background: Concerns have been raised regarding the criteria of groundwater, in particular in Gwangwon-do Province where many residents drink groundwater due to the poor supply of tap water and a high nonconformity rate with water quality criteria nationwide. Objectives: Water quality monitoring and risk assessment were conducted for groundwater in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do Province. Methods: A total of 46 items required for meeting drinking water criteria were analyzed from 258 samples collected from March 2017 through August 2018 (152 sites in 2017 and 106 sites in 2018). Risk assessment was conducted for two non-carcinogens (F^- and NO₃-N), and one carcinogen (i.e., arsenic) based on their high nonconformity to water quality criteria. Results: Water quality analysis revealed that the total proportion of nonconformities was determined to be 27.9%. The nonconformity rate for each content item is as follows: total colony counts (1.6%), total coliform (6.2%), Escherichia coli (1.2%), F^- (8.1%), arsenic (4.7%), NO₃-N (8.1%), pH (1.2%), manganese (0.4%), and turbidity (5.8%). Risk assessment indicated that fluoride induced a hazard quotient greater than 1 with the 95% UCL (Upper Confidence Limit) concentration of the total 258 sites and average, median, and 95% UCL concentrations of nonconformity sites. For NO₃-N, there was no human health risk. For arsenic, the excess cancer risk exceeded the acceptable cancer risk of 1×10^-6 with the average and 95% UCL concentrations of total 258 sites and average, median, and 95% UCL concentrations of nonconformity sites. Conclusions: This study suggests that it is necessary to expand water quality monitoring of groundwater and conduct a more detailed risk assessment in order to establish a health care plan for the residents of Hoengseong, Gangwon-do Province.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.438-447
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• 2012

Objective: The objective of this study was to suggest a method through which load duration curve was used to assess the achievement of water quality targets in accordance with the criteria for pollutant load depending on flow rate variation. Methods: The stage-discharge curve and flow duration curve of Jungnang Stream were deduced. Using water quality targets and measurement of the stream, the flow duration curve was also drawn. Based on these, the feasibility of achievement of water quality targets in respect to flow rate was assessed. Results: In terms of the load duration curve of the stream, it was observed that excess of criteria for concentrations of $BOD_5$, $COD_{Mn}$ and SS frequently occurred. On the other hand, when the flow rate was low, the concentrations of T-N and T-P exceeded the criteria. Conclusions: Through the load duration curve, the overall water quality of Jungnang Stream was understood. When the flow rate is high, management of point source of $BOD_5$, $COD_{Mn}$ and SS is needed to achieve water quality targets for Jungnang Stream. On the other hand, when the flow rate is low, the management of non-point source T-N and T-P is necessary to attain the water quality goal.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2015

To establish National Reference Method (NRM) for $PM_{2.5}$, operational performance of 5 different commercial gravimetric-based $PM_{2.5}$ measuring instruments was assessed at Bulkwang monitoring station from January 23, 2014 to February 28, 2014. First, physical properties, design, and functional performance of the instruments were assessed. Evaluation was carried out to determine whether operating method for the instruments and levels of QA/QC activities meet the data quality objectives (DQOs). To verify whether DQOs were satisfied, reproducibility of QA/QC procedures, accuracy, relative sensitivity, limit of detection, margin of error, and coefficient of determination of the instruments were also evaluated. Results of flow rate measurement of 15 candidate instruments indicated that all the instruments met performance criteria with accuracy deviation of 4.0% and reproducibility of 0.6%. Comparison of final $PM_{2.5}$ mass concentrations showed that the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) values were greater than or equal to 0.9995, and concentration gradient ranged from 0.97 to 1.03. All the instruments satisfied criteria for NRM with the estimated precision of 1.47~2.60%, accuracy of -1.90~3.00%, and absolute accuracy of 1.02~3.12%. This study found that one particular type of measuring instrument was proved to be excellent, with overall evaluation criteria satisfied.