• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.50-60
• /
• 2022

The concentration levels and distribution characteristics of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated and evaluated for total 100 soil samples as a part of the survey on soil contamination in Gwangju. The results (median and range) of T-PAHs (sum of 16 PAH concentrations), C-PAHs (sum of carcinogenic PAH concentrations) and T-TEQs (sum of 16 TEQ concentrations) were 20.8 (7.6~1158.1), 2.2 (N.D~509.6), and 0.3 (N.D~424.6) ㎍/kg, respectively. There was a positive correlation between C-PAHs/T-PAHs and T-TEQs/T-PAHs except one point where the concentration of benzo(a)pyrene was high. The ratios of the C-PAHs/T-PAHs were 31.7% for low molecular weight-PAHs and 68.3% for high molecular weight-PAHs, suggesting that PAHs generation mainly arose from combustion sources. The ratio of isomers of individual PAHs, Phe/Ant, Flu/Pyr, Ant/(Ant+Phe), Flu/(Flu+Pyr), and BaA/(BaA+Chr), also confirmed the predominance of PAHs from combustion activities. Statistical tracing of the source of PAHs through principal component analysis indicated that the main sources of combustion were automobile fuel and coal. The overall results of this study suggested HMW-PAHs, T-PAHs, C-PAHs and T-TEQs should be separately evaluated to better assess the toxicity and environmental behavior of individual PAHs.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.38 no.5 s.174
• /
• pp.535-545
• /
• 2005

Environmental survey from some abandoned metal mine areas was undertaken on to assess the risk of adverse health effects on human exposure to arsenic influenced by past Au-Ag mining activities. Elevated levels of As were found in tailings from the studied mine areas. This high concentration may have a impact on soils and waters around the tailing piles. In order to perform the human risk assessment, chemical analysis data of soils, rice grains and waters fur As have been used. The HQ values fer As via the rice grain and groundwater consumption were significantly higher compared with other exposure pathways in all metal mine areas. However, there were minimal soil and water dermal contact risks. The resulting Hl values of As from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwacheon mine areas were higher than 5.0, and their toxic risk due to drinking water and rice grain was strong in these mine areas. The cancer risk of being exposed to As by the rice grain route from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwacheon mine areas was $5.2\times10^{-4},\;6.0\times10^{-4}\;and\;8.1\times10^{-4}$, respectively. The As cancer risk via the exposure pathway of drinking water from these mine areas exceeded the acceptable risk of 1 in 10,000 fer regulatory purposes. Thus, the daily intakes of groundwater and rice grain by the local residents from the Dongil, Okdong and Hwacheon mine areas can pose a potential health threat if exposed by long-term arsenic exposure.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.52 no.5
• /
• pp.647-651
• /
• 2014

Handling of the large quantity of oil, generation of heavy metals at the military blasting range and outworn facilities could cause the environmental accidents. Pollution levels of the former five U.S military bases located in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi-do were measured. Soil contamination by TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons), BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene), and heavy metals and groundwater contamination were detected. In order to purify contaminated soil, a variety of technologies including soil vapor extraction, slurping, landfarming and soil washing were applied. Contaminated soils of five target bases were purified and the results were suitable for the legal standards.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.146-149
• /
• 2018

BACKGROUND: Selenium is an essential element for all life forms but can be toxic above certain narrow levels. Prevalent forms of selenium in oxic environment are selenium oxyanions such as selenite and selenate, which may be contaminants in soils and water bodies. Bacterial reduction of more mobile selenium species (selenite or selenate) to less mobile elemental selenium may suggest a benign solution for alleviating toxicity and bioavailability of the selenium species. METHODS AND RESULTS: A facultative anaerobic bacterium, Citrobacter strain SE4-1 was isolated from the contaminated stream sediments and found to effectively reduce selenite to elemental selenium. Aqueous phase of selenite was analyzed by inductively couple plasma spectroscopy and the precipitated sphere-shaped elemental selenium was observed by transmission electron microscopy. CONCLUSION: The bacterial strain SE4-1 isolated in this study suggests a potential role in biogeochemical cycle of selenium by the selenite reduction in the stream environment, and potentials for biotechnological applications to reduceselenium concentrations in selenium-contaminated systems such as wastewater, soil, and groundwater.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.997-1001
• /
• 2006

Organic compost has been widely applied to the cropland because it has been thought as Environmentally Sound Agriculture (ESA) in Korea. In this study, two-year indoor rainfall experiments were performed. Surface runoff and groundwater volume from 10% and 20% slope plots were measured and water quality samples were collected and analyzed for BOD, COD, T-P and T-N. Flow weighted mean concentration (FWMC) values were computed to assess effects of various fertilizer treatments. FWMC BOD values for organic compost treated plots were higher than chemical fertilizer treated plots. FWMC BOD values for 20% slope plots were higher than those from those for 10% slope plots. The similar trends were found for COD and T-P. FWMC T-N values for chemical fertilizer treated plots were higher than organic compost treated plots. FWMC T-N values for 10% slope plots were higher than those for 20% slope plots. In Korea, excessive use of organic compost has caused extremely high levels of organic matter contents at the cropland. Since organic compost is very slow in releasing its nutrients to the soil, farmers usually apply excessive organic compost for immediate effects and maximum crop yields, which has been causing soil and water quality degradations. Therefore, thorough investigations for better nutrient management plans are needed to develop the ESA strategy in Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.1114-1119
• /
• 2004

The biofilms on pipe walls in water distribution systems are of interest since they can lead to chlorine demand, coliform growth, pipe corrosion, and water taste and odor problems. As such, the study described in this paper is part of an AWWARF and Tampa Bay Water tailored collaboration project to determine the effect of blending different source waters on the water quality in various distribution systems. The project was based on 18 independent pilot distribution systems (PDS), each being fed by a different water blend (7 finished waters blended in different proportions). The source waters compared were groundwater, surface water, and brackish water, which were treated in a variety of pilot distribution systems, including reverse osmosis (RO) (desalination), both membrane and chemical softening, and ozonation-biological activated carbon (BAC), resulting in a total of 7 different finished waters. The observations from this study consistently demonstrated that unlined ductile iron was more heavily colonized by a biomass than galvanized steel, lined ductile iron, and PVC (in that order) and that the fixed biomass accumulation was more influenced by the nature of the supporting material than by the water quality (including the secondary residual levels). However, although the bulk liquid water cultivable bacterial counts (i.e. heterotrophic plate counts or HPCs) did not increase with a greater biofilm accumulation, the results also suggested that high HPCs corresponded to a low disinfectant residual more than a high biofilm inventory. Furthermore, temperature was found to affect the biofilms, plus the AOC was important when the residual was between 0.6 and 2.0 mg $Cl_2/l$. An additional aspect of the current study was that the potential of the exoproteolytic activity (PEPA) technique was used along with a traditional so-called destructive technique in which the biofilm was scrapped off the coupon surface, resuspended, and cultivated on an R2A agar. Both techniques indicated similar trends and relative comparisons among the PDSs, yet the culturable biofilm values for the traditional method were several orders of magnitude lower than the PEPA values.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.42 no.3
• /
• pp.238-242
• /
• 2009

Recently coastal seawater has been contaminated by enteric viruses such as the norovirus via untreated groundwater globally. Accordingly, the consumption of molluscan shellfish from seawater that has been contaminated with fecal material has become an important issues. The levels of enteric viruses in seawater are low and recovery and concentration of the virus from large volumes of water is difficult. We compared the effectiveness of two representative method of concentrating virus using negatively and positively charged filters. The mean retention of seeded FCV by HAMF and NCCF was 48% and 78%, respectively. Overall, the recovery of NCCF was 43.3$\pm$11% better than that of HAMF. However, the eluate obtained by using beef extract solution in the NCCF procedure caused an inhibitory effect on the RT-PCR; therefore, it was necessary to employ a PCR inhibitor removal procedure. The HAMF eluate contained no PCR inhibitors, but HAMF was not an effective method of concentrating the virus from large volumes of natural seawater due to clogging.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.33-44
• /
• 1998

Mine tailings, soils, stream sediments, and ground water around Imcheon disused mine were analyzed in order to investigate their pollution levels of heavy metals and cyanide. The average contents of As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn, and CN￣ in mine tailings were 366, 28.8, 202, 15.2, 1.97$\times$$10^3$, 3.85$\times$$10^3$, 90.6mg/kg respectively, The pollution indices that calculated by the tolerance level of Kloke were 8~19 and the pH values were acidic in mine tailngs. In the field and paddy soils of Imcheon disused mine area except for soils nearby mine tailngs, concentraitons of the heavy metals were less than standards of soil pollution of agricultral area in the environmental protection law. The nitrate contents In the ground water for drink were more than tolerance level of the drinking water of Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.517-524
• /
• 2016

In order to treat groundwater containing high levels of nitrate, nitrate reduction by nano sized zero-valent iron (nZVI) was studied using batch experiments. Compared to nitrate removal efficiencies at different mass ratios of $nitrate/Fe^0$, the removal efficiency at the mass ratio of 0.02% was the highest(54.59%). To enhance nitrate removal efficiency, surface modification of nZVI was performed using metallic catalysis such as Pd, Ni and Cu. Nitrate removal efficiency by Cu-nZVI (at $catalyst/Fe^0$ mass ratio of 0.1%) was 66.34%. It showed that the removal efficiency of Cu-nZVI was greater than that of the other catalysts. The observed rate constant ($k_{obs}$) of nitrate reduction by Cu-nZVI was estimated to $0.7501min^{-1}$ at the Cu/Fe mass ratio of 0.1%. On the other hand, TEM images showed that the average particle sizes of synthetic nZVI and Cu-nZVI were 40~60 and 80~100 nm, respectively. The results imply that catalyst effects may be more important than particle size effects in the enhancement of nitrate reduction by nZVI.

• 한국환경농학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.07a
• /
• pp.93-115
• /
• 2009

There are growing public concerns over crop and food safeties due to the elevated levels of heavy metals grown in contaminated soil. Heavy metals are classified as the chemical harmful risks for crop and food safety. With implementation of GAP, crop safety is controlled by many regulatory options for soil, irrigation water and fertilizers. Any attempt to retard the metal uptake by crops may be the best protocol to secure crop and food safety. This article reviews the management strategies for heavy metals in view of crop safety in Korea and demonstrates results from the field experiments to retard metal translocation from soil to crops by using chemical amendments and soil layer management methods. Major source of soil pollution by heavy metals has been related with mining activities. Risk assessment revealed that rice consumption and groundwater ingestion in the abandoned mining areas were the major exposure pathways for metals to human and the heavy metal showed the toxic effects on human health. Chemical amendments such as lime and slag retarded Cd uptake by rice (Oryza sativa L.) by increasing soil pH, lowering the phytoavailable Cd concentration in soil solution, immobilizing Cd in soil and converting the available Cd fractions into non-available fractions. The soil layer management methods decreased the Cd uptake by 76% and Pb by 60%. Either reversing the surface layer with subsurface layer or immobilization of metals with layer mixing with lime was considered to be the practical option for the in-situ remediation of the contaminated paddy soils. Combination of chemical soil amendments and layer management methods was efficient to retard the metal bioavailability and thus to secure crop safety for heavy metals. This protocol seems to be cheap, relatively easy to practice and practical in the agricultural fields. However, a long term monitoring work should be followed to verify the efficiency of this protocol.