• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.1269-1275
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• 2014

Ecotoxicity assessments with the physiochemical water quality items and the bioassay test using Daphnia magna were conducted for 18 selected effluents of 6 industrial types (metal processing, petroleum refining, synthetic textile manufacturing, plating, alcohol beverage manufacturing, inorganic compound manufacturing) being detected toxicity from industrial effluent in Ulsan city, and the interrelationship between total toxic unit (${\Sigma}TU$) and concentrations of Water Quality Conservation Act in Korea were investigated. The average toxic unit(TU) of effluents for 6 industrial types displayed the following ascending order: petroleum refining (0.2) < synthetic textile manufacturing (0.6) < alcohol beverage manufacturing (0.9) < metal processing (1.3) ${\leq}$ inorganic compound manufacturing (1.3) < plating (3.0). These values were less than effluent permission standard. Based on the result of substances causing ecotoxicity, the correlation analysis was not easy because most of heavy metals were not detected or were less than effluent permission standard. Toxicological assessment of industrial effluent was suitable for the evaluation of the mixture toxicity for pollutant. The whole effluent toxicity test using a variety of species was needed for the evaluation of industrial wastewater.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.153-159
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• 2001

The main point source of pollution of the Keumho river in Taegu, Korea, stems from waste from the areas of industrial complexes . Although it is widely accepted that pollutants in waste water negatively effects general water quality, it is difficult to evaluate the effluent effect because of varying conditions in ambient water and inconclusive knowledge of causative pollutants. To analyze the water in relation to the industrial effluent in the area, pH. temperature, conductivity, and Microtox toxicity of various river samples were measured. Water samples were collected every 2 hours for 36 hours from Keumho river and Dalseo stream. Data from continuous monitoring for 36 hours showed that effluent in Keumho river originated from Dalseo stream, which is near adjacent to industrial complexes. Change in toxicity and other factors tested during the 36 hours indicated that continuous monitoring was necessary for a satisfactory effluent toxicity test Furthermore, in addition to water quality monitoring, it was concluded that sediment toxicity also needed to evaluate effluent effects.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.608-614
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• 2012

The effluent limitation of industrial wastewater is based on uniform regulatory criteria for effluent discharge facilities of all in Korea. But, an individual effluent limitation on each effluent discharge facility is widely applicable for regulation of industrial wastewater in US.EPA. To decide an individual effluent limitation, TBEL (Technology-based effluent limitation) and WQBEL (Water quality-based effluent limitation) are used. TBEL is based on the capability of a treatment technology to reduce the pollutants. WQBEL is based on ambient water quality standards. In this study, TBEL were derived for the pulp, paper and paper board manufacturing based on best practicable control technology currently available. It was suggested that effluent limitations were $BOD_5$ 4.7 mg/L, $COD_{Mn}$ 44.3 mg/L, SS 13.2 mg/L, TN 1.4 mg/L, TP 0.15 mg/L and best practicable control technology currently available (BPT) was neutralization, activated sludge treatment and coagulation and sedimentation for the pulp, paper and paper board manufacturing.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.113-123
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• 2011

Objectives: Industrial development in Korea results in a rapid increase in the number of chemicals, some of which may be responsible for toxicity to aquatic ecosystems. In addition, the types of hazardous chemicals included in industrial effluents have gradually increased. Therefore, chemical analysis alone is not enough to assess ecological effects of toxic chemicals in wastewater. Methods: In response to new regulations as whole effluent toxicity (WET) tests for effluent discharge of 15 publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and 25 industrial effluent treatment plants in Gyeonggi-do, which will be effective from 2011, a necessity of studies emerges that investigates toxicity levels. Results: In case of the public treatment plants, none of them had exceeded the criteria for ecotoxicity. As for individual wastewater discharge facilities, on the other hand, two types were found to exceed the criteria: pulp and paper manufacturing facilities and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. For the pulp and paper manufacturing facilities, monitoring results could not help determine the exact toxicant identification. However, Daphnia magna inhibition effect or death was found to leave white plums, suggesting that suspended solids treated and the polymer used in coagulant dose. In case of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, the general water quality parameters cannot affect Daphia magna. However, conductivity and salinity can have an effect to be 14,000 ${\mu}s/cm$, 8.1‰ by salts, respectively. Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE) and Toxicity Reduction Evaluation (TRE) procedures results appeared to be effective for identifying toxic compounds in $Cl^{-}$ and $SO_4^{2-}$. Conclusions: It is necessary to develop control measures for water treatment chemicals and salts used for processes such as coagulation in individual wastewater discharge facilities in order to achieve the goal to protect aquatic ecosystems in public waters.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.804-812
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• 2012

This study contemplated domestic and other country's effluent limitation standards and suggested a methodology to establish technology-base limitation value. Current effluent limitation regulates industrial point sources discriminated by discharge flow rate and by regional distinction in Korea. Discharged $BOD_5$ load from large-scale plants(flow rate above $2,000\;m^3/day)$ exceeds 50% of overall industrial wastewater, which present rationale for discrimination based on plant size. However, regional distinction and pollutant- specific regulation might be insufficient to meet practical effectiveness of wastewater management policy, due to the nearly same limitation. Water quality data and treatment methods were investigated in hospital industry. And their distribution of effluent $BOD_5$ concentrations was statistically analyzed to suggest limitation value. Effluent $BOD_5$ concentrations showed lognormal distribution and $95^{th}$ percentile was corresponded to 87.9 mg/L, which could be suggested as tentative effluent limitation in hospital industry. The $95^{th}$ percentile of log-transformed distribution showed similar value of 86.5 mg/L. This study demonstrated reasonable methodology for establishing effluent limitation reflecting wastewater characteristic and treatment technology in separately categorized industry.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 2010

Introduction of Technology-Based Effluent Limitations (TBELs) concepts into Korea requires extensive and through analyses on the expected pollutants reduction effects and the cost factor for the industry side. In addition, the TEBLs should be optimized for the regulatory environments of Korea and be applied in a progressive manner to minimize the undesirable effects. It is also necessary to assess the contribution of each industrial categories's to the pollution of natural water bodies to find the priority of TEBLs application. For these purposes, the pollution loads of various industrial categories were analyzed using risk assessment indicator based on Toxic Weighting Factors (TWFs). First, the TWFs were calculated for the pollutants regulated using the method adopted by USEPA. And the effluent characteristics of the eighty two categories of industry in Korea were investigated. Although the analytical data on the wastewater from different industrial categories are relatively limited, the results from two previous studies were used. The first study, conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Research in 2001~2004, investigated the wastewater characteristics from 255 industrial sources covering the major 20 industrial categories. The second study includes more recent analytical data for the wastewater from 500 industrial sources, covering all the 82 industrial categories. In the result of the pollution loads analyses, the category of 'Synthetic and Chemical manufacture' was found to show the highest raw pollution load. On the other hand the category of 'Ion & Steel manufacture' was found to show the highest effluent pollution loads, which can be considered as the real impacts on natural water streams. The top five categories occupied 62.2% of the total effluent pollution loads. Through the analyses, the relative importances of each industrial categories and the priorities of TEBL-based pollution reduction were determined.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.767-785
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• 2009

This paper studies the effect of industrial waste water effluent charge reform. The goal of the present effluent charge system is to use environmental resources in an efficient way by charging the cost for removing emitted water pollutants. However, the present system is a type of regulation instead of providing economic incentives to the industry. That is, if a firm emits pollutants greater than the limit, it has to pay an amount greater than the cost of cleaning them taking into account the amount of waste water discharged, region, the number of violation and the level of density of pollutants. However, the excessive fees have resulted in the lowest ratio of revenue-to-effluent charge among all environmental charges. The paper estimates the effect of the change in effluent fee and revenue when the present effluent charge system is converted to one that offers economic incentives. The results show that the amount of waste water effluent charge is about four times larger than the estimated environmental cleaning cost. In addition, the results show that by modifying the effluent charge system, the ratio of revenue to effluent charge can be raised.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.755-762
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• 1995

A phenolic resin industrial wastewater containing about 41,000 mg/l of phenol and 2,800 mg/l of formaldehyde was biologically treated by a mixed culture GE2 immobilized on ceramic beads. This study was carried out with three experimental groups : Control-only added the sludge of papermill wastewater ; GE2 treatment-added GE2 to Control ; Ceramic treatment-applied ceramic carrier to GE2 treatment. When the original wastewater was diluted 80 times with aerated tap-water, influent COD$_{Mn}$ WaS 1,140 mg/l and that of the effluent was in the range of 22-35 mg/l, which was not much different among the experimental groups. However, at 20-times dilution, influent COD$_{Mn}$ was 4,800 mg/l and the effluent COD$_{Mn}$ of Control, GE2 treatment and Ceramic treatment was 179, 128 and 94 mg/l, respectively. COD$_{Mn}$, removal efficiency by Ceramic treatment was the highest, at 98.0%. At this time, the effluent phenol concentration of Control, GE2 treatment and Ceramic treatment was 10.71, 7.93 and 5.60, respectively. As the dilution times decreased, the removal efficiency of COD$_{Mn}$ and phenol did not change much, but COD$_{Mn}$ and phenol concentration of the effluent increased. Consequently, it is likely that the phenolic industrial wastewater containing phenol and formaldehyde can be biologically treated using a GE2 and ceramic carrier and that at 40-times dilution, the effluent completely meets the effluent standards for industrial wastewater treatment plant.

• 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 Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.673-682
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• 2016

In this study, we investigated influent and effluent water pollutants in 53 Public Sewage Treatment Works (PSTWs) where industrial wastewater or landfill leachate is combined four times for two years from 2014 to 2015. Also, we analyzed the characteristics of heavy metals and volatile organic carbons at influent and effluent of these PSTWs caused by sewage treatment combined with industrial wastewater or landfill leachate. As a result, six heavy metals such as barium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc, and four volatile organic carbons (VOCs) including phenols, di(2-)ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), formaldehyde and toluene were observed above detection limits in most of PSTWs. Also, it was revealed that six heavy metals such as hexavalent chromium, mercury, cadmium, chromium, nickel and selenium, and four VOCs including 1,1-dichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, naphthalene, and epichlorohydrin were observed more frequently according to precipitation. As a result of reviewing the monitoring data on "Water Quality Monitoring Networks" in lower watersheds of PSTWs, both heavy metals and VOCs were below detection limits, indicating that the effluent water had little influence on the watershed. Nevertheless for the better management of influent and effluent pollutants in PSTWs, it is necessary to establish the advanced management plans for water pollutants in PSTWs, which include a list of priority substances management, monitoring plans, and guidelines for industrial wastewater and landfill leachate combined in PSTWs.