• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.73-77
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• 2009

Two different aquifers with different characteristics developed in the study area - a lower and upper aquifer zone. Nitrate contamination of the lower aquifer zone was likely due to infiltration of nitrate-contaminated groundwater of the upper aquier zone through abandoned groundwater wells. In order to evaluate the feasibility of a preliminary packer designed to prevent nitrate migration through abandoned groundwater wells NO3-N concentrations of the upper and lower part of preliminary packer installed at four sampling sites were measured. Nitrate concentrations of the and lower part of Yechun sinwolri were 10.3 mg/L and 5.0 mg/L, respectively. Yechun eosinri, Yechun jeowooriis, and Andong hoegokri were $NO_3$-N concentrations in the upper (11.3, 11.0, and 14.6 mg/L) and lower (8.8, 1.6, and 8.0 mg/L), respectively. $NO_3$-N contents of all groundwater samples in the lower part after the preliminary packer installation showed 22~85% lower than those of the upper part.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.80-89
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• 2015

Nitrate is on the most seriou pollutant encountered in shallow groundwater aquifer in agricultural area. There are various remediation technologies such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and biological denitrification to recover from nitrate contamination. Biological denitrification by indigenous microorganism of the technologies has been reviewed and applied on nitrate contaminated groundwater. In this work, we selected the site where the annual nitrate (NO₃⁻) concentration is over 105 mg/L and evaluated denitrification process with sampled soil and groundwater from 3 monitoring wells (MW4, 5, 6). In the results, the nitrate degradation rate in each well (MW 4, 5, and 6) was 25 NO₃⁻ mg/L/day, 6 NO₃⁻ mg/L/day, and 3.4 NO₃⁻ mg/L/day, respectively. Nitrate degradation rate was higher in batch system treated with 2 times higher fumarate as carbon source than control batch system (0.42M fumrate/1M NO₃⁻), comparing with batch system with soil sample. This result indicates that increase of carbon source is more efficient to enhance denitrification rate than addition of soil sample to increase microbial dynamics. In this work, we also confirmed that monitoring method of functional genes (nirK and nosZ) involved in denitrification process can be applied to evaluated denitrifcation process possibility before application of field process such as in-situ denitrification by push-pull test.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.989-996
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• 2012

Nitrate contamination of water environments can create serious problems such as eutrophication of rivers. Conventional biological processes for nitrate removal by heterotrophic denitrification often need additional organic substrates as carbon sources and electron donors. We tried to accelerate biological denitrification by using bioelectrochemical reactor (BER) in which electrode works as an electron donor. Denitrification activity of 8 environmental samples from various sediments, soils, groundwaters, and sludges were tested to establish an efficient enrichment culture for BER. The established enrichment culture from a soil sample showed stable denitrification activity without any nitrite accumulation. Microbial community analysis by using PCR-DGGE method revealed that dominant denitrifiers in the enrichment culture were Pantoea sp., Cronobacter sakazakii, and Castellaniella defragrans. Denitrification rate ($0.08kg/m^3{\cdot}day$) of the enrichment culture in BER with electrode poised at -0.5 V (vs Ag/AgCl) was higher than that ($2.1{\times}10^{-2}kg/m^3{\cdot}day$) of BER without any poised potential. This results suggested that biological denitrification would be improved by supplying potential throughout electrode in BER. Further research using BER without any organic substrate addition is needed to apply this system for bioremediation of water and wastewater contaminated by nitrate.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.201-210
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• 1992

This study was designed to investigate the content of inorganic nitrogen($NH_4$, $NO_3$) and its change in the 7 different sites; the permanent meadows of alfalfa, orchardgrass, and reed canarygrass, the fields of rye. corn, rice and a mountain region. the results from this study were summarized as follows; 1. The contents of ammonium and nitrate in meadows were 15.89-16.46 and 1.32-1.86ppm, respectively, showing the lower level than in other sites and no significant diffirences among three meadows. 2. In the rice field, the average content of ammonium(7.19ppm) was the highest among all sites, but the content of nitrate(1 l.l7ppm) was the lowest. In addition, almost all of nitrate were spreaded around the surface. 3. In the mountain region, the content of $NH_4$(5.79ppm) was slightly high, but the content of nitrate ( 15.18ppm) was very low. 4. In the rye field. the average content of $NO_3$ was 35.46ppm and show the highest (92.63ppm) at the deep part of soil in the specific season, but it decreased with increasing temperature. 5. In the corn field, which kept bare after harvesting the corn silage, the content of $NO_3$ was high, regardless of seasons and depths, and increased up to maximum of 103ppm. 6. The ground water concentrations of $NO_3$ were not more than 50ppm in the pasture. In the vegetable house, they were less than 30 ppm during the winter and spring and were 80-100ppm during the summer and fall. 7. The concentrations of $NO_3$ in Han river water were lower during the winter and spring(20-30ppm) and higher dxring the summer and fall (50-90ppm).

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.67-80
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• 1993

This survey was carried out to take the status of seawater intrusion into groundwater wells located in the eastern area of Chejudo, to get the elementary data which may evaluate the level of would-be groundwater contamination, and to perform effective the effort that will supply the clear water for the residents. The sampling sites were northeastern districts of Haengwon, Handong, and Sangdo, southeastern districts of Susan, Nansan, and Samdal, and northwestern districts, as reference, of Aewol, Keumnung, Panpo, Kosan, Shindo, and Bosung. We collected the samples from the public tap water by month, and analysed electrical conductivity, sodium(Na), potassium(K), magnesium(Mg), calcium(Ca), bicarbonate($HC0_{3^-}$), and items of the criteria as drinking water. In the northeastern districts we also added the sampling sites to survey the fluctuations of dissolved solids according to distance from seashore, including two private boreholes and one public tap water of Dukchun. The result is as follows 1) In the northeastern district, the concentration of chloride ion showed large fluctations from 40mg/l to 100mg/l, but suitable for the criteria of drinking water. It was thought that the drought influenced. 2) In the Sangdo of the northeastern districts, similar tendancy to Hangwon and Handong was showed only in the concentration of chloride ion, but different tendancy was showed in chloride-bicarbonate ratio, calcium-magnesium ratio, and sodium adsorption ratio(SAR). Considering these facts, it was not thought that seawater intruded. 3) The components of Na and Cl showed rapid slope in the northeastern districts above 3km from seashore. 4) In the northwestern districts as reference, the concentration of chloride ion fluctuated slightly according to the sampling sites and dates, and the concentration of nitrate-nitrogen in some sites exceeded the criteria of drinking water. These were thought that the surface contaminants rather than the intrusion of seawater influenced mainly the groundwater, considering the correlation(r=0.732) of chloride ion and nitrate-nitrogen. 5) Then we must consider the regional characteristies of soil profile in order to prevent the contamination of groundwater, and moniter also the movement of main components within the sol1 profile, not only the research of the intrusion of seawater.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.387-393
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• 2011

We analyzed the particle size distributions of three commercially available Devarda's alloy (DA) products, tested the nitrate recoveries of each particle size category, and examined the amounts of DA required for 100% recovery by varying $NO_3$-N concentration from 0.5 to 10 mg. We observed that use of DA coarser than 200 mesh resulted in poor analytical recovery (<80%). While the tested alloys were considered to be fine enough (>90% of the particles were less than 100 mesh), the recovery dramatically declined from 80% to 10% in a high concentration range (4 to 10 mg N). Satisfactory recovery was obtained by increasing the amount of finer DA (less than 300 or 450 mesh). However, there was no quantitative relationship between the amount of fine DA and nitrate recovered. Generally, the amount of nitrate reduced per unit DA decreased as the recovery efficiency declined. These results suggest that a sufficient amount of DA must be determined based on particle size distribution, and that treatment of at least two levels of DA and comparison of the subsequent change in nitrate recovery is required for soils containing high levels of nitrate. In addition, further studies are encouraged to account for the observed stoichiometric dis-equivalence of recovered nitrate N per unit mass of DA.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.293-301
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate the distribution of the concentrations of selected trace metals and inorganic anions in five types of drinking water samples (mineral spring water, well water, small community water, municipal tap water, and commercial mineral water) collected from Chuncheon, Gangwon-do in 2007. Forty four samples were analyzed for five metals and five anions using an atomic absorption spectrometer and an ion chromatograph, respectively. Arsenic (As) and nitrate (${NO_3}^-$) concentrations in some groundwater samples did not meet the future (10 ${\mu}g/L$) and current (44 mg/L) Korean drinking water standards, respectively. On the other hand, any municipal tap water samples, the sources of which were lake surface water, satisfied the Korean standards. Human health risk assessment results showed that arsenic in all types of water, especially groundwater including commercial mineral water, may pose both noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic effects on the residents. It is concluded that groundwater is not safe drinking water any longer and that a national survey and follow-up measures need to be taken.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2022

As the amount of livestock wastewater increases, ammonia contamination in surface water and groundwater is also increasing, and its treatment is urgently needed. In this study, indigenous soil bacteria was utilized for ammonia removal in artificial wastewater and associated removal mechanisms and efficiencies were evaluated. Two batch reactors were configurated to contain natural soil and artificial wastewater at 1:10 mass ratio, and incubated for 84 and 168 hours, respectively. The results showed that ammonia was completely removed within 48 and 72 hours in the first and second reactors, respectively. There were no significant changes in ammonia concentrations in the control groups without soil. Nitrate was formed in the reactors, indicating that the main removal mechanism of ammonia was nitrification by nitrifying bacteria. Nitrate was further converted to nitrogen gas by denitrification in the anaerobic environment, which was caused by consumption of oxygen during the nitrification process.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.43-51
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• 2020

About 90% of groundwater wells in Jeju Island are reported to be under the threat of contamination by infiltration of the surface pollutants. Most of those wells have improperly grouted annulus which is an empty space between the well and the inner casing. As a remedy to this problem, some of the wells were re-grouted by filling the annulus with cement without lifting an inner casing. In order to evaluate whether this method is appropriate for the geological structure of Jeju Island, two wells (W1 and W2) were selected and this method was applied. The water holding capacity did not decrease while the nitrate levels decreased from 16.8 and 20.2 to 6.8 and 13.8 mg/L in W1 and W2, respectively. The higher nitrate level in W2 is deemed to be influenced by the livestock farms located in the upper area of the well. In addition, transmissivity of the vedose zone was higher in W2 than W1, potentially facilitating the transport of nitrate to the groundwater. The overall result of this study suggests re-grouting of wells for the purpose of protecting water quality of goundwater should take into account geological structure of vadose zone as well as appropriate source control of the contaminants.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.461-468
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• 2019

Background: This study aimed to identify NO₃^--N sources using the stable isotope δ¹⁵N in Chydorus sphaericus (OF Müller), to investigate hydrological characteristics and nutrient states in artificial wetlands near the Nakdong River. Chydorus sphaericus is dominant in wetlands where aquatic plants are abundant, occurring in high density, and is sensitive to wetland water pollution, making it suitable for identification of NO₃^--N sources. Results: NO₃^--N sources for each wetland were strongly dependent on hydrological characteristics. Wetlands with sewage or rainfall/groundwater as their main sources had high levels of NO₃^--N, whereas wetlands with surface water as their main input had comparatively lower levels. Since wetlands with sewage and rainfall/groundwater as their main water sources were mostly detention ponds, their inputs from tributaries or the main river stream were limited and nutrients such as NO₃^--N easily become concentrated. Changes in NO₃^--N levels at each wetland were closely associated with δ¹⁵N of C. sphaericus. Interestingly, regression analysis also showed positive correlation between δ¹⁵N of C. sphaericus and NO₃^--N level. Conclusions: We conclude that the nitrate stable isotope (δ¹⁵N) of C. sphaericus can be used to elucidate the hydrological characteristics of riverine wetlands. This information is important for maintenance and conservation of artificial wetlands at the Nakdong River.