• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.952-964
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• 2005

The diesel-degrading activities of biofilms sampled from petroleum-contaminated groundwaters in urban subway drainage systems were examined in liquid cultures, and the microbial populations of the biofilms were characterized by denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis (DGGE) and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Biofilm samples derived from two sites (19 K and 20 K) at subway Station N and Station I could degrade around $80\%$ of applied diesel within 20 and 40 days, respectively, at $15^{\circ}C$, and these results were strongly correlated with the growth patterns of the biofilms. The closest phylogenetic neighbor of a dominant component in the 19 K biofilm was Thiothrix fructosivorans strain Q ($100\%$ similarity). Four dominant strains in the 20 K biofilm were closely related to Thiothrix fructosivorans strain Q ($100\%$ similarity), Thiothrix sp. CC-5 ($100\%$ similarity), Sphaerotilus sp. IF14 ($99\%$ similarity), and Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacterioides (CFB) group bacterium RW262 ($98\%$ similarity). Three dominant members in the Station I biofilms were very similar to uncultured Cytophagales clone CRE-PA82 ($91\%$ similarity), Pseudomonas sp. WDL5 ($97\%$ similarity), and uncultured CFB group bacterium LCK-64 ($94\%$ similarity). The microbial components of the biofilms differed depending on the sampling site. This is the first report on the isolation of clones highly similar to Thiothrix fructosivorans and Thiothrix sp. from biofilms in petroleum-polluted groundwaters, and the first evidence that these organisms may play major roles in petroleum degradation and/or biofilm-development.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.65-73
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• 2020

Exposure assessment methodology for outdoor air inhalation pathways (i.e., inhalation of volatile compounds and fugitive dust in outdoor air) was investigated. Default values of several parameters currently used in Korea (e.g., Q/C; inverse value of concentration per unit flux, and frs; soil fraction in PM10) may not be suitable and lack site-specificity, as they have been adopted from the risk assessment guidance of the United States or the Netherlands. Such limitation can be addressed to a certain degree by incorporating the volatilization factor (VF) and the particulate emission factor (PEF) with Box model. This approach was applied to an exposure assessment of a site contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons in Korea. The result indicated that the suggested methodology led to more accurate site-specific exposure assessment for outdoor inhalation pathways. Further work to establish methodology to determine site-specific Q/C values in Korea needs to be done to secure the reliability of the exposure assessment for outdoor air inhalation pathways.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.225-230
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• 2007

A physical model experiment with GPR and 3-D resisitivity survey were conducted to investigate the geoelectrical response of hydrocarbon-impacted zone, so called smeared zone, on the geophysical data. The results from the experiment show that GPR signals were enhanced when LNAPL was present as a residual saturation in the water saturated system (${\varepsilon}_r$ = 21) due to less attenuation of the electromagnetic energy through the medium, compared to when the medium was saturated with only water (${\varepsilon}_r$ = 21). 3-D resistivity data obtained from the former gas station site demonstrate that the highly contaminated zones could be imaged with low resistivities attributed to the biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons at the aged, hydrocarbon-impacted sites. The study results also show that the geophysical methods, as a non-invasive sounding technique, can be a very useful tool for mapping hydrocarbon-contaminated zones.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2007

Bioventing is commonly used for petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) spills. This process provides better subsurface oxygenation, thus stimulating degradation by indigenous microorganisms. Therefore soil vapor monitoring points (VMPs) are extremely important in determining the potential effectiveness of bioventing and in long-term monitoring of bioventing progress. In this study in-situ soil gas monitoring well (GMW) was developed and presented the pilot test results which recover the contaminated site by bioventing method. The result of application was successful and it was expected that GMW developed could be applied to the evaluation procedure of bioventing effectiveness and long-term remediation potential.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.27-35
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• 2003

The study site located in an industrial complex has a Precambrian age gneiss as a bedrock. The poorly-developed, disturbed soils in the study site have loamy-textured surface soil (1 to 2 m) and gravelly sand alluvium subsurface (2 to 6 m) on the top of weathered gneiss bedrock. The depth of the groundwater table was about 3.5 m below ground surface and increased toward down-gradient of the site. The hydraulic conductivity of transmitted zone (gravelly coarse sand) was in the range of 5.0${\times}$10$\^$-2/∼1.85${\times}$10$\^$-1/ cm/sec. The fine sand layer was in the range of 1.5${\times}$10$\^$-3/ to 7.6${\times}$10$\^$-3/ cm/sec. and the reclaimed upper soil layer was less than 10$\^$-4/ cm/sec. Toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (TEX) was the major contaminant in the soil and groundwater. The average depth of the soil contamination was about 1.5 m in the gravelly sand alluvium layer. At the depth interval 2.4∼4.8 m, the highest contamination in the soil is located approximately 50 to 70 m from the suspected source areas. The concentration of TEX in the groundwater was highest in the suspected source area and a lesser concentration in the center and southwest parts of the site. The TEX distribution in the groundwater is associated with their distribution in the soil. Microbial isolation showed that Pseudomonas flurescence, Burkholderia cepacia, and Acinetobactor lwoffi were the dominant aerobic bacteria in the contaminated soils. The analytical results of the groundwater indicated that the concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate, and sulfate in the contaminated area were significantly lower than their concentrations in the none-contaminated control area. The results also indicated that groundwater at the contaminated area is under anaerobic condition and sulfate reduction is the predominant terminal electron accepting process. The total attenuation rate was 0.0017 day$\^$-1/ and the estimated first-order degradation rate constant (λ) was 0.0008 day$\^$-1/.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.69-72
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• 2015

This study investigated the effects of oil dose and soil texture on the analysis results for total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) in artificially oil-contaminated soils. The same amount of diesel was mixed with soils having different soil texture, and soil TPH concentrations were then analyzed for comparison. Presence of clay in the soil showed lower soil TPH analysis results than that of sand only. As the clay content was increased in the soil, the lower soil TPH concentration was obtained by incompleteness of solvent extraction. As the organic matter content in soil was increased from 5.2% to 10% (weight basis), a higher concentration of TPH was obtained by TPH analysis. However, at a higher organic content in the soil, 18%, resulted in a lower TPH concentration than those of 5.2% and 10%. Gasoline dose to the soil resulted in a significantly low TPH concentration due to the volatilization of gasoline while soil mixing and analysis. This study results would provide fundamental information either to the expectation of TPH concentration in artificially oil-contaminated soil or to estimation of oil release in the real oil-contaminated site.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.632-637
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• 2001

The cells obtained from diesel contaminated site were tested for diesel degradation by culturing them on the culture medium that contained diesel as the only carbon source. Two strains that grew well in the culture media were separated: one formed white colony and another strain formed yellow colony. When they were cultured together, much higher diesel degradation was obtained compares to that of individual cell culture. Mixed culture of white and yellow colony forming strains grew well with 1%(v/v) diesel and the addition of growth nutrients increased the diesel degradation. Additional nitrogen source was efficient for higher diesel degradation (over 90%) when it was compared with that without nitrogen source. When mixed culture of white and yellow colony forming cells were applied to the soil column system contaminated by diesel, 30 mL/min of air flow rate was found to be sufficient to degrade diesel oil. The diesel degradation did not increase noticeably at higher flow rate. The addition of nitrogen source resulted in the increase in diesel degradability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2009.09a
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• pp.1372-1377
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• 2009

For the remediation of the subsurface contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids(NAPLs), it is important to characterize the NAPL zone properly. Conventional characterization methods provide data at discrete points. To overcome the weak points of conventional characterization methods, the partitioning tracer method has been developed and studied. The average saturation of NAPL($S_n$), which is the representative and continuous saturation value within contaminated site, can be calculated by comparing the transport of the partitioning tracers to that of the conservative tracer in the partitioning tracer method. In this study, the application of the partitioning tracer method in heterogeneous media was investigated. To represent the heterogeneous condition of subsurface, a two-dimensional soil box was divided into four layers and each layer contained different sized soils. Soils in the soil box were contaminated by the mixture of kerosene and diesel, and partitioning tracer tests were conducted before and after the contamination using methanol as conservative tracer and 4-methyl-2-pentanol, 2-ethyl-1-butanol, and hexanol as partitioning tracers. The response curves of partitioning tracers from contaminated soils were separated and retarded in comparison with those from non-contaminated soils. The contamination of soils by NAPLs, therefore, can be detected by partitioning tracer method considering these retardations of tracers. From our experiment condition, the average saturation of NAPLs calculated by partitioning tracer method using the methanol as conservative tracer and hexanol as partitioning tracer showed the highest accuracy, though all results were underestimated. Further studies, therefore, were needed for improving the accuracy using the partitioning tracer test in heterogeneous media.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.11-16
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• 2019

In this study, a reliable number of soil samples for TPH fractionation was investigated in order to perform risk assessment. TPH was fractionated into volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPH) with three subgroups and extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPH) with four subgroups. At the study site, concentrations of each fraction were determined at 18 sampling points, and the 95% upper confidence limit (UCL) value was used as an exposure concentration of each fraction. And then, 5 sampling points were randomly selected out of the 18 points, and an exposure concentration was calculated. This process was repeated 30 times, and the results were compared statistically. Exposure concentrations of EPH obtained from 18 points were 99.9, 339.1, 27.3, and 85.9 mg/kg for aliphatic $C_9-C_{18}$, $C_{19}-C_{36}$, $C_{37}-C_{40}$, and aromatic $C_{11}-C_{22}$, respectively. The corresponding exposure concentrations obtained from 5 points were 139.8, 462.8, 35.1 and 119.4 mg/kg, which were significantly higher than those from 18 points results (p <0.05). Our results suggest that limited number of samples for TPH fractionation may bias estimation of exposure concentration of TPH fractions. Also, it is recommended that more than 30 samples need to be analyzed for TPH fractionation in performing risk assessment.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.32-41
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• 2011

By using a newly developed Korean risk-based corrective action (K-RBCA) software (K-RBCA) and the RBCA Tool Kit, risk assessment was performed on a site that was contaminated with aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals. Eight chemicals including benzene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, naphthalene, benz(a) anthracene, benzo(b) fluoranthene, benzo(a) pyrene, and arsenic that exceeded the US EPA Soil Screening Level were chosen as the target pollutants. A conceptual site model was constructed based on the site-specific effective exposure pathways. According to the RBCA Tool Kit the carcinogenic risk of arsenic was larger than $10^{-6}$, which is the generally acceptable carcinogenic risk level. The K-RBCA estimated the same level of carcinogenic risk for arsenic. With the RBCA Tool Kit, the carcinogenic risk of benzo(a) pyrene was estimated to be about $1.3{\times}10^{-6}$. However, with the K-RBCA benzo(a) pyrene did not exhibit any risk. The inconsistency between the softwares was attributed to the different fundamental settings (i.e., medium division) between the two softwares. While the K-RBCA divides medium into surface soil, subsurface soil, and groundwater, the RBCA Tool Kit divides medium into only soil and groundwater. These differences lead to the different exposure pathways used by the two softwares. The K-RBCA considers the exposure pathways in surface soil and subsurface soil separately to estimate risk, however, the RBCA Tool Kit considers the surface soil and subsurface soil as one and uses the integrated exposure pathways to estimate risk. Thus the resulting risk is higher when the RBCA Tool Kit is used than when the K-RBCA is used. The results from this study show that there is no significant difference in the risks estimated by the two softwares, thus, it is reasonable to use the K-RBCA we developed in risk assessment of soil and groundwater. In addition, the present study demonstrates that the assessor should be familiar with the characteristics of a contaminated site and the assumptions used by a risk assessment software when carrying out risk assessment.