• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.347-350
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• 2002

Arsenic speciation changes between As(V) and As(III) are subject to changes in accordance with redox conditions in the environment. It is common to find contaminated sites associated with mixed wastes including both organic pollutants and heavy metals. We conducted microcosm experiment under hypothesis that the co-disposed organic pollutants would influence on the arsenic forms and concentrations, via degradation of the organic pollutants and the consequent impact on the redox conditions in soil. Artificially contaminated soil samples were run for 40 days with control samples without artificial contamination. We noticed arsenic in the contaminated soil showed different behaviour compared with the arsenic in the control soil. The findings indicate degradation of organic pollutants in the contaminated soil influenced on the arsenic speciation and concentrations. A further work is needed to understand the process quantitatively. However, we could confirm that degradation of organic pollutants can influence on the abiotic processes associated with geochemical reactions in contaminated soil. Degradation of organic pollutants can increase the mobility and toxicity of arsenic in soil and sediment by changing redox conditions in the geological media and subsequently from As(V) to As(III).

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.25 no.2_spc
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• pp.86-100
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• 2020

Analyzing and monitoring environmental contaminants based on geophysical exploration techniques have become important and it is now widely applied to delineate spatial distribution geophysical characteristics in wide area. Among the techniques, induced polarization (IP) method, which measures polarization effects on electrical potential distribution, has drawn much attention as an effective tool for environmental monitoring since IP is sensitive to changes in biochemical reactions. However, various reactions stemming from the presence of multiple contaminants have greatly enhanced heterogeneity of polluted sites to result in highly variable electrical characteristics of the site. Those contaminants influence chemical and physical state of soil and groundwater to alter electrical double layer, which in turn influences polarization of the media. Since biochemical reactions between microbes and contaminants result in various IP effects, IP laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate IP responses of the contaminated soil samples under various conditions. Field IP surveys can delineate the spatial distribution of contamination, while providing additional information about electrical properties of a target medium, together with DC resistivity. Reviewing IP effects of contaminants as well as IP surveys can serve as a good starting point for the application of IP survey in site assessment for environmental remediation.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 1996

Nonaqueous phase liquids(NAPL) not readily dissolved in water exist as a separate fluid phase. Groundwater contamination by NAPL such as organic solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons becomes major public concerns because of their long-term persistence in the subsurFace and their ability to contaminate large volumes of wate. Dense.-than-water NAPL(DNAPL) spilled into the subsurface penetrate through the saturated zone and ultimately form DNAPL pools on the bottom of the aquifer. The dissolution of DNAPL from these pools depends on the molecular diffusion coefficient, the vertical dispersivity, the groundwater velocity, the solubility, and the pool length. In this study, the vertical transverse dispersion coefficients for simulating the dissolution of DNAPL from such pools were obtained from the dissolution experiment. Under the experimental conditions used, the vertical transverse dispersion coefficients calculated were 1.86$cm^2$/day, 2.90$cm^2$/day and 4.51$cm^2$/4ay for seepage velocities of 59.2cm/day, 94.3cm/day and 158.0cm/day, respectively. And the vertical transverse dispersivity was 0.03024cm.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.471-482
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate the contamination characteristics of surface water, soil water and groundwater around and in antimony waste landfill site in Wonsung-ri, Yeonki-kun, Chungnam. The waste disposed in the study was excavated and transported to the other site in several years ago. For this study, we collected 35 water samples including groundwater, soil water and surface in the study site and also collected 2 groundwater samples from a comparison site. The data of chemical analysis of soil water samples show the antimony concentration of $48.75{\sim}74.81\;ppb$, which is much higher than groundwater in a comparison site and is highly excess than regulation level for a drinking water of some advanced countries. A relatively high antimony concentration was detected in three stream water samples nearby landfill site and two groundwater samples. Fe and Mn contents in soil water and stream water were measured as maxium 6.5 mg/L and 7.3 mg/L, respectively. Although other heavy metals of water samples in the study site are higher concentration than water sample of comparison site, their absolute levels are lower than regulation level for a drinking water. The chemical data of water samples are plotted widely from Ca - $HCO_3$ type to Ca - ($Cl +SO_4+NO_3$) type. Some groundwater show high contents of potassium and nitrate, which would come from fertilizer and sewage. Conclusively, some heavy metals including antimony have been still remained under the soil surface of the landfill site in the past. These metals have leaked out into nearby stream and groundwater system, and threaten the ecology, crops and the health of residents in this site. Therefore, the government have to prepare the strategy to prevent the diffusion of heavy metals into aquatic environment and have to process the reclamation work for contaminated site. It is also necessary to make a regulation level of the antimony concentration for a drinking water and soil environment in Korea.

• 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/.

• Water for future
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 1983

Recently river water pollution in Korea is given rise to serious problem in aspect of crop production, drinking well, water contamination and etc. Under these urgent situations, it is prime importance to protect water resources from pollutants. An environmental isotope survey of the groundwater form the shallow alluvial and the underlying crystalline rock aquifer of the Han River Basin has been undertaken, Analysis of the data has I) confirmed the hypothesis that the groundwater from the metropolitan area is recharged from the river whereas that form the non-urbanized region of the Basin is replenished by the infiltrating precipitation; ii) shown that crystalline rock aquifers are recharged by the ground water form the overlying alluvium. Old groundwater is a group of wells with tritium values in the range of 0 to 2 TU. These low values indicate that the water sampled was recharged much ealier, at least a few decades, than the other groundwater samples of higher tritium content. The low values in this region may, in fact, reflect the effect of the impermeable clay layers which impede infilteration from the surface. Stable isotope evidence confirmed that a recharge in the karst area occurs at a significantly greater elevation than that to the alluvial aquifer. An analysis of the tritium level collected over an annual cycle suggests that the residence time of groundwater is probably not more than a few months. There does not appear to be any correlation between the trace level of Zn, Mn and Pb in the groundwater and the mechanism of the recharge.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.411-419
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• 2019

Underground concrete structures are constructed under a geographical environment called underground and exposed to various environments that promote deterioration. Among them, groundwater promotes deterioration of underground concrete structures due to contaminated water from the ground. In this study, the chemical resistance performance test evaluation of five different receptors for a total of 15-type leakage repair materials of five series was conducted to determine the chemical stability of the leakage repair material used in the crack area. The results show a general increase and decrease in most chemical receptors, but the biggest increase and decrease was shown in acrylic systems, which were found in sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide, and epoxy was found in hydrochloric acid. The cement system is showing a lot of increase and decrease in sodium chloride. It is expected that the results of these studies will be used as a basis for chemical stabilization in the development of new materials.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.199-205
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• 2023

Arsenic is a highly toxic element, and its contamination is widespread around the world. The natural materials with high selectivity and efficiency toward pollutants are important in wastewater treatment technology. In this study, the mesoporous synthetic hectorite was synthesized by facile hydrothermal crystallization of gels comprising silica, magnesium hydroxide, and lithium fluoride. Additionally, the naturally available clay was modified using zirconium at room temperature. Both synthetic and modified natural clays were employed in the removal of arsenate from aquatic environments. The materials were fully characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) analyses. The synthesized materials were used to remove arsenic (V) under varied physicochemical conditions. Both materials, i.e., Zr-bentonite and Zr-hectorite, showed high percentage removal of arsenic (V) at lower pH, and the efficiency decreased in an alkaline medium. The equilibrium-state sorption data agrees well with the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms, and the maximum sorption capacity is found to be 4.608 and 2.207 mg/g for Zr-bentonite and Zr-hectorite, respectively. The kinetic data fits well with the pseudo-second order kinetic model. Furthermore, the effect of the background electrolytes study indicated that arsenic (V) is specifically sorbed at the surface of these two nanocomposites. This study demonstrated that zirconium intercalated synthetic hectorite as well as zirconium modified natural clays are effective and efficient materials for the selective removal of arsenic (V) from aqueous medium.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.69-81
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• 2012

Diverse geostatistical tools such as kriging have been used to estimate the volume and spatial coverage of contaminated soil needed for remediation. However, many approaches frequently yield estimation errors, due to inherent geostatistical uncertainties. Such errors may yield over- or under-estimation of the amounts of polluted soils, which cause an over-estimation of remediation cost as well as an incomplete clean-up of a contaminated land. Therefore, it is very important to use a better estimation tool considering uncertainties arising from incomplete field investigation (i.e., contamination survey) and mathematical spatial estimation. In the current work, as better estimation tools we propose stochastic simulation approaches which allow the remediation volume to be assessed more accurately along with uncertainty estimation. To test the efficiency of proposed methods, heavy metals (esp., Pb) contaminated soil of a shooting range area was selected. In addition, we suggest a quantitative method to delineate the confident interval of estimated volume (and spatial extent) of polluted soil based on the spatial aspect of uncertainty. The methods proposed in this work can improve a better decision making on soil remediation.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2016

Bioremediation is one of the most effective ways to remediate TPH-contaminated sites. However, under actual field conditions that are not at the optimum temperature, degradation of microorganisms is generally reduced, which is why the efficiency of biodegradation is known to be significantly affected by the soil temperature. Therefore, in this study, the labscale experiment was conducted using indigenous crude oil degrading microorganisms isolated from crude oil contaminated site to evaluate the remediation efficiency. Crude oil degrading microorganisms were isolated from crude oil contaminated soil and temperature, which is a significant factor affecting the remediation efficiency of land farming, was adjusted to evaluate the microbial crude oil degrading ability, degradation time, and remediation efficiency. In order to assess the field applicability, the remediation efficiency was evaluated using crude oil contaminated soil (average TPH concentration of 10,000 mg/kg or more) from the OO premises. Followed by the application of microorganisms at 30℃, the bioremediation process reduced its initial TPH concentration of 10,812 mg/kg down to 1,890 mg/kg in 56 days, which was about an 83% remediation efficiency. By analyzing the correlation among the total number of cells, the number of effective cells, and TPH concentration, it was found that the number of effective microorganisms drastically increased during the period from 10 to 20 days while there was a sharp decrease in TPH concentration. Therefore, we confirmed the applicability of land farming with isolated microorganisms consortium to crude oil contaminated site, which is also expected to be applicable to bioremediation of other recalcitrant materials.