• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.70-73
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• 2003

Nitrate contamination in the aquatic systems is the primary indicator of poor agricultural management. The influence of sewage sludge application rates (0, 10, 25, 50 and 100 dry Mg/ha) on distribution of nitrate originating from the sewage sludge in soil profiles was investigated. Soil profile monitoring of nitrate was carried out with a Lakeland clay soil in 1997. Irrespectively of the sewage sludge application rates up to 50 dry Mg/ha, the concentration of $NO_3$-N at the 120 cm depth was below 10 mg/kg and the difference due to the amount of sewage sludge application was negligible at this depth. There was virtually no $NO_3$-N below 120 cm depth and this was confirmed by a deep sampling up to 300 cm depth. Most of the nitrate remained in the surface 60 cm of the soil. Below 120 cm depth nitrate concentration was very low because of the denitrification even at high sewage sludge rate of 100 dry Mg/ha. The $NO_3$-N concentrations in the soil fluctuated over the growing season due to plant uptake and denitrification. The risk of groundwater contamination by nitrate from sewage sludge application up to high rate of 100 dry Mg/ha was very low in a wheat grown clay soil with high water table ( < 3 m).

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2011

In Korea, groundwater is main water source in livestock farms. Most dairy and cattle farms have constructed their own wells for human drinking and livestock farming. However, these private residential wells have not been controlled by government and also there was scant study about livestock drinking water quality. Therefore this study was to monitor of the livestock farms' groundwater quality in Korea. Water samples were collected at 123 dairy and cattle farms and were analysed forty six substances with quality standard for drinking water approved by the Minister of Environment. Seventy eight (63.4%) of 123 samples failed to drinking water stand a test. The most frequent contaminants were nitrate-nitrogen and microbial. 22.8% (n=28) of samples showed nitrate-N concentration of higher than 10 mg/L meant that can't be used drinking water for human and the Nitrate-N concentration analysed in the range of 0.2 to 61.2 mg/L. All of 78 failed to drinking samples had microbial problems, especially 5.7% (n=7) of samples indicated water could be contaminated by feces. Other contaminants detected were zinc and evaporation residue. Especially detected zinc concentration (32 mg/L) was about ten times higher than standard of zinc (3 mg/L). Regression analysis indicated that groundwater pH did not influence to nitrate-N concentration but the hardness and chloride could affect to nitrate-N concentration in the groundwater. Most livestock farms were adjacent to crop farmland in Korea. This could cause contamination of groundwater with nitrate-N and pesticide that could accumulate livestock product. Moreover Heavy metal such as zinc and copper could be released from a corrosive plated water pipe in livestock farm. Put together, Korea livestock system is indoor, not pasture-based, hence livestock could be exposed to potential contaminated water consistently. Therefore on the basis of these data, appropriate livestock drinking water quality standards should be prepared to keep livestock healthy and their product safe. Further, livestock drinking water quality should be monitored continuously in suitable livestock drinking water standards.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2003

Shallow groundwater systems are highly vulnerable to anthropogenic contamination and are characterized by a variety of redox condition. The redox state is a key parameter to control the nitrate contamination which is related to nitrification or denitrification processes. In relation to the control of nitrate problem, it is very important to understand the source, transport and fate of nitrogen compounds in a groundwater system. (omitted)

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.450-452
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• 2004

Using factor analysis and bivariate comparisons of major components in ground water, three geochemical processes were identified as controlling factors of ground water chemistry; 1) natural mineralization by water rock interactions, 2) effect of seawater which includes salinization by seawater near seashores and deposition of sea salt, and 3) nitrate contamination by N fertilization. Contribution of rainfall was also estimated from the measured composition of wet deposition. The geochemical processes were separated using total alkalinity as an indicator for natural mineralization, Cl for effect of seawater, and nitrate for N fertilization. Relatively high correlation of major components with nitrate suggests that nitrification of nitrogenous fertilizers significantly affects ground water chemistry. Total cations derived from nitrate sources have good linearity for nitrate in equivalent basis with a slope of 1.8, which is a mean of proton production coefficients in nitrification of two major compounds in nitrogenous fertilizers, ammonium and urea. Contribution of nitrate sources to base cations, Cl, and SO$_4$ in ground water was determined considering maximum contribution of natural mineralization to estimate a threshold of the effect of N fertilization for ground water chemistry, which shows W fertilization has a greatest effect than any other processes in ground water with nitrate concentration greater than 50 mg/L for Ca, Mg, Na and with concentration greater than 30 mg/L for Cl and SO$_4$.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.561-574
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• 2009

Unsaturated/saturated groundwater flow and solute transport model, VSFRT2D(Variable Saturated Flow and Reactive Transport model) was developed considering effects of pumping, irrigation, and denitrification. VSFRT2D employed Richards equation as governing equation for groundwater flow and previously existing unsaturated models modified by including computational procedure of evapotranspiration at surface using Thornthwaite method when precipitation doesn't occur. Bioremediation processes based on monod kinetics are described using four nonlinear contaminant transport equations and three nonlinear microbes transport equations. The developed model was applied to field data in Hongsung area contaminated with nitrate. In order to identify the effect of precipitation, pumping, evapotranspiration, irrigation, fertilizer application, and various bioremediations on groundwater flow and contaminant transport, individual processes were separated and simulated. Then all results obtained from the individual processes are compared with each other. The simulation results show that bioremediation had a negligible effect on nitrate concentration change. However, pumping for irrigation, precipitation, and nitrogen fertilizer application showed profound influences on nitrate concentration change.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.139-147
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• 2007

For environmental remediation of a contaminated groundwater plume, the use of zero-valent metal represents one of the latest innovative technologies. In this study, the effects of denitrification by zero-valent iron adsorbed in mesoporous silicas have been studied for groundwater contaminant degradation. The mesoporous silica was functionalized with 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS) ligands and the zero-valent iron precipitated in the mesopore of granular silica was made by $FeCl_2$ and $NaBH_4$. Hydrogen was exchanged with $Fe^{2+}$ ions in the granular silicas. And then the ions were reduced by sodium borohydride in the mesoporous silicas. The surface area of the silica determined via the BET method ranged from 858 to $1275m^2/g$. The reductive reaction of nitrate-nitrogen indicated that the degradation of nitrate-nitrogen appeared to be pseudo first-order with the observed reaction rate constant kobs ($0.1619h^{-1}$) and to be directly proportional to the specific surface area. Therefore, the mesoporous silica with nano zero-valent iron proposed as a novel treatment strategy for contaminated groundwater was successfully implemented herein for the removal of nitrate-nitrogen.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.368-371
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• 2003

Accidental release of petroleum products from underground storage tank(USTs) is one of the most common causes of groundwater contamination. BTEX is the major components of fuel oils, which are hazardous substances regulated by many nations. In addition to BTEX, other gasoline consituents such as MTBE(methyl-t-buthyl ether), anphthalene are also toxic to humans. Natual attenuation processes include physic, chemical, and biological trasformation. Aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation are believed to be the major processes that account for both containment of the petroleum-hydrocarbon plum and reduction of the contaminant concentrations. Aerobic bioremediation has been highly effective in the remediation of many fuel releases. However, Bioremediation of aromatic hydrocarbons in groundwater and sediments is ofen limited by the inability to provide sufficient oxygen to the contaminated zones due to the low water solubility of oxygen. Anaerobic processes refer to a variety of biodegradation mechanisms that use nitrate, ferric iron, sulfate, and carbon dioxide as terminal electron accepters. The objectives of this study was to conduct laboratory-scale microcosm studies in assessing enhanced bioremediation potential of BTEX and MTBE under various electron accepters(aerobic, nitrate, ferric iron, sulfate) in contaminated Soil. these results suggest that, presents evidence and a variety pattern of the biological removal of aromatic compounds under enhanced nitrate-, Fe(III)-, sulfate-reducing conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.447-450
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• 2003

The feasibility of PENTANOX 4X for the simultaneous removal of nitrate and phosphate was investigated using micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration. Because PENTANOX 4X has cationic property at low pH, anionic contaminants can be bound to PENTANOX 4X micelle by electrostatic interaction. At pH 3, 90% of nitrate and 72% of phosphate were removed by 27 mM of PENTANOX 4X, which were equivalent to 20 mM of CPC. PENTANOX 4X of > 80 % was rejected by ultrafiltration membrane and did not make any counter-ion such as chloride for CPC which might cause second-pollution.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.111-125
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• 2024

The study has examined alterations in groundwater quality by investigating the influence of rainfall on electrical conductivity (EC) and nitrate concentration in the groundwater of the Geum River Basin in South Korea. Mann Kendall and Sen's Slope estimator were employed to analyze the trends and estimate the trend's magnitude. The administrative map of the study area was utilized to assess the trends of these parameters within each administrative region. Seventeen years (from 2005 to 2021) of data on EC, groundwater levels (GWL), precipitation, and six years (from 2015 to 2020) of nitrate concentration data were utilized for this analysis. The results indicate that, in most administrative regions, there has been an increase in nitrate concentration, and EC, whereas precipitation has seen a slight decrease in a downstream and an increasing trend in upstream. The correlation coefficients calculated between these parameters reveal that there is no direct impact of precipitation on nitrate and EC, but a negative correlation was observed between GWL and EC. The most significant increasing trend in nitrate concentration was observed in two districts (Iksan and Gunsan ), which correspond to regions with significant agricultural activity; about 50% of these districts area are used for agricultural activities.