• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.393-403
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• 2008

Hydrogeochemistry of groundwater was studied in order to identify the influence of cow manure, distributed to a farmland as organic fertilizer, on nitrate concentrations in shallow groundwater and its spatio-temporal variations. From monitoring wells, water levels were measured using automatic data loggers, and water samples collected and analyzed in Feb., April, June and Oct. 2007. The average electric conductivity and concentration of nitrate in the groundwater show the highest levels in April and decline in subsequent sampling times. Decreases in dissolved oxygen(DO) and nitrate concentrations from April to Oct. and corresponding increases in $HCO_3$ concentrations indicate denitrification processes by microorganisms. Spatial variation of nitrate concentration appeared to be affected by the redox conditions of groundwater controlled by geochemical reactions of Mn, Fe and DOC contents.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.471-484
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• 2002

Alluviums in the Keum River watershed cover an areal extent of $3,029{\;}\textrm{km}^2$ and contain about 8.1 billion tons of groundwater. However, the waters are severely polluted by nitrate, possibly due to the application of nitrogen fertilizer (>250 N kg/ha) on agricultural land. This paper aims to elucidate the pollution status and behaviors of nitrate in alluvial groundwaters in the Keum River watershed area, based on regional hydrogeochemical study. Most of the collected samples (n = 186) are polluted by nitrate (average = 42.2 mg/L, maximum = 295 mg/L). About 29% of the samples have the nitrate concentrations exceeding Korean Drinking Water Standard (44 mg/L $NO_3$). The distribution of nitrate concentrations in the study area is largely dependant on geochemical environments of alluvial aquifers. In particular, the decrease of redox potential of alluvial groundwaters showed a good correlation with the decreases of nitrate, iron, and manganese concentrations. Thus, the change of redox state in alluvial aquifers, likely reflecting their sedimentary environments, controls both the behavior and fate of nitrogen compounds and their natural attenuation (denitrification) in aquifers. A carbon-rich, silty layer within alluvium strata forms a reducing condition and possesses a buffering capacity on nitrate pollution.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.271-280
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• 2024

This study examines the European Union (EU)'s policies on managing nitrate contamination in groundwater and provides implications for the future groundwater management in South Korea. Initiated by the 1991 Nitrate Directive, the EU has pursued a multifaceted approach to reduce agricultural nitrate pollution through sustainable ('good') farming practices, regular nitrate level monitoring, and designating Nitrate Vulnerable Zones. Further policy integrations, like the Water Framework Directive and Groundwater Directive, have established comprehensive protection strategies, including the use of pollutant threshold values. Recently, the 2019 Green Deal escalated efforts against nitrates, aligning with broader environmental and climate objectives. This review aims to explore these developments, highlighting key mitigation strategies against nitrate pollution, and providing valuable insights for the future sustainable groundwater nitrate management in South Korea, emphasizing the importance of preventive measures and collaborative efforts to restore and improve groundwater quality.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

Ammonia is used in the manufacture of fertilizers, refrigerants, stabilizers and many household cleaning agents. These wide applications resulted in ammonia contamination in water. Ammonia can be removed from water by physical, biological, and chemical methods. Ozonation is effictive in the treatment of water with low concentration of ammonia. This study is undertaken to provide kinetic data for the ozonation of ammonia with or without hydrogen peroxide. The results were as follows; The destruction rate of ammonia increased gradually with the influent hydrogen peroxide concentration up to 0.23 mM and inhibited in the range of 0.23~11.4mM, and the maximum removal rate of ammonia achieved at 0.23mM of hydrogen peroxide, and the overall kinetics was first order. The combination effect of hydrogen and ozone to oxide ammonia in aqueous solution was better than ozone alone. The reacted ammonia was converted completely to nitrate ion.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.431-435
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• 2004

A nitrate-contaminated groundwater was hydrogeochemically investigated to estimate the factors controlling groundwater quality in an alluvial fan area. Even though monthly groundwater levels increased with monthly rainfalls, the monthly $NO_3^--N$ concentrations in groundwater showed a small variation, mostly exceeding a maximum contaminant level of 10 mg $L^{-1}$ in environmental quality standards for groundwater during 2003. The 2003 annual groundwater recharge was 1,730 mm =20,056 mm-18,326 mm. Where 20,056 mm and 18,326 mm are annual sum of daily increase and decrease in ground water level. However, the annual sum of increase in ground water level (20,056 mm) was approximately 10 times higher than annual rainfall. Moreover, the annual sum of daily ground water level decrease (-18,326mm) showed that a large amount of groundwater was discharged with $NO_3^-$-contamination. Hydrogeochemically, a large amount of groundwater input and output through the alluvial fan area were observed after rainfall with a considerably high concentration of $NO_3^-$. Consequently, this alluvial fan area including forest area reflects on the evidence under the condition of 'nitrogen excess' or 'nitrogen saturation'. In addition, such a large amount of groundwater outflow can cause environmental damage in surface water, associated with $NO_3^-$- contamination. This study also expects that this hydrogeochemical data will be useful for water management.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.39 no.2 s.177
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• pp.151-162
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• 2006

Characteristics and changes of groundwater qualify were investigated in a riverbank filtration area at Daesan-myeon, Changwon City, Korea. The total dissolved solids (TDS) in groundwater samples collected in October were much less than that in March, indicating the mixing with recharged water from precipitation, as well as the changes of dissolved oxygen profiles at monitoring wells from March to October. Redox processes at depths appeared to trigger Fe and Mn contamination of groundwater in riverbank deposits. Amorphous oxyhydroxides md carbonate minerals such as $MnCO_3$ were probably the reactive phases for dissolved Fe and Mn, respectively. Groundwater contamination by nitrate-nitrogen $(NO_3-N)$ was controlled by the redox processes and subsequent denitrification at the sampled depths. Distribution of $NO_3-N$ concentrations at monitoring wells suggested that the nitrate contaminants were originated from agricultural facilities on the riverbank deposits. Some of monitoring wells, DS-2, D-2, DS-3, SJ-1, and SJ-3, were only partially penetrated into the sand/gravel aquifer, and subsequently, could not fully function to detect the water quality changes for the pumping wells. Proper measures, with regulating agricultural activities in the riverbank deposits, should be carried out to prevent groundwater contamination of the riverbank filtration area.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2021

In this study, the assessment of field applicability of in-situ remediation of nitrate-contaminated groundwater located in Yesan-gun was performed. Zero-valent iron/bio composite media injected PRB (Permeable Reactive Barrier) and monitoring well were installed in the contaminated groundwater site and monitored main remediation indicators during the PRB operation. Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, Fe ion, TOC, and turbidity were analyzed and the diversity and population of microorganism in the PRB installed site were investigated for the verification of effect of injected PRB. In the study site where is an agricultural area, a river flows from west to east that forms a river boundary and the southern area has an impermeable sector. It was found that nitrate flows into the river, which is similar as groundwater flow. Simulation result for the fate of nitrate in groundwater showed steady state of nitrate arrived after 3~5 years passed. However, it is just to consider current conditions with no additional input of contaminant source, if additional input of contaminant source occurs contamination dispersion and time for steady state are expected to be increased. The monitoring results showed that Fe ion, TOC and turbidity in groundwater were not clearly changed in concentration after PRB installation, which indicates adaptability of the injected PRB for remediation of groundwater with no additional harmful effect to water quality. The concentration of nitrate maintained less than 5mg/L until 42 days after PRB installation and recovered its initial concentration after 84 days passed and showed termination of reactivity of injected zero-valent iron/bio composite media for removal nitrate. Nitrite and ammonia ions found after installation of PRB indicates reductive removal of nitrate. And the outstanding increase of microorganism diversity and population of Betaproteobacteria Class which includes denitrification microorganism explains biologically reductive removal of nitrate in injected PRB.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.135-152
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• 2011

Nitrate concentrations in springs at the southern slope of Jeju Island were predicted using multiple linear regression (MLR) of spatial variables including hydrogeological parameters and land use characteristics. Springs showed wide range of nitrate concentrations from <0.02 to 86 mg/L with a mean of 20 mg/L. Spatial variables were generated for the circular buffer when the optimal buffer radius was assigned as 400 m. Selected regression models were tested using the p values and Durbin-Watson statistics. Explanatory variables were selected using the adjusted $R^2$, Cp (total squared error) and AIC (Akaike's Information Criterion), and significance. In addition, mutual linear relations between variables were also considered. Small portion of springs, usually <10% of total samples, were identified as outliers indicating limitations of MLR using circular buffers. Adjusted $R^2$ of the proposed models was improved from 0.75 to 0.87 when outliers were eliminated. In particular, the areal proportion of natural area had the greatest influence on the nitrate concentrations in springs. Among anthropogenic land uses, the influence of nitrate contamination is diminishing in the following order of orchard, residential area, and dry farmland. It is apparent quality of springs in the study area is likely to be controlled by land uses instead of hydrogeological parameters. Most of all, it is worth highlighting that the contamination susceptibility of springs is highly sensitive to nearby land uses, in particular, orchard.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.57-73
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• 2008

Nitrate concentrations were measured up to 49 mg/L (as $NO_3$-N) and 22% of the samples exceeded drinking water standard in shallow and bedrock groundwater of the northern Nonsan area. Nitrate concentrations showed a significant difference among land use groups. To predict nitrate concentration in groundwater, multiple regression analysis was carried out using hydrogeologic parameters of soil media, topography and land use which were categorized as several groups, well depth and altitude, and field parameters of temperature, pH, DO and EC. Hydrogeologic parameters were quantified as area proportions of each category within circular buffers centering at wells. Regression was performed to all the combination of variables and the most relevant model was selected based on adjusted coefficient of determination (Adj. $R^2$). Regression using hydrogelogic parameters with varying buffer radii show highest Adj. $R^2$ at 50m and 300m for shallow and bedrock groundwater, respectively. Shallow groundwater has higher Adj. $R^2$ than bedrock groundwater indicating higher susceptibility to hydrogeologic properties of surface environment near the well. Land use and soil media was major explanatory variables for shallow and bedrock groundwater, respectively and residential area was a major variable in both shallow and bedrock groundwater. Regression involving hydrogeologic parameters and field parameters showed that EC, paddy and pH were major variables in shallow groundwater whereas DO, EC and natural area were in bedrock groundwater. Field parameters have much higher explanatory power over the hydrogeologic parameters suggesting field parameters which are routinely measured can provide important information on each well in assessment of nitrate contamination. The most relevant buffer radii can be applied to estimation of travel time of contaminants in surface environment to wells.