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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
USGS2003

Compost: Brown gold or toxic trouble?

Limited data are available regarding the occurrence of potentially hazardous constituents in raw, uncomposted yard wastes, partially composted yard wastes, and finished compost (15, 16). Environmental monitoring at composting operations or facilities is lacking, and currently published research on the environmental fate of composted yard waste constituents is extremely limited. The cost of thoroughly investigating the fate of toxicants in yard waste may seem needlessly expensive, but it is much less than the cost of cleaning up contaminated sites and groundwater. Could yard waste compost sites become Superfund sites? The cost of a thorough testing program throughout the United States may be several million dollars, but that is only a fraction of the funds spent initiating and developing yard waste composting facilities, let alone the potentially much greater cost of environmental remediation. There is still time to address these problems and to develop sound state and federal guidelines for siting and operating yard waste compost facilities. The rush to implement landfill alternatives such as composting should not be the major driving force in determining legislation governing solid waste management. ?? 1991 American Chemical Society.

Environmental Science & Technology↗
USGS2002

Herbicide transport in rivers: Importance of hydrology and geochemistry in nonpoint-source contamination

Alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, metolachlor, and metribuzin were measured at six sites during 1984 and 1985 in large subbasins within the Cedar River, IA. A computer model separated the Cedar River discharge hydrograph into groundwater and overland-flow components. The concentration of herbicides in the river when groundwater was the major flow component was less than 1.0 μ g/L and averaged 0.2 μ g/L. The maximum concentrations of herbicides occurred when overland flow was the major component of river discharge, exceeding 50 pg/L for total herbicides. About 6% of the annual river load of atrazine was transported with the groundwater component, while 94% was transported with overland flow. From 1.5 to 5% of the atrazine applied during the year was transported from the basin. Atrazine concentrations in the river in- creased according to the discharge divided by the drainage area. This correlation indicates that rivers with large normalized 2-year peak flows have the potential to transport large concentrations of herbicides. A diagrammatic model of nonpoint-source transport of herbicides was developed that suggests that sorbed transport from fields occurs during episodes of overland flow with rapid dissolution of herbicides downstream.

Iowa↗
USGS2002

Consumption of freons CFC-11 and CFC-12 by anaerobic sediments and soils

A variety of anaerobic sediments and soils consumed CFC-11 (CFCl3) and CFC-12 (CF2Cl2). An aerobic soil did not. Active microbial metabolism was required for CFC-12 uptake in all of the sediments examined. CFC-11 uptake was faster in the presence of microbial activity, but reduced components in the sediments also resulted in nonenzymatic CFC-11 consumption in most instances. CFC-12 uptake in a culture of Clostridium pasteurianum provided a model for the sediment uptake of CFC-11 and CFC-12 that required active microbial metabolism. Consumption of CFC-11 in the presence of reduced hematin demonstrated a potential mechanism for nonenzymatic CFC-11 consumption. These findings demonstrate that CFC-11 and CFC-12 are not biochemically inert under anaerobic conditions. This suggests that anaerobic degradation of CFC-11 and CFC-12 in anaerobic landfills might prevent some disposed CFC-11 and CFC-12 from entering the atmosphere. The results also suggest that CFC-11 and CFC-12 cannot be used as stable tracers in anaerobic environments. Furthermore, although the microbial sink for atmospheric CFC-11 and CFC-12 is much less than current anthropogenic release, this sink could have a significant long-term effect on the amount of CFC-11 and CFC-12 reaching the stratosphere.

Environmental Science & Technology↗
USGS2002

Chloride interference in the analysis of dissolved organic carbon by the wet oxidation method

The presence of Cl- in concentrations greater than 0.02 M is shown to interfere with the analysis of aqueous DOC concentrations by the wet oxidation method of analysis when a reaction time of 5 min is employed. Chloride competes with DOC for S2O82-, lowering the overall oxidation efficiency. The resulting HOCl from the oxidation of Cl- reacts with DOC, producing significant amounts of chlorinated intermediate compounds in addition to CO2. These compounds were found in the waste effluent from the reaction chamber and in the gas stream transporting CO2 to the detector. While a possible Cl- effect has been noted for DOC measurements in the past, it has not previously been demonstrated to be a source of error at the concentrations reported in this paper. The interference can be overcome either by increasing the digestion time or by diluting samples to contain less than 0.02 M Cl-.

Environmental Science & Technology↗
USGS2002

Sorption of N2 and EGME vapors on some soils, clays, and mineral oxides and determination of sample surface areas by use of sorption data

Vapor sorption isotherms of ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGME) at room temperature and isotherms of N2 gas at liquid nitrogen temperature were determined for various soils and minerals. The N2 monolayer capacities [Qm (N2)] were calculated from the BET equation and used to determine the surface areas. To examine whether EGME is an appropriate adsorbate for determination of surface areas, the apparent EGME monolayer capacities [Qm (EGME)ap] were also obtained by use of the BET equation. For sand, aluminum oxide, kaolinite, hematite, and synthetic hydrous iron oxide, which are relatively free of organic impurity and expanding/solvating minerals, the Qm (EGME)ap values are in good conformity with the corresponding Qm (N2) values and would give surface areas consistent with BET (N2) values. For other samples (Woodburn soil, a natural hydrous iron oxide, illite, and montmorillonite), the Qm (EGME)ap values overestimate the Qm (N2) values from a moderate to a large extent, depending on the sample. A high-organic-content peat shows a very small BET (N2) surface area; the EGME/ peat isotherm is linear and does not yield a calculation of the surface area. Large discrepancies between results of the two methods for some samples are attributed to the high solubility of polar EGME in soil organic matter and/ or to the cation solvation of EGME with solvating clays. The agreement for other samples is illustrative of the consistency of the BET method when different adsorbates are used, so long as they do not exhibit bulk penetration and/or cation solvation.

Environmental Science & Technology↗