Water pollution is topic of immense and common concern throughout the world. This book presents the results and data from research and adsorption experiments carried out on the removal of nickel and chromium (as well as other metals) from aqueous solutions using modified silica sand.

Bioremediation research has concentrated on organic pollutants, although the range of substances that can be transformed or detoxified by microorganisms includes both natural and synthetic organic materials and inorganic pollutants. The majority of applications developed to date involve bacteria, with a distinct lack of appreciation of the potential roles and involvement of fungi in bioremediation, despite clear evidence of their metabolic and morphological versatility. This book highlights the potential of filamentous fungi, including mycorrhizas, in bioremediation and discusses the physiology and chemistry of pollutant transformations.

According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than 16,220 waste generators produced over 35.3 million tons of hazardous waste in 2009 in the United States. Every firm that generates hazardous waste must, by law, handle that waste in accordance with regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Failure to do so can harm the environment and human health and trigger civil and criminal and enforcement actions, resulting in huge monetary fines and penalties, lengthy prison terms and plant closures.

" But what exactly is a hazardous waste?" For the purposes of compliance with RCRA regulations, the answer to this question is a complex one, entangled in a web of definitions, policy, rules and guidelines that are ambiguous, unfamiliar and sometimes contradictory.

If you are responsible for complying with RCRA regulations, or working with those who do, you ll want to read "How to Recognize a Hazardous Waste (even if it s wearing dark glasses)." This is the updated and expanded edition of the book which, for over two decades, has been helping companies comply with the law. This book distills RCRA s myriad of hazardous waste identification rules, policies, and guidelines to their essence, presenting them in a straight-forward manner using illustrations, diagrams, and simple, clear language.

Features include:

questions and answers at the end of each chapter making it an excellent training guide flow diagrams that simplify regulatory mazes clear explanations of the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), hazardous debris, and the contained in policy and rule special sections covering used oil regulations and universal wastes examples that show principles of hazardous waste identification and classification guidance to help you determine if a listed waste may be delisted inventory and profile sheet organizes solid waste information a list of significant EPA regulatory memoranda that show you where to get additional information

Written by an environmental regulatory expert who devoted his career to the handling of hazardous wastes, the dark glasses book takes a simple approach with plentiful illustrations making it ideal as both a training guide and reference material.

The April 20th 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig led to the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. Federal government officials estimated that the deepwater well ultimately released over 200 million gallons of crude oil. Although decreasing amounts of oil were observed on the ocean surface following the well's containment on July 15th 2010, oil spill response officials and researchers have found oil in other places. This new book examines the fate of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Direct observation and measurement of the fate of the vast majority of the estimated 200 million gallons of oil presents a considerable challenge.

Scientists generally conclude that rising concentrations of greenhouse gases are warming the Earth's climate. Concern about the damage that might result has led policymakers and analysts to consider policies designed to restrict emissions of those gases. One type of policy, a cap-and-trade program, could minimise the cost of achieving a limit, or cap, on emissions by allowing market forces to determine where, how, and to some extent when the cuts in emissions necessary to achieve the cap would be made. This new book examines the potential effects of features that would help manage allowance prices, and thus the cost of complying with a cap-and-trade program.

An examination of political conflicts over pesticide drift and the differing conceptions of justice held by industry, regulators, and activists. The widespread but virtually invisible problem of pesticide drift-the airborne movement of agricultural pesticides into residential areas-has fueled grassroots activism from Maine to Hawaii. Pesticide drift accidents have terrified and sickened many living in the country's most marginalized and vulnerable communities. In this book, Jill Lindsey Harrison considers political conflicts over pesticide drift in California, using them to illuminate the broader problem and its potential solutions. The fact that pesticide pollution and illnesses associated with it disproportionately affect the poor and the powerless raises questions of environmental justice (and political injustice). Despite California's impressive record of environmental protection, massive pesticide regulatory apparatus, and booming organic farming industry, pesticide-related accidents and illnesses continue unabated. To unpack this conundrum, Harrison examines the conceptions of justice that increasingly shape environmental politics and finds that California's agricultural industry, regulators, and pesticide drift activists hold different, and conflicting, notions of what justice looks like. Drawing on her own extensive ethnographic research as well as in-depth interviews with regulators, activists, scientists, and public health practitioners, Harrison examines the ways industry, regulatory agencies, and different kinds of activists address pesticide drift, connecting their efforts to communitarian and libertarian conceptions of justice. The approach taken by pesticide drift activists, she finds, not only critiques theories of justice undergirding mainstream sustainable-agriculture activism, but also offers an entirely new notion of what justice means. To solve seemingly intractable environmental problems such as pesticide drift, Harrison argues, we need a different kind of environmental justice. She proposes the precautionary principle as a framework for effectively and justly addressing environmental inequities in the everyday work of environmental regulatory institutions.

Emerging Contaminants in Terrestrial and Aquatic Environments: Occurrence, Health Risks, and Mitigation provides the latest information on the synthesis of the occurrence, behavior, human health risks and mitigation of emerging contaminants in developing countries. First highlighting sources, industrial applications, key drivers and regulatory frameworks, the book then goes on to discuss the nature of emerging contaminants, including organic (e.g., pharmaceuticals), inorganic (e.g., rare earth elements) and biological agents (e.g., antimicrobial resistance). It then presents the dissemination, environmental behavior, and fate in terrestrial and aquatic systems as well as the human and ecological exposure pathways, health risks, and more. Offering a transdisciplinary approach that brings together perspectives and contributions from experts in environmental sciences, hydrology, environmental engineering, ecotoxicology, chemistry, material sciences, and legal and policy aspects, the book provides an approachable and flexible resource for researchers and upper-level students with diverse academic backgrounds.

This Guidelines book provides technical information on how to conduct a consequence analysis to satisfy your company's needs and the EPA rules. It covers quantifying the size of a release, dispersion of vapor clouds to an endpoint concentration, outcomes for various types of explosions and fires, and the effect of the release on people and structures.

Special Details: Includes CD-ROM with example problems worked using Excel and Quattro Pro. For use with Windows 95, 98, and NT.

In the last few years, the concern about pollutants present in indoor environments has greatly increased since in developed countries people spend large amounts of time indoors. The markedly growing consumption of cosmetics, air fresheners, house-cleaners, biocides, as well as the increase in the use of new building materials in carpeting, paints, furnishings, etc, may turn our homes, schools, offices and workplaces into harmful microenvironments. Inadequate ventilation coupled with the slow indoor degradation processes may increase indoor pollution levels. This book presents methodological developments for the analysis of pollutants in indoor air, focusing the attention on emerging contaminants and biocides that can be found both in the air gas phase, as well as associated to the suspended particulate matter and settled dust.

Atrazine, a non-persistent pesticide, belongs to a triazine herbicide group of pesticides and is derived from the s-triazine structure - a six member heterocyclic with symmetrically located nitrogen atoms that are substituted at the 2, 4, 6 -- positions. This book describes the physical and chemical properties, toxicity, herbicide action and need for routine monitoring. Also discussed herein is an overview of sensors (with special emphasis on electrochemical sensors) for pesticides in general and atrazine in particular. The concept of molecular imprinting science and technology (MIS&T) is introduced with reference to pesticide monitoring.

This book explores policies that Congress is considering to reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. Prominent among these policies are those promoting the capture and direct sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) from man-made sources such as electric power plants and manufacturing facilities. Carbon capture and sequestration is of great interest because potentially large amounts of CO2 produced by the industrial burning of fossil fuels could be sequestered. Although they are still under development, carbon capture technologies may be able to remove up to 95% of CO2 emitted from an electric power plant or other industrial source. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a three-part process involving a CO2 source facility, a long-term CO2 sequestration site, and an intermediate mode of CO2 transportation - typically pipelines. The book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

With the prospect of new layers of complexity being added to air pollution controls, and with electricity restructuring putting a premium on economic efficiency, interest is being expressed in finding mechanisms to achieve health and environmental goals in simpler, more cost-effective ways. The electric utility industry is a major source of air pollution, particularly sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and mercury (Hg), as well as unregulated greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). At issue is whether a new approach to environmental protection could achieve the nation's air quality goals more cost-effectively than the current system. One approach being proposed is a "multi-pollutant" strategy - a framework based on a consistent set of emissions caps, implemented through emissions trading. Just how the proposed approach would fit with the current (and proposed) diverse regulatory regimes remains to be worked out; they might be replaced to the greatest extent feasible, or they might be overlaid by the framework of emissions caps. This book summarises the most recent evaluation of the status and trends in our nation's air quality. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

As pollution from cars, trucks, and land-based stationary sources has been more tightly controlled over the last 40 years, the contribution of ships and port operations to air pollution in port cities has become more important. In the same period, foreign trade has grown dramatically; thus, pollution from shipping and port operations would be growing as a percentage of total emissions, even if the emissions were regulated to the same degree as other sectors. This book provides information regarding pollution from ships and port facilities and discusses some of the measures being implemented and considered by local, state, and federal regulatory agencies. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Nationally-recognised studies and our contacts with a diverse group of industry representatives, non-governmental organisations, and academic researchers show that key barriers to CCS deployment include (1) underdeveloped and costly CO2 capture technology and (2) regulatory and legal uncertainties over CO2 capture, injection, and storage. Among the key technological barriers are a lack of experience in capturing significant amounts of CO2 from power plants and the significant cost of capturing CO2, particularly from existing coal-fired power plants, which are the single largest source of CO2 emissions in the United States. Compounding these technological issues are regulatory and legal uncertainties, including uncertainty regarding liability for CO2 leakage and ownership of CO2 once injected. According to the IPCC, the National Academy of Sciences, and other knowledgeable authorities, another barrier is the absence of a national strategy to control CO2 emissions (emissions trading plan, CO2 emissions tax, or other mandatory control of CO2 emissions), without which the electric utility industry has little incentive to capture and store its CO2 emissions. Moreover, according to key agency officials, the absence of a national strategy has also deterred their agencies from addressing other important practical issues, such as resolving how stored CO2 would be treated in a future CO2 emissions trading plan.

As part of its mission to protect human health and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) enforcement office maintains civil and criminal enforcement programs to help enforce the requirements of major federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. EPA's civil and criminal enforcement programs work with the Department of Justice (DOJ), and in some cases States, to take legal actions to bring polluters into compliance with federal laws. While civil enforcement actions require polluters to pay penalties and take other corrective actions, criminal enforcement actions may also include imprisonment. EPA estimates that these efforts achieved commitments to reduce 3.9 billion pounds of pollutants in the environment, primarily from air and water. EPA also assessed more than $195 million in civil and criminal fines and restitution during FY2008. Nevertheless, non-compliance with federal pollution control laws remains a continuing concern. This book focuses on the EPA's vow to pursue civil and criminal violations of environmental laws. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Fly ash is one of the residues generated in the combustion of coal. Fly ash is generally captured from the chimneys of coal-fired power plants, and is one of two types of ash that jointly are known as coal ash; the other, bottom ash, is removed from the bottom of coal furnaces. Depending upon the source and makeup of the coal being burned, the components of fly ash vary considerably, but all fly ash includes substantial amounts of silicon dioxide (SiO2) (both amorphous and crystalline) and calcium oxide (CaO). Toxic constituents include arsenic, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, chromium VI, cobalt, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, thallium, and vanadium, along with dioxins and PAH compounds. In the past, fly ash was generally released into the atmosphere, but pollution control equipment mandated in recent decades now require that it be captured prior to release. In the US, fly ash is generally stored at coal power plants or placed in landfills. About 43 percent is recycled, often used to supplement Portland cement in concrete production. It is increasingly finding use in the synthesis of geopolymers and zeolites.

Industrial pollution occurs when the waste from industries are directly dumped into surrounding water bodies and open lands which causes various types of pollution. The related economic and health costs and effects are constantly increasing and constantly being evaluated. This book presents recent research in the field.

An in-depth look at the most promising technology for metal remediation.

With current cleanup methodologies offering no real solution to the serious environmental implications of toxic metal contamination, there is a growing need among remediation professionals for effective, affordable, nonpolluting alternatives to energy-intensive engineering processes. This book presents one such promising alternative–the extraordinary new technology of phytoremediation.

Through first-rate contributions from the top scientists in the field, Phytoremediation of Toxic Metals surveys worldwide pioneering efforts in the use of plants to treat contamination of such metals as lead, cadmium, chromium, and even radionuclides. The authors explore all major aspects of the technology–how it utilizes the metal-accumulating properties of selected or engineered plants to remove toxic metals from soils and water, how to transfer knowledge from the laboratory to the field, and what methods are most viable for commercial application. Complete, state-of-the-art coverage includes:

• The economic advantages of plant-based technology
• Regulatory considerations for future phytoremediation
• Phytoextraction, phytostabilization, and phytofiltration of toxic metals
• Photostabilization of metals using hybrid poplar trees
• Phytovolatilization for the special case of mercury and selenium
• The biological mechanisms of metal-accumulating plants

Membrane technology has received great popularity in many industrial sectors and significantly enhanced our abilities to restructure production processes, protect the environment and public health, and provide competitive strategies for separation and purification. However, the need for sustainable development has imposed new targets for this technology, such as more effective/precise separation and stricter admissible limits for the discharge of contaminants into the environment. Focusing on hot topic environment-related applications, Advances in Functional Separation Membranes introduces emerging membranes nanoengineered with attractive functions and discusses their key features. It also provides a comprehensive guide to various design strategies for such functional membranes, making it useful reference for environmental chemists and membrane engineers alike.

This new book is devoted to leading-edge research on environmental biodegradation which is the destruction of organic compounds by microorganisms. Microorganisms, particularly bacteria, are responsible for the decomposition of both natural and synthetic organic compounds in nature. Mineralisation results in complete conversion of a compound to its inorganic mineral constituents (for example, carbon dioxide from carbon, sulphate or sulphide from organic sulphur, nitrate or ammonium from organic nitrogen, phosphate from organophosphates, or chloride from organochlorine). Since carbon comprises the greatest mass of organic compounds, mineralisation can be considered in terms of CO2 evolution. Radioactive carbon-14 (14C) isotopes enable scientists to distinguish between mineralisation arising from contaminants and soil organic matter. However, mineralisation of any compound is never 100% because some of it (10-40% of the total amount degraded) is incorporated into the cell mass or products that become part of the amorphous soil organic matter, commonly referred to as humus. Thus, biodegradation comprises mineralisation and conversion to innocuous products, namely biomass and humus. Primary biodegradation is more limited in scope and refers to the disappearance of the compound as a result of its biotransformation to another product. Compounds that are readily biodegradable are generally utilised as growth substrates by single microorganisms. Many of the components of petroleum products (and frequent ground-water contaminants), such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, are utilised by many genera of bacteria as sole carbon sources for growth and energy.

This volume presents new leading-edge research on environmental biodegradation which is the destruction of organic compounds by micro-organisms. Micro-organisms, particularly bacteria, are responsible for the decomposition of both natural and synthetic organic compounds in nature. Mineralisation results in complete conversion of a compound to its inorganic mineral constituents (for example, carbon dioxide from carbon, sulphate or sulphide from organic sulfur, nitrate or ammonium from organic nitrogen, phosphate from organophosphates, or chloride from organochlorine). Since carbon comprises the greatest mass of organic compounds, mineralisation can be considered in terms of CO2 evolution. Radioactive carbon-14 (14C) isotopes enable scientists to distinguish between mineralisation arising from contaminants and soil organic matter. However, mineralisation of any compound is never 100% because some of it (1040% of the total amount degraded) is incorporated into the cell mass or products that become part of the amorphous soil organic matter, commonly referred to as humus. Thus, biodegradation comprises mineralisation and conversion to innocuous products, namely biomass and humus. Primary biodegradation is more limited in scope and refers to the disappearance of the compound as a result of its biotransformation to another product. Compounds that are readily biodegradable are generally utilised as growth substrates by single micro-organisms. Many of the components of petroleum products (and frequent ground-water contaminants), such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, are utilised by many genera of bacteria as sole carbon sources for growth and energy.

New Research on the Environment & Biotechnology

Biochar for Environmental Remediation: Principles, Applications, and Prospects synthesizes state-of-the-art knowledge on biochar-based systems for environmental remediation. The book examines a wide variety of biochar applications for the remediation of inorganic, organic, microbial and emerging contaminants in various environmental media, including drinking water, industrial wastewater, urban stormwater, industrial and indoor air pollution, and contaminated lands and soils. Researchers, engineers and graduate students will find this to be a valuable reference for understanding opportunities for the use of biochar in environmental remediation as it fills the gaps in existing literature and offers a clear roadmap to guide future research. An increasing body of evidence shows that biochars have potential applications in environmental remediation of contaminants in soils, aqueous systems, and air pollution control. This book uses a systematic approach, covering biochar preparation, properties and characteristics, removal mechanisms, industrial applications, regeneration and disposal of spent biochar, lifecycle analysis, and environmental and human health risks.

Multidisciplinary treatment of the urgent issues surrounding urban pollution worldwide Written by some of the top experts on the subject in the world, this book presents the diverse, complex and current themes of the urban pollution debate across the built environment, urban development and management continuum. It uniquely combines the science of urban pollution with associated policy that seeks to control it, and includes a comprehensive collection of international case studies showing the status of the problem worldwide. Urban Pollution: Science and Management is a multifaceted collection of chapters that address the contemporary concomitant issues of increasing urban living and associated issues with contamination by offering solutions specifically for the built environment. It covers: the impacts of urban pollution; historical urban pollution; evolution of air quality policy and management in urban areas; ground gases in urban environments; bioaccessibility of trace elements in urban environments; urban wastewater collection, treatment, and disposal; living green roofs; light pollution; river ecology; greywater recycling and reuse; containment of pollution from urban waste disposal sites; bioremediation in urban pollution mitigation; air quality monitoring; urban pollution in China and India; urban planning in sub-Saharan Africa and more. Deals with both the science and the relevant policy and management issues Examines the main sources of urban pollution Covers both first-world and developing world urban pollution issues Integrates the latest scientific research with practical case studies Deals with both legacy and emerging pollutants and their effects The integration of physical and environmental sciences, combined with social, economic and political sciences and the use of case studies makes Urban Pollution: Science and Management an incredibly useful resource for policy experts, scientists, engineers and those interested in the subject.

Enough plastic is thrown away every year to circle the world 4 times More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year 300 million tonnes of new plastic is produced every year An estimated 15-51 trillion pieces of plastic now litter the world's oceans 38.5 million plastic bottles are used every day in the UK A million plastic bottles are used per minute around the world 500 million plastic straws are used per year Without big action, at the current rate, pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the ocean by 2050. That is the legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren. Plastic flows into our lives from every direction and most of it is not recycled. Instead it is incinerated or ends up in landfill, where it will sit for hundreds of years, or enters the world's seas where it fragments into tiny pieces to become microplastics - the environmental scourge of our times. Many of us had assumed that governments, brands and waste authorities were dealing with plastic on our behalf. But the impact of shows such as Blue Planet along with national beach cleans and high-profile campaigns have resulted in a collective wake-up call. If there were plans and strategies, they have not worked as we imagined. It would be easy to feel despondent but instead we need to turn our anger and emotion into action, starting by making a big dent in our own enormous consumption. Turning the tide on Plastic is here just in time. Journalist, broadcaster and eco lifestyle expert Lucy Siegle provides a powerful call to arms to end the plastic pandemic along with the tools we need to make decisive change. It is a clear-eyed, authoritative and accessible guide to help us to take decisive and effective personal action. Because this matters. When it comes to single-use plastics, we are habitual users, reaching out for plastic water bottles, disposable coffee cups, plastic straws and carrier bags multiple times a day. If only 12 of us adopt Lucy's 'reduce, rethink, refill, refuse' approach, we could potentially ditch 3K-15K single items of plastic in a year. When we consider our power as influencers - whether at school, the hairdressers, at work or on the bus - we suddenly become part of something significant. So now is the time to speak up, take action and demand the change you want to see in the ocean, in the supermarket aisles and on the streets. It's time to turn the tide on plastic, and this book will show you how.