Since the 1980s, advances in wastewater treatment technology have led to considerably improved surface water quality in the urban areas of many high income countries. However, trace concentrations of organic wastewater-associated contaminants may still pose a key environmental hazard impairing the ecological quality of surface waters. To identify key impact factors, we analyzed the effects of a...

Hairy root cultures are shown to be suitable experimental systems to screen higher plants for tolerance to various inorganic and organic pollutants, and for determining the role of the root matrix in the uptake and further metabolism of contaminants. A number of clones were obtained by infection of carrot tissues with Agrobacterium rhizogenes and two (the fastest and the slowest growing root cl...

surface waters, especially natural rivers always act as receiving waters for various kinds oforganic contaminants from municipal and industrial wastewaters, agricultural activities, organic chemicals inuse, non-point source pollutions. due to their toxicity, persistency and wide diffusion, polychlorinatedbiphenyls (pcbs), pesticides, phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pah) and their ...

Irrigation with distillery effluent, besides influencing crop yield, may have considerable impact on physical properties of soil because of its high salt and organic carbon contents. This experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effect of distillery effluent on hydraulic conductivity of a sandy loam alluvial soil and compare the effect of inorganic salts of potassium (K) with that of di...

Production of dioxin during the smoldering of wood char containing chromated copper arsenate (CCA) was investigated. Preliminary results are presented for the smoldering of treated wood char at 300 and 400°C, as a function of char loading, smoldering time and inlet oxygen concentrations. PCDF (mainly Cl4DF) were the preferred products of smoldering, and the results indicate the dependence of PC...

Recent demonstrations of the removal and immobilization of inorganic contaminants by microbial transformations, sorption and mineralization show the potential of both natural and engineered microbes as bioremedial tools. Demonstrations of microbe-mediated mineral formation in biofilms implicate this mode of microbial life in geological evolution and remediation of inorganic contaminants.

Title of Document: MODELING THE IMPACT OF SEDIMENT RESUSPENSION AND FLOCCULATION ON THE FATE OF POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS. Chihwei Chang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Directed By: Professor Joel E Baker, University of Maryland, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) are important pollutants in urban estuaries. HOCs include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), p...

Biochars are biological residues combusted under low oxygen conditions, resulting in a porous, low density carbon rich material. Their large surface areas and cation exchange capacities, determined to a large extent by source materials and pyrolysis temperatures, enables enhanced sorption of both organic and inorganic contaminants to their surfaces, reducing pollutant mobility when amending con...