Search results

Hazardous and radioactive wastes are routinely disposed of in shallow land disposal facilities at sites that have undergone environmental remediation. These residual contaminants, which remain on-site in these isolation facilities, continue to pose risks to humans and the environment and represent extremely long-term liabilities that require continuous management.

This paper draws upon the experiences generated from two federal programs established in response to the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) of 1978 and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. Operational issues arising at existing sites suggest that there is a need to better integrate the management functions at contaminant isolation facilities. To protect human health and safeguard the natural environment, more sustainable environmental protection systems are required for the long-term management of residual contaminants. A series of logic diagrams are introduced to improve the integration and management of remedial processes, engineered barriers and institutional controls. These institutional responsibilities need to be monitored and maintained by the appropriate site stewards to ensure continued system performance.

Air pollution is the combination of fine particles and gases in the atmosphere that harm humans and animals. Our objective is to find the various air pollution contaminants and its repercussion on Homo sapiens’ health. We discuss how air quality is measured with the air quality index and measures that help us cope with the consequences of air pollution. To carry out this study, we carried out a systematic literature review to uncover the different dimensions of air pollution and mitigation strategies. From the existing literature and observations of the different data sets, we can conclude that air pollutants have a severe impact on the life of Homo sapiens, causing various diseases such as respiratory issues, skin diseases, etc. Today, we have ample laws, but the need of the hour is to initiate new policies to change the behavioural of Homo sapiens. Our findings will help in decision-making by stakeholders such as policy-makers, manufacturing industries, households, etc. This article will also help in highlighting the need for Homo sapiens behavioural change.

The City of New York was suddenly and deliberately attacked on September 11, 2001, killing thousands of people and leaving unbelievable destruction. Thirty-eight buildings and structures were destroyed or damaged, including seven buildings in the World Trade Center site completely leveled. Almost five years later, two very large contaminated buildings, Deutsche Bank at 130 Liberty Street and Fiterman Hall of Borough of Manhattan Community College, have yet to be cleaned up and demolished. Some 30 million square feet of commercial space was lost. Transportation was disrupted, including the loss of the World Trade Center PATH station, the 1/9 subway line and portions of Route 9A and Church Street. Cars were not allowed south of Canal Street for a week. For Americans this was a terrorist attack and a crime. It was a time for mourning losses and responding to disaster. There was the shock that something like this could happen. And there was more. The destruction of the WTC also posed competing environmental, economic and social threats.

In this paper, we discuss methods to integrate ecological resources, ecosystem services, risk, and the transition to long-term stewardship on Department of Energy lands. Three types of information are required about ecological resources before decisions can be made about remediation, site transitions, and long-term stewardship: (1) the ecological resources and ecosystem functions (such as productivity) present on site and their spatial pattern, (2) the ecosystem services these resources provide to people, and (3) the risks from the interactions between people and these ecosystems. Once the ecological resources and ecosystem services are evaluated, then decisions about future land use, preservation, conservation, or protection of ecological resources within a designated land use can be implemented. Long-term stewardship requires both ecosystem protection in terms of biological resources and ecosystem function as well as biomonitoring to ensure minimal radiological or chemical risk and to inform future management. In some cases, protection of ecological resources may be preferable to cleanup that is physically disruptive, provided land use designation is consistent with ecological protection. In such instances, less site cleanup can prove preferable to more.

Purpose – This study explores the relationship between fish consumption advisories and risk perception, knowledge, and behavior of anglers in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes contain elevated levels of critical pollutants and chemicals. Fish consumption advisories have been employed by health and environmental agencies to increase public awareness and lower exposure to contaminated fish caught in the Great Lakes. However, awareness and response to these advisories is not universal and may vary on the basis of sociocultural factors. Poor and minority anglers may be less aware of health advisories and more likely to exceed the recommended fish consumption limits than white anglers. Relying on health advisories as the primary mechanism for limiting exposure may not adequately meet environmental justice goals to protect the health and safety of all people.

Design/methodology/approach – One hundred and twenty Lake Ontario boating anglers were surveyed. Factors examined include awareness and source of health advisories; level of concern about health risks; and fish consumption rate and risk reduction behaviors.

Findings – Results indicate that ethnicity, age, and education influence awareness and response to health advisories. We conclude with suggestions to better address environmental injustices by strengthening the inclusion of local knowledge and participation in the decision-making and risk management process.

Practical implication – Findings have implications for the impact and future content of Great Lakes fish advisories.

Originality/value – There have been few comparative studies using socioeconomic factors, such as race and education, when addressing awareness of fish advisories and relative risk of toxicity from Great Lakes recreational boat anglers.

Agencies responsible for remediation and long-term stewardship of areas with chemical and radiological contamination are feeling the pressure to increase public participation in decision-making. Much of the literature outlining advice for how best to involve the public in collaborative decision-making implicitly assumes that there is one best design for such processes.

We report on an empirical investigation into what participants in a process to establish a standard for remediation of plutonium in soil around the Rocky Flats facility near Denver, Colorado think about the most appropriate way to conduct such a decision-making process with public participation. Tapping subjective beliefs and preferences with an approach called Q methodology, we collected in-depth qualitative and quantitative data from 12 experienced participants and agency staff. Analysis of these data revealed three distinct perspectives on what would be the ideal decision-making process for this context. Two of the perspectives emphasized the need to link remediation and stewardship planning, while the third was characterized by the view that these are distinct, sequential activities.

Planners should assume that there may be multiple ideas about what is the most appropriate public participation process for a given situation. Continuing disagreement about the need to link remediation and stewardship can be reflected in disputes about process design. Success should be viewed as a function not only of the design features used but also the extent to which the design matches the needs and preferences of the participants.

It is now well-established that good water quality is associated with economic prosperity, reduced incidence on public health and the good functioning of the various ecosystems found in our environment. Water contamination is mostly related to both diffused (agricultural lands and geologic rock degradations) and point sources of pollution. Mauritius has many water resources which depend solely on precipitation for their replenishment. Water parameters which are of relevance include total dissolved solids (TDS), temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved and particulate organic carbon and major cations and anions. The traditional methods of analysis for these parameters are mostly using electrical and optical methods (probes and sensors in the field), while chemical titrations, Flame AAS and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography techniques are carried out in the laboratory. Image Classification techniques using neural networks can also be used to detect the presence of contaminants in water. In addition to basic water quality parameters, the field sensors range have been extended to cover important major ions and can now be integrated with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based models for the prediction of variations in water quality to better protect human health and the environment, reduce operation costs of water and wastewater treatment plant unit processes.

Purpose – This work aims to study the treatment of adsorbant on the increasing liquid hydrocarbon quality produced by pyrolysis low density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic waste at low temperature. The hydrocarbon distribution, physicochemical properties and emission test were also studied due to its application in internal combustion engine. This research uses pure Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and pure activated carbon as adsorbant, LDPE type clear plastic samples with control variable that is solar gas station.

Design/Methodology/Approach – LDPE plastic waste of 10 kg were vaporized in the thermal cracking batch reactor using LPG 12 kg as fuel at range temperature from 100 to 300°C and condensed into liquid hydrocarbon. Furthermore, this product was treated with the mixed CaCO₃ and activated carbon as adsorbants to decrease contaminant material.

Findings – GC-MS identified the presence of carbon chain in the range of C6–C44 with 24.24% of hydrocarbon compounds in the liquid. They are similar to diesel (C6–C14). The 30% of liquid yields were found at operating temperature of 300°C. The calorific value of liquid was 46.021 MJ/Kg. This value was 5.07% higher than diesel as control.

Originality/Value – Hydrocarbon compounds in liquid produced by thermal cracking at a low temperature was similar to liquid from a catalytic process.

The need for long-term stewardship for hazards is widespread and increasing. Many of the largest and most complex sites requiring stewardship are within the U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex, though many “brownfields” and Superfund sites in the private sector have similar needs for long-term care. High cleanup costs and difficult-to-resolve technical challenges are the main reasons why such sites are not being cleaned up to support unrestricted use. EPA policy changes are now redirecting cleanup efforts toward waste isolation and containment-in-place rather than waste removal. This shift is not being matched by a corresponding shift in the conceptual and operational approach to remediation planning. The process logic of cleanup continues to be “single-pass” and linear, via sequential planning and implementation stages that aim to declare sites “cleaned up and closed” once the sought-after degree of waste isolation from the biotic environment is achieved. Instead an iterative and nonlinear process logic is required – one that directs cleanup toward the needs of effective stewardship of the remaining residual contamination rather than toward regulatory standards that support the selected future land use for the site. This redirection of cleanup logic shifts the focus in remediation planning to vulnerabilities and uncertainties associated with long-term stewardship rather than the degree of isolation of wastes from human populations and the environment achieved. Such a shift is needed in recognition that situations of restricted human use of still-contaminated sites are being created that remain vulnerable to failure given the length of time over which stewardship is required.