Mobility, turnover and storage of pollutants in soils, sediments and waters: Achievements and results of the EU project AquaTerra. A review

AquaTerra is one of the first environmental projects within the 6th Framework program by the European Commission. It began in June 2004 with a multidisciplinary team of 45 partner organizations from 13 EU countries, Switzerland, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro. Results from sampling and modeling in 4 large river basins (Ebro, Danube, Elbe and...

Geochemistry and flooding as determining factors of plant species composition in Dutch winter-flooded riverine grasslands

Dutch water policy aims for more frequent, controlled flooding of river valley floodplains to avoid unwanted flooding elsewhere; in anticipation of increased flooding risks resulting from climate changes. Controlled flooding usually takes place in winter in parts of the valleys which had not been subject to flooding in the last decades. It may...

Comparison of five in vitro digestion models to in vivo experimental results: Lead bioaccessibility in the human gastrointestinal tract

This paper presents a multi-laboratory comparison study of in vitro models assessing bioaccessibility of soil-bound lead in the human gastrointestinal tract under simulated fasted and fed conditions. Oral bioavailability data from a previous human in vivo study on the same soil served as a reference point. In general, the bioaccessible lead...

Validated sampling strategy for assessing contaminants in soil stockpiles

Dutch legislation on the reuse of soil requires a sampling strategy to determine the degree of contamination. This sampling strategy was developed in three stages. Its main aim is to obtain a single analytical result, representative of the true mean concentration of the soil stockpile. The development process started with an investigation into...

In vitro intestinal lead uptake and transport in relation to speciation

Children might be exposed substantially to contaminants such as lead via soil ingestion. In risk assessment of soil contaminants there is a need for information on oral bioavailability of soilborne lead. Oral bioavailability can be seen as the result of four steps: (1) soil ingestion; (2) mobilization from soil during digestion, i.e.,...

Mobilization of PCBs and lindane from soil during in vitro digestion and their distribution among bile salt micelles and proteins of human digestive fluid and the soil

Children can take up contaminated soil via hand-to-mouth behavior. The contaminants can be mobilized from the soil by digestive juices and thus become available for intestinal absorption (i.e. become bioaccessible). In the present study components of an in vitro digestion model were varied to study their effect on the mobilization of several...

Determination of the sulfur mustard hydrolysis product thiodiglycol by microcolumn liquid chromatography coupled on-line with sulfur flame photometric detection using large-volume injections and peak

A selective, direct and relatively rapid method has been developed for the determination of thiodiglycol (TDG) in aqueous samples. TDG is the main hydrolysis product of the chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard. The method of analysis is based on the on-line coupling of reversed-phase microcolumn liquid chromatography and sulfur-selective flame...

The impact of atmospheric deposition of non-acidifying substances on the quality of European forest soils and the North Sea

In the pilot study ESQUAD the impact of atmospheric deposition of three heavy metals (cadmium, copper and lead) and two persistent organic pollutants (benzo(a)pyrene and lindane) on the quality of European soils and seawater has been calculated. Calculations have been made of atmospheric transport and deposition using a detailed emissions...

About the order in aerobic heterotrophic microbial communities from hydrocarbon-contaminated sites

The organizational structure of communities of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria was studied by means of physiological and molecular typing of the members of arbitrary samples of isolates, ASsI. The isolate sample assay (ISA) was applied to three different hydrocarbon-polluted sites: a dry windrow pile for bioremediation of waste oil-contaminated...

Balance of trichloroacetic acid in the soil top layer

Since the ban on the use of trichloroacetic acid (TCAA) as a herbicide in several countries, TCAA is still found ubiquitously in the environment. The presence of TCAA nowadays is suggested to originate mainly from the atmospheric degradation of tetrachloroethene. Our mass balance calculations indicate that this may be true for the presence of...

The grey areas in soil pollution risk mapping: The distinction between cases of soil pollution and increased background levels

The progress of soil clean up in the Netherlands is severely hindered by the lack of common agreement on how to describe the grey areas of increased background levels of pollutants. In this study practical methods are proposed in which background levels are described as distribution functions within map units of comparable homogeneity. To...

Report on the geo-environmental inquiry project, central and eastern Europe

The Commission on Geological Sciences for Environmental Planning (COGEOENVIRONMENT) of IUGS and UNESCO have initiated a joint project to develop a worldwide data base on earthscience-related environmental problems and to assess which geoscientific information is available locally for prevention, prediction or mitigation of such problems. As a...

Trace element concentrations and stable lead isotopes in soils as tracers of lead pollution in Graft-De Rijp, the Netherlands

Graft-De Rijp is a former village of whalers, situated twenty-five kilometres north of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since the foundation of De Rijp in 1612 a mixture of sludge, manure and town refuse (containing Pb-based household artefacts and Pb-based building materials) was used to raise and fertilise the land. Gasworks, coal storehouses,...

A geological interpretation of heavy metal concentrations in soils and sediments in the southern Netherlands

The natural variation in heavy metal contents of subsurface sediments in the southern Netherlands is described, based on a series of 820 bulk geochemical analyses. The detrital heavy metal contents of these sediments show linear correlations with Al as a result of their joint occurrence in phyllosilicates. Anomalous enrichments occur as a result...

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Phytotoxicity of some chloroanilines and chlorophenols, in relation to bioavailability in soil

Soil adsorption and the effect of four chlorophenols and three chloroanilines on the growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) were determined in two soil types differing in organic matter content and pH. Adsorption increased with increasing organic matter content of the soils. Phytotoxicity, based on dosed amounts, was significantly higher in the soil...