• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.239-247
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• 2008

Objective of this study was to investigate residual the levels of heavy metals in rice grain and soils of "Top-Rice" and common rice cultivation areas from 2005 to 2007. Soil and rice grain samples were taken from 33 "Top-rice" areas and neighboring paddies, and analyzed for the elements using ICP-OES and ICP-TOF-MS after acid digestion. A concentration of arsenic in paddy soil was 1.33 mg/kg which was below 1/5-1/11 fold of the threshold levels(concern: 4 mg/kg, action: 10 mg/kg), and paddy soil was 0.06 mg/kg of Cd(cadmium) being below 1/25-1/67 fold of the limits(concern: 1.5 mg/kg, action: 4 mg/kg). A level of Cu(copper) in paddy soil was 4.57 mg/kg which was below 1/11-1/27 fold of the threshold levels(concern: 50 mg/kg, action: 125 mg/kg), and Pb(lead) concentration in paddy soil was found to be a 4.68 mg/kg. In addition, Hg(mercury) concentration in paddy soil was to be a 0.03 mg/kg, which was below 1/131-1/328 fold of the threshold levels(concern: 4 mg/kg, action: 10 mg/kg). The average concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Hg in the polished rice samples were 0.037, 0.043, 0.280, 0.048 and 0.002 mg/kg, respectively. These levels are lower than those of other countries in rice grains. Assuming the rice consumption of 205.7 g/day by total dietary supplements in Korea, the amount of total weekly metal intake of As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Hg by polished rice were estimated to be 0.0892, 1.035, 6.712, 1.161 and 0.054 ${\mu}g/kg$ body weigh/week, respectively. The PTWI(%) of As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Hg were 5.95(inorganic arsenic), 0.26(total arsenic), 14.79, 0.19, 4.65 and 1.07% estimated to be 0.0892, 1.035, 6.712, 1.161 and 0.054 ${\mu}g/kg$ body weigh/week, respectively. In conclusion, it was appeared that the heavy metals contamination in the brown and polished rice should not be worried in Korea.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.255-264
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• 2012

The stabilization using limestone ($CaCO_3$) and steel making slag as the immobilization amendments for Cu and Pb contaminated farmland soils was investigated by batch tests, continuous column experiments and the pilot scale feasibility study with 4 testing grounds at the contaminated site. From the results of batch experiment, the amendment with the mixture of 3% of limestone and 2% of steel making slag reduced more than 85% of Cu and Pb compared with the soil without amendment. The acryl column (1 m in length and 15 cm in diameter) equipped with valves, tubes and a sprinkler was used for the continuous column experiments. Without the amendment, the Pb concentration of the leachate from the column maintained higher than 0.1 mg/L (groundwater tolerance limit). However, the amendment with 3% limestone and 2% steel making slag reduced more than 60% of Pb leaching concentration within 1 year and the Pb concentration of leachate maintained below 0.04 mg/L. For the testing ground without the amendment, the Pb and Cu concentrations of soil water after 60 days incubation were 0.38 mg/L and 0.69 mg/l, respectively, suggesting that the continuous leaching of Cu and Pb may occur from the site. For the testing ground amended with mixture of 3% of limestone + 2% of steel making slag, no water soluble Pb and Cu were detected after 20 days incubation. For all testing grounds, the ratio of Pb and Cu transfer to plant showed as following: root > leaves(including stem) > rice grain. The amendment with limestone and steel making slag reduced more than 75% Pb and Cu transfer to plant comparing with no amendment. The results of this study showed that the amendment with mixture of limestone and steel making slag decreases not only the leaching of heavy metals but also the plant transfer from the soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.59-77
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• 2015

In order to meet the new requirements for landfill materials, this study planned a study to apply mixed soil of mixing bottom ash and coastal dredged soil to the dredged ground. Coal ash generated from thermal power plant is divided into fly ash and bottom ash. In the case of fly ash, many studies have been conducted because small particles causes permeability coefficient to be small during recycling so no problem has been raised in the environmental area but the utilization of bottom ash has been limited because environmental problems have been raised during recycling due to its larger particle size and greater permeability coefficient. According to recently published studies, however, the results of the study that conducted the water analysis of leachate generated in the ground improvement section using bottom ash showed that heavy metal contamination levels were found to be within the reference value and no significant environmental problems were found so utilization of bottom ash is evaluated to increase significantly in the future. This bottom ash has the particle size of sand and only transportation costs need to be considered when providing materials because the majority has been disposed and it is judged as the most suitable material in dredging landfill in the economic aspect because most thermal power plants are located in the coast and transportation costs can be reduced by ship. Also, research on mixed soil that can maximize the effect of the construction period and construction cost savings than dredged soil is determined as needed because the demand for coastal dredging reclamation is increasing such as Saemangeum project etc. Therefore, we studied self-weight consolidation characteristics depending on sample processing and mixing method of mixed soil by carrying out interior self-weight consolidation experiments on mixed soil of mixing bottom ash and Kaolinite according to the new development needs of recent coastal reclaimed ground and these result findings are expected to be used as basic data when applying the large coastal dredged ground in the future.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.3 s.184
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• pp.263-275
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to show the pollution characteristics of hazardous elements from roadside dust in the Gwangju city. We collected 47 samples from November to December in 2004 and separated four groups such as residential area, industrialized area, downtown area and heavy traffic area fer characteristics comparison on hazardous elements. Roadside dust mostly consisted of quartz, albite, microcline, muscovite in XRD analysis. Content of hazardous elements varied: As $3.4{\sim}11.9 ppm$, Cd $0.2{\sim}28.2 ppm$, Co $32{\sim}526 ppm$, Cr $25{\sim}526 ppm$, Cu $11{\sim}375 ppm$, Ni $14{\sim}247 ppm$, Pb $13{\sim}413 ppm$ and Zn $101{\sim}972 ppm$. Average contents of hazardous elements of Zn>Cu>Pb>Cr>Co>Ni>Cd. Content of hazardous elements was low in residential area, whereas that of heavy metal was much the same in both in heavy traffic area. Content of hazardous elements such as Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn was found to be particularly high in industrialized area. According to these results it was possible to presume that industrialized area was affected by industry activity such as machinery, petrochemical, automobile and electronics industry. The SEM analysis, detected Pb, Cr, Ni, and Fe particles in samples of industrialized area contaminated by industry activity. The correlation coefficient table resulted from the samples of roadside dust showed that there was same direction increase of content between elements. In other words, when the content of Cd increase, Cr and Ni increase, as Cr increase, Cu and Ni increase, as Cu increase Ni increase and Pb increase Zn increase. Based on these results it was possible to predict and interpret similar contamination patterns in this study.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.263-271
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• 1995

Chemical assessment of soil pollution with heavy metals was made by analyzing the changes in pH, ionic strength, cationic concentration and chemical species in the soil solution. Saturated pastes of the unpolluted soils were made by adding solutions containing Cu or Cd and the final Cu or Cd concentrations were in the range of 0 to 400 mg/kg. After equilibrating for 24 hours at $25^{\circ}C$, the soil solution was extracted from the saturated pastes by the vacuum extraction method and analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity, Cu, Cd, cations and inorganic ligands. Chemical species in soil solution were calculated by the GEOCHEM-PC program employing the input variables of pH, ionic strength(${\mu}$), molar concentrations of cations and ligands. Increasing Cu or Cd additions lowered pH of the soil solution but increased concentrations of Ca, Mg and K resulting in increases of ${\mu}$ of the soil solution. Effects of Cu on lowering pH and increasing ${\mu}$ were greater than those of Cd. Concentrations of Cu or Cd in soil solution were relatively very low as compared to those of additions, but increased linearly with increasing additions representing that concentrations of Cu were higher than those of Cd. At 400 mg/kg additions, concentrations of Cu were in the range of 0.51 to 11.70 mg/L but those of Cd were 34.4 to 88.5 mg/L. Major species of Ca, Mg and K were free ions and these species were equivalent to greater than 95 molar % of the existing respective molar concentrations. These cationic species were not changed by Cu or Cd additions. Major species of Cu in lower pH soils such as SiCL and SL were free $Cu^{2+}$ (>95 molar %), but those in LS having a higher pH were free $Cu^{2-}$ and Cu-hydroxide complex. At 100 mg Cu/kg treatment, $Cu^{2+}$ and Cu-hydroxide complex were equivalent to 73 and 22.4 molar %, respectively. These respective percentages were decreased and increased correspondingly with increasing Cu treatments. Major species of Cd in soil solution were free $Cd^{2+}$ and Cd-chloride complex, representing 79 to 85 molar % for $Cd^{2+}$ and 13 to 20% for Cd-chloride complex at 10 mg Cd/kg treatment. With increasing Cd additions to 400 mg/kg, $Cd^{2+}$ species decreased to $40{\sim}47%$ but Cd-chloride complexes increased to $53{\sim}60$ molar %. These results demonstrated that soil contamination with heavy metals caused an adverse effect on the plant nutritional aspects of soil solution by lowering pH, increasing cations temporarily, and increasing free metal concentrations and species enough to be phytotoxic.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.756-766
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• 2011

In order to investigate the degree of apartment parking lot dust contamination, total 72 samples of parking lot dust (36 from ground parking lots and 36 from the underground parking lots) were collected in Daegu city from the end of March to the early June 2010. The dust samples were sieved below $100{\mu}m$, and analysed by ICP for 14 elements after an acid extraction. Results obtained from the source assessment of trace element using enrichment factor showed that Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and V were influenced by natural sources, while Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were influenced by anthropogenic sources in both the ground parking lot and the underground parking lot. And results showed that Ca were influenced by natural sources in the ground parking lot, but influenced by anthropogenic sources in the underground parking lot. The measured values were remarkably higher in components from natural sources than in components from anthropogenic sources. Underground parking lot dust was more affected by anthropogenic sources and contaminated compared with the ground parking lot dust. Pollution index of heavy metals revealed that underground parking lot dust was 5.5 times more contaminated with heavy metal components than the ground parking lot dust. The results of correlation analysis among trace elements indicated that components in the ground parking lot were more correlated than those in the underground parking lot, and especially more correlated with natural sources-natural sources. Analysis for correlations between components and influencing factors in the underground parking lot showed that concentrations of heavy metals were higher with smaller number of parking spaces and no ventilation system, and older apartments in last paint and cleaning had relatively higher contents of heavy metals than those of recently painted and cleaned.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 2001

Environmental pollution of the Tohyun mine creek area was investigated on the basis of geology, mineralogy and geochemistry. In soils and sediments of the mine area, ${Al_2}{O_3}/{Na_2O}$ and ${K_2}O/{Na_2}O$ ratios are partly negative correlation against ${SiO_2}/{Al_2}{O_3}$, respectively. Geochemical characteristics of some trace and rare earth elements such as V/Ni, Ni/Co, La/Ce, Th/Yb, Th/U, La/Th, ${La_N}/{Yb_N}$, La/Sc and Sc/Th are revealed a narrow range and homogeneous compositions may be explained by simple source lithology. These results suggest that sediments source of the host shale around the mine area could be originated by basic to intermediate igneous rocks. Mineral compositions of soil and sediment near the mine area were partly variable mineralogy, which are composed of quartz, mica, feldspar, chlorite, clay minerals and some pyrite. Soils and sediments with highly concentrated heavy minerals, gravity separated mineralogy, are composed of some pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, goethite and various kinds of hydroxide minerals on the polished sections. As normalized by bed rock composition, average enrichment indices of major elements in sediments, precipitates, farmland soils and paddy soils are 1.0, 1.7, 0.9 and 0.8, respectively. Maximum concentration of environmental toxic elements in the mine creek are detected with Ag = 186 ppm, As = 17,100 ppm, Bi = ]27 ppm, Cd = 77 ppm, Cu = 12,299 ppm, Pb = 8,897 ppm, Sb = 1,350 ppm, W = 599 ppm and Zn = 12,250 ppm, which are increasing with total FeO increasing, and extremely high concentrations of surface sediments and precipitates near the waste rock dump. These toxic elements (As, Bi, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sb, W and Zn) of the samples, normalizing by host rock concentration, revealed that average enrichment index is 106.0 for sediments, 279.6 for precipitates, 3.5 for farmland soils and 1.6 for paddy soils. However, on the basis of EPA values, enrichment indices of all the samples are 40.7, 121.4, 1.3 and 0.6, respectively.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.325-337
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• 2002

We examined the contamination of stream water and stream sediments by heavy metal elements with respect to distance from the abandoned Backun Au-Ag-Cu mine. High contents of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Mn, and Fe) and aluminum in the waters connected with mining and associated deposits (dumps, tailings) reduce water quality. In the mining area, Ca and SO$_4$ are predominant cation and anion. The mining water is Ca-SO$_4$ type and is enriched in heavy metals resulted from the weathering of sulfide minerals. This mine drainage water is weakly acid or neutral (pH; 6.5-7.1) because of neutralizing effect by other alkali and alkaline earth elements. The effluent from the mine adit is also weakly acid or neutral, and contains elevated concentrations of most elements due to reactions with ore and gangue minerals in the deposit. The concentration of ions in the Backun mining water is high in the mine adit drainage water and steeply decreased award to down stream. Buffering process can be reasonably considered as a partial natural control of pollution, since the ion concentration becomes lower and the pH value becomes neutralized. In order to evaluate mobility and bioavailability of metals, sequential extraction was used for stream sediments into five operationally defined groups: exchangeable, bound to carbonates, bound to FeMn oxide, bound to organic matter, and residual. The residual fraction was the most abundant pool for Cu(2l-92%), Zn(28-89%) and Pb(23-94%). Almost sediments are low concentrated with Cd(2.7-52.8 mg/kg) than any other elements. But Cd dominate with non stable fraction (68-97%). Upper stream sediments are contaminated with Pb, and down area sediments are enriched with Zn. It is indicate high mobility of Zn and Cd.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.587-604
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• 2007

In order to investigate the vertical variations and speciations of trace elements, and their correlations in Hoidong reservoir, sediment cores (21-41 cm below surface) and interstitial water samples were collected from five sampling locations. The total average concentrations of trace metals in sediment core samples were $232{\pm}30.8mg/kg$ for Zn, $119{\pm}272mg/kg$ for Cu, $58.4{\pm}4.1mg/kg$ for Pb, $15.7{\pm}3.3mg/kg$ for Ni and $1.6{\pm}0.3mg/kg$ for Cd. The total concentrations of trace metals in core sediments generally decreased toward the center of the Hoidong reservoir. The total concentrations of Mn, Pb and Zn decreased with depth for all the sample locations, while Cu and Fe concentrations increased. The trace metal concentrations of interstitial water sample were in the order of Fe>Mn>Cu>Zn, but Cd, Ni and Pb were not detected. The concentrations of Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn in the interstitial water samples showed a tendency of increasing toward the bottom of the core, suggesting a possible upward diffusion. This migration of trace metals may lead to their transfer to the sediment-water interface. These trace elements would be subsequently fixed onto amorphous Fe and Mn-oxides and carbonates in the topmost layer of sediment. Based on the $K_D$ values, the relative mobilities of the studied metals were in the order of Mn>Cu>Zn>Fe. Geochemical partitioning confirmed that surface enrichment by trace metals mainly resulted from a progressive increase of the concentrations in the fractions II and III. Copper, Fe, Mn and Zn concentrations of interstitial water were closely correlated with their exchangeable fractions of sediments.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.651-660
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• 2007

Acid drainage has been recognized as an environmental concern in abandoned mine sites for long time. Recently, the environmental and structural damage by acid drainage is a current issue in construction sites in Korea. Here, the author introduces the type of damages by acid drainage in construction sites and emphasizes the importance of geoscience discipline in solving the problem. Metasedimentary rock of Okcheon group, coal bed of Pyeongan group, Mesozoic volcanic rock. and Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks are the major rock types with a high potential for acid drainage upon excavation in Korea. The acid drainage causes the acidification and heavy metal contamination of soil, surface water and groundwater, the reduction of slope stability, the corrosion of slope structure, the damage on plant growth, the damage on landscape and the deterioration of concrete and asphalt pavement. The countermeasure for acid drainage is the treatment of acid drainage and the prevention of acid drainage. The treatment of acid drainage can be classified into active and passive treatments depending on the degree of natural process in the treatment. Removal of oxidants, reduction of oxidant generation and encapsulation of sulfide are employed for the prevention of acid drainage generation.