• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.161-170
• /
• 2003

To investigate the characteristics of 17 solid waste landfills in the upper drainage basin of Lake Daechong, the landfill sites were surveyed, the leachate of these landfills were analyzed, and the analysis results were assessed from standpoint of water contamination. Sanitary landfills which are now being operated are relatively well equipped with facilities such as leachate collection, daily soil cover and landfill gas treatment devices. But a few of open-dumping landfills were leaking leachate apparently and were supervised improperly and neglectfully by local governments. Some of sanitary landfills exceeded the COD permission criteria of leachate effluent, and some of open-dumping landfills exceeded SS, T-P, Pb, As, Fe, Mn permission criteria of leachate effluent. To improve the water quality of Lake Daechong which is utilized for supplying drinking water, agricultural water, and industrial water to the great part of Chungchong area, the adequate and prompt measures for preventing Daechong Lake water contamination from landfills leachate is necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.15-25
• /
• 2008

Contamination level assessment of harbor dredged materials is carried out for beneficial use, which generated annually due to port construction and maintenance of harbor channel. The basic purpose of environmental risk assessment was a scientific approach to susceptibility of hazard risk to human's health from different dredged materials. And this paper proposes a guideline of safely beneficial use of dredged materials at both industrial area and residental area, generated from major port execution throughout a sound investigation of their contamination levels. Newly proposed guidelines were in general higher levels compared to both current guidelines of treatment and use of dredged materials and soil environment protection levels. Finally, environmental assessment results of dredged material contamination generated in major ports of Korea for beneficial use based on pre-assessment environmental levels show that some port's dredged materials contain heavy metals such as Cd, As, Cr and Zn, more than base levels which requires more precise contamination investigation. Others were found to be very appropriate for beneficial use.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.119-133
• /
• 2013

In the present study, several groundwater vulnerability assessment methods were applied to an agricultural area of Gumma in Korea. For the groundwater intrinsic vulnerability assessment, the performance of DRASTIC, SINTACS and GOD models was compared and an ensemble approach was suggested. M-DRASTIC and multi-linear regression (MLR) models were applied for the groundwater specific vulnerability assessment to nitrate of the study site. The correlation coefficient between the nitrate concentration and M-DRASTIC index was as low as 0.24. The result of the MLR model showed that the correlation coefficient is 0.62 and the areal extents of livestock farming and upland field are most influential factors for the nitrate contamination of groundwater in the study site.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.143-156
• /
• 2007

This study has researched the management status and the pollution level of water, soil, stream sediments of 11 abandoned coal mines out of a total of 12 within Obong-Dam area except Bukyung mine, which was submerged when constructing Obong-Dam, and selected areas which are in needs to have pollution control facilities in the first place. From the results of examination on the runoff at the waste rock pile and mineheads, the runoff from Sueun mine (pH, Fe, Al), Samwon mine (pH, Al), Wangdo mine (pH, Al), Mose mine (pH, Fe, Al) and Daeryeong mine (pH) exceeded the permissible discharge standards of the water quality, but the water at merging point with Obong-Dam after joined with Doma branch satisfied both Water Quality Standards and Drinking Water Quality Standards. In regard to groundwater contamination, it is found that areas where exceeded the Drinking Water Quality Standards are Wangdo mine (pH), Jangjae mine (pH, Zn), Daeryeong mine (pH) whereas all areas satisfied Soil Contamination Warning Standards of Soil Environmental Conservation Law. When comparing a research result on underwater sediments of branches of abandoned mines to the EPA Guidelines for classification of great lakes harbor sediments, Dongguk Gaerim (Fe), Jungwon mine (Fe), Daebo mine (Mn), Samwon mine (Mn) and Daeryeong mine (Mn) showed mid-level of contamination, whereas Sueun (Fe, Mn), Daebo mine (Fe), Woosung mine (Fe, Mn), Wangdo mine (Fe, Mn), Mose mine (Fe) and Daeryeong mine (Fe) showed high-level of contamination. In addition, contamination levels of underwater sediments in Wangsan and Doma branch where abandoned mine's branches merge together, Wangsan branch showed no contamination at all whereas Doma branch shows mid-level of contamination which reflect the Doma branch is affected by waste rock pile and minehead runoff of the abandoned mines in the Doma branch area. It is concluded that Mose mine and Sueun mine required treatment of acid mine drainage. and Wangdo, Jungwon, and Samwon mines were in need of mine tailing and erosion control work. The Samwon mine additionally required a control system for closed minehead runoff. Although the Samwon mine reached a high concentration of Al, Mn $Ca^{2+}$, $SO{_4}^{2-}$ in the runoff, the levels decreased after it was combined with a tributary. It has been concluded that after further monitoring of the cause of pollution, a preventive measure system may be needed to be built.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.50 no.2
• /
• pp.106-114
• /
• 2017

There is an increasing concern over heavy metal(loid) contamination of soil in agricultural areas including paddy soils. This study was conducted to determine the bioconcentration factor (BCF) for heavy metal(loid)s to brown rice grown in paddy soils vulnerable to heavy metal(loid)s contamination, for the quantitative health risk assessment to the residents living nearby the metal contaminated regions. The samples were collected from 98 sites nationwide in the year 2015. The mean and range BCF values of As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in brown rice were 0.027 (0.001 ~ 0.224), 0.143 (0.001 ~ 2.434), 0.165 (0.039 ~ 0.819), 0.028 (0.005 ~ 0.187), 0.006 (0.001 ~ 0.048), and 0.355 (0.113 ~ 1.263), respectively, with Zn showing the highest. Even though the relationship between heavy metal(loid) contents in the vulnerable soils and metal contents in brown rice collected at the same fields was not significantly correlated, the relationship between log contents of heavy metal(loid)s in the vulnerable soils and BCF of brown rice wes significantly correlated with As, Cd, Cu, and Zn in rice. In conclusion, soil environmental risk assessment for crop uptake should consider the bioconcentration factor calculated using both the initial and vulnerable heavy metal(loid) contents in the required soil and the crop cultivated in the same fields.

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.30-34
• /
• 2008

Recently problems of soil and groundwater contamination occur in major construction sites of highway, dam and railways. Contaminants of oil fuels are also detected in the former fuel storage facilities of railroad station and army troops of transportation, etc. These facilities are planned as the sites of commercial infrastructures after restoration from pollutants by the law of soil environment conservation of Korea. In this manuscript, the contents of soil environment conservation law including soil assessment and restoration technology are introduced. Recent changes of soil environment area are also analyzed.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.659-665
• /
• 2013

Most of dredged soil generating millions of tons per year is treated as a waste disposing in ocean or landfill except some part of recycling. The purpose of this study is to present the prerequisite for the use of dredged soil as a resource and analyse economic and environmental values of the recycling of dredged soil. The analysis of the economic and environmental value of recycling of dredged soil as a resource showed that several trillion won of budget can be saved in construction of disposal area or landfill and that loss of about 50 million tons of aggregates from deforestation can be restored by supplyment of dredged soil preserving a mountain as big as the Namsan(Mt.) every year. In order to utilize dredged soil in more diverse areas as high value of resource, the related domestic laws are needed to be readjusted integrating laws spreaded in different government departments and a special law is prepared and enacted.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.45-56
• /
• 2024

Heavy metals emitted from urban development do not decompose in the soil and remain for long periods, continually impacting the environment. Since the mid-1990s, there has been increasing societal concern in South Korea regarding soil contamination, prompting various legislative revisions to reduce pollution. This study utilizes the Environmental Impact Assessment Support System (EIASS) to investigate projects in the metropolitan area that have exceeded the Ministry of Environment's soil contamination concern levels from 1989 to 2022 and to examine improvements in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The results reveal that the average concentrations of nine contaminants-cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), and fluoride (F)-have all increased over the years. Among these, Zn had the highest relative proportion, with 37.5% of the 40 sites exceeding environmental concern levels. Investigation of 19 specific projects at these exceedance sites showed that only 7 had documented analyses of contamination causes and remediation plans, and just one had contracted additional remediation services, though results from these efforts were found to be lacking. Furthermore, since 2019, a significant proportion of these sites were involved in residential developments, likely due to government initiatives in new city development and extensive housing supply plans. This research emphasizes the importance of public disclosure of the processes and outcomes of remediation efforts on historically contaminated soils prior to project development. It discusses improvements to the EIA by reviewing current legislation and international examples. The findings of this study are expected to heighten public awareness about heavy metal contamination and enhance transparency in soil remediation efforts, contributing to sustainable environmental management and development.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.52-60
• /
• 2010

The stone-dust is an unavoidable by-product of aggregate production, which is produced about 0.8~1.0 million $m^3$ annually. The stone-dust is currently regarded as a hazard material on environment because it is classified as an industrial waste in the Waste Management Law of Korea. At present, the stone-dust is considered as a environmentally hazardous material, and is classified as an industrial waste according to the Waste Management Law of Korea. In this study, we assessed the heavy-metal contamination of the stone-dust on surrounding environments by various leaching tests. Leaching experiments (such as Korea Standard Leaching Procedure (KSLP), Soil Environment Preservation Act of Korea (SEPAK), Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), and Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP)) show that very low heavy metals (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Hg) and CN are leached out, or much less than each regulatory thresholds. The resuts of the leaching test with time in acidic solution (initial pH 5 and 3) indicate that pH-buffering minerals are present in the stone-dust. These results suggest that the stone-dust can not potentially affect adverse impact on surrounding environments such as surface water, groundwater and soil etc..

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.37-45
• /
• 2009

Susceptibility assessment of groundwater contamination is a useful tool for many aspects of regional and local groundwater resources planning and management. It can be used to direct regulatory, monitoring, educational, and policy-making efforts to highly vulnerable areas. In this study, a semi process-based was proposed to evaluate relative susceptibilities to groundwater contamination by nitrate on a regional scale. Numerical simulation based on data from each soil series was done to model water flow within soil profiles that were related to groundwater contamination by nitrate. Relative vulnerability indices for each soil series were produced by manipulation of amount of leaching flux, amount of average water storage in a soil profile, and amount of average water storage change. These indices were designed to convey the trend of leaching flux and to maximize spatial resolution. The resulting vulnerability distribution map was used to locate highly vulnerable sites easily with an appropriate grouping the indices, and was then compared with those from groundwater nitrate concentrations monitored. An excellent agreement was obtained across nitrate concentrations from the highly vulnerable regions and those from the low to stable regions.