• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-181
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• 2003

Eleven bacterial strains which are able to utilize terephthalic acid as a carbon and an energy source for growth were isolated from the soil of 7 water quality evaluation points in Kyonggi area of Korea. Phthalic acid isomer degrading activity of the isolates from the 4 contaminated points was higher than those from the 3 clean points. Among 11 isolates, 4 isolates which have high terephthalic acid degrading activity and degrade two phthalic acid isomers were identified by partal 16S rDNA sequence determination. One of them was identified as Pseudomonas putida, and the others as Comamonas testosteroni. Thus a large number of phthalic acid isomer degrading bacteria in domestic soil were inferred as C. testosteroni. On the basis of these results, the PCR detection of C. testosteroni in soil was applied to monitor soil contamination by phthalic acid isomers. The DNA of C. test-osteroni extracted from 4 g soil was directly detected by PCR with C. testosteroni specific primer pair. The amount of PCR products was different according to sampling sites and more PCR products were obtained from contaminated sites than those from clean sites (Gulpo-chun＞Anyang-chun＞Hwangguji-chun>Shin-chun＞Huk-chun＞Pukhan-river>Kapyeong-chun). This result was coincided with that of the viable cell counts for terephthalic acid degrading bacteria.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-35
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• 2007

In the last decades, the decrease in biological or chemical availability of sorbed contaminants as contact time passed, is generally accepted. This phenomenon so called as "aging" or "sequestration" is known to directly affect risk of the contaminats. This was observed for mainly for hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs), but also reported for heavy metals. Aging is known to be directly related to sorption-desorption hysteresis, irreversible sorption, desorption-resistance, nonequilibrium sorption, etc. The decrease in bioavailability due to aging or sequestration indicates realistic decrease in risk potential. Recently a risk-based management concept by scientific evidences but not the simple measurement of contaminant concentration has been attempted to determine environmentally acceptable remedial endpoint. This is because selection of remedial endpoint based on not total concentration but the bioavailability and toxicity of contaminants can reduce both the treatment cost and remedial activities of the contaminated sites. The bioavailability and toxicity of the residual contaminants are highly affected by the fate and transport and also directly affect the exposure pathways and bioaccumulation of contaminants in the living biota. In this paper, scientific feasibility on the risk-based clean-up and management of contaminated sites is reviewed.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.83-93
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• 2006

In heavily industrialized areas, soil sites are contaminated with high concentrations of heavy metals. These pollutants are highly accumulated to the human body through the food web and cause serious diseases. To remove heavy metals from the soil, a potential strategy is the environmental friendly and cost effective phytoremediation. For the enhancement of remediation efficiency, the symbiotic interaction between the plant and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has been attended. In this review, the interaction of the plant and PGPR in the heavy metal-contaminated soil has been reviewed. The physicochemical and biological characteristics of the rhlzosphere can influence directly or indirectly on the biomass, activity and population structure of the rhizobacteria. The root exudates are offered to the soil microbes as useful carbon sources and growth factors, so the growth and metabolism of rhizobacteria can be promoted. PGPR have many roles to lower the level of growth-inhibiting stress ethylene within the plant, and also to provide iron and phosphorus from the soil to plant, and to produce phytohormone such as indole acetic acid. The plant with PGPR can grow better in the heavy metal contaminated soil. Therefore higher efficiency of the phytoremediation will be expected by the application of the PGPR.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: Recent studies using many amendments for heavy metal stabilization in soil were conducted in order to find out new materials. But, the studies accounting for the use of appropriate amendments considering soil pH remain incomplete. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of initial soil pH on the efficiency of various amendments. METHODS AND RESULTS: Acid soil and alkali soil contaminated with heavy metals were collected from the agricultural soils affected by the abandoned mine sites nearby. Three different types of amendments were selected with hypothesis being different in stabilization mechanisms; organic matter, lime stone and iron, and added with different combination. For determining the changes in the extractable heavy metals, water soluble, Mehlich-3, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure, Simple Bioavailability Extraction Test method were applied as chemical assessments for metal stabilization. For biological assessments, soil respiration and root elongation of bok choy (Brassica campestris ssp. Chinensis Jusl.) were determined. CONCLUSION: It was revealed that lime stone reduced heavy metal mobility in acid soil by increasing soil pH and iron was good at stabilizing heavy metals by supplying adsorption sites in alkali soil. Organic matter was a good source in terms of supplying nutrients, but it was concerning when accounting for increasing metal availability.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.34-45
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• 2014

A variety of physical, chemical, and microbiological techniques have been developed to deal with soil and groundwater contamination. However, in the presence of the large portion of soil micro-environments, contaminant rebound and/or tailing have been frequently reported. Case study of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) removal by full-scale land farming showed that contaminant rebound and/or tailing occurred in 9 out of total 21 cases and subsequently resulted in problems of a long term operation to satisfy TPH guidelines of contaminated soil and groundwater. The main cause of contaminant rebound and tailing is considered to be the strong interactions between contaminants and micro-environments including micro-particles, micro-pores, and organic matter. Thus, this study reviewed the effects of soil micro-environments of soil and groundwater on the removal efficiency for both heavy metals and petroleum contaminants. In addition, the various methods of sampling, analysis, and assessment of soil micro-environments were evaluated. Thorough understanding of the effects of soil micro-environments on contaminant removal will be essential to achieve a cost-effective and efficient solution to contaminated sites.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.5 s.72
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• pp.826-833
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• 2005

This study was conducted to inform basic data for management of abandoned mine that was based on soil heavy metal concentration of the non-rearing and the rearing sites in Guundong Mine which had been completed of improve contamination soils, and examined into standard plant which had tolerances about pollution that analyzed into its accumulated heavy metals contents in the wild plant of naked soil. Consider form the result of contents by depth of soils heavy metals in the non-rearing sites, S1 point judged by contaminated to heavy metals of tailing leach after weathering caused by rainfall and permeate in S1 point soils when restored rest of tailing in 1996 restoration project. Lead of S2 point was not contaminated seriously by restoration and S3 point considered that heavy metals which leach by rainfall in the contaminated soils in mine vicinity accumulated in the abandoned paddy through river When heavy metals of rearing sites soils were examined from the view point of upside of mine point (SP1, SP2, and SP3) of same above the sea level, zinc (537.5 mg/kg) content of SP1 point was highest, and copper (535 mg/kg) and lead (141.5 mg/kg) in the SP3 point were high. To considered as orderly plenty of heavy metals in the plant were respectively in order, Perilla frutescens var. cauta KUDO (SP1 and SP4) >Artemisia princeps PAMPAN (SP2) > Miscanthus sinensis ANDERSSON(SP5) > Vicia angustifolia var. segetilis (THUILL.) K. KOCH. (SP2). Especially, there were plenty of heavy metals in P. frutescens var. acuta, so it judged as a standard plant which have tolerances about heavy metals pollution sites. Therefore, we need more study about the heavy metals accumulate ability of P frutescens var. acuta in future.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.39-46
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• 2008

Due to the growth in industrialization, potential hazards in subsurface environments are becoming increasingly significant. The extraction of the contaminant from the soil and movement of the water are restricted due to the low permeability and adsorption characteristics of the reclaimed soils. There are a number of approaches to in-situ remediation that are used in contaminated sites for removing contaminants. These include soil flushing, dual phase extraction, and soil vapor extraction. Among these techniques, soil flushing was the focus of the investigation in this paper. Incorporated technique with PVDs has been used for dewatering from fine-grained soils for the purpose of ground improvement by means of prefabricated vertical drain systems. The laboratory model tests were performed by using the flushing tracer solutions for silty soils and recorded the tracer concentration changes with the elapsed time and flow rates. The modeling was intended to predict the effectiveness and time dependence of the remediation process. Modeling has been performed on the extraction, considering tracer concentration and laboratory model test characteristics. The computer model used herein are SEEP/W and CTRAN/W, this 2-D finite element program allows for modeling to determine hydraulic head and pore water pressure distribution, efficiency of remediation for the subsurface environment. It is concluded that the coefficient of permeability of contaminated soil is related with vertical velocity and extracted flow rate. The vertical velocity and extracted flow rate have an effect on dispersivity and finally are played an important role in-situ soil remediation.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.8-14
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• 2004

To investigate the optimal operation factors in appling Soil Flushing Process, which use EDTA and boric acid composite as a flushing reagent, to the Cd(cadmium) and Cr(chromium) contaminated sites, Cd and Cr emediation rate was investigated at various experimental conditions; as EDTA concentration was increased from 0.001M to 0.1M, Cd remediation rate was increased from $73.2\%\;to\;98.5\%$; as boric acid concentration was increased from 0.001M to 0.1M, Cr remediation rate was increased from $59.2\%\;to\;99.0\%$. In the experiments using 0.005M of EDTA and 0.005M of boric acid composite as a flushing reagent at different pH regimes, Cd remediation rate was decreased from $92.4\%\;to;80.9\%$ as the pH was increased from 3 to 7. But Cr remediation rate was more effective ($70.4\%$) at pH 5 compared to the other pHs. Furthermore, at pH 5, Cd and Cr remediation rate was investigated at different molecular ratio of [EDTA]/[Boric aicd]; the optimized [EDTA]/[Boric acid] ratio was 0.01M/0.1M for Cd contaminated site and, as the concentration of boric acid was increased over 0.1M, Cr remediation rate was also increased. So the similar results were shown in the experiments using real contaminated soils which were sampled from a mining and a industrial area.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2007

Soil contamination in Korea has been accelerated every year. Because of their persistence and cumulative tendency in the environment, soil contaminants have potential long-term environmental and health concerns and it is estimated to cost enormous expense for clean-up. Korea government has legislated the law on conservation of soil environment in mid 1990s, and managed and treated hazardous wastes in contaminated sites as a remediation policy since then. Soil remediation technologies are classified into in-situ/ex-situ or biological/physico-chemical/thermal processes according to applied places or treatment methods, respectively. In Korea, clean-up of polluted sites has been mostly carried out at military areas, railroad-related sites and small-scale oil spilt sites. For these cases, in-situ remediation technologies such as soil vapor extraction (SVE) and bioventing were mainly used. In recent days, an environmental-friendly soil remediation emerged as a new concept - for example, a new soil remediation process using nanotechnology or molecular biological study and an integrated process which can overcome the limitation of individual process. To have better applicability of remediation technologies, comprehensive understandings about the pollutants and soil characteristics and the suitable techniques are required to be investigated. Above all, development of environmental technologies based on the sustainability accompanied by public attention can improve soil environment in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.325-337
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• 2000

All living organisms depend on soil and water for their sustained growth and development. In recent years, sustenance of life in these growth matrices has been adversely affected by the cumulative increase in environmental pollutants resulting from increasing population, growing economies and resource-use. This review provides a glimpse into the problem of global environmental pollution, the traditional technologies available for remediation and the scope of emerging‘plant-based remediation’technologies. Phytoremediation, the use of plants to effectively remove or stabilize contaminants from the growth substrate, is a low cost and ecologically friendly alternative to the common‘dig and dump’technologies. The field of phytoremediation has been driven by the intrinsic need for identification of ideal candidate plant species. To date, there are only a very few identified plants which satisfy all of the prerequisites for use in phytoremediation. The review focuses on one such plant species, the common horticultural plant scented geranium (Pelargonium sp.), with demonstrated potential to remediate metal / salt contaminated soils / aqueous systems. The characterization of tolerance and metal / salt accumulation potential of Pelargonium sp. and its efficacy in remediating complex contaminated sites are described. The unique ability of scented geraniums to tolerate excessive amounts of multi-metals, hydrocarbon and salt mixtures, and at the same time to accumulate significant amounts of metal and salt ions in the biomass, renders this plant species as one of the ideal candidates for remediation.