• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.48-55
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• 2016

This study investigates the effect of effluent organic matter (EfOM) from sewage wastewater treatment plants on estrogenic activity reduction of bisphenol A (BPA) by UV photolysis. The EfOM and Suwannee River natural organic matter (SR-NOM) as reference were isolated into hydrophobic (HPO), transphilic (TPI) and hydrophilic (HPI) fractions depending on polarity. The specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) analysis indicated that EfOM showed similar properties to microbially derived organic matters with low hydrophobicity, which is different from SR-NOM having high hydrophobicity. UV irradiation upto 3 hr significantly reduced SUVA values of both EfOM and SR-NOM (p<0.0001), depending on the polarity of organic matters. In the absence of organic matters, the relative estrogenic activity (REA) of BPA ($5.0{\times}10^{-5}M$) was decreased from 86% to 63% by UV photolysis (2 hr). However, the decrease of mean REA was from 68% to 37% in the presence of organic matters, which was significantly independent on the type (EfOM or SR-NOM) and polarity (HPO, TPI or HPI) of organic matters (p>0.05). As a result, the reduced REA by UV photolysis of BPA with and without organic matters was 31% and 23%, respectively, suggesting that both EfOM and SR-NOM accelerated the photolytic reduction of BPA estrogenic activity.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.349-355
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• 2010

Electroflotation (EF) was conducted for activated sludge thickening to investigate the effects of sludge SVI (sludge volume index) and chemical conditioning. Return sludge samples were used for the experiment, which were collected from municipal wastewater treatment plants. The performance of sludge thickening was significantly dependent on sludge SVI. For the sludges with SVI values in a range from 50 to about 150 mL/g, the maximum float content decreased rapidly from 8.4 to 3.5% and flotation compressibility followed the same pattern. In cases of sludges with SVI higher than 150 mL/g, those results showed low content levels without large changes. Gas/solids ratio tended to increase with an increase in SVI. When polyelectrolyte was added into sludges for the conditioning, compressibility increased up to 75% and gas/solids ratio was reduced up to about 35% under the condition of microbubble production rate of 530 mL/h, however, there was no consistent effect of chemical conditioning on the maximum float solids content; some cases were positive but the others negative. It was expected that the optimum dose of electrolyte depends on sludge SVI and an excessive chemical dose causes a performance deterioration of flotation thickening.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.319-323
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• 2007

The Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) is being increasingly used to oxidize complex organic constituents in treated effluents from domestic wastewater treatment plants. Generally, ${NO_3}^--N$ concentrations ranges between 5 and 8 mg/L for biologically well-treated effluents. However, nitrate ions, ${NO_3}^-$, affects on oxidation as not only a well-known strong absorber of UV light below 250 nm of wavelength but also as an OH radical scavenger. The objective of this study was to evaluate the AOP systems for degradation of 2,4-DCP, and to delineate the effect of nitrate ions on UV oxidation of 2,4-DCP by conducting a bench-scale operation at various reaction times and initial concentrations of $H_2O_2$. The experimental results indicated that 2,4-DCP could be completely oxidized by $UV/H_2O_2$ process with an initial $H_2O_2$ concentration of 20 mg/L at a retention time of 1.0 min or longer. Nitrate ions did not show any adverse effect on 2,4-DCP oxidation at this high $H_2O_2$ concentration, and the practical initial $H_2O_2$ concentration and reaction time for the 80% oxidation turned out to be 5 mg/L and 1.0 min, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.206-213
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• 2008

Fish fauna and community structure were investigated at 2003, 2004 and 2006 in Lake Paldang and its inflows. In this survey, we collected 54 species belong to 14 families. Family Cyprinidae take 51.9% (28 species), Cobitidae and Gobiidae occupied 7.4% (each 4 species), respectively. E. erythropterus (11.8%) was dominant species and L. macrochirus (10.2%), designated as an ecosystem-invasive alien fish species by Ministry of Environment, M. yaluensis (9.1%), Z. platypus (7.7%) and R. brunneus (6.7%) were dominated in turn. H. molitrix, C. lutheri, P. altivelis, S. microdorsalis, L. costata. S. gracilis majimae, A. rivularis, P. koreanus. S. scherzeri and O. platycephala were rare species (less than 0.1% in relative abundance). In-lake area, 36 species of fishes belonging to 11 families were collected, and 48 species of 13 families were from inflows. The number of Korean endemic species were 19 species (35.2%), and 4 kinds of exotic species (7.4%), that is, C. cuvieri, H. molitrix, L. macrochirus and M. salmoides were found at this survey area. It was revealed by the analysis of fish community that diversity and richness indices were prominent at tributaries, and dominance index was high at the main body of Lake Paldang. Fish fauna showed rapid decline after dam construction which make the mid-Han river systems to lentic ecosystem, so many of meander-riffle fishes were disappeared dramatically. But after 1990s when installation of small scale wastewater treatment plants started in watershed, the water quality of small tributaries was improved. And also, expansion of the natural macrophytic vegetation of littoral zone should contribute to the development of diverse fish fauna in Lake Paldang.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.559-567
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• 2013

In recent years, NF (nanofiltration) membrane has been receiving great attention for hardness removal and has begun to replace traditional lime soda ash softening process, particularly in Florida, USA, mainly due to less sludge production and easy operation. This study aimed to provide detailed surface characteristics of various commercial NF membranes by performing sophisticated surface analysis, which would help more fundamentally understand the performance of NF membranes. More specifically, a total of 7 NF membranes from top NF/RO manufacturers in the world were examined for basic performance tests, surface analysis, and fouling potential assessment. The results demonstrated that NF membranes are classified into two groups in terms of surface zeta potential; they are highly negatively charged ones, and neutral and/or less negatively charged ones. Their hydrophobicities, measured by contact angle, varied from hydrophilic to slightly hydrophobic ones. The AFM measurements showed various surface roughness, ranging from 23 nm (smooth) to 162 nm (rough) of average peak height. Lab-scale fouling experiments were performed using feedwater obtained from conventional water treatment plants in the province of Korea, and their results attempted to correlate to surface characteristics of NF membranes. However, unlike typical RO membranes, no clear correlation was found in this study, indicating that fouling mechanisms of NF membrane may be different from those of typical RO membranes, and both cake deposition and pore blocking mechanisms should be considered simultaneously.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 2016

Background: Little is known about how chemical water quality is associated with ecological stream health in relation to landuse patterns in a watershed. We evaluated spatial characteristics of water quality characteristics and the ecological health of Dongjin-River basin, Korea in relation to regional landuse pattern. The ecological health was assessed by the multi-metric model of Index of Biological Integrity (IBI), and the water chemistry data were compared with values obtained from the health model. Results: Nutrient and organic matter pollution in Dongjin-River basin, Korea was influenced by land use pattern and the major point sources, so nutrients of TN and TP increased abruptly in Site 4 (Jeongeup Stream), which is directly influenced by wastewater treatment plants along with values of electric conductivity (EC), bacterial number, and sestonic chlorophyll-a. Similar results are shown in the downstream (S7) of Dongjin River. The degradation of chemical water quality in the downstream resulted in greater impairment of the ecological health, and these were also closely associated with the landuse pattern. Forest region had low nutrients (N, P), organic matter, and ionic content (as the EC), whereas urban and agricultural regions had opposite in the parameters. Linear regression analysis of the landuse (arable land; $A_L$) on chemicals indicated that values of $A_L$ had positive linear relations with TP ($R^2=0.643$, p < 0.01), TN ($R^2=0.502$, p < 0.05), BOD ($R^2=0.739$, p < 0.01), and suspended solids (SS; ($R^2=0.866$, p < 0.01), and a negative relation with TDN:TDP ratios ($R^2=0.719$, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Chemical factors were closely associated with land use pattern in the watershed, and these factors influenced the ecological health, based on the multimetric fish IBI model. Overall, the impairments of water chemistry and the ecological health in Dongjin-River basin were mainly attributes to point-sources and land-use patterns.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.635-644
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• 1994

A mathematical model was developed to predict the concentrations of various nutrients in supernatants during aerobic digestion which is suitable to be employed in small wastewater treatment plants with such advantages as low capital cost and stable process. Significant reactions were determined with observing the behavior of nitrgen and phosphorus, and the model equations were built up in the form of simultaneous differential equations considering Mass Balance. Laboratory batch experiments were carried out at $20^{\circ}C$ and pH $7.5{\pm}0.5$ on the aerobic digestion of waste activated sludge at different solid levels. Nonlinear regression analysis was performed to estimate various reaction rate constants. The developed model can predict the behavior of Biomass N, dissolved organic N, $NH_4{^-}$-N, $NO_x{^-}$-N, and Biomass P, dissolved organic P, $PO_4{^-}$-P in aerobic digestion process. In this study, the results of simulation showed that dissolved nutrients had more effects on supernatants than nutrients in biomass, and phosphorus was more effective on supernatants than nitrogen.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.427-436
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• 2010

A total of 18 surface sediments within the special conservation zone in the Masan Bay were analyzed to investigate the spatial distribution and polluted pathway of polybrominated diphenyl ehters(PBDEs). Twenty-two PBDE congeners were detected and brominated diphenyl ether-209 (BDE-209) among them was predominant. The concentrations of BDE-209 and ${\Sigma}_{21}$PBDEs (sum of 21 PBDE congeners without BDE-209) ranged from 2.32 to 64.2 ng/g and from 0.72 to 8.24 ng/g, respectively. The spatial distribution of both BDE-209 and ${\Sigma}_{21}$PBDEs showed a negative gradient from the inner to the outer Bay, indicating that the source of PBDEs might be mainly located inside the Bay such as streams and an effluent of wastewater treatment plants. It was seemed likely that the major parameters determining levels of PBDEs in the Masan Bay were the distance discharging from their sources as well as the characteristics and movement of sediments due to the flow of sea water.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.704-712
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• 2009

Advanced Phase Isolation Ditch (APID) process was studied to develop economic retrofitting technology, for the plants where retrofitting of common activated sludge process is required. In this study, to evaluate and monitor the effluent water quality ($BOD_5$, SS, T-N, and T-P) and operating conditions (Influent, SVI, SRT, and HRT) as process capable and stable parameters for treating municipal wastewater, a demonstration plant was installed and operated in the existing sewage treatment plant of P city. During this study, the average effluent $BOD_5$, SS, T-N, and T-P concentrations were 7.7, 5.6, 10.8, and 1.6 mg/L. Trend analysis of influent $BOD_5$, SS, T-N, and T-P in APID process were illustrated that APID process need for more strong APID process management on the winter session, such as developing new intermediated aeration mode, operating methods, and managements strategy. At the application of control chart, the signal of uncommon effects at APID process was determined much higher existing control chart tntr conventional control chart in this study. These results indicate that conventional control chart has been collected and determined cleary signal at only stable situation. Therefore, newly developed APID process of dynamic control chart can be one of the useful tool for monitoring and management process.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.590-598
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• 2006

In-situ Air sparging (IAS) is a groundwater remediation technique, in which organic contaminants volatilize into air form the saturated to vadose zone. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of sludge and soil microbial community structure on air sparging of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) contaminated groundwater soils. In the laboratory, diesel (10,000 mg TPH/kg) contaminated saturated soil. The Air was injected in intermittent (Q=1500 mL/min, 10 minute injection and 10 minute idle) modes. For Terminal-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of eubacterial communities in sludge of wastewater treatment plants and soil of experiment site, the 16S rDNA was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) from the sludge and the soil. The obtained 16S rDNA fragments were digested with Msp I and separated by electrophoresis gel. We found various sequence types for experiment with sludge soil samples that were closely related to Agrococcus, Flavobacterium, Thermoanaerobacter, Flexibacter and Shewanella, etc, in the clone library. The results of the present study suggests that T-RFLP method may be applied as a useful tool for the monitoring in the TPH contaminated soil the fate of microorganisms in natural microbial community.