• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.248-259
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• 2021

BACKGROUND: Contaminated water was a major source of food-borne pathogens in various recent fresh produce-related outbreaks. This study was conducted to investigate the microbial contamination level and correlations between the level of sanitary indicator bacteria and the detection ratio of pathogens in agricultural water by logistic regression analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Agricultural water was collected from 457 sites including surface water (n=300 sites) and groundwater (n=157 sites) in South Korea from 2018 to 2020. Sanitary indicator bacteria (total coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli) and food-borne pathogens (pathogenic E. coli, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes) were analyzed. In surface water, the coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli were 3.27±0.89 log CFU/100 mL, 1.90±1.19 log CFU/100 mL, and 1.39±1.26 log CFU/100 mL, respectively. For groundwater, three kinds of sanitary indicators ranged in the level from 0.09 - 0.57 log CFU/100 mL. Pathogenic E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes were detected from 3%-site, 1.5%- site, and 0.6%-site water samples, respectively. According to the results of correlations between the level of sanitary indicator bacteria and the detection ratio of pathogens by logistic regression analysis, the probability of pathogen detection increased individually by 1.45 and 1.34 times as each total coliform and E. coli concentration increased by 1 log CFU/100mL. The accuracy of the model was 70.4%, and sensitivity and specificity were 81.5% and 51.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION(S): The results indicate the need to manage the microbial risk of agricultural water to enhance the safety of fresh produce. In addition, logistic regression analysis is useful to analyze the correlation between the level of sanitary indicator bacteria and the detection ratio of pathogens in agricultural water.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2008

In coastal region, eutrophication, Do deficit and red tide are frequently occurred by influx of fresh water. When the fresh water containing pollutants is discharged into the sea, the surrounding water is contaminated by dispersion of freshwater flowing into coastal waters. The prediction and analysis about the dispersion process of the discharged fresh water should be conducted. A modeling system using GUI was developed to simulate hydrodynamic flow and fresh water dispersion in coastal waters and to analyze the results efficiently. The modeling module of the system includes a tide model using a finite element method and a fresh water dispersion model using a particle-tracking method. This system was applied to predict the tidal currents and fresh water dispersion in Mokpo coastal zone. To verify accuracy of the hydrodynamic model, the simulation results were compared with observed sea level and time variations of tidal currents showing a good agreement. The fresh water dispersion was verified with observed salinity distribution. The dispersion model also was verified with analytic solutions with advection-diffusion problems in 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional simple domain. The system is operated on GUI environment, to ease the model handling such as inputting data and displaying results. Therefore, anyone can use the system conveniently and observe easily and accurately the simulation results by using graphic functions included in the system. This system can be used widely to decrease the environmental disaster induced by inflow of fresh water into coastal waters.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.460-465
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• 2018

Deep sea water is deeper than 200 m in depth and maintains cool temperatures. It is clean seawater not contaminated by E. coli and other general bacteria. Because deep sea water is a recyclable resource with high industrial value, activities for commercial use are vigorously developing. We investigated safety, quality characteristics, and mineral contents of prototype products using deep sea water as a substitute for a curing agent and compared it with existing commercially processed products. This study examined the potential of deep sea water as an alternative to curing agent solution. As a result, safety and quality characteristics of processed meat products with deep sea water were not different from commercially processed meat products, but mineral contents were higher in processed meat products with deep sea water. Deep sea water could be widely used as purity salt and purity minerals that can replace chemical substances such as chemical salts. A new, active food market using deep sea water will emerge in the near future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2024

In this study, in order to analyze the water purification efficiency according to the influent water conditions of artificial wetlands, the purification efficiency was compared at two points where sewage treatment water flows in and one point where good effluent flows in. As a result of reviewing the results of the analysis of influent and effluent and the removal efficiency, the T-N and T-P removal efficiency was calculated at 54.7% and 77.4%, respectively, for the two points where sewage treatment water was treated, the treatment efficiency of SS 90.8%, BOD 51.1%, TOC 30.6%, T-N 38.8%, T-P 55.3% was shown. As a result, the efficiency of removing pollutants in the artificial wetland was found to be proportional to the concentration of influent water, and in order to create an efficient artificial wetland, it is judged that thorough review and management at the design stage are necessary considering that the removal efficiency of high-concentration contaminated water was high.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.267-274
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• 2011

The environmental impacts of 95% remediation of a total petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil were evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA of two remediation systems, soil vapor extraction (SVE) and biopile, were conducted by using imput materials and energy listed in a remedial system standardization report. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results showed that the environmental impacts of SVE were all higher than those of biopile. Prominent four environmental impacts, human toxicity via soil, aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity via surface water and human toxicity via air, were apparently found from the LCIA results of the both remedial systems. Human toxicity via soil was the prominent impact of SVE, while aquatic ecotoxicity was the prominent impact of biopile. This study also showed that the operation stage and the activated carbon replacement stage contributed 60% and 36% of the environmental impacts of SVE system, respectively. The major input affecting the environmental impact of SVE was electricity. The operation stage of biopile resulted in the highest contribution to the entire environmental impact. The key input affecting the environmental impact of biopile was also electricity. This study suggested that electricity reduction strategies would be tried in the contaminated-soil remediation sites for archieving less environmental impacts. Remediation of contaminated soil normally takes long time and thus requires a great deal of material and energy. More extensive life cycle researches on remedial systems are required to meet recent national challenges toward carbon dioxide reduction and green growth. Furthermore, systematic information on electricity use of remedial systems should be collected for the reliable assessment of environmental impacts and carbon dioxide emissions during soil remediation.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.23-39
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• 2014

An artificial rainwater reservoir installed in urban areas for recycling rainwater is an eco-friendly facility for reducing storm water effluence. However, in order to recycle the rainwater directly, the artificial rainwater reservoir requires an auxiliary system that can remove non-point source pollutants included in the initial rainfall of urban area. Therefore, the conventional soil filtration technology is adopted to capture non-point source pollutants in an economical and efficient way in the purification system of artificial rainwater reservoirs. In order to satisfy such a demand, clogging characteristics of the sand filter layers with different grain-size distributions were studied with real non-point source pollutants. For this, a series of lab-scale chamber tests were conducted to make a prediction model for removal of non-point source pollutants, based on the clogging theory. The laboratory chamber experiments were carried out by permeating two types of artificially contaminated water through five different types of sand filter layers with different grain-size distributions. The two artificial contaminated waters were made by fine marine-clay particles and real non-point source pollutants collected from motorcar roads of Seoul, Korea. In the laboratory chamber experiments, the concentrations of the artificial contaminated water were measured in terms of TSS (Total Suspended Solids) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and compared with each other to evaluate the performance of sand filter layers. In addition, the accumulated weight of pollutant particles clogged in the sand filter layers was estimated. This paper suggests a prediction model for removal of non-point source pollutants with theoretical consideration of the physical characteristics such as the grain-size distribution and composition, and change in the hydraulic conductivity and porosity of sand filter layers. The lumped parameter ${\theta}$ related with the clogging property was estimated by comparing the accumulated weight of pollutant particles obtained from the laboratory chamber experiments and calculated from the prediction model based on the clogging theory. It is found that the lumped parameter ${\theta}$ has a significant influence on the amount of the pollutant particles clogged in the pores of sand filter layers. In conclusion, according to the clogging prediction model, a double-sand-filter layer consisting of two separate layers: the upper sand-filter layer with the effective particle size of 1.49 mm and the lower sand-filter layer with the effective particle size of 0.93 mm, is proposed as the optimum system for removing non-point source pollutants in the field-sized artificial rainwater reservoir.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.689-698
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• 2021

Since the mine reclamation scheme was implemented from 2007 in Korea, various remediation programs have been decontaminated the pollution associated with mining and 254 mines were managed to reclamation from 2011 to 2015. However, as the total amount of contaminated mine drainage has been increased due to the discovery of potential hazards and contaminated zone, more efficient and economical treatment technology is required. Therefore, in this study, the adsorption properties of arsenic was evaluated according to the adsorbents which were derived from water treatment sludge(Alum based adsorbent, ABA-500) and granular ferric hydroxide(GFH), already commercialized. The alum sludge and GFH adsorbents consisted of aluminum, silica materials and amorphous iron hydroxide, respectively. The point of zero charge of ABA-500 and GFH were 5.27 and 6.72, respectively. The result of the analysis of BET revealed that the specific surface area of GFH(257 m²·g^-1) was larger than ABA-500(126~136 m²·g^-1) and all the adsorbents were mesoporous materials inferred from N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm. The adsorption capacity of adsorbents was compared with the batch experiments that were performed at different reaction times, pH, temperature and initial concentrations of arsenic. As a result of kinetic study, it was confirmed that arsenic was adsorbed rapidly in the order of GFH, ABA-500(granule) and ABA-500(3mm). The adsorption kinetics were fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model for all three adsorbents. The amount of adsorbed arsenic was increased with low pH and high temperature regardless of adsorbents. When the adsorbents reacted at different initial concentrations of arsenic in an hour, ABA-500(granule) and GFH could remove the arsenic below the standard of drinking water if the concentration was below 0.2 mg·g^-1 and 1 mg·g^-1, respectively. The results suggested that the ABA-500(granule), a low-cost adsorbent, had the potential to field application at low contaminated mine drainage.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.173-200
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• 1992

The quality of groundwater in the central part of Taegu City is influenced by upstreams of Sin-stream and Beomeo-stream because the stream waters are main source of the groundwater, and chemical composition of the upstream waters has close relationship with andesite and monzonite in the igneous rock terrain. The pH of upstreams are weak acid ~ neutral in the igneous rock area and weak alkaline in the sedimentary rock area. Contents of $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ in the streams are apparently high, and $Na^{+}$ content is only slightly high in the sedimentary rock area. But $K^{+}$ content is lower in the Panyaweol formation area than in the monzonite area. The contents of heavy metals and $N0_3^{-}$ are also higher in the sedimentary rock area of residential sections and industrial complexes than those in the igneous rock area. The groundwater is contaminated in comparison to the upstream water of the igneous rock areas, and there are some differences in pollution level between the Panyaweol formation area of residential sections and the Haman formation area of industrial complexes. K, Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, $SO_4$ and $NO_3$ contents in the Haman formation area are relatively higher than those in the Panyaweol formation area. But pH is nearly equal in the two areas. The content of heavy metal ions is still lower than the drinking water standard of Korea and only slightly differs in the two sedimentary rock areas. But the groundwater in the Haman formation area is considerably contaminated by Kongdanstream and Dalseo-stream.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.50-56
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• 1994

Fiber-optic biosensor for the detection of organophosphorus compounds in a contaminated water was developed, which was the component of pesticides and agricultural agent. The detection principle of designed sensor was the pH variance induced by a reaction of acetylcholinesterase enzyme inhibited by organophosphorus compounds. The pH variance was detected by the optical system to measure the organophosphorus compounds. Litmus was selected as the pH-sensitive dye suitable to the enzyme reaction and a light source to be detected by the optical system. The enzyme entrapped in Ca-alginate gel was immobilized at the inner wall to maintain the high activity of enzyme and to be reused for a long period. The optical fiber was used to miniaturize and control remotely the sensor system. The He-Ne laser with 632 nm was selected as the light source to prevent light intensity fluctuation by the product. Cheap plastic optical fibers were used as the transmission part of the light and the phototransistor was used as the reception part of light based on the wavelength of He-Ne laser. The proposed fiber-optic biosensor has the linear analytical range of 0 ppm-1.5 ppm with response time of 5 minutes.