Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).

Filter Total Items: 3787

Humic substances and trace metals associated with Fe and Al oxides deposited in an acidic mountain stream

Hydrous iron and aluminum oxides are deposited on the streambed in the confluence of the Snake River and Deer Creek, two streams in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The Snake River is acidic and has high concentrations of dissolved Fe and Al. These metals precipitate at the confluence with the pristine, neutral pH, Deer Creek because of the greater pH (4.5-6.0) in the confluence. The composition of t
Authors
Diane M. McKnight, R. L. Wershaw, K.E. Bencala, G. W. Zellweger, G. L. Feder

Evaluation of methyl fluoride and dimethyl ether as inhibitors of aerobic methane oxidation

Methyl fluoride (MF) and dimethyl ether (DME) were effective inhibitors of aerobic methanotrophy in a variety of soils. MF and DME blocked consumption of CH4 as well as the oxidation of 14CH4 to 14CO2, but neither MF nor DME affected the oxidation of [14C]methanol or [14C]formate to 14CO2. Cooxidation of ethane and propane by methane-oxidizing soils was also inhibited by MF. Nitrification (ammonia
Authors
Ronald S. Oremland, Charles W. Culbertson

Comparison of purge and trap GC/MS and purgeable organic chloride analysis for monitoring volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons

A combined field and laboratory study was conducted to compare purge and trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (PT‐GC/MS) and purgeable organic chloride (POC1) analysis for measuring volatile chlorinated hydro‐carbons (VCH) in ground water. Distilled‐water spike and recovery experiments using 10 VCH indicate that at concentrations greater than 1 /ig/1 recovery is more than 80 percent for both
Authors
Larry B. Barber, E. Michael Thurman, Yoshi Takahashi, Mary C. Noriega

D4Z: A new renumbering for iterative solution of ground-water flow and solute-transport equations

D4 zig-zag (D4Z) is a new renumbering scheme for producing a reduced matrix to be solved by an incomplete LU preconditioned, restarted conjugate-gradient iterative solver. By renumbering alternate diagonals in a zig-zag fashion, a very low sensitivity of convergence rate to renumbering direction is obtained. For two demonstration problems involving groundwater flow and solute transport, iteration
Authors
K.L. Kipp, T.F. Russell, J.S. Otto

Bioremediation of uranium contamination with enzymatic uranium reduction

Enzymatic uranium reduction by Desulfovibrio desulfuricans readily removed uranium from solution in a batch system or when D. desulfuricans was separated from the bulk of the uranium-containing water by a semipermeable membrane. Uranium reduction continued at concentrations as high as 24 mM. Of a variety of potentially inhibiting anions and metals evaluated, only high concentrations of copper inhi
Authors
D. R. Lovley, E. J. P. Phillips

Determination of selenium bioavailability to a benthic bivalve from particulate and solute pathways

No abstract available. 
Authors
S. N. Luoma, C. Johns, N.S. Fisher, N.A. Steinberg, R.S. Oremland, J.R. Reinfelder

Improved apparatus for measuring hydraulic conductivity at low water content

A modification of the steady-state centrifuge method (SSCM) for unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (K) measurement improves the range and adjustability of this method. The modified apparatus allows mechanical adjustments to vary the measured K by a factor of 360. In addition, the use of different flow-regulating ceramic materials can give a total K range covering about six orders of magnitude. The
Authors
J. R. Nimmo, K.C. Akstin, K.A. Mello

Semiempirical model of soil water hysteresis

In order to represent hysteretic soil water retention curves accurately using as few measurements as possible, a new semiempirical model has been developed. It has two postulates related to physical characteristics of the medium, and two parameters, each with a definite physical interpretation, whose values are determined empirically for a given porous medium. One parameter represents the fraction
Authors
J. R. Nimmo