Recent advances in analytical techniques allow identifying pesticide pollution in water systems. In small rural communities, the negative effects of pesticide pollution can be aggravated by the lack of infrastructure and adverse socioeconomic conditions. This study investigated pesticide pollution in potential water supply sources in a tomato growing area in Paty do Alferes, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The study selected 27 points where five monthly samples were collected. Pesticide pollution was determined by analyzing acetyl-cholinesterase inhibition. In 19 of the 27 sample points, some pesticide pollution was detected, and in two points the pesticide pollution was above the permitted limits. The results thus proved the incidence of pesticide pollution in water sources in Paty do Alferes that could jeopardize the local population's health.

This study reveals the presence of different carbapenemase genes (bla KPC , bla NDM , bla GES , and bla OXA48-like genes) detected directly from water samples and clonal dispersion (by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE] and multilocus sequence typing [MLST]) of KPC-2-producing Enterobacteriaceae in two important urban aquatic matrixes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, highlighting the role of aquatic environments as gene pools and the possibility of community spreading.

Brazil has been suffering from lack of sanitation infrastructure. Great part of domestic sewages does not receive any treatment before fi nal discharge. This study analyzed water quality in Javary Lake, located in Southeastern Brazil. Over decades, this water resource has been progressively polluted due to the raw domestic sewage discharges from local residences. Most of the organic matter introduced in the Lake was already consumed by organisms or has biodegraded. Physico-chemical and microbiological results from 2007 to 2010 corroborated the 'polluted' status of the Javary Lake, mainly by organic matter. An aggregate analysis of the overall results indicates that they were similar to values typically observed in stabilization ponds. These results support the main assumption of this study, which implied that the Lake has been biologically operating as a stabilization pond for a long time. There is an ongoing public project to clean up Javary Lake. Since 2011, there is no more domestic raw sewage being directly discharged. However, a signifi cant portion of the sludge has deposited on the bottom of the Lake. In 2011, there was an attempt to remove this accumulated sludge. This attempt of sludge removal introduced already settled down organic matter into the water, generating algae bloom and fi sh death. Thus, the sludge dredging operation was interrupted. After this faulty dredging, this study did a follow-up analysis indicating that Javary Lake was still polluted. To reverse this situation, it is still necessary to control the recently implemented sewage treatment system and to dredge the Lake bottom to remove most of the accumulated sludge. Till date, Javary Lake still keeps its 'polluted' status. It is still pending further studies to determine what would be the best alternative for managing the water quality in the Lake and for disposing the sludge.

Bioindicadores complementares à colimetria na análise da qualidade da água: o potencial das leveduras no lago JuturnaíBa/rJ Complementary bioindiCators to ColimetriC assays in the water quality analysis: the potential of yeasts in Juturnaíba lake/brazil marcos tavares carneiro a ; dalton marcondes silva a ; thiago gomes pavoni chagas a ; viviane Zahner a ; marise dutra asensi a ; allen norton Hagler b a Fundação oswaldo cruz (Fiocruz)-Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil b universidade Federal do rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)-Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil PROPPI / LATEC

A presença de matéria orgânica natural (MON) nas águas naturais prejudica o desempenho das estações de tratamento de água, a eficácia do processo de desinfecção e a estabilidade biológica. Consequentemente, pode ocorrer perda da qualidade da água potável em decorrência da formação de subprodutos de desinfecção; do aumento de cor, odor e sabor; e do crescimento biológico nos sistemas de reservação e distribuição. Assim, há necessidade de estudar alternativas tecnológicas que permitam obter água potável para o abastecimento público, atendendo os padrões de potabilidade. Entre as alternativas tecnológicas promissoras estão os processos oxidativos avançados, que envolvem a formação de radicais hidroxila (●OH), altamente reativos, que degradam as moléculas orgânicas presentes em águas contaminadas. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi estudar a aplicação do processo de Fenton homogêneo na remoção de ácido húmico. Foram realizados diversos ensaios adicionando-se quantidades pré-determinadas de sulfato ferroso e peróxido de hidrogênio em uma solução de 30 mg/L de ácido húmico. As concentrações de ácido húmico obtidas após os experimentos foram determinadas medindo-se a absorvância em 254 nm. Nos experimentos realizados, utilizando-se a metade das concentrações estequiométricas de Fe2+ e H2O2, houve uma remoção significativa da matéria orgânica nos quatro minutos iniciais, em torno de 88%.