Abstract:A multimedia fate model with spatially resolved air and soil phases was developed and evaluated. The model was used for calculation of phenanthrene concentrations in air, water, soil, and sediment in Tianjin area and transport fluxes between the adjacent bulk phases under steady-state assumption. Both air and soil phases were divided into 3113 individual compartments of 4 km2 each to assess the spatial variation of phenanthrene concentrations and fluxes. Independently measured phenanthrene concentrations in ai… Show more
“…Given environmental monitoring data and emissions estimates, a multimedia environmental fate model can serve as a costeffective method to describe PAH transport and fate in a particular region, not only helping to elucidate important sources, pathways, and sinks, but also highlighting those environmental parameters and processes that require better characterization through field studies (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Environmental monitoring data relevant to the AOSR can be found in environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports compiled by consulting companies (30), in addition to studies reporting environmental residue levels, such as those mentioned above.…”
Significance
Our study shows that emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons estimated in environmental impact assessments conducted to approve developments in the Athabasca oil sands region are likely too low. This finding implies that environmental concentrations in exposure-relevant media, such as air, water, and food, estimated using those emissions may also be too low. The potential therefore exists that estimation of future risk to humans and wildlife because of surface mining activity in the Athabasca oil sands region has been underestimated.
“…Given environmental monitoring data and emissions estimates, a multimedia environmental fate model can serve as a costeffective method to describe PAH transport and fate in a particular region, not only helping to elucidate important sources, pathways, and sinks, but also highlighting those environmental parameters and processes that require better characterization through field studies (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Environmental monitoring data relevant to the AOSR can be found in environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports compiled by consulting companies (30), in addition to studies reporting environmental residue levels, such as those mentioned above.…”
Significance
Our study shows that emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons estimated in environmental impact assessments conducted to approve developments in the Athabasca oil sands region are likely too low. This finding implies that environmental concentrations in exposure-relevant media, such as air, water, and food, estimated using those emissions may also be too low. The potential therefore exists that estimation of future risk to humans and wildlife because of surface mining activity in the Athabasca oil sands region has been underestimated.
“…Combining the chemical usage data, population, removal rate in WWTPs and a parameterized multimedia model describing the fate of chemicals, the chemical concentrations in the environment can be predicted, and it has been proved to be effective and accurate (Keller et al 2007;Price et al 2009Price et al , 2010aWhelan et al 2012;Zhang et al 2013). Multimedia fugacity models are well established, well documented and widely used for predicting the environmental fate of different chemicals at various scales (single river scale, regional scale and global scale) (Cao et al 2004;Mackay and Paterson 1991;Prevedouros et al 2004;Tan et al 2007;Tao et al 2003;Wang et al 2012). We have successfully modelled environmental fate for TCS in Dongjiang River basin ) and for seven steroids in whole China .…”
This study aimed to investigate the emission and multimedia fate as well as potential risks of triclosan (TCS) in all of 58 basins in China. The results showed that the total usage of TCS in whole China was 100 t/year, and the discharge to the receiving environment was estimated to be 66.1 t/year. The predicted TCS concentrations by the level III fugacity model were within an order of magnitude of the reported measured concentrations. TCS (90.8 %) was discharged into the water compartment and 9.2 % to the soil compartment. The TCS concentration levels in east China were found generally higher than in west China. In addition, the input flux for TCS to seawater was largely attributed to the seasonal variations in advection flows. Preliminary risk assessment showed that medium to high ecological risks for TCS would be expected in the eastern part of China due to the high population density.
“…How may the dynamic processes of PAH accumulation in urban soils be tracked over the time of development? Mathematical models might be employed to envision fates, transport, interactions, spatial distribution and potential risk of pollutants persisting in the environment (KuboĆĄovĂĄ et al, 2009;Poggio et al, 2008;Tao et al, 2003;Wania and McLachlan, 2001). Environmental models designed for some specific purposes would be less effective in other research fields, such as fugacity models were expert in modeling pollutants partitioning between media (Mackay, 2001), GIS-based watershed model were suitable for modeling pollutants transport and distribution with water flows (Galv an et al, 2009), and mechanism models were commonly employed for predicting a specific environmental process of pollutants in the environment, e.g.…”
a b s t r a c tWe investigated the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contents in 68 soils samples collected at housing developments that represent different length of development periods across Beijing. Based on the data, we derived a mass balanced mathematical model to simulate the dynamics of PAH accumulations in urban soils as affected by the urban developments. The key parameters were estimated by fitting the modified mass balance model to the data of PAH concentrations vs. building age of the sampling green area. The total PAH concentrations would increase from the baseline of 267 ng g Ă1 to 3631 ng g Ă1 during the period of 1978e2048. It showed that the dynamic changes in the rates of accumulations of light and heavy PAH species were related to the shifting of sources of fuels, combustion efficiencies, and amounts of energy consumed during the course of development.
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