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The occurrence and implications of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and gasoline hydrocarbons were examined in three surveys of water quality conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey?one national-scale survey of ground water, one national-scale survey of source water from ground water, and one regional-scale survey of drinking water from ground water....

A proof-of-concept experiment was devised to determine if pharmaceuticals and other organic waste water compounds (OWCs), as well as pathogens, found in treated effluent could be transported through a 2.4 m soil column and, thus, potentially reach ground water under recharge conditions similar to those in arid or semiarid climates....

A study was done of the effects of a closed landfill on the quality of water and streambed sediment and the benthic macroinvertebrate community of an unnamed stream and its tributary that flow through Blue Ridge Parkway lands in west-central Virginia. The primary water source for the tributary is a...

Volatilization and diffusion through the unsaturated zone can be an important pathway for natural attenuation remediation of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) at gasoline spill sites. The significance of this pathway depends primarily on the distribution of immiscible product within the unsaturated zone and the relative magnitude of aqueous-phase advection (ground...

Thermochemical conversion (TCC) of livestock manure is a novel technology that has shown very promising results in treating waste and producing oil. A batch TCC system that was previously developed successfully converted 70% of swine manure volatile solids to oil and reduced manure chemical oxygen demand by ??? 75%. The...

Volatilization rates of neat liquids (benzene, toluene, fluorobenzene, bromobenzene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, o-xylene, o-dichlorobenzene, and 1-methylnaphthalene) and of solutes (phenol, m-cresol, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and ethylene dibromide) from dilute water solutions have been measured in the laboratory over a wide range of air speeds and water-stirring rates. The overall transfer...

Samples of coals from several coalbeds in Indiana were analyzed for CO2 and CH4 sorption capacity using a high-pressure adsorption isotherm technique. Coal quality and petrographic composition of the coals were determined to study their relationships to the volume of CO2 and CH4 that could be sorbed into the coal....

A combination of cosmogenic and artificial 35S was used to assess the movement of sulfur in a steep Central European catchment affected by spruce die-back. The Jezer??i?? catchment, Krus??ne?? Hory Mts. (Czech Republic) is characterized by a large disproportion between atmospheric S input and S output via stream discharge, with...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected or compiled data on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in samples of untreated ground water from 1,926 rural private wells during 1986 to 1999. At least one VOC was detected in 12 percent of samples from rural private wells. Individual VOCs were not commonly detected...

Contaminant-transport processes are being investigated at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amargosa Desert Research Site (A DRS), adjacent to the Nation’s first commercial disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste. Gases containing tritium and radiocarbon are migrating through a 110-m thick unsaturated zone from unlined trenches that received waste from 1962 to...

To provide a better characterization of origin and volume of thermogenic gas generation from coals, hydrous pyrolysis experiments were conducted at 360??C for 72 h on Polish coals ranging in rank from lignite (0.3% R r) to semi-anthracite (2.0% Rr). Under these conditions, the lignites attained a medium-volatile bituminous rank...

Basaltic glass grains from the submarine south flank of Kı̄lauea, Hawai′i, have Cl concentrations of 0.01–1.68 wt%, the latter being the highest Cl content yet recorded for a Hawaiian glass. The high-Cl glass grains are products of brine assimilation by tholeiite magma. The glasses are grains in a sandstone clast...

Since 1997, 15 cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia and one case of acute myelocytic leukemia have been diagnosed in children and teenagers who live, or have lived, in an area centered on the town of Fallon, Nevada. The expected rate for the population is about one case every five years....

The influences of spiked Zn concentrations (1–40 μmol/g) and equilibration time (˜ 95 d) on the partitioning of Zn between pore water (PW) and sediment were evaluated with estuarine sediments containing two levels (5 and 15 μmol/g) of acid volatile sulfides (AVS). Their influence on Zn...

Mineralogy, coal chemistry and 21 potentially hazardous trace elements (PHTEs) of 44 coal samples from the Qianxi Fault Depression Area (QFDA) in southwestern Guizhou province, China have been systematically studied. The major minerals in coals studied are quartz, kaolinite, illite, pyrite, calcite, smectite, marcasite and accessory minerals, including rutile, dolomite,...

Ancient wet aeolian (wet-sabkha) environments on Earth, represented in the Entrada and Navajo sandstones of Utah, contain pipe structures considered to be the product of gas/water release under pressure. The sediments originally had considerable porosity allowing the ingress of living plant structures, microorganisms, clay minerals, and fine-grained primary minerals of...

Effects of inhalation of volatilized trichloroethylene (TCE) or perchloroethylene (PCE) were assessed based on the health and population size of wild, burrowing mammals at Edwards Air Force Base (CA, USA). Organic soil-vapor concentrations were measured at three sites with aquifer contamination of TCE or PCE of 5.5 to 77 mg/L...

Uncontrolled release of pollutants from burning coal beds and waste banks presents potential environmental and human health hazards. On a global scale, the emissions of large volumes of greenhouse gases from burning coal beds may contribute to climate change that alters ecosystems and patterns of disease occurrence. On regional and...

The fate of volatile organic compounds was evaluated in a wastewater-dependent constructed wetland near Phoenix, AZ, using field measurements and solute transport modeling. Numerically based volatilization rates were determined using inverse modeling techniques and hydraulic parameters established by sodium bromide tracer experiments. Theoretical volatilization rates were calculated...

Bed-sediment and/or fish samples were collected from 27 sites around the island of Oahu (representing urban, agricultural, mixed, and forested land use) to determine the occurrence and distribution of hydrophobic organic compounds including organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Of the 28 organochlorine compounds analyzed in...

The Yanzhou mining area in west Shandong Province, China contains coals of Permian and Carboniferous age. The 31 and 32 seams of the Permian Shanxi Formation and seams 6, 15-17 of the Carboniferous Taiyuan Formation were analyzed for coal petrology, mineralogy and geochemical parameters. The parameters indicate that the coal...

The quality of shallow groundwater in urban areas was investigated by sampling 518 monitoring wells between 1996 and 2002 as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. Well networks were installed primarily in new residential/commercial areas less than about 30 years old (17 studies) and...

The Tombstone, Mayo and Tungsten plutonic suites of granitic intrusions, collectively termed the Tombstone-Tungsten Belt, form three geographically, mineralogically, geochemically and metallogenically distinct plutonic suites. The granites (sensu lato) intruded the ancient North American continental margin of the northern Canadian Cordillera as part of a single magmatic episode in the...

Thirty interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) images, spanning various intervals during 1992–2000, document coeruptive and posteruptive deformation of the 1992–1993 eruption on Seguam Island, Alaska. A procedure that combines standard damped least squares inverse methods and collective surfaces, identifies three dominant amorphous clusters of deformation point sources. Predictions generated from...

The individual maceral chemistries of two Pennsylvanian, high volatile bituminous coals, the Danville Coal Member (Dugger Formation, R o=0.55%) and the Lower Block Coal Member (Brazil Formation, R o=0.56%) of Indiana, were investigated using electron microprobe and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) techniques, with the purpose of understanding differences in...