INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (IJER)
Year:2007 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:11

This is the first report about adverse inhibitory effect of V-Guard and E-Guard gasoline additives against soil beneficial Streptomyces. V-Guard and E-Guard gasoline additives are anti valve seat recession agents used in unleaded gas for old car engines in Iran. They contaminate soil and groundwater by fuel leaks and spills. Streptomyces are of the major contributors to the biological buffering of soil environment by exerting antagonistic activity against wide range of bacteria and fungi. In order to elucidate antimicrobial activity of these additives, they were tested against fifteen soil isolates of Streptomyces and two plant pathogens including Erwinia carotovora and Fusarium solani. The additives did not reveal any growth inhibitory activity against E. carotovora and F. solani, but showed strong inhibitory effect against Streptomyces isolates. The Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against Streptomyces isolates was 1/800 of the original concentrations of the additives. Fuel leaks and spills have the potential to suppress or eliminate the Streptomyces role in the soil environment or adversely alter the balance of soil micro flora. This change eventually would lead to domination of microorganisms with adverse effects on the soil environment.

One of the problems in forest park management, planning, and design is the tendency to consider recreation independent from aesthetic preferences and ecological objectives. This paper presents the findings of an examination of recreational activities in relation to aesthetics and ecological potentials in Siangtan Forest Park in Iran. Although protected areas constitute most of this 591 ha park, it is the most popular forest park in Iran with a high number of visitors annually. The study consists of two main sub-studies: discovering the users' aesthetic preferences based on two different techniques of visual and verbal assessments, and finding users' recreational activities according to a questionnaire and an observation study. The results showed considerable difference between places preferred for activities and those valued for scenic beauty. Moreover concentrated recreational activities often happen in places other than what has been predicted and designed for. The study also reveals that the judgments about forest parks depended on the method of assessment.

Tabriz petrochemical complex is located in northwest of Iran and west of Tabriz oil refinery and mostly produces raw plastics. In this study the implementation of Reduction of Hazardous waste Contact in this Complex with special emphasis on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is discussed. Accordingly different hazards threatening personnel, indoor and outdoor environment were determined. In order to identify hazardous waste generated in different parts of the complex, national, European, environmental protection agency (EPA) and Basel convention standards were taken in to consideration. Considering general frame of risk classified pyramid containing engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment (PPE), a couple of practical recommendations has been suggested to promote the security level. Personal protective equipment, suggested in this study are all manifested according to the Iranian Petroleum Standard (IPS). Despite perfect implementation of PPE method, it is recommended that incident insurance be taken in to consideration as the last mitigation effort.

Due to uncontrolled dump of dried municipal sludge and its use by farmers as soil conditioner and/or fertilizer, an extensive research was conducted in order to determine the microbiological characteristics of municipal sludges produced at three major cities, namely, Qateef, Dammam and Khobar in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Sludge samples were collected, from sand drying beds, twice a season for one year and were analyzed for certain potential microbiological parameters such as fecal coliform and salmonella. The results indicated that municipal sludge produced at the three cities was not suitable for utilization in agricultural activities due to the high levels of salmonella even after 14 days of drying at Qateef wastewater treatment plant. Dried sludge samples collected from Qateef, Dammam and Khobar were found to contain salmonella species on the average of 22, 107 and 127 MPN per gram of dried sludge, respectively.

The study investigated secondary school students' environmental awareness in India and Iran. Nine hundred and ninety-one students were selected through the stratified random sampling technique from 103 secondary schools of Mysore city (India) and Tehran city (Iran). Subjects consisted of 476 boys and 515 girls. They were assessed using the Environment Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM). Results indicate that there are significant differences between Indian and Iranian students in their level of environmental awareness. Also there are significant differences between them in environmental awareness across and within two groups with regard to their gender. Also type of school management (Government and private) is a factor, which can affect student's environmental awareness in both countries.

Being very dynamic, natural and artificial land features are changing somewhat rapidly in over lifetime. It is important that such changes be inventoried accurately so that the physical and human processes at work can be more fully understood Change detection is a technique used in remote sensing to determine the changes in a particular object of study between two or more time periods. This research compared three change detection techniques for detecting urban development, spatially physical extension of Tabriz and its influence on destruction of green Space with landsat TM and ETM+ imageries. Based on post classification comparison and products of two classification maps and initial - final matrix during the period 1989 to 2001, 6743 hectares of building block class increases to 9552 hectares and 866 hectares of this class related to decreasing of Green space class.  

Sludge, which is produced as a by-product of all treatment processes, has considerable potential as a fertilizer and soil conditioner. Many authorities now discharge the sludge after treatment directly to agricultural land in liquid form, while some others dewater and dry it first. In either case, with proper marketing, it is generally possible for an authority to earn revenue by this means, although it is rare for the income to cover all the cost involved. In some industrial sludge the total solid concentration may range between 2000-100000 ppm and it is reported that more than 6000 waste water treatment plants use the conventional sludge drying sand bed. An experimental investigation was carried out to assess the efficacy of solar energy for drying of sludge from pharmaceutical industrial waste over a sand bed covered with glass as compared to the conventional sludge drying over a sand bed as well as to reduce environmental pollution. The two drying beds are constructed in 12cm thick brick wall with cement mortar and have an effective area of 0.5 m2. On the 0.4 m thick layer of gravel and send the sludge layer from pharmaceutical industry was deposited. The Solar Sludge Drying Sand Bed (SSDSB) reduced drying time by about 25-35% as compared to the Conventional Sludge Drying Sand Bend (CSDSB). The rate of evaporation from the sludge surface and hence the drying was a function of solar radiation. The condensed evaporated water was qualitatively analyzed for probable reuse.

Iranian industries are increasingly concerned with sustainable development by controlling their impacts on environment. Iranian automotive industries have begun conducting environmental management within a structured management system based on ISO 1400I international standard since 1997. Iran Khodro Co. (IKCO), the largest Iranian automotive manufacturer, implemented EMS entire the company in 2000. IKCO have found that environmental audits carried out within EMS are non sufficient to provide management of the organization with reliable and verifiable information on organization's environmental performance trend. Therefore, it decided using Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE) for mentioned purpose. To begin EPE process, EPE scope was determined entire IKCO and EPE period was considered 2002-2004. Then, EPE process of IKCO followed the steps as selecting Environmental Performance Indicators (EPls), collecting data relevant to the selected indicators, analyzing and converting data into information describing environmental performance and assessing information in comparison with the Environmental Performance Criteria (EPCs). Tracking IKCO's environmental performance trend over EPE period indicates that considerable progress has been made regarding decreased water, electricity, natural gas and compressed air consumption as well as waste water generation. The results of EPE have also helped to identify several effective measures for further improvement, e.g. environmental training performance and investments for environmental projects. EPE helped IKCO to verify the areas to which the environmental programs within IKCO's EMS had advanced. Furthermore, EPE gave a good idea for providing a basis for any corrective actions in areas which have not made considerable progress or shown deficiency. However, IKCO's environmental performance evaluation is still in its early stages. It is necessary reviewing the EPE process for improvement to conform the appropriateness of the selected EPIs, relevance of EPCs, reliability of data collected, comparability of data between years and companies, etc.

Tehran is located in a valley at the foot of the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran (35 degrees latitude north). Urban expansion in Tehran resulted from a high rate of population growth and rural-urban migration combined with a strong tradition of centralization in the capital. Airborne particulate of Tehran's atmosphere was fractionated in a 6-stage high-volume cascade Impactor. The first objective was to measurement of PM in twenty sites in Tehran areas. Other objectives were to obtain detailed measurements of aerosol size distribution in Tehran's atmosphere during the 2004 at five sites. In all samples the PM is high for stage 6 (0.49 μ m). In Enghelab station mean of PM value (<0.49 μ) is 260.97 μg/m3. The highest PM (10-7 μm) concentration is found 115.12 μg/m3 at the Enghelab station. And the highest PM (3-1.5 μm) was found 40.5 μg/m3 at the Baseej site.  

In the present investigation flocculation of dissolved Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Mn in a series of mixtures with salinities ranging from 1.5 to 9.5% during mixing of Talar river water with the Caspian Sea water was studied. The flocculation trend of Zn (87.22%)> Mn (45.31%) >Pb (39.09%) >Cu (36.58%)> Ni (12.70%) indicates that Cu, Zn, Pb and Mn have non-conservative behavior and Ni has relatively conservative behavior during estuarine mixing. Highest flocculation of metals occurs between salinities of 1.5 to 3.5%. Statistical analysis indicates that the flocculation of studied metals except for Ni is governed by pH and total nitrogen.

Most of electricity is generated by thermal power plants in Iran. Shahid Rajaee thermal power plant consists of four 250MW natural gas and fuel oil burning units that is located at 100 km west off Tehran. As a result of fuel oil burning in winter time, boilers air heaters are washed and cleaned frequently. The wastewater originating from air heater washing contains suspended solids and different dissolved heavy metals particularly V, Ni, Zn, Cr, Pb. Wastewater is then treated in effluent treatment plant by chemical precipitation followed by centrifugal dewatering of sludge. Waste from this process contains significant amounts of heavy metals and is considered as specific industrial wastes that should be more characterized under specific wastes act of Iran. For the first time in Iran, in the present investigation seven composite samples from air heater washing wastewater treatment dewatered sludge were subjected to chemical composition, mineralogy and leaching characteristics studies to better understand the physical and chemical characteristics of this kind of wastes. Regarding fuel oil constituents and environmental impacts of metals the most likely pollutants which would be of concern in this study were heavy metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn and V). Results revealed that mean pH, wet and dry density and moisture content of the waste are 6.31, 1532 kg/m3, 1879 kg/m3 and 15.35 % respectively. Magnetite, SiO2, P2O5, CaO, AL2O3 and MgO were the main constituents of the waste with the weigh percent order of 68.88, 5.91, 3.39, 2.64, 2.59 and 1.76% respectively. Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test results for some heavy metals showed that mean elemental concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn in leachate were 0.06, 1.55, 5.49, 36.32, 209.10, 0.58, 314.06 and 24.84 mg/lit respectively. According to specific wastes act of Iran this waste can be classified as hazardous due to presence of heavy metals and leaching characteristics and should be disposedregarding hazardous waste disposal considerations.