Showing papers in "Environmental Forensics in 2005"

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present and discuss some of the factors that affect the production (type of fuel, amount of oxygen, and temperature) and environmental fate of combustion-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed practical sampling strategies to reliably estimate mean concentrations of residues from munitions found in surface soil at various types of live-fire training ranges at three military installations within North America.

TL;DR: This article presents a methodology for the evaluation of sample representativeness, a critical component of any environmental investigation, and a complete understanding of the data quality objective process, sample plan design, sample plans implementation, and quality control is required.

TL;DR: In this article, a suite of low boiling sesquiterpane biomarkers (i.e., drimane-based bicyclic sesQUiterpanes) that boil within the distillate fuel range (n-C13 to n-C16; ∼ 240°C to 285°C) are described.

TL;DR: In this paper, the detection of a source of naturally occurring perchlorate in soil and groundwater associated with the Mission Valley Formation in San Diego California is presented, based on existing agricultural soil sampling techniques.

TL;DR: Costa et al. as discussed by the authors described a simple approach to distinguish high-molecular-weight (HMW), 4-through 6-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated with HMW.

TL;DR: Test of Perna perna to oil contamination in the marine environment finds it responds reliably to variations in oil derived PAHs in the environment, proving to be a suitable biomonitor of petroleum contamination.

TL;DR: In this paper, the long-term fate of petroleum hydrocarbons in salt marsh sediments in Wild Harbor (West Falmouth, MA) impacted by the Florida spill of 1969 was investigated.

TL;DR: Fipronil degradates will persist in rice and Crawfish-producing fields, and will continue to worsen commercial crawfish-production for several proceeding years.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on the transport of both roxarsone and some of its degradation products through the air to impact homes near poultry litter-applied fields, resulting in house dust arsenic levels in 29 tested homes ranging from 10.7-130 mg/kg.

TL;DR: In this paper, the goal of all sampling efforts should be to select samples that are representative of the population (i.e., site) in question, with supporting background and theory, for obtaining representative subsamples for the laboratory analysis of particu...

TL;DR: A review of forensic methods used for characterizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and distinguishing whether their source is from the creosote treatment of wood at commercial wood-treating facilities is presented in this paper.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present 13 intentional disposal practices for tar and oil and wastewater at manufactured gas plants (MGPs) and introduce the concept of differential diagnosis, a method used in medicine and in medical/legal settings, and show how this method can be used to help determine if the cause of contamination at MGP sites was accidental or intentional.

TL;DR: The importance of systematic planning and an adequate conceptual site model to develop an appropriate sampling design is stressed and various sampling designs are discussed.

TL;DR: In this article, a description of the processes used in modern aluminum reduction plants and explores the sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at pertinent steps in the industrial process.

TL;DR: In this article, a case study is presented which describes the use of these methods congruently to assess the time frame of a gasoline release and assess whether or not more than one release had occurred.

TL;DR: In this paper, the seasonal variations of NOx and O3 concentration levels were summarized in a monitoring site located in the city center of Bursa, Turkey, where samples were taken between May 2001 and April 2002.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors reported house dust dioxin concentrations for selected homes in Columbia, Marion County, Mississippi, an area believed to be suitable for “unpolluted” dust background data.

TL;DR: The physical and chemical characteristics of NAPL (nonaqueous phase liquid) source zones in the subsurface present substantial challenges to the representativeness of soil samples collected for the purpose of characterizing the source as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: The concept, technology base, success stories, and challenges of microbial forensics and its application in bioterrorism-related investigations are reviewed.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the extent of mesoscale variability and new indices of biological community structure using univariate (Marine Biotic Index; BI) and multivariate statistical methods (PCA).

TL;DR: A broad overview of potential polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) sources from steelmaking and an approach to their source identification can be found in this article, which is limited only to the initial step of steel making and does not cover the treatment and shaping of steel.

TL;DR: In this article, age-dating techniques are available to estimate the time frame of contaminant releases impacting groundwater and one method, historically used in the hydrology field to assess recharge ages and rates of groundwater flow, can be applied to estimating the age of contaminants.

TL;DR: The meaning of "representativeness" is often bound to the environmental context in which the samples are taken as mentioned in this paper, and the meaning of representativeness is often defined by qualitative interpretations drawn from environmental regulations.

TL;DR: In this article, a two end-member model was developed that calculates the fractional contribution of early to moderately weathered distillate fuels to a multicomponent distillation plume to calculate the relative contributions of lighter and heavier components.

TL;DR: The field of environmental forensics is a scientific field propelled by the complexity of today's contamination events and the need to recover investigative and remedial costs, often in the range of millions of dollars as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluated the ability of passive flux meters (PFM) to estimate arsenic in groundwater using activated alumina, which displayed a Freundlich adsorption isotherm with respect to arsenic in solution.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed sampling designs that are probability based, such as simple random or grid sampling, provide the best data for risk assessment because they are unbiased, provide a reliable estimate of variability, and allow statistical inferences to be made from the data set of collected samples.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors combined disparate forensic tools with data visualization software to establish the sources and extent of nine distinct groundwater plumes/product areas and to estimate their periods of release.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the current standards for expert opinions in environmental litigation in both federal and state courts, including a recent example of the application of these standards to an environmental case is Freeport-McMoran Resource Partners, L.P. v. B-B Paint Corp., et al., 56 F.Supp. 2d 823 (E.D. Mich. 1999).