Explore the vast range of titles available.

The provision of safe drinking water has been an important factor in the improvement of the health status of U.S. communities since the turn of the last century. Nonetheless, outbreaks of waterborne disease and incidences of chemical contamination of drinking water continue to occur. Setting Priorities for Drinking Water Contaminants recommends a new process for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use in deciding which potential drinking water contaminants should be regulated in public water supplies to provide the greatest protection against waterborne illnesses. The book covers chemical and microbiological contaminants and includes a historical review of past approaches to setting priorities for drinking water contaminants and other environmental pollutants. It emphasizes the need for expert judgment in this process and for a conservative approach that considers public health protection as the first priority.

Quantifying water implications of energy transitions is important for assessing long-term freshwater sustainability since large volumes of water are currently used throughout the energy sector. In this paper, we assess direct global energy sector water use and thermal water pollution across a broad range of energy system transformation pathways to assess water impacts of a 2 °C climate policy. A global integrated assessment model is equipped with the capabilities to account for the water impacts of technologies located throughout the energy supply chain. The model framework is applied across a broad range of 2 °C scenarios to highlight long-term water impact uncertainties over the 21st century. We find that water implications vary significantly across scenarios, and that adaptation in power plant cooling technology can considerably reduce global freshwater withdrawals and thermal pollution. Global freshwater consumption increases across all of the investigated 2 °C scenarios as a result of rapidly expanding electricity demand in developing regions and the prevalence of freshwater-cooled thermal power generation. Reducing energy demand emerges as a robust strategy for water conservation, and enables increased technological flexibility on the supply side to fulfill ambitious climate objectives. The results underscore the importance of an integrated approach when developing water, energy, and climate policy, especially in regions where rapid growth in both energy and water demands is anticipated.

Water is probably the most inevitable substance for the survival of life on Earth. Though Earth has an infinite source of water, most of it is of no use since it is saline ocean water. Ignoring the water stored in continental glaciers, the only source of freshwater is groundwater. This resource is now under huge stress due to unplanned and over-use. Now the time has come to take groundwater management as a serious concern. Here, an attempt has been made to capture different issues of groundwater management, its applicability, and limitation in terms of the present state of research. This article discusses the feasibility of groundwater management in terms of groundwater quantity, artificial recharge to aquifer and groundwater quality both chemical and bacteriological. A holistic approach has been adopted to discuss technological advancements to address the groundwater management issues like desalination and membrane filtration, its limitations, and future scope of improvement. Thermal pollution of groundwater and its impact on saline water intrusion to coastal aquifers have been addressed in the discussion. The effect of global climate change on the hydrosphere and its impact on groundwater management have also been incorporated. One of the mitigations to global warming is exploring different sources of green energy. One of them and the most explored options is geothermal energy. The use of geothermal heat for electricity generation and space heating has also been included in the discussion with technological limitations which is always an open area of research.

This study developed a multifunctional and movable solar PV system with a capacity of 3.3 kWp for on-grid and off-grid applications. The main objective of this study is to reduce diesel consumption in the agricultural water irrigation process, as most farmers depend on diesel-sourced water pumping systems. The agricultural lands in Thailand are widely remote, and electricity access is comparatively low. On the other hand, implementing the solar PV systems for agricultural water pumping is not cost-effective for farmers, as the water pumping requirements are not adequate. Considering the investment cost of the solar water pumping application, a movable solar PV system is designed to operate in on-grid and off-grid conditions. During the on-grid operation, the solar PV system-generated electrical energies are fed to the local grid whenever water pumping is required for farming, the movable solar PV system is detached from the grid and moved to the farming land, where it performs off-grid operation. It is found that a multifunctional solar PV system generates 12.4 kWh, which is fed to the local grid, and during the off-grid operation, the solar PV system generates 9.84 kWh of electrical energy, which yields 236412.97 liters of water. The multifunctional solar PV system significantly reduces 2.68 kg of CO, and is cost-effective for farmers with environmental benefits.

This study aims to investigate the effects of indiscriminate disposal of coal fly ash on surface and groundwater hydrochemistry and heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) occurrence through a comprehensive assessment around a thermal power plant located in the central Ganga Plain, India. Both surface and groundwater in the region are slightly alkaline in nature. Groundwater samples are marked by high concentrations of HCO3‒ (~ 78%), which is likely influenced by both anthropogenic and geogenic activities. High Pb concentrations were found in 40% of groundwater samples. Ca2+ – Mg2+ – HCO3‒ and Na+ – K+ – HCO3‒ are the principal hydrochemical facies, while silicate weathering is a dominant process controlling the chemistry of groundwater. PHREEQC modeling, a method for simulating geochemical reactions in natural waters, indicates oversaturation with aragonite, dolomite, and calcite and undersaturation with fluorite, anhydrite, halite, gypsum, and sylvite. The entropy-weighted water quality index (EWQI), based on physicochemical concentrations, suggests samples have excellent to good water quality. However, the modified heavy metal pollution index (m-HPI) reveals that ~60% of groundwater samples fall into the ‘high pollution’ category, with 30% in the ‘medium pollution’ class. Health risk assessments (HRA) indicate both children and adults face non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks, with children being more vulnerable. Irrigation water quality results demonstrate that ~ 50% of samples are unacceptable for agricultural practices, and samples in proximity to the dumping site display poor water quality. This study recommends regular monitoring of water quality near coal fly ash disposal sites, which is necessary to ensure early detection and management of any contamination.

Global deterioration of water, soil, and atmosphere by the release of toxic chemicals from the ongoing anthropogenic activities is becoming a serious problem throughout the world. This poses numerous issues relevant to ecosystem and human health that intensify the application challenges of conventional treatment technologies. Therefore, this review sheds the light on the recent progresses in nanotechnology and its vital role to encompass the imperative demand to monitor and treat the emerging hazardous wastes with lower cost, less energy, as well as higher efficiency. Essentially, the key aspects of this account are to briefly outline the advantages of nanotechnology over conventional treatment technologies and to relevantly highlight the treatment applications of some nanomaterials (e.g., carbon-based nanoparticles, antibacterial nanoparticles, and metal oxide nanoparticles) in the following environments: (1) air (treatment of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, and bioaerosols via adsorption, photocatalytic degradation, thermal decomposition, and air filtration processes), (2) soil (application of nanomaterials as amendment agents for phytoremediation processes and utilization of stabilizers to enhance their performance), and (3) water (removal of organic pollutants, heavy metals, pathogens through adsorption, membrane processes, photocatalysis, and disinfection processes).

The present investigation is an attempt to assess the contamination of heavy metals in the ground and surface water of the Singrauli industrial belt area. Pollution indices like heavy metal index (HPI), contamination index (CD) and heavy metal evaluation index (HEI) are used for the evaluation of heavy metal pollution (arsenic As, mercury Hg, cadmium Cd, and lead Pb). Contour maps are constructed to interpret metal spatial distribution. Further, the land-use/land-cover (LULC) maps for the year 2000, 2010 and 2016 are prepared using Landsat satellite data. A total of 48 water samples (Groundwater (27), Surface water (21)) are analysed for heavy metal concentration. Eighty-eight percent of groundwater and 90% of surface water samples are contaminated with Hg. Similarly, high concentrations of Pb and Cd were found in the samples. Surprisingly, all the water samples have As concentration above the WHO permissible limit of 10 ppb. Further, 95% of the samples have an HPI value greater than 100 indicating high heavy metal contamination. CD value denotes contamination of 89% of the samples with heavy metals (As, Hg, Cd, Pb). Through spatial distribution, it can be interpreted that most of the contaminated samples lie near thermal power plants, ash ponds, and coal mines. LULC (land use/land cover) study shows a significant decrease in water bodies by (108 km 2 ), agricultural land by (54 km 2 ) and bare/fallow land by (51 km 2 ) from 2000 to 2016. During these 16 years, there has been a fourfold increase in the overburden, a threefold increase in dumping yards, a 2.5 times increase in urban areas, and a twofold increase in mining areas. Both the environment and the water quality are deteriorating at an alarming rate. Such scientific investigations are relevant for risk management studies of potable water. The knowledge acquired from such assessment shall be considered with utmost priority by concerned authority considering degrading water quality in the study area. Hence, this study is applicable for designing action plans and control measures to reduce water resource pollution.

An increasing number of reports have been published concerning microplastic (MP) pollution in aquatic environments. Methods used in these studies continue to be updated and lack standardization, so that an up-to-date review pertaining methods for MP research is needed. This critical review examines the analytical methods, including sampling, identification, and quantitation, for MP research. Samples are generally collected from water, sediment, and biota gastrointestinal tract. Manta nets or trawls are prevalently used in surface water sampling, while direct shoveling or box-corer grab are commonly applied in sediment sampling. Microplastics in biota are generally obtained by dissecting organisms and separating livers, gills, and guts. Density separation is frequently chosen to separate MPs from sample matrices. Chemical digestion can dissolve other organic materials and isolate MPs for further identification. Visual sorting should be combined with chemical composition analysis to better identify the polymer type. Pyrolysis or thermal decomposition gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy are currently the main technologies for MP identification. Units prevalently used to express MP abundance in water, sediment, and biota are “particles per m 3 ,” “particles per m 2 ,” and “particles per individual,” respectively. As MP abundances often varied with the methods used, we recommend that analytical protocols of MPs should better be standardized and optimized. Despite the important progress in analysis of MPs, detection technologies for identifying nano-sized plastic particles are still lacking, and therefore should be developed swiftly.

The silver deposits located in the upper basin of the Felent Stream are currently the largest producing mine in the Türkiye. It is also significantly impacted by industrial, agricultural, and thermal spring-related waste in Kütahya Province. The main objectives of this study were to examine the spatiotemporal variations of 12 dissolved potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the surface water of Felent Stream, to identify their possible sources, and to assess their probable risks. As a result of this study, among investigated PTEs, the highest mean concentrations of 3592–14,388 µg/L for Mg and the lowest of 0.15–0.19 µg/L for Cd were noted in Felent Stream water. The average concentrations of PTEs were found in the order of Mg > Ca > Na > As > Mn > B > Zn > Ni > Cu > Pb > Cr > Cd. Remarkably, during the dry season, there was a conspicuous escalation in the average PTEs contents of water, with an approximately multifold amplification. PTEs in stream water were evaluated for their potential ecotoxicological risks and possible sources. Based on ecological risk assessment indices, the stream exhibited low pollution levels during the wet season but displayed elevated pollution levels during the dry season, indicating a general shift towards heightened pollution conditions. The hazard index (HI) data for As exhibited significant potential noncarcinogenic risks across all monitoring stations. Conversely, the carcinogenic risk (CR) data underscored the imperative nature of addressing the health risks associated with As in the waters of the studied region. Mining activities were identified as the primary origin of PTEs based on principal component analysis (PCA). Moreover, upstream regions, proximal to the mining site, emerged as the most heavily contaminated areas according to cluster analysis (CA).

Thermal power generating industries affect the surrounding environment in various ways. Fly ash escapes along with flue gases and can be found in undesirable quantities in soil and water sources in the region. The water quality of an area must be evaluated regularly to ensure the quality of potable water. The present study evaluates the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon concentrations of several important physico-chemical parameters and heavy-metal contents of groundwater samples collected from sites near the Koradi Thermal Power Plant, a major source of power generation in the Nagpur Region. The maximum amount of total dissolved solids observed during the two seasons studied were 1571 mg/l and 1591 mg/l which is within the desirable limit implying that fly ash contamination did not affect this water quality parameter. The total hardness of samples from GW-3, GW-5 and GW-9 were 844 mg/l, 775 mg/l and 675 mg/l during pre-monsoon season, while GW-3 and GW-5 along with GW-4 continued to show high levels of total hardness at 1015 mg/l, 741 mg/l and 650 mg/l, respectively. These values are higher than the permissible limit due to the high levels of ions of bicarbonate, calcium, sodium and sulphate derived from fly ash leachate. Statistical analysis showed that sulphides, total hardness, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids were the significant water quality parameters of the region. The evaluation of the parameters found that the three water sources (GW-3, GW-5 and GW-9) out of 10 are the most affected groundwater sources of fly ash pollution.