This project tested at the field scale, five on-site, non-proprietary bioremediation processes on weathered petroleum hydrocarbons from a fire fighter training area. Two bioremediation processes based on fungi (commercially produced white rot fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus, and aged, coarse wood chips, 'compost', with naturally occurring fungi) were applied with variations and compared to one control: a typical static biopile. An elevated-face compost turner was used to turn the soil in selected windrows for aeration. Statistically-based sampling was employed and quality control measures were enforced for sampling and analysis. The treatment options examined for the contaminated soil were: (1) white rot fungus and compost, (2) compost, poultry manure and turning, (3) compost, synthetic nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium fertilizer, and turning, (4) compost, the above synthetic fertilizer, and no turning, and (5) the above synthetic fertilizer, and no turning (static biopile). The compost and poultry manure process performed the best, remediating 35 tonnes of soil contaminated with 6000 mg/kg of mineral oil and grease (MOG) to the remediation criteria of 1000 mg/kg in 19 days and to less than 300 mg/kg in less than 56 days. The net rate of bioremediation was 100 mg/kg/day of MOG. The estimated cost of this process for commercial applications, excluding labour, excavation and site preparation, was $18 to $29 per tonne, depending on the cost of the poultry manure.

A basic conundrum associated with evaluating the quality of municipal plans involves the range of interests---public, special, vested---that are either supported or confounded by the plan. Traditionally, comprehensive plan evaluation has proceeded by attaching weights to the evaluation criteria. Yet, such a procedure is inherently flawed since it is self-evident that interested parties are unlikely to fully agree with any weighting scheme that places a lower weight on their own specific priorities. Other factors also challenge the origin and applicability of evaluation criteria that characterize good plans and planning, including the lack of a codified theoretical foundation for both planning in general and planning frameworks in particular (e.g., ecosystem-based planning). These factors make the search for a methodologically-grounded and theoretically-oriented basis for judging plan quality a priority for both planning theory and practice. Currently, the theories of, in or for planning provide little guidance about how to resolve these issues. Using the ecosystem approach to planning as the field of inquiry, this study investigates the attributes (i.e., the necessary and sufficient conditions) of good ecosystem-based plans, and then explores and interprets these attributes using hierarchy theory. What are the attributes of good ecosystem-based municipal plans? The Primary relationship under investigation is between ecosystem-based plans and their quality (i.e., their goodness). The central research question seeks a descriptive answer and is stated as follows: What are the attributes of good ecosystem-based municipal plans? The subsequent research question seeks explanative content and is stated as follows: How can hierarchy theory be used to explore and interpret the attributes of good ecosystem-based municipal plans? In order to address these two questions, the research process consists of four general phases. First, after a comprehensive and systematic literature review, a tentative plan evaluation framework for ecosystem-based municipal plans is posited. Second, the Delphi survey technique is employed to build on the tentative evaluation framework in order to determine which plan form, plan content and planning process conditions are necessary and sufficient for the evaluation of ecosystem-based plan quality. In the Delphi survey design, individual response stability testing is undertaken before level of consensus criteria are applied. Third, the results of the Delphi exercise are then critically examined in terms of meta-criteria analysis. Fourth, the research results are explored and interpreted by employing hierarchy theory, and then made operational for subsequent field work. The primary results of the research include the following: (1) Contribution to methodology. A methodologically-grounded and theoretically-oriented evaluation instrument suitable for judging the quality of ecosystem-based municipal plans is derived; (2) Contribution to theory. Hierarchy theory is synthesized into a framework of objects and implications suitable for applicability to ecosystem-based planning. In other words, the applicability of hierarchy theory is extended to include ecosystem-based planning, and ecosystem-based planning is simultaneously grounded in theory; and, (3) Contribution to identification of needed research directions. Potential directions for future research are recorded throughout the investigation.

Following up on a body of research commencing with the Wastewater Allocation Study of the South Nation River [1992] in Eastern Ontario, the problems facing watershed managers are assessed. Following a systems engineering methodology, the WMDSS requirements are decomposed and ranked in order of priority. This yields a ranking for development of tool and information functional groups to support the following assessment types: surface water quality, surface levels and flows, integration, groundwater flows/levels, rainfall/runoff modelling and time series analysis. Functional analysis then provides the architecture and data flows necessary to meet system requirements: primary sub-systems for management of the database, knowledge base, model base, graphical user interface and output reporting are characterised. The current state of the science of watershed management is assessed with a view towards meeting the identified system functionality. With a comprehensive object-oriented analysis and design (OOA/D), the framework necessary for production of a contemporary Watershed Management Decision Support System (WMDSS) is outlined and assessed in light of current tools in use today. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Although an essential micronutrient, boron becomes toxic at concentrations slightly above the optimum range. The use of an engineered wetland system consisting of a peat filter and a surface water wetland for treatment of landfill leachate was investigated. Laboratory tests showed that boron is mainly present in inorganic form. Adsorption of boron by peat was a fast process and virtually complete within 2.5 hours. Drying of peat (at 105°C, 90°C, 75°C, and air drying), pH, temperature, and solution composition had a significant effect on boron adsorption while shaking and solution-to-soil ratio did not have any significant effect on boron adsorption by peat. Also, the presence of other anions such as SO4 -, Cl- or combination of both in synthetic solution made from boric acid had no significant effect on boron adsorption by peat. Maximum adsorption of boron on peat occurred at a pH around 9. Addition of lime, optimum ratio being 1 g lime to a 100 g peat, enhanced boron adsorption capacity of peat by 50--100%. Adsorption of boron decreased with temperature increase. Boron desorption showed hysteresis as only 24% to 45% of adsorbed boron was released into the solution when subjected to desorption test. A second-order design model for adsorption of boron by peat was developed, which incorporates the effect of pH and temperature. Adsorption capacity of peat was directly related to organic matter content and showed a positive effect, i.e. boron adsorption increased with organic matter content increase. Amberlite resin was far superior to peat and other organic material in adsorbing and removing of boron from leachate. Peat also proved to be effective in removing metals such as iron, lead, and zinc from landfill leachate. A new transport code (in Fortran), SOLTRAN, was developed which has the capability of handling non-linear adsorption isotherms. An engineered wetland system consisting of a peat filter followed by a free water surface wetland at Huneault Waste Management landfill, Ontario, was used as a case study. It was demonstrated that peat filter can effectively treat landfill leachate. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The feasibility of anaerobically treating a leachate from a landfill site in the Ottawa-Carleton Region, ON, was studied. The levels of specific pollutants present in the leachate, COD, Fe, B and Ba, were required by the landfill owners to be treated in order to meet the local sewer user bylaw (SUB) discharge limits. The leachate had a high COD concentration (from 14 to 40 g COD L-1); however most of the organic content was readily biodegradable (up to 98%). The studied leachate was concluded to stimulate anaerobic bacterial microbial activity. The filtration of the leachate by peat moss was found to be an excellent means of removing suspended solids. The core experiments of this work were the treatment of the leachate by the combined peat-filter-UASB reactor process. Three series of reactor runs were conducted; feed leachate COD concentration and reactors flow rates were varied in order to mimic seasonal landfill leachate conditions (spring, summer and fall conditions). Finally, the removal of soluble inorganic ions by the combined treatment was studied. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Soybean peroxidase (SBP) shows potential to remediate water-soil systems, yet relatively little is understood about its reaction in soil environments. While the potential may exist for the use of SBP in soil systems, too many difficulties and unknowns face the research of SBP to soil systems. This study will focus on the use of SBP in soil slurries as a stepping block to future research with soil systems. This study investigates the use of SBP to remediate 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) in wastewater when soil is present in the reactor vessel. Characterization of 2,4-DCP binding to soil (peat moss and silica sand) revealed that the binding was effected by the pH and the mass of the soil. The determination of enzyme kinetic constants and enzyme reactions was not examined in this study. The application of SBP to reactors with wastewater and soil has the potential to improve or decrease removal, under different reactor conditions, versus wastewater only systems. Assumptions regarding the sorption of the 2,4-DCP to soil allowed conclusions to be made regarding the activity of the SBP. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Animal manure management practices, principally in regions where there is a surplus of manure are often detrimental to the environment and also represent a potential hazard to human and animal health. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of psychrophilic anaerobic digestion (PAD) in sequencing batch reactors (SBR) as a low cost and easy to operate process to: (a) reduce the pollution potential of swine manure slurry; (b) recover energy; and (c) reduce odours of swine manure slurry. Experiments were carried out in 12 40-Litre SBRs operated under different conditions. Experimental results indicated that PAD of swine manure slurry at 20$\sp\circ$C in intermittently fed SBR: (1) reduced the pollution potential of swine manure slurry by removing 85 to 95% of the soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD); (2) produced biogas at rates from 0.48 to 0.66 L of CH$\sb4$ per gram of volatile solids (VS) fed; and (3) successfully reduced odours. In all experimental runs, the PAD of swine manure slurry in SBR was found very stable. Other interesting findings were that PAD in SBR process does not require mixing and can be intermittently fed only once and three times a week without affecting the SBR stability and performance. The second objective of this study was to model PAD of swine manure slurry in SBR in order to: (1) increase knowledge of PAD in SBR; and (2) predict process performance. Existing mathematical models of anaerobic digestion formed the basis for the two models proposed in this study for PAD in SBR. These two models were: (1) a simple model that considered only two populations of bacteria as well as particulate solubilization rate; and (2) an advanced model that considered six populations of bacteria as well as the interaction between the biological, liquid (physico-chemical) and gas phases. The simple model predicted reasonably well the trend in VA, SCOD accumulation as well as methane production. The advanced model which made use of a large number of kinetic constants also predicted reasonably well the methane production as well as the trend in accumulation in acetic, propionic and butyric acids, dissolved and gaseous hydrogen and SCOD.

An engineered bioreactor system was designed and constructed to bioremediate approximately 1,800 m$\sp3$ of petroleum-contaminated soil at CFB Petawawa, Petawawa, Ontario. The bioremediation facility operated between May-November 1993. The facility consists of four above ground bioreactors each incorporating aeration piping and a water/nutrient delivery system. The aeration piping is connected to a central vacuum pump which draws air through the bioreactor leachate collection system enables the leachate to be amended. The bioreactors are covered with an opaque vapour barrier. Monitoring involved the collection of soil, water and air samples on a weekly and bi-weekly basis and various field measurements. A detailed microbial monitoring program was also implemented. Total petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations in the bioreactor soils were found to have been reduced by 97%. Temperature had an effect on the rate of petroleum biodegradation. Little or no evidence suggested that the continuous addition of nutrients to the soil had a significant effect on the rate of biodegradation. The estimated treatment cost for this project was 70-$90 per tonne. This facility however, is reusable and hence the potential exists to lower the net treatment cost to 20--\$40 per tonne. This project has shown that diesel contaminated soil can be efficiently and effectively treated to meet the most stringent federal and/or provincial criteria in a cost effective manner over a typical Canadian summer. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The objective of this work is to improve the pervaporation separation characteristics of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes by imbedding organo-clay particles in the polymer structure. Montmorillonite is a clay mineral with a 2:1 layered structure. The negative charges on its layers due to the compositional inhomogeneities are counterbalanced with inorganic cations. Organo-montmorillonite is formed when the inorganic cations are exchanged with organic cations. The nature, type and structure of exchangeable cations on montmorillonite strongly influence their sorptive characteristics. Different combinations of these factors will produce very different interlayer environments. Tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP) and tetraalkylammonium cations (TAAn; where n is the number of carbon of the chain) were intercalated into montmorillonite to form a series of organo-clays (TPP-M; TAAn-M). The organo-clay-PDMS composite membranes (TPP-M-PDMS: TAAn-M-PDMS) were prepared by adding the organo-clays into the PDMS solution. Pervaporation experiments of dilute 1,2-DCE and benzene solutions were performed using organo-clay-PDMS composite membranes. The effects of the nature of organo-clays, of the organo-clay content, and of the temperature and downstream pressure as operating variables on the membrane performance were investigated. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Abstract not available.