Environmental Science Geology 1401 402

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Environmental ScienceGeology 1401 402
404Instructor Don Thieme

• Scientific Method (continued),
• Measurement, Statistics

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Laboratory Experiments

• control population to insure reproducibility
• "double-blind" design to remove observer bias
• calibration of instruments with standards
• standardization of measurement techniques
  (significant digits)
• statistical comparison and interpretation of
  results

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Measurement

• units of measure (English, metric, SI)
• instrument precision and accuracy
• sample size (n) and replicate measurements
• interval between measurements
• random vs. "stratified" sampling
• "exposure limits" and "risk assessment"

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Precision is how much internal variation there is
in your measurements, and can be estimated by
the standard deviation. Accuracy is how close
your measurements are to the "true" value,
estimated by calibration to other measurements
of a laboratory standard.
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Metric System (cgs units)
k 1000 kilometer, kilogram c 100th
10-2 centimeter, cc, centigram m 1000th
10-3 millimeter, milligram, millisecond mm
1,000,000th micrometer, microsecond
10-6 nm 10-9 nannometer, nannosecond
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Units of Measure

• English system (inch, foot, pound, quart, gallon,
  Fahrenheit degrees)
• Metric system (mm, cm, meter, km, gram, kg,
  liter, Celsius, Kelvin, pascal, bar)
• Systeme International

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Systeme International

• meter - the length of the path travelled by light
  in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458
  of a second.
• second - the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of
  the radiation emitted during transition to the
  ground state of 133Ce.
• kelvin - 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic
  temperature of the triple point of water.

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Systeme International

• ampere - current between two straight parallel
  conductors placed 1 meter apart in vacuum which
  produce between these conductors a force equal to
  2 x 10-7 newton per meter of length.
• mole - the amount of a substance which contains
  as many elementary entities (molecules) as there
  are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of 12C

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Avogadro's Number

• 6.02252 x 1023
• The number of atoms or molecules in one mole of a
  substance

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Temperature

• Freezing point of H20 0C (273.14 K)
• Boiling point of H20 100C (373.14 K)
• C (F - 32) / 1.8
• F (C x 1.8) 32

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Pressure

• Force per unit Area
• The SI unit of pressure is the Pascal, symbol Pa,
  a pressure of one newton per square metre (N/m2).
• bar 1 x 105 (100,000) Pa 1 atm
• millibar (mb) 100 Pa

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Temperature and Pressure

• Standard temperature and pressure (STP) refers to
  0C (273.14 K) and pressure of 1 atm (101,325
  Pa).
• These values approximate freezing temperature and
  atmospheric pressure at sea level.

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Particle Size
Gravel is coarser than 2 mm
Geometric reduction 1/2, 1/4, 1/16,...
Sand (1/16 - 2 mm) visible to naked eye.
Silt is too small to see but can be felt.
Clay particles are less than 4 microns.
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Chemical Analysis

• Rock, soil, or particulate solids
• Ashed plant tissues
• Water samples, liquid phases
• Organic compounds and molecules
• Air, vapor, gas phases

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Chemical Analysis

• Most analyses of both solids and liquids are
  actually done on extracts ("wet" chemistry)
• Results typically reported as parts per million
  (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb)
• ppm is equivalent to milligrams per liter (mg/l)
• ppb is equivalent to micrograms per liter (?g/l)

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Dimensional Analysis

• There are four basic dimensions
• L Length (L)
• M Mass
• T Time
• Q Electric Charge
• The dimensions of more complicated quantities can
  be expressed as powers of these four.

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Dimensional Analysis

• Area L2
• Volume L3
• Velocity L/T
• Acceleration L/T2
• Force ML/T2
• Dimensional analysis can be used to derive or
  check formulas. The quantities on either side of
  an equation must have the same dimensions.
  Quantities can be added or subtracted only if
  they have the same dimensions.

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Statistics

• Measures of Central Tendency
• Mean Sum of observations/ n
• Median value greater than half of the
  distribution
• Mode Most common observation

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Statistics

• Measures of Dispersion
• Variance sum of squared deviations about the
  mean /n
• Standard error square root of the variance

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Histogram

• shows frequency
• distribution (y-axis)
• for measurement
• categories (x-axis)
• may be grouped
• Median 62 in
• same as the mean
• and the mode for
• a symmetrical
• ("normal")
• distribution

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Skewness
A distribution showing positive
skewness (right-skewed) This is typical of many
environmental variables, such as water
chemistry values The extreme values, although
rare, may be very imporant
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Statistics

• Correlation
• measure of the degree to which measurements
  covary
• cannot infer causality from correlation

r2 1
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Scientific Theories

• "theoria" means to look in Greek
• the best description or explanation available for
  a given phenomenon
• supported by an overwhelming body of data and
  experience
• generally accepted by the scientific community

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Environmental Science

• interdisciplinary
• physical constraints on living organisms
• impacts of organisms on the physical world
• must transcend dichotomy between "pure" and
  "applied" science
• must transcend dichotomy between "natural" and
  "social" science

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Modern Environmentalism

• 1661 - English diarist John Evelyn complained
  about air pollution caused by coal fires
• 1880 - formation of a national Fog and Smoke
  committee in Britain
• 1913 - John Muir fights damming of the Hetch
  Hetchy Valley (Yosemite Park)
• 1962 - publication of Rachel Carson's Silent
  Spring

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Earth Day

• planned at the November 1969 UNESCO Conference on
  the Environment in San Francisco
• first observed on March 20, 1970
• vernal equinox selected to symbolize renewal and
  balance in natural systems

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Sustainability

• meeting the needs of the present without
  compromising the ability of future generations to
  meet their own needs
• must also recognize the desires of the developing
  world to improve their quality of life
  (sustainable development)

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Precautionary Principle

• Where there are threats of serious or
  irreversible damage, lack of full scientific
  certainty shall not be used as a reason for
  postponing cost-effective measures to prevent
  environmental degradation
• United Nations Conference on Environment and
  Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992

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Hudson River PCBs

• 1929 - Monsanto corporation began manufacturing
  PCBs as an oil to insulate electrical components
• - General Electric used the PCBs in
  transformers, capacitors
• 1938 - first studies report possible health
  hazards of PCBs
• 1976 - PCBs banned due primarily to increased
  cancer risk

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The GE Plant in Hudson Falls, New York
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• GE discharged PCBs beginning in 1947 at Fort
  Edward and in 1952 at Hudson Falls
• PCBs trapped behind a dam at Fort Edward
• Dam was removed in 1973, contami-nating all 200
  river miles

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Containment or Cleanup?

• 1973 - removal of Fort Edward dam resulted in the
  downstream release ca. 1,300,000 m3 of PCB-laden
  sediment
• 1976 - the New York State Department of
  Environmental Conservation (DEC) banned all
  fishing downstream to Troy, NY
• GE argued against dredging

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Containment or Cleanup?

• February, 2002 - EPA signed a decision to begin
  cleanup of PCBs in Hudson River
• 460 million dredging project
• 2 million m3 of contaminated sediment from the
  river bottom in the reaches upstream of Albany

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Love Canal

• unsuccessful, abandoned canal on the southeast
  side of Niagara Falls, New York
• used as landfill site by Hooker Chemical,
  1942-1953
• sold to the city for 99th Street School
• high levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)
  in material oozing out of site by 1970s

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Love Canal

• children burned by water in creek (1953)
• high rate of miscarriages among families in the
  first tier of homes fronting on the canal (NY
  Public Health, 1973)
• Study published in 1985 compared 523 Love Canal
  children versus 440 controls and found higher
  prevalence of seizures (2.5 times), learning
  disabilities (1.5 times), hyperactivity (almost 3
  times), eye irritation (2 times), skin rashes (2
  times), abdominal pain (almost 2 times), and
  incontinence (3 times)

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Love Canal

• in early 1978, Carlspan Corporation recommends
  "remediation," a clay cap over the canal and tile
  drainage system.
• no action taken by city
• declared a federal emergency by President Jimmy
  Carter in August of 1978

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Love Canal

• April 24, 1979 EPA approves 4 million for
  remedial work
• over 250 million spent in over 20 years but
  hazardous waste remains buried at Love Canal
• school and "first tier" of homes in subdivision
  were bulldozed and also buried

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A public corporation took ownership of the
remaining abandoned properties, fixed up the
homes, and resold them during the 1990s. The
"new" neighborhood is called "Black Creek
Village."
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Times Beach

• town in Missouri near St. Louis
• sprayed the streets with waste oil to keep down
  dust
• oil came from Independent Petrochemical Company
  (IPC) and was contaminated with dioxin (TCDD)
• in 1982, the entire town was evacuated by the
  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

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Times Beach

• 265,000 tons of dioxin-contaminated soil removed
  between 1982 and 1997
• contaminated soil was burned on-site in a
  temporary incinerator
• in 1990, site cleanup responsibility was
  transferred by EPA to Syntex Agribusiness

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Bhopal, India

• December 3, 1984
• methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas was leaked from the
  Union Carbide pesticide plant
• methyl isocyanate is an important active
  ingredient in the pesticide Sevin

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Bhopal, India

• Union Carbide plant in Bhopal was entirely owned
  and managed by their Indian subsidiary
• American corporate executives flew to Bhopal on
  December 4, 1984 with an offer of 1-5 million to
  help the victims
• Indian government ejected the American execs and
  refused to settle outside of Indian judicial
  process

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Bhopal, India

• 3,800 people killed (Madhya Pradesh)
• over 200,000 injured (India)
• only 40 persons experienced permanent total
  disability (Union Carbide)
• 2,680 persons experienced permanent partial
  disability (Union Carbide)

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MIC Chemical Poisoning

• typical temporary symptoms include skin
  inflamation, chest pain, breathlessness, and
  asthma
• can lead to severe pneumonia, tumors, laryngeal
  edema, and heart attacks

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Union Carbide Settlement

• 470 million to cover the costs of all
  compensation claims
• not decided until February, 1989
• too late for most of the victims
• 1985 - Very similar Union Carbide pesticide plant
  in Institute, WV malfunctioned and leaked toxic
  gas in the Kanawha valley.

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Three Mile Island
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Three Mile Island

• March 28, 1979
• worst nuclear power plant accident in the history
  of the United States
• Unit 2, one of 2 reactors, was shut down when its
  cooling system malfunctioned
• Operators made mistakes in response to faulty
  gauge readings

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Three Mile Island

• Thousands of curies of radioactive noble gases
  were released into the air in central
  Pennsylvania
• Radioactively charged cooling water was
  discharged into the Susquehanna River
• last major release of gases was in 1981
• Unit 1 of TMI has resumed operation

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Chernobyl

• April, 1986
• World's worst nuclear power accident
• V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant on the Pripiat
  River in north-central Ukraine
• 31 lives lost immediately

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Chernobyl

• excess of steam in the cooling system (positive
  void coefficient) caused a steam explosion which
  destroyed the reactor core
• two explosions destroyed the core of Unit 4 and
  the roof of the reactor building

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Chernobyl
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Chernobyl

• radioactive fallout from Chernobyl was detected
  all over the world, from Finland to South Africa
• 20 percent of the farmland in Belarus was
  contaminated
• 2 million people, a fifth of the Belarus
  population, had to be moved from areas
  contaminated by radiation, including 27 cities
  and more than 2,600 villages