The understanding of pollutant transformations, sorption and transport in soils and uptake by plants is the key to controlling contaminant movement towards groundwater and accumulation in food-chains. Some of these major processes were discussed in the first International Workshop on Pollutants in Porous Media, con vened in Israel in 1983 (pollutants in Porous Media, Eds. Yaron, Dagan and Goldshmid, Springer-Verlag, 1984). Since that meeting, research on contaminant impact on the environment expanded considerably. New mechanisms explaining inorganic pollutant par titioning between solid and solution phases in soils were proposed and tested; specific elements and specific reactions were investigat ed, and more case studies to evaluate management practice effects on drinking water quality and accumulation of contaminants in crops were carried out. The recognition that the new knowledge needs to be discussed and evaluated, and the scientific and engineering communities be updated, led the IUPAC (Interna tional Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) and IAHS (Interna tional Association of Hydrological Sciences) Water Quality Com missions to organize a second International Workshop on pollu tant behaviour in the vadose zone, hosted by the Institute of Soils and Water of the Agricultural Research Organization, Israel. In this workshop, taking place in June 1987, attention was focused on chemical, physico-chemical and microbial-mediated reactions of different contaminants in the vadose zone. This book contains selected works presented in the 1987 workshop by invited special ists from various disciplines and countries.

Klappentext

Selected Papers from an International Workshop, Israel, June 1987

Inhalt
A Processes and Principles of Pollutants Behavior in Reactive Porous Media.- Organo-Metal Complexes as Mobility-Determining Factors of Inorganic Toxic Elements in Porous Media.- Suitability of Sorption-Desorption Models to Simulate Partitioning and Movement of Ions in Soils.- Oxyanion Sorption on Soil Surfaces.- The Effects of Micro-Scale Solute Movement on Biotic Transformations in Porous Media.- Effect of Gels and Coatings on Clay Mineral Chemical Properties.- B Behaviour of Specific Elements.- Fluoride Sorption and Mobility in Reactive Porous Media.- Cu, Zn, and Cd Availability in a Sludge-Amended Soil Under Controlled pH and Redox Potential Conditions.- Microbiological Aspects of Heavy Metal and Toxic Chemical Behaviour in Porous Media.- C Management of Inorganic Pollutants.- Municipal Sludges and Utility Ashes in California and Their Effects on Soils.- Toxic Element Accumulation in Soils and Crops: Protecting Soil Fertility and Agricultural Food-Chains.- Sources and Distribution of Pollutant Elements in the Environment, with Particular Reference to Sewage Sludges.- D Case Studies.- Advances in Management of Fertilizer Application and the Resulting Effect on the Pollutant Load in Soil.- Water and Anion Transport in the Unsaturated Zone Traced by Environmental Tritium.