Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
geoenvironment, with particular emphasis on the soil environment, and the measures
needed to counter the adverse impacts, i.e., measures that can be viewed as sustainable
geoenvironmental engineering practice .
1.4 Geoenvironment Impacts on Soil and Water Resources
The sets of forces that, by their interactions, pose potential threats to the geoenvironment,
are those resulting from activities mounted in pursuit of industrialization , urbanization ,
energy and resource exploitation , and food production. The net effect or impact of these activi-
ties and their stresses on the geoenvironment can, by their very nature, be disastrous if
measures for protection of the geoenvironment are not put into practice. A reduction or
degradation of geoenvironmental resources and the various ecosystems will diminish
the capability of the geoenvironment to provide the elements necessary to sustain life. To
avoid or to minimize the degradation, there needs to be (a) a proper audit of the geoen-
vironmental impacts on the prominent features that constitute the geoenvironment, and
also on the ecosystem and (b) available sensible and logical sets of tools that can be used to
mitigate and ameliorate the adverse effects of the impacts.
Good land management practice (a) minimizes and mitigates deleterious impacts to the
land environment, (b) seeks optimal land use and beneit from the land, and (c) preserves
and minimizes depletion of natural capital. The obvious threat to human health linked to
detrimental geoenvironment impacts comes from waste discharge and impoundment, as
shown in Figures 1.5 and 1.6. Most of the activities associated with manufacturing and pro-
duction of goods will generate waste in one form or another. Table 1.2 shows some typical
waste streams from a representative group of industries. Impacts on the geoenvironment
from these activities and discharges take the form of (a) wastewater and solid waste dis-
charge, and spills, leaks, and other forms of discharges to the land environment (including
the receiving waters in the land environment) and (b) use of chemical aids in pest control
and other intensive agricultural practices resulting in pollution of the receiving waters and
excessive nitrogen and phosphate loading of the soil—leading to a consequent decrease
in soil quality. Many of these issues will be discussed in detail in the chapters to follow.
TABLE 1.2
Typical Composition of Waste Streams from Some Representative Industries
Industry
Waste Streams
Laboratories
Acids, bases, heavy metals, inorganics, ignitable wastes, solvents
Printing, etc.
Acids, bases, heavy metals, inorganic wastes, solvents, ink sludges, spent plating
Pesticide user and services
Metals, inorganics, pesticides, solvents
Construction
Acids, bases, ignitable wastes, solvents
Metal manufacture
Acids, bases, cyanide wastes, reactives, heavy metals, ignitable wastes, solvents,
spent plating wastes
Formulators
Acids, bases, ignitable wastes, heavy metals, inorganics, pesticides, reactives,
solvents
Chemical manufacture
Same as metal manufacture, except no plating wastes
Laundry/dry cleaning
Dry clean iltration residue, solvents
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