Pollution

This thesis empirically examined pollution control success in the United States during the period 1987 to 1992. The purpose of this analysis was to determine whether pollution control success can be predicted by a set of factors suggested by the economics literature as being important to effective control of pollution. Multiple regression analyses were performed on dependent variables representing air, water, and solid waste quality. It was found that although the predictors of pollution control success differ across the three types of pollution, variables representing pollution abatement expenditures and strength of enforcement were important throughout.

the decades after World War II the United States became the most prosperous nation in the world. Yet, that prosperity and growth had a negative impact on the environmental quality of the nation. By the mid 1960s there was a rise in concern over environmental issues in the American public. Consequently, President Richard M. Nixon in his determination to give the American people what they sought decided to enact policies to bring the environmental crisis to an end. Among the environmental policies of the Nixon Administration was the Clean Air Act of 1970, a highly controversial piece of legislation that placed tough regulations on the automobile industry. Due to the significant role of the auto industry in the American economy, and Nixon's concerns over reelection, there were two major shifts in business/government relations during this era. The first one was characterized by determination to protect the environment with little attention to complaints from the industry. The second one was about protecting the profitability of the industry while giving little attention to environmental problems.

This paper presents the results of the spike tests performed in the alternative water supply pilot testing program for the City of Pembroke Pines. It establishes the effectiveness of a protocol that can be used to gain further insight on the rejection capacities of RO membranes. An in-depth study of the molecular descriptors affecting rejection by RO membranes is presented and used in the development of a discriminant function analysis. This analysis proved to be an effective way to predict the passage of Emerging Substances of Concern (ESOCs) through RO membrane. Further, a principal component (PC) analysis was performed to determine which factors accounted the largest variation in RO permeability. Additionally, this paper defines the groundwork for a discriminant analysis model that, if further developed, could serve as an important tool to predict the rejection capabilities of RO treatment when handling with ESOCs.

Deep injection wells (DIW) in Florida are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the state of Florida through the Underground Injection Control regulations contained within the Safe Drinking Water Act. Underground injection is defined as the injection of hazardous waste, nonhazardous waste, or municipal waste below the lowermost formation containing an underground source of drinking water within one-quarter mile of the wellbore. Municipalities in Florida have been using underground injection as an alternative to surface disposal of treated domestic wastewater for nearly 40 years. The research involved collecting data as of September, 2007 on all the Class I DIWs in the state of Florida and evaluating the differences between them. The analysis found regional differences in deep well practice and canonical correlation analyses concluded that depth below the USDW is the most significant factor to prevent upward migration of the injected fluid.

The analysis and modeling of the coastal farfield behavior of inlet discharge plumes is the key to understanding the fate of pollutants discharged into the ocean. These plumes disperse in chaotic and unpredictable patterns. Theoretical models are based on the average conditions and calibrated to the results of tracer studies. Data and models for freshwater discharges in coastal ocean systems are limited because of the lack of adequate tracers. On February, 2007, a tracer study was conducted on the Boynton Inlet, Florida, using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tracer. The objective of this study is to provide methods of analysis for the sample data collected during the experiment. The detected tracer concentrated in a bolus that migrated north of the inlet at velocities lower than predicted by the current data. The plume was successfully modeled with a Gaussian plume model, with 90% of the SF6 predictions having less than 4.6 pptr error.