Agricultural use is one of the best options for sewage sludge management, whenever sludgequality is suitable with respect to established law limits and if local situations (field availability,climate, specific constraints) are favourable. This practice is recognized to be the mosteconomical one and allows recovering nutrients and organic matter with benefits to crops andland.Beside general rules issued at European level (Directive 86/278/EEC) and transposed in Italywith D.Lgs. 99/1992, regional authorities can establish other restrictions to better protectenvironment, preserve population from nuisance and defend specific areas.Through GIS elaborations, we have analysed different scenarios, computing available land inApulia region with present and new revised constraints and evaluating sludge quantities to bepotentially recovered for land application in the light of current legislative limits, nitrogenrequirements by crops and cultivation cycles.This study has showed that available land can face the total sludge production in the area evenin the most conservative hypothesis. The used methodology represents a powerful tool to movethe focus of political decisions from general law constraints towards specific ones closely relatedto the environmental and agricultural context and to plan new investments to completely satisfysludge disposal needs.

During the winter season 2008/2009 for the first time a massive cyanobacteria bloom occurred in the artificial lake of Occhito, the main reservoir in the province of Foggia (Southern Italy, Apulian Region). The toxic species Planktothrix rubescens was identified and monitored from January to July 2009 in order to quantify the population density and microcystin production both in the lake and in treated waters for human consumption. The bloom reached the main peak during March 2009, when the highest values of 140-160*10(6) cells/1 were recorded in the lake (at the same time the microcystin concentration was 11-31 mu g/l). The water treated by means of sand - activated carbon filtering and chlorination processes highlighted significant removal rates, from 34% to 99% for P. rubescens cell density and from 52% to 100% for microcystin.

Le scoperte della biologia molecolare negli ultimi 20 anni hanno portato allo sviluppo di nuovi metodi di ri?cerca di microrganismi basati sull'identificazione di sequenze di geni specifici. La diagnosi molecolare si èrivelata, in generale, più sensibile e più specifica rispetto ai metodi di coltura tradizionali richiedendo menotempo per l'identificazione. Il sequenziamento genico dei frammenti amplificati consente, inoltre, di identifi?care i tipi batterici presenti e di eseguire studi epidemiologici molecolari e analisi filogenetiche. L'azione pi?lota svolta sul territorio della regione Puglia è stata finalizzata all'individuazione delle potenziali fonti dicontaminazione di nitrati, distinguendo l'origine da concimi minerali, letame, rifiuti urbani, fanghi di depu?razione, ecc. Utilizzando l'approccio biomolecolare, le indagini sono state condotte su 23 pozzi identificatinella regione sulla base dei risultati del monitoraggio della concentrazione di nitrati condotta nel periodo2008-2014. In tali pozzi, infatti, erano stati registrati superamenti dei limiti normativi (50 mg/L, D.Lgs.n.152/06).

This work shows the results of a research project "Monitoraggio continuo per le Acque reflue Urbane ed Industriali per l'ecoindustria" (MAUI). Innovative methods for real-time monitoring of urban and industrial wastewater, along with new data management techniques, have been applied to manage the data acquired by a vapour phase e-nose system. The system is based on a semiconductor sensor array, which was used to get real-time monitoring data, tested at labour scale on synthetic solutions for setting it. Actually the system is installed on the wastewater treatment plant of Vimercate (Milan, Italy) for a real time detection and early warning of anomalous influent composition.

This work shows the results of a research project "Monitoraggio continuo per le Acque reflue Urbane ed Industriali perl'ecoindustria" (MAUI). Innovative methods for real-time monitoring of urban and industrial wastewater, along with new datamanagement techniques, have been applied to manage the data acquired by a vapour phase e-nose system. The system is based on asemiconductor sensor array, which was used to get real-time monitoring data, tested at labour scale on synthetic solutions for setting it.Actually the system is installed on the wastewater treatment plant of Vimercate (Milan, Italy) for a real time detection and earlywarning of anomalous influent composition.

The monitoring of the epi-benthic dinoflagellate Ostreopsis ovata was carried out during the summer seasons of 2007 and 2008 all along the marine coastal areas of the Puglia region (Southern Italy, Central Mediterranean). Eighteen monitoring sites were investigated in both years from June to September at 15 day-time intervals, collecting water samples in order to measure both the Ostreopsis ovata density and microbiological parameters (Fecal Coliforms and Streptococci). The microbiological parameters were measured as indirect indicators of pollution from anthropogenic sources. Ostreopsis ovata highest density values were estimated for both years in the monitoring sites located northbound from the town of Bari, on the southern Adriatic coast. Results from microbiological analysis showed a similar distribution pattern. The relationship between O. ovata abundance and microbiological pollution was investigated by using synthetic indices (Ostreopsis-Score and Bacteriological Quality Index respectively) and the correspondence between the dinoflagellate blooms and human-induced pollution pressures on these marine coastal areas was highlighted.

The distribution and composition of zooplankton assemblages was investigated along the Apulian marine-coastal area (Mediterranean Sea) in the time period between January 2008 and February 2010. Zooplankton samples were collected monthly from 15 monitoring stations located in two sub-basins, namely, the southern Adriatic (11 stations) and the northern Ionian (4 stations). Results indicated a strong influence of river runoffs on zooplankton assemblages in terms of an increase in the abundance of tolerant species and a reduction of overall richness and diversity of species. Compared with the Ionian, in the Adriatic stations, zooplankton standing stocks showed higher abundances. Results also suggest that the zooplankton can be considered a useful biological indicator of water quality for the Apulian coastal waters and could be used in environmental monitoring programs.

PCDD/F in exhaust gas emission samples was determined by the Environmental Agency of Apulia for a sinter plant located in Taranto (Italy) starting from June 2007 following an Agreement Act between plant owners and the Regional Government with the aim to assess and improve the environmental performances of the plant. The first two sampling campaigns yielded results ranging between 3.42 and 8.34 ng I-TE/Nm(3) that were soon considered revelatory of a high potential impact on the surrounding environment and the public, prompting for immediate action. As a first outcome, a Regional Regulation (LR 44/2008) was enforced in order to reduce PCDD/F emissions by plants operating in the metal sector, including sinter plants. After installation of a urea addition plant to the sinter mix as a process-integrated abatement technique the emissions ranged from 0.86 to 3.59 ng I-TE/Nm(3). In order to reach compliance to the newly introduced emission limit value of 0.4 ng I-TE/Nm(3) the urea plant was removed in favour of active-carbon injection as an end-of-pipe technique. Subsequently, during year 2011 emission values ranged from 0.095 to 1.97 ng I-TE/Nm(3), while in 2012 the observed range was 0.058 to 0.91 ng I-TE/Nm(3). As a better evaluation of the potential impact of the sinter plant emissions, a yearly mass-flow was estimated using exhaust gas PCDD/F concentrations and plant operational parameters (3.4 M Nm(3)/h). Mass-flow was estimated to be as high as 165 g I-TE/year for 2007 using yearly average concentrations or 248 g I-TE/year using the peak-value of 834 ng I-TE/Nm(3). (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The present work concerns the development of a procedure to determine background values of metals and metalloids in soils of sites of national interest that are subjected to characterization and remediation. The proposed calculation procedure allows to select in metal-metalloid data-set, the representative parameters of site-specific pollution sources. It allows to identify anthropogenic concentration of substances in the soil resulting both natural pedo-geochemical content and moderate widespread immission in soil. The statistical analysis was performed in samples set of topsoil, soil and underground soil. Chemical tests were carried out on all parameters of metals and metalloids present in samples. This work has analized parameters, as As and Be, which have passed statistical test Shapiro e Wilk (W test) with contamination hot spot of anthropogenic, respect to a large area of substantially homogeneous values. Specifically, this study focuses on area adjacent to perimeter of site of national interest of Brindisi (South Italy). It is characterized by the presence of many process industries and of large power plants. Due to many human activities in this site and difficulty of access to sampling points, analysis was carried out starting from No. 30 sampling sites located in the province of Brindisi. This study was carried out to define a suitable criterion for determination of background concentrations in industrial area. It was found that cumulative frequency curve deviates greatly from straight trend which represents the trend of other measures. In all cases examined, inflection point was coincident with 90 degrees percentile. On the other hand, value distribution of arsenic concentration in subsoil shows that there are hot spots of contamination probably of anthropogenic origin, different from those found in a other large site that are result substantially homogeneous. However, it is not possible to exclude these points from sample distribution and, therefore, they are estimated. Having to provide a representative background value of concentrations of metals present in area was used a conservative approach based on analysis of discontinuity points in cumulative frequency curve. In this way, background value about contamination anthropogenic source corresponds to previous value at point of discontinuity in cumulative frequency curve (90 degrees percentile). Thus, background conditions would be identified by graphic of concentrations distribution, from the zero point to the point of inflection.

Sulphide was adopted as odorous compound in a simulation of AS Diffusion, aninteresting process to treat odors at wastewater treatment plants by diffusing odorous air intoaerobic basins. Its behaviour were experimentally evaluated along with its effects on the biomassand the biological processes supposed by some author in an AS diffusion test. Two bench scalesequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were fed in parallel on real primary sewage and monitored afteradding increasing concentrations of sulphide to one of them. In this reactor, an average sulphideremoval of 94% was measured. Microbial biochemical activity and composition did not showrelevant variations after the addition of sulphide, and the good features of activated sludge flocswere maintained also in terms of sludge settleability.