**Meet the editor**

Nigel W. T. Quinn is a Research Group Leader at Berkeley National Laboratory and holds additional appointments at the US Bureau of Reclamation, UC Berkeley and UC Merced. He did his initial schooling in irrigation and drainage engineering in England at Silsoe College (now part of Cranfield University). Dr. Quinn has a MS in Ag and Civil Engineering from Iowa State and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell. He has been working on water quality and drainage problems in the San Joaquin Valley of California for over 25 years, specializing in decision support modeling.

Contents

**Preface VII**

Chapter 1 **Bloom-Forming Cyanobacteria and Other Phytoplankton in Northern New Jersey Freshwater Bodies 1**

Chapter 2 **Endocrine Disruptors in Water Sources: Human Health Risks**

Chapter 3 **Impact of Industrial Water Pollution on Rice Production**

Chapter 4 **The Performance Evaluation of Anaerobic Methods for Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment: A Review 87** N.H. Abdurahman, Y.M. Rosli and N.H. Azhari

Chapter 5 **Ultrasonic Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Palm Oil**

Huynh Viet Khai and Mitsuyasu Yabe

**Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment 107** N.H. Abdurahman, N.H. Azhari and Y.M. Rosli

**and EDs Removal from Water Through Nanofiltration 25** J. E. Cortés Muñoz, C. G. Calderón Mólgora, A. Martín Domínguez, E. E. Espino de la O, S. L. Gelover Santiago, C. L. Hernández Martínez

Tin-Chun Chu and Matthew J. Rienzo

and G. E. Moeller Chávez

**in Vietnam 61**

## Contents

## **Preface XI**


Preface

The level of surface water quality protection is variable around the world in large part due to the relative effectiveness of environmental regulation and the degree to which science influences the regulatory process. In the United States, at the federal level, the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) has been an effective policy and water quality management tool for dealing with both point source and non-point source pollution. The TMDL provides a rational framework for esti‐ mating the assimilative capacity of the receiving water body for certain contaminants and ap‐ plying factors of safety and incorporating acceptable levels of water quality criteria violation -

This collection of articles from around the world are good examples of the application of sound scientific principles to solve pressing water quality problems. Tin-Chun Chu and Matthew Rien‐ zo describe techniques for the detection and identification of bloom-forming phytoplankton in freshwater lakes and streams in the state of New Jersey, USA. They developed a protocol using microscopic observation, PCR assay analysis and flow cytometry that allowed rapid identifica‐ tion of cyanobacteria species causing algal blooms. The second paper by Juana Cortes, Gabriela Moeller, Alejandra Martin and Cesar Calderon examines endocrine disruptors in water sources and determines both human health risk and the efficacy of endocrine disruptor removal using various water treatment alternatives in Valle del Mezquital, Mexico. Comparison of ultra-low pressure reverse osmosis membranes (ULPRO) and nanofiltration (NF) showed that both types of membrane could reach efficient levels of removal of organic compounds such as pharmaceut‐ icals, pesticides, flame retardants, plasticizers, and nitrogen, similar to that of conventional re‐ verse osmosis, producing water with equal quality as required for indirect potable reuse of treated water. The third paper by Huynh Viet Khai and Mitsuyasu Yabe examined the impact of industrial water pollution on rice production in Vietnam. The authors surveyed rice farmers in two areas with similar environmental conditions and social characteristics differing mainly with respect to industrial pollution. The authors describe a theoretical econometric analysis using Cobb-Douglas cost functions to examine the causes of the reduction in rice production related to water pollution based on estimated rice yield differences between the two regions. The last two papers written by the same author Abdurahman Nour provide a literature review of ultrasoni‐ cated membrane anaerobic systems used to treat palm oil mill river effluent pollution problems. This review is followed by a paper that reports on a ultrasonicated membrane anaerobic system

**Dr. Nigel W.T. Quinn**

Engineering Advanced Decision Support Research Group (HEADS), The Earth Sciences Division, Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

Group Leader,

provided the local stakeholders have a say in the decision making process.

that has been successfully used to treat palm oil mill effluent.

## Preface

The level of surface water quality protection is variable around the world in large part due to the relative effectiveness of environmental regulation and the degree to which science influences the regulatory process. In the United States, at the federal level, the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) has been an effective policy and water quality management tool for dealing with both point source and non-point source pollution. The TMDL provides a rational framework for esti‐ mating the assimilative capacity of the receiving water body for certain contaminants and ap‐ plying factors of safety and incorporating acceptable levels of water quality criteria violation provided the local stakeholders have a say in the decision making process.

This collection of articles from around the world are good examples of the application of sound scientific principles to solve pressing water quality problems. Tin-Chun Chu and Matthew Rien‐ zo describe techniques for the detection and identification of bloom-forming phytoplankton in freshwater lakes and streams in the state of New Jersey, USA. They developed a protocol using microscopic observation, PCR assay analysis and flow cytometry that allowed rapid identifica‐ tion of cyanobacteria species causing algal blooms. The second paper by Juana Cortes, Gabriela Moeller, Alejandra Martin and Cesar Calderon examines endocrine disruptors in water sources and determines both human health risk and the efficacy of endocrine disruptor removal using various water treatment alternatives in Valle del Mezquital, Mexico. Comparison of ultra-low pressure reverse osmosis membranes (ULPRO) and nanofiltration (NF) showed that both types of membrane could reach efficient levels of removal of organic compounds such as pharmaceut‐ icals, pesticides, flame retardants, plasticizers, and nitrogen, similar to that of conventional re‐ verse osmosis, producing water with equal quality as required for indirect potable reuse of treated water. The third paper by Huynh Viet Khai and Mitsuyasu Yabe examined the impact of industrial water pollution on rice production in Vietnam. The authors surveyed rice farmers in two areas with similar environmental conditions and social characteristics differing mainly with respect to industrial pollution. The authors describe a theoretical econometric analysis using Cobb-Douglas cost functions to examine the causes of the reduction in rice production related to water pollution based on estimated rice yield differences between the two regions. The last two papers written by the same author Abdurahman Nour provide a literature review of ultrasoni‐ cated membrane anaerobic systems used to treat palm oil mill river effluent pollution problems. This review is followed by a paper that reports on a ultrasonicated membrane anaerobic system that has been successfully used to treat palm oil mill effluent.

> **Dr. Nigel W.T. Quinn** Group Leader, Engineering Advanced Decision Support Research Group (HEADS), The Earth Sciences Division, Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

**Chapter 1**

**Bloom-Forming Cyanobacteria and Other**

Tin-Chun Chu and Matthew J. Rienzo

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/54481

sands of species of cyanobacteria.

to their durable cell walls [2].

**1. Introduction**

**1.1. Phytoplankton**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

**Bodies**

**Phytoplankton in Northern New Jersey Freshwater**

Phytoplankton not only plays a vast role in the aquatic food chain, but some groups are es‐ sential in the production of atmospheric oxygen [1]. Phytoplankton include cyanobacteria, algae and many other groups. Some of the most common types of phytoplankton in North American freshwater bodies include species of Bacillariophyceae (diatoms) as well as thou‐

Diatoms are a type of phytoplankton that possess several unique contours due to a cell wall composed of silicon dioxide (SiO2) [2, 3]. The diatoms, or Bacillariophyta, have distinct structures and thus are easily identifiable in a water sample. Diatoms can be found in a large range of pH and dissolved oxygen values as well as in ecosystems with a wide concentra‐ tion of solutes, nutrients, contaminants, and across a large range of water temperatures due

There are many species of cyanobacteria, commonly found in freshwater lakes and ponds as well as marine environments. Originally called blue-green algae because of their color, cya‐ nobacteria is a phylum of bacteria that uses photosynthesis to obtain energy. Cyanobacteria are prokaryotes and possess the pigment chlorophyll *a,* which is necessary for oxygenic pho‐ tosynthesis and can be exploited during molecular analysis to detect the presence of cyano‐ bacteria in a sample [4]. Cyanobacteria aided in the transformation of the Earth's atmosphere by producing atmospheric oxygen [1]. Freshwater cyanobacteria can be found as unicellular, filamentous, or colonial cells within the environment. Some of the common

> © 2013 Chu and Rienzo; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, reproduction in any medium, the cited.

© 2013 Chu and Rienzo; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which unrestricted use,
