Deck 15: Soils and Chemical Pollution

Question 1

The principal human health effect of exposure to radon is ____.

A) lung cancer
B) diarrhea
C) bone embrittlement
D) blue baby syndrome
E) none of the above

Answer 1

A

Question 2

In the United States between the 1970s and the 1990s, the level of heavy metals found in municipal sewage sludge ______.

A) stayed about the same
B) decreased substantially
C) increased substantially

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Bioremediation of contaminated soil involves the use of _________ to ameliorate the soil pollution.

A) organic solvents
B) incineration
C) photo-decomposition
D) binding chemicals
E) soil microorganisms

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Of the following metals often found in sewage sludge, which would most likely become toxic to farmers' crops if sludge applications exceeded the recommended amounts.

A) Cu
B) Cr
C) Cd
D) Pb
E) Hg

Question 5

Which group of organic insecticides is most damaging to earthworms in soils?

A) carbamates
B) organo phosphates
C) chlorinated hydrocarbons

Question 6

In the design of a _______ type landfill, evapotranspiration by cover vegetation should be maximized.

A) natural attenuation
B) containment
C) both A and B
D) neither A nor B

Question 7

Which of the following are considered to be "heavy metals" that can contaminate soils and the food chain?

A) cadmium
B) zinc
C) lead
D) copper
E) all of the above

Question 8

Toxic organic compounds that contaminate soils are an environmental problem because they may ____.

A) kill or inhibit soil organisms (other than any pest targeted)
B) kill or injure plants (other than any target weeds).
C) contaminate or be taken up by plants and so cause toxic effects to animals or people eating the plants
D) leach to groundwater cause toxic effects in drinking water or aquatic ecosystems
E) all of the above

Question 9

The United States Environmental Protection Agency regulates the amount of sewage sludge that can be applied on agricultural land by setting limits on ____.

A) the concentrations of metals in the sludge to be applied
B) the rate of metal application to any parcel of land in any one year
C) the total accumulative amount of metals that can be applied to a parcel of land, regardless of when the metals are applied
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 10

Poor inner city children are exposed to lead toxicity primarily from _____.

A) lead containing paint on toys
B) uptake from soils into food plants
C) by atmospheric deposition on plant leaves
D) eating soil and dust

Question 11

In the design of a _______ type landfill, biodegradation and colloid adsorption are important mechanisms of reducing pollution potential.

A) natural attenuation
B) containment
C) both natural attenuation and containment
D) neither natural attenuation and containment

Question 12

A pesticide is more likely to contaminate groundwater if it has which of the following characteristics?

A) highly volatile (high vapor pressure)
B) highly soluble in water
C) strongly adsorbed to soil colloids
D) rapidly degraded by soil microorganisms
E) all of the above

Question 13

The amount of a pesticide that hits the target pest is usually _____ of the amount applied to the ecosystem.

A) less than 5%
B) 20 to 25%
C) 25 to 50%
D) 50 to 75%E.75 to

Question 14

Which class of organic toxins is often intentionally applied to soils?

A) refrigerants
B) pesticides
C) fuels
D) preservatives
E) plasticizers

Question 15

Anaerobic decomposition of organic wastes in landfills results in the production of ______ gas which is often recovered and used.

A) ethylene
B) oxygen
C) ozone
D) methane
E) all of the above

Question 16

It has been found that continued, repeated application of an organic toxin to a particular soil will _____ the capacity of that soil's microflora to degrade the compound in question.

A) gradually inhibit
B) have no effect on
C) gradually enhance

Question 17

Hyperaccumulators are plants that ________.

A) can survive on metal-contaminated soil by growing without taking in too much of the metal in question
B) are extremely sensitive to the toxic effect of certain heavy metals and therefore act as an early warning system to detect contamination
C) take up extremely high amounts of certain metals without being harmed
D) accumulate dense root mats just above the layer of polluted soil
E) none of the above

Question 18

A soils contaminated with a heavy metal may be bioremediated by ____.

A) applying genetically engineered bacteria that can degrade the metal
B) growing and harvesting plants that take up large quantities of the toxic metal
C) burying the contaminated soil in a secure landfill
D) applying a source of carbon and nitrogen to the soil
E) all of the above

Question 19

Maintaining soil reaction at pH 7.0 is likely to virtually eliminate any significant _______ by heavy metals applied to soils with sewage sludge.

A) plant uptake
B) leaching
C) adsorption
D) precipitation
E) A and B

Question 20

Which of the following types chemical would be classed as a pesticide?

A) herbicides
B) rodenticides
C) insecticides
D) both B and C
E) all of the above

Question 21

Soil properties play a much more important role in choosing a site for a containment-type landfill than for a natural-attenuation-type landfill.

Question 22

Bioremediation of soils is often brought about by amending the polluted soils with fertilizers containing mineral nutrients.

Question 23

Most practical solutions to toxic levels of indoor radon involve ____.

A) bioremediation
B) increased cation exchange
C) improved ventilation with fresh air
D) sealing off cracks in basement walls and foundations
E) both C and D

Question 24

The greatest environmental or social cost of pesticide use in the United States is the damage to sport and commercial fishing.

Question 25

Radon is a chemically inert gas that emanates from certain soils and builds up in confined spaces such as the basements of buildings.

Question 26

In soils treated with excessive rates of high-metal sewage sludge, most of the cadmium and lead is likely to be found in the form of exchangeable ions on the clay and humus exchange complex in the soil.

Question 27

The final cover on any type of landfill should consist of soil material with rapid permeability and a high rate of infiltration.

Question 28

Except for a very small number of accidental spills, pesticides used in agriculture have not yet been found to contaminate actual groundwater wells.

Question 29

Most classes of pesticides include some kind of aromatic ring in their chemical structure.

Question 30

Herbicides are generally the most toxic of pesticides to soil organisms.

Question 31

The adsorption of many pesticides is greater in strongly acid soils than in neutral to alkaline soils.

Question 32

Organic chemicals whose structures have positively charged groups tend to be very immobile in the soil.

Question 33

Phytoremediation is a system by which growing plants are used to decontaminate polluted soils.

Question 34

Soil washing is a commonly used method of bioremediation.

Question 35

Lead toxicity to children that get soil into their mouths can be reduced by heavy P fertilization of the soil.

Question 36

One disadvantage of bioremediation is that this technology is usually much more expensive than standard engineering approaches for decontaminating polluted soils.

Question 37

Generally an organic chemical is destroyed when it is lost from the soil by volatilization.

Question 38

Draining a chromium-contaminated wetland would be likely to immobilize the metal so that environmental chromium toxicity problems would be minimized.

Question 39

Clay, especially of the 2:1 types, tends to adsorb larger quantities of organic chemicals per gram than does the organic matter component of soils.

Question 40

Soil application of certain pesticides reduces the diversity but increases the numbers of soil mesofauna.

Question 41

If a soil is repeatedly polluted by a toxic organic compound over a period of years, the soil microbes will lose their ability to degrade the toxin.