An unknown quantity of cyanide and untreated sewage ended up in the British Trent somewhere between Stoke-on-Trent and Yoxall and created a “serious pollution incident.”
Thousands of fish were killed. The Environmental Agency pumped oxygen into the water overnight and today to correct the situation.
Last month, a local water company (Severn Trent Water) was fined for a sewage spill in the Trent.
Source: METRO, October 8, 2009, page 21
There are several graphs regarding the speciation of cyanide in the environment in this article (though they do date back to 1999). Figs. 2, 3 and 4.
Within the framework of the previous post, I was googling various versions of my name and found that I have a citation in a mineral biotechnology book, another one in a cyanide paper in the journal Chemosphere and a third one in a paper on biogenic manganese oxides in Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. that I was not aware of yet.
Always a nice surprise. I am curious about what it says in that book and will try to track down a copy of it. I don’t know the authors.
It is housed at Lund University. I have selected the main subjects that are likely to be of interest to you, which may save you a few mouse clicks:
TECHNISCH SPOOR: Omgaan met thiocyanaat op voormalige gasfabrieksterreinen
Dutch publication on thiocyanate on MGP terrains by Stichting Kennisontwikkeling Kennisoverdracht Bodem, October 2006. (190 pages)
Cyanide management
Publication by the Department of the Environment, Australia, 2003. (157 pages)
Both publications refer to an article on the environmental (geo)chemistry of cyanide which I wrote for The Geochemical News.
Interaction between Fe-cyanide complex and humic acids. The authors found micelle formation but no indication of changes in the structure of the ferricyanide complex. (Voltammetry, UV-Vis and EXAFS)
- © photograph: E. Webbe, BK Ingenieurs -