CHAIR IN RESOURCE ENGINEERING University of Auckland New Zealand Department of Civil & Resource Engineering School of Engineering VACANCY 924EST The University of Auckland is the largest of the New Zealand universities with about 25,000 students. Auckland, the City of Sails, has an attractive living environment. This is a newly established Chair. A degree course in resource engineering has recently been introduced, which reflects the Department's commitment to produce graduates who will assist society to move towards a sustainable future. It contains wide ranging papers in environmental topics, water resources and mineral resources, which build on core engineering papers. Applications are sought from those with exceptional teaching, research and/or professional achievements in resource engineering, and or environmental engineering, who will provide leadership in education and research in resource and environmental engineering. Civil and Resource Engineering is one of five departments in the School of Engineering and has strong research interests in a wide range of areas. It has 24 academic staff and 13 technical and administrative staff. The undergraduate programmes contain strong design and laboratory activities, and the Department has close ties with New Zealand industry. Further information and Conditions of Appointment should be obtained from the Academic Appointments Office, telephone 64-9-373-7599 ext 5789, fax 64-9-373-7023, email: appointments© auckland.ac.nz, or from our website: www.auckland.ac.nz/ appointments/. If mailing your application three copies must reach the Academic Appointments Section, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand, by 30 March 1998. Please quote Vacancy Number 924EST in all correspondence. ASSISTANT REGISTRAR, ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
levels. M. Dourson and colleagues surveyed risk assessment practices of government organizations. Results indicate that although default uncertainty factors are still predominantly used to assess risk, the frequency of use of data-derived uncertainty factors rather than default uncertainty factors is significant. EPA used dataderived uncertainly factors in developing 392 reference concentration and reference dose values. Case studies indicate underlying assumptions used in deriving nondefault uncertainty factors {Hum Ecol Risk Assess 1997 3 (4) 579-589)
TECHNOLOGY CFC destruction To protect the ozone layer and prevent greenhouse gas buildup, large stockpiles of CFCs must be destroyed. H. Ueno and co-workers examined the destruction of these compounds in a working cement kiln with a gas residence time of 6-7 seconds and an operating temperature of 1450 °C. Results indicate that CFCs can be completely destroyed under normal operating conditions. Hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride produced by decomposition of CFC feedstocks were absorbed by the alkaline cement material. Monitoring of secondary pollutants such as phosgene and dioxins showed no significant increases during the destruction experiments (J Air Waste Assoc 1997 47 fill 1 pon_ i yyw
WASTEWATER Phosphorus removal During application of the enhanced biological phosphorus removal process, a technique widely used to remove phosphorus from wastewater, a relationship has been observed between sludge carbohydrate content and phosphorus removal performance. Y. Liu studied this relationship using two activated sludgesequencing batch reactors. Glucose and acetate were used as the main organic substrates. Phosphorus removal was excellent for sludge carbohydrate content between 8 and
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10%, but it declined as the sludge carbohydrate content increased beyond this range. The study indicates that the sludge carbohydrate content is an important process control parameter. (Water Environ. Res. 1997, 69, 1290-1295)
Surfactant performance study Surfactants are often used to enhance the biodegradation of low-aqueoussolubility organic compounds at hazardous waste sites. L. Figueroa and colleagues evaluated the biodegradation of two non-ionic surfactants, Neodol 91-8 and Makon 12, at concentrations of 0.01%, 0.025%, and 0.05% in an activated sludgesequencing batch reactor. High rates of degradation were achieved for surfactant concentrations of
