Environmental Chemistry References

The following are all textbooks that are used as references for the lecture material (along with some brief editorial comments in some cases). They may be useful to you for studying or as a reference for your homework assignments.

General Textbooks

• SE Manahan, Environmental Chemistry. Probably the most commonly adopted textbook. Very comprehensive but not, in my opinion, well organized or sufficiently detailed.
• C Baird, Environmental Chemistry. Often seen as an alternative to Manahan. Not nearly advanced enough for my tastes.
• TW van Loon, SJ Duffy, Environmental Chemistry: a Global Perspective. Far better than Manahan - more focused and better organized. If I were to adopt any textbook, this would be it. Still not quite as detailed as I would like.
• TF Yen, Environmental Chemistry: Essentials of Chemistry for Engineering Practice.
• TG Sprio, WM Stigliani, Chemistry of the Environment, 1996. Small little book gives an overview of selected topics.
• N Bunce, Environmental Chemistry. Not too bad. No aquatic chemistry to speak of.
• DG Crosby, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. More toxicology than chemistry. Does include chapters on chemodynamics and transport, which is unusual (and welcome).
• DW Connell, Basic Concepts of Environmental Chemistry. Light on details of traditional topics in aquatic and atmospheric chemistry, but some detail on the behavior of various classes of chemical pollutants (organics and metals) in the environment. Includes a chapter on the fugacity approach to predicting distribution of pollutants, which is unusual.
• DL Macalady, ed, Perspectives in Environmental Chemistry. Not meant as a standalone textbook, this is a collection of chapters on more specialized topics by active researchers in their field. Topics are quite diverse but all are pretty important.

Atmospheric Chemistry

• BJ Finlayson-Pitts, JN Pitts Jr, Chemistry of the Upper and Lower Atmosphere. Excellent textbook is a standard in the field. Covers virtually every topic with good detail (advanced undergrad or grad level). Written by active researchers in the field.
• RP Wayne, Chemistry of Atmospheres. Another standard. Well-written and comprehensive.
• P Warneck, Chemistry of the Natural Atmosphere. Perhaps slightly more advanced than the above two texts, but not as comprehensive.
• GP Brasseur, JJ Orlando, GS Tyndall, eds, Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Change. Yet another excellent text. Individual, well-organized chapters are devoted to each chemical family -- brings unity to a large array of reactions.
• DJ Jacob, Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. Whereas the above texts are at the graduate level, this one is aimed as undergraduates. Although certainly not as detailed as the above works, this little book is surprisingly comprehensive and authoritative.
• A Dessler, The Chemistry and Physics of Stratospheric Ozone. Very readable account of ozone chemistry written by an active researcher in the field. Almost as detailed but far more understandable than the WMO report. Many of the concepts are also applicable to tropospheric chemistry.
• LD Danny Harvey, Global Warming: the Hard Science.
• J Houghton, Global Warming: the Complete Briefing. Slightly dated. Basically a readable summary of the IPCC report released around this time, written by one of the lead scientists in the IPCC team.
• TE Graedel, PJ Crutzen, Atmospheric Change: an Earth System Perspective. Note as advanced as some of the others but very nice. Crutzen is, of course, a nobel laureate for his work in stratospheric chemistry.

Aquatic Chemistry

• W Stumm, JJ Morgan, Aquatic Chemistry: Chemical Equilibria and Rates in Natural Waters. Classic graduate-level text. Includes two chapters on kinetics and one on photochemistry.
• JR Pankow, Aquatic Chemistry Concepts. Thermodynamics of aquatic chemistry in detail. Covers much the same ground as Stumm & Morgan's book but is more "didactic" (in the words of the author). Probably a little more accessible to undergraduates (although Stumm & Morgan isn't beyond advanced undergrads by any means).
• JI Drever, The Geochemistry of Natural Waters. Surface and Groundwater Environments. A nice little book that might be suitable for those that are intimidated by the previous two books. A good intro to aquatic chemistry for undergraduates -- plays a similar role for aquatic chemistry as Jacob's book does for atmospheric chemistry.
• PL Brezonik, Chemical Kinetics and Process Dynamics in Aquatic Systems. Most aquatic chemistry books (including the previous three) spend a lot of time on equilibrium calculations, despite the fact that most natural water systems are not in equilibrium. This book describes how to model such dynamic systems.
• EA Laws, Aquatic Pollution. An Introductory Text. Not really an aquatic chemistry book, since the actual chemistry is kept to a minimum. Describes the nature of water quality degradation due to pollution. Individual chapters devoted to topics such as cultural eutrophication, acid pollution, and pesticides, with a number of case studies. A good complement to more traditional texts in aquatic chemistry.
• AG Howard, Aquatic Environmental Chemistry. Very basic introduction to inorganic aquatic chemistry.
• JN Butler, Ionic Equilibium. Solubility and pH Calculations. Although not expressly environmental, this excellent book describes in detail how to perform equilibrium calculations for complicated aquatic systems. Anyone who wants to do numerical thermodynamic modeling of such systems must be familiar with the material presented in this book

Environmental Organic Chemistry

• RP Schwarzenbach, PM Gschwend, DM Imboden, Environmental Organic Chemistry. An excellent book. Covers partitioning and degradation mechanisms.
• RA Larson, EJ Weber, Reaction Mechanisms in Environmental Organic Chemistry. Not as broad as Schwarzenbach -- only covers degradation mechanisms, but in more detail. Includes a chapter on reactions of organics with three common disinfectants (aqueous chlorine, ozone, and chlorine dioxide) used in water treatment.
• WJ Lyman, WF Reehl, DH Rosenblatt, Handbook of Chemical Property Estimation Methods. A classic book (often called simply "Lyman's Handbook") that describes how to estimate physical properties, partition coefficients and rate constants for organic compounds. A more recent edition is available.
• EJ Baum, Chemical Property Estimation Theory and Application. Not as comprehensive as Lyman, but focused on environmental properties and uses more recent methods.
• GW Ware, The Pesticide Book. Very nice reference.

Environmental Transport and Modeling

• LJ Thibodeaux, Environmental Chemodynamics. Movement of Chemicals in Air, Water and Soil. A very nice text that mostly concentrates on exchange (partition) rates between environmental systems. Contains examples and problems.
• JL Schnoor, Environmental Modeling. Fate and Transport of Pollutants in Water, Air, and Soil. After covering the basics of transport, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics, the author models the effects of pollution on several environmental systems (eg, lake eutrophication, oxygen sag curves in rivers, acid deposition, groundwater contamination). Includes examples and problems (some with answers).
• HF Hemond, EJ Fechner-Levy, Chemical Fate and Transport in the Environment. Good descriptions of mixing and transport processes in surface and subsurface water, and in the atmosphere. Includes basics of aquatic and atmospheric chemistry, enough to construct meaningful quantitative models. Examples and lots of problems (without answers).
• D Mackay, Multimedia Environmental Models. The Fugacity Approach. Describes the approach developed by the author for modeling the distribution and degradation of organic pollutants in the environment. Applied (not very theoretical), meant to allow the reader to construct models with varying degrees of sophistication. Mostly concentrates on steady-state calculations, but it is fairly easy to convert to dynamic models.

Geology

• RA Freeze, JA Cherry, Groundwater. Classic text on groundwater flow, chemistry, and geology.
• CW Fetter, Contaminant Hydrogeology. Very nice textbook on the transport and chemistry of groundwater contamination.
• MB McBride, Environmental Chemistry of Soils. Physical and chemical properties of soils. Three (relatively short) chapters describe chemical pollution of soils.
• DL Sparks, Environmental Soil Chemistry. Not as detailed as McBride on soil mineral chemical structure, but much more detailed on the interaction of chemicals (such as pollutants) with soils.
• D Hillel, Environmental Soil Physics. A detailed and readable account of the physical properties of soils. Contains a strong hydrology component.