Many environmental engineers and graduate students can benefit from a much deeper understanding of chemistry, and many chemists will benefit from learning how chemistry applies to environmental engineering. This is the first of two volumes designed to fill these gaps in knowledge.

Environmental Chemistry, Book One, Volume 4A begins with an overview of basic physical, organic, analytical, colloid and surface chemistry. Next, it demonstrates the intimate relationships between environmental engineering and each major area of chemistry, focusing on crucial interactions throughout all five essential global cycles (envirospheres):

• The lithosphere (minerals and energy sources): fossil fuels, alternative and nuclear energy, resource models, energy conservation, solar technology, waste heat, and nuclear treatment.
• The atmosphere (air): atmospheric structure and properties, greenhouse effect, ozone layer; photochemistry, tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry; air pollution.
• The hydrosphere (water sources): the water cycle, groundwater; aquatic chemistry, chemical oceanography, rivers and streams, limnology, eutrophication, and water treatment.
• The pedosphere (soil): soil chemistry, formation and properties; soil pollution, pesticides, stockpile wastes, solid waste chemistry, recycling, conversion, disposal and remediation.
• The biosphere (life): geochemical and biochemical features, toxicology, risk assessment, food safety, carcinogenesis; radon; sound, microwave and other electromagnetic exposure.