Environmental M News Bush’s federal budget goes light on R&D
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R&D funding for most other federal agencies stays steady or drops (see table). The EPA’s R&D budget reduction includes a $6.3 million cut in research on key air pollutants, with a $3.3 million cut from research on toxic air pollutants, and $3 million from particulate matter research. The budget also proposes a big bite out of the funding for the U.S. Geological Survey (see story on page 229A). The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science would see a small increase, including basic energy sciences (up by 1.3% to $1 billion) and nuclear physics (un-
changed at $166 million). But overall DOE’s R&D program budget would drop by 3.3%, down to $7.4 billion, following a 12% increase last year, according to AAAS. DOE’s energy efficiency R&D programs would be reduced by 32% alone, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. And after enjoying a large budget increase in FY 2001, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) overall budget would see a slight reduction once inflation is factored in. When the request is considered with inflation, NSF’s R&D budget would decline 1.7% to $3.2 billion. AP/WORLD WIDE PHOTOS
n his first budget request, President George W. Bush asked Congress to raise federal spending on research and development (R&D) to a record $95.3 billion, or a 5.8% rise over the current fiscal year. But a close look at the numbers shows that outside of three major areas—education, health, and defense—total federal spending on R&D would decline. Submitted April 9 to Congress, Bush’s budget asks for approximately $2.1 billion for environmental R&D, including natural resources. This represents a 3.2% drop from the 2001 fiscal year (FY), according to preliminary figures compiled by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). But
Fiscal year 2002 budget request Agency
NationalInstitutesofHealth (NIH) National Institute for General Medical Sciences National Center for Research Resources NationalScience Foundation (NSF) Education Research Math and Physical Science Departm entofEnergy’s(DOE)Office ofScience Basic Energy Sciences Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Departm entofDefense (DOD) Basic Research (6.1 account) Applied Research (6.2 account) Advanced Technology Development (6.3 account) Science & Technology Program (6.1-6.3 combined) Environm entalProtection Agency(EPA) Science & Technology Office of Research & Development NationalInstitute ofStandards& Technology(NIST) Measurement and Standards Labs Advanced Technology Program (ATP) U.S.Departm entofAgriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service CSREESb - Research & Education
FY 2001 appropriations
President’s budgetrequest FY 2002
$Change from FY 2001
% Change from FY 2001
$20,298a 1540 817 $4416 786 3343 851 $3155 992 483
$23,042 1720 974 $4472 872 3327 864 $3159 1005 443
$2744 180 157 $56 86 –16 13 $4 13 –40
13.5 11.7 19.2 1.3 10.9 –0.5 1.5 0.1 1.3 –8.3
$1317 3664 3999 8980 $7812 695 574 $597 302 145
$1342 3751 4076 9169 $7313 641 535 $487 337 13
$25 87 77 189 –$499 –54 –39 –$110 35 –132
1.9 2.4 1.9 2.1 –6.4 –7.8 –6.8 –18.4 11.6 –91.0
$1012 1138
$969 994
–$43 –144
–4.2 –12.7
aNumbers are in millions of dollars; some detail is lost due to rounding. bCooperative State Research Education and Extension Service.
Source:ACS Office of Legislative and Government Affairs. 226 A
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© 2001 American Chemical Society
look to science and technology as fertile areas for growth,” he says. “These cuts are in opposition to the Bush administration’s oftenrepeated statements to base decisions on sound science,” adds Peter Saundry, executive director of the National Council for Science and the Environment. In March, the council sent a letter to Bush, signed by more than 130 college and university presidents, scientists, and business leaders, urging him to increase R&D spending. The House and Senate have already approved spending authority under a budget resolution. Whereas the House essentially agreed to the president’s request, the Senate added several amendments to restore environmental funding. This includes $4.5 billion over 10 years for national and international climate change programs, such as $500 million for the U.S. Global Change Research Program that provides basic research into the climate system. Another $2 billion would reinstate Bush cuts in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other DOE programs that reduce greenhouse gases, and $1 billion for a variety of programs at EPA, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The climate change language was approved in the Senate by a voice vote. “This certainly shows that enough of [the Senators] are going to push for it,” said David Wade, spokesman for Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) who coauthored the climate change amendment. Many agree that the Senate is likely to add environmental spending, especially on alternative energy technologies. But the congressional resolution does not guarantee funding, Wade cautions. “Appropriations are really approved project by project,” he says. To see AAAS Report XXVI: Research and Development FY 2002, go to www.aaas.org/spp/R&D. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
Government Watch A consensus on seeds The presence of genetically modified (GM) material in seed stocks is now unavoidable, according to the Scientific Committee on Plants (SCP), a panel of independent scientists that advises the European Union (EU). Michael Walsh, SCP’s scientific secretary, expects the EU to raise the minimum level of GM content that would require labeling. “A zero level of unauthorized GM seed is unobtainable in practice” because field grown crops are constantly subject to unintended pollen and seeds from diverse sources, according to SCP. GM contamination has become too widespread, and establishing limits is difficult because of the 0.1% sensitivity of routine analysis, SCP adds. SCP’s opinion contradicts views held in individual EU countries such as Italy. Because of concerns about health and environmental impacts, Italian officials forbid all use of GM seeds in open fields and have seized Monsanto warehouses full of suspected GM seeds that haven’t been destroyed by activist arson.
PHOTODISC
The clear winners in the Bush budget are three areas he touted during his campaign: education, health, and defense. In R&D, the biggest funding increase would go to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which would receive a $2.7 billion boost from the $20.4 billion approved for the current fiscal year. Adjusted for inflation predicted at 2.1%, that’s an 11.4% increase. Most of this is aimed at education programs, such as the new Math and Science Partnership ($200 million), and an increase for graduate stipends from $18,000 to $20,500. The White House would increase funding for priority projects, including $58 million for biocomplexity in the environment (a 5.9% rise) and $273 million for information technology research (a 5% increase). These funds would come from cuts in NIH’s basic research programs. The Bush administration appears ready to aggressively expand defense-related R&D monies, with its requested 8.1%, or $3.6 billion increase, bringing the total investment to $48.6 billion. Most of this would go to the Department of Defense, with DOE’s defenserelated budget increasing by only 1.3%, to $3.4 billion, according to AAAS. If Congress doesn’t reinstate dollars for R&D, this budget could have a significant negative impact on the long-term health of the nation’s science efforts, some say. Michael Lubell, director of public affairs for the American Physical Society worries that the Bush budget could slow down long-term research projects that are traditionally federally funded, especially those with sufficient risk that they must be spread across universities, industry, and federal research labs. It could also cut university funds used to train scientists, Lubell adds. “Basically, this budget says to young people in the United States, don’t
Biocide suicide German consumers are being advised against using biocidal cleaning agents and personal hygiene products in an effort to reduce their buildup in the marine environment. Many of the biocidal ingredients are chlorinated phenols, which are environmentally persistent, bioaccumulative, and highly Continued on Page 229A
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DOTT/GREENPEACE
Researchers at Uppsala University ties in Europe—Sellafield in England, have detected radioactive iodineand Cap de La Hague in France. 129I 129 (129I) levels in surface water and from these two facilities has even precipitation in central Sweden that been detected in precipitation in are 3–4 orders of magnitude higher the continental United States than prenuclear-era values (Environ. (Environ. Sci. Technol. 1999, 33 (15), Sci. Technol. 2001, 35 (8), 1579–1586). Although most experts believe that current 129I levels do not pose a danger to human health, there is concern that safe levels could be exsays Aldahan. ceeded in the future “Southern Swedish if nuclear fuel-reprocessing facilities conrivers have higher continue to discharge centrations of iodine waste into the envithan the northern ronment. Some rivers.” argue, however, that About 90% of the 129I 129I is unlikely to ever in nuclear fuel-reproreach levels that are cessing waste is disGreenpeace activistsattemptto stop a shipmentofradioactive w aste en of concern to human route from Germanyto France forreprocessing. charged directly into health. What is more the ocean. The other important, they say, 10% is released into the is that if large amounts of 129I are 2536–2542), although U.S. levels are atmosphere. “In Europe, they regubeing produced, large amounts of 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than late what goes out of their pipes more dangerous radionuclides, those in countries, such as Sweden, into the English Channel. They such as krypton-85 (85Kr), which is which are closer to the source. know where those pipes are, and it’s less readily measured than 129I, are “These two facilities have been pretty easy to measure what is also being produced. pouring a lot of 129I into the North coming out of them. What has been 129I has a half-life of about 15.7 Sea and the English Channel, and released into the atmosphere and million years, whereas 85Kr has a part of it has already been transwhere it has been deposited on half-life of about 10 years. Although ported into the Arctic Ocean,” says land is less well known,” says 129I will be in the environment for a Ala Aldahan, lead author of the Moran. long time, in some ways its long Swedish group’s paper. “129I levels “It takes a little over a week for half-life makes it more safe, says in the North Sea are about 1012 an air mass to get all the way Jean E. Moran of Lawrence Livermore atoms/L. We are seeing 129I values around the globe. Certainly, some 129 National Laboratory. “ I goes right of 109–1010 atoms/L in the rain in of the iodine that makes it up into for your thyroid, but in your body Sweden,” says Aldahan. “Scandathe higher parts of the atmosphere there won’t be much decay,” says navia is becoming more and more is going to make it all the way Moran. In fact, it’s such a weak beta like a disposal site for waste from around to the continental United decay that it’s unlikely to ever reach central Europe. We have some of States,” adds Moran. dangerous levels, she says. the most contaminated waters outEnvironmental groups in Europe Nonetheless, 129I is long-lived side of the Baltic Sea, between are worried that France and the and relatively easy to measure at Denmark and Sweden,” he says. United Kingdom are becoming levels present today in the environAldahan and his colleagues plan nuclear waste dumps, because ment. Unlike most other radionuto continue monitoring levels of 129I Sellafield and La Hague accept nuclides produced during the nuclear in precipitation and surface water clear waste for reprocessing from bomb testing era between 1945 and in central Sweden and have now exother countries around the world. the early 1960s, 129I has not returned panded their efforts into the far In April, Greenpeace activists to near-prenuclear values (105–106 north of Sweden (latitude 70°) and chained themselves to railroads in atoms/L in the ocean). Instead, levsouthern Sweden near the North Germany, attempting to stop a shipels of 129I continue to increase globSea. They are also looking at iodine ment of nuclear waste en route to ally because of releases from two in all of the rivers around the Baltic La Hague for reprocessing. —BRITT key nuclear fuel-reprocessing faciliSea. “We see variable discharges,” E. ERICKSON 228 A
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PHOTODISC
Radioactive iodine in central Sweden and beyond
Government Watch Budget slashes USGS water monitoring programs Under the 2002 budget proposed by the Bush administration for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), water quality monitoring programs would take the biggest hit. Roughly one-third of the National Water Quality Monitoring Assessment program (NAWQA) would be cut, and federal funding would be eliminated for the toxic substances hydrology program. In total, these two programs would lose about $30 million. The budget request states that these two programs have made important contributions toward a better understanding of the sources, effects, fate, and persistence of contaminants in surface and groundwater nationwide. But NAWQA and the water toxics program are nonetheless targeted for major cuts because they are largely seen as benefiting other federal agencies, state and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and industry rather than the land and resource management bureaus of the U.S. Department of Interior, the department under which USGS falls. To refocus USGS activities toward providing science for interior department agencies, as well as ongoing national assessments of sources of coal, oil, natural gas, and other energy and mineral commodities seen as “vital” to the president’s strategy for a “sound energy policy”, the administration is proposing that the primary beneficiaries of the water quality data pick up the tab. This move is in direct contradiction to a recent National Research Council (NRC) report entitled Future Roles and Opportunities for the U.S. Geological Survey, which portrays the agency’s water monitoring programs as critical for the national interest. These programs should be expanded, not cut back, says Hugo Thomas, vice chair of the NRC committee. Environmentalists and industrial representatives alike call the USGS data credible and unbiased. “The common baseline that exists in adversarial situations relative to environmental issues is this good, hard, baseline data,” Thomas says. “Without it, everything becomes speculation, and nobody can agree to anything.” Other USGS water resources programs targeted for heavy cuts include the stream gauging and groundwater resources programs, as well as support for water resources research institutes and the water information delivery program under which USGS makes its data publicly available on the Web. The 2002 budget request is almost $70 million below the USGS 2001 budget, and out of this reduction, $44 million would be taken away from water resources monitoring. —KRIS CHRISTEN
Energy efficiency buzz in the EU
Follow the mercury This month, U.S. and Canadian scientists will start adding mercury to a pristine Canadian lake to find out what happens to fish when the atmospheric deposition of mercury increases. Mercury, a neurotoxin, is the most common cause of fish advisories in North America and is known to be detrimental to humans, especially growing children. Mercury enters most ecosystems through atmospheric deposition. In the United States, coal-fired power stations are the single greatest source. For this reason, after years of studying the issue (Environ. Sci.
toxic to marine organisms. The plea comes from Germany’s Federal Secretary of the Environment Jürgen Trittin, who appealed to industry to reduce its aggressive marketing of these products during a press conference in March. Conventional cleaning with soap and water is sufficient for everyday hygiene, Trittin says. In addition, biocidal cleaners destroy beneficial skin bacteria that help prevent pathogens from getting a foothold and therefore can lead to infection. Bacterial pathogens in hospitals are already resistant to antibacterial disinfectants. Antibacterials are commonly found in cleaning agents like kitchen cleansers, toothpaste, and handcleaners, and are even added to culinary chopping boards. Four Danish government agencies, including the Danish EPA, issued a joint statement in October 2000, advising consumers against the use of antibacterial products. The Swedish EPA made a similar announcement in August of last year.
Technol. 1998, 32 (9), 211A), the U.S. EPA announced in December 2000 that it intends to regulate such emissions in 2004. The agency estimated the cost of these controls to be several billion dollars per year. METAALICUS, or “Mercury Experiment To Assess Atmospheric Loading in Canada and the United States,” is a whole-ecosystem experiment, which is being run by a team of Canadian and U.S. researchers, to trace mercury through the complex pathways that link the atmosphere with fish. Agencies involved include Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a Canadian gov-
Unlike the Bush administration’s belief that fossil fuels will help the United States out of an energy crisis, the European Parliament sees energy efficiency measures as the lowest cost option for shoring up its energy supplies and reducing greenhouse gases. A resolution adopted in March by the Parliament recommends reducing taxes on energy-efficient products and buildings; developing stricter building codes for new and existing buildings; promoting renewable energy sources and coContinued on Page 231A
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Environmental M News loading to a lake in northeastern North America, the scientists plan to increase the current rate of wet mercury deposition by fourfold, according to project coordinator Reed Harris. For the 52-hectare watershed, this amounts to about 37 grams, or about one half teaspoon, over a three-year period. That half teaspoon of three stable isotopes (199Hg, 200Hg, and 202Hg) of inorganic Hg(II) produced in Russia, costs more than one-half million dollars.
Researchersinvestigate the effectsofincreased atmospheric mercurydeposition on fish in a northeastern Ontario lake.
One of the diluted isotopes, will be sprayed by plane across upland areas of the watershed. 199Hg will be sprayed on wetland areas, and 202Hg will be added to the lake surface by injection from a small boat at a depth of about 1.5 m, says Harris. The 1998 EPA Mercury Study Report to Congress (Environ. Sci. Technol. 1998, 32 (7), 176A–179A) concluded that, “there is a plausible link between atmospheric emissions of mercury and mercury in fish.” “This project is the best shot we have of proving this ‘plausible link’,” says USGS scientist David Krabbenhoft, one of the participants. Many other questions about the mercury cycle will also be resolved, he says. Questions such as these are posed: Where does the mercury come from that bioaccumulates in fish? Over what timescale will mercury deposited today be observed in fish? What is the fate of new mercury in the system? Will added mercury “blend” with the large pool of old mercury? Or will added mercury dominate the mercury that is actively moving in aquatic ecosystems? By following the mercury, these scientists plan to find out. —REBECCA RENNER
200 Hg,
REED HARRIS, TETRA TECH, INC.
ernment department responsible for water and fish quality, EPA, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Energy, Electric Power Research Institute, plus a host of collaborating universities and institutions from both the United States and Canada. The experiment will be carried out at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, a region where atmospheric mercury deposition is low. To simulate the mercury
Is dilution the solution to pollution? The deluge of floodwaters that washed over eastern North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in September 1999 caused no persistent increase in chemical contamination of surface waters and sediments, according to researchers at North Carolina State University. In fact, the sheer volume of water dumped by the storm—some 50–100 times normal flow conditions—seems to have diluted the chemicals to the extent that they fall below established thresholds necessary for the protection of aquatic life. “We expected some dilution of chemicals, but we didn’t expect to see it as widespread as we did,” says Damian Shea, the study’s lead investigator. “We expected to see higher concentrations, particularly 230 A
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in sediments, after the flood, and, by and large, we didn’t find that.” Chemical exposure was one of the primary human and environmental health concerns discussed by researchers at a roundtable hosted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences shortly following the hurricane (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2000, 34 (1), 8A–9A). Researchers feared that the cocktail of chemicals washed into streams from wastewater treatment plants, animal operations, croplands, hazardous waste sites and landfills, and numerous other sources would contaminate surface water throughout the region. “The total load of these pollutants was incredible,” says Larry Ausley, an environmental biologist with the North Carolina Department
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / JUNE 1, 2001
of Environment and Natural Resources, which funded the research. “Probably the highest we’ve ever experienced.” To determine the extent of chemical contamination and movement, Shea’s group measured chemicals in water column and sediment samples during the flood to assess the potential for acute problems. Over the following 18 months, samples were collected at 75 sites on several rivers and analyzed for 150 persistent chemical contaminants. The researchers found levels of most of the chemical compounds to be about the same as before the hurricane, or even a little lower because of possible floodwater dilution. The only exception was an increase in some petroleum-related compounds caused by fuel spills,
NOAA
W ith the predicted increase in tropicalstorms,researchersare embarking on long-term monitoring programsto determine how w ellecosystemsare able to rehabilitate themselvesbetw een events.
but the higher concentrations fell back to background levels within 1–2 weeks after the hurricane, Shea says. Nutrient loading, on the other hand, is another story. “The nutrient loading that went on during that storm and its long-term effects on the estuary really remain our chief concern … what the final resting place was [for] a lot of those nutrients and whether they were actually deposited in the sound or flowed out into the estuary,” Ausley says. Initial monitoring of nutrients showed that Pamlico Sound received about a year’s worth of nitrogen loading in the six-week period during which hurricanes Dennis, Floyd, and Irene struck, says Hans Paerl of the University of North Carolina– Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences. Although the system has since recovered to more or less normal algal content, a nearly fourfold increase in algal growth was observed last spring. Cool weather and persistent winds kept the system in check, but all the sediments that were deposited in the system could “act like a slow-release fertilizer” in the future, Paerl says. There is still some uncertainty
about the accumulation of more persistent chemicals in sediments and their movement; residues of historical pesticides such as DDT remain in the soils. The study showed that the contaminated particles in the soils that were resuspended during the flood were transported from further upstream in agricultural areas. “But we don’t find an analogous increase in those concentrations elsewhere in the system, so where they went is a bit of a mystery,” Shea says. “We looked at the areas in the sound where you’d expect them to accumulate.” The findings do bode well, however, for other systems that might experience such flooding, Shea says. “The system may experience acute problems with regard to high chemical exposure shortly following a spill, depending on what chemical sources happen to be in that area, but concentrations pretty quickly [return] to background level[s] and in many cases are actually diluted and lowered during the flooding event itself,” he notes. “It’s other things like destruction of physical habitat and nutrient loading that people should be dealing with.” —KRIS CHRISTEN
Government Watch generation (or combined electricity and heating or cooling processes); and creating a European sustainable energy agency. Europe’s final energy consumption could be reduced by more than 30% if energy efficiency measures were fully implemented, according to the Parliament. Before the initiative can be translated into a formal directive, the European Commission must make a proposal, which would then move to the Parliament and European Council. Chances are good for a passage of some kind, says Claude Turmes, a Parliament member who is coordinating work on energy for the green party. Energy companies and those at the forefront of technological development in the energy area solidly back the Parliament’s initiative.
Enviros target Bush record Perhaps to calm critics, the U.S. EPA in April announced plans to review the science behind a rule issued by the Clinton administration to reduce arsenic levels in drinking water and issue a new regulation by February 2002. That statement came on the heels of an EPA decision to keep in place a wetlands rule and a Toxics Release Inventory reporting requirement for companies releasing lead emissions. These two were also issued in final form by the Clinton administration. The decisions were made just as a coalition of environmental groups began airing television ads lambasting the Bush administration’s environmental record in its first 100 days. Shortly after he took office in January, Bush put on hold all rules issued in late 2000 by President Clinton. “It speaks volumes that the only proenvironment decisions [the Bush administration has] made involve not destroying a Clinton initiative,” says environmentalist
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Environmental M News Wastewater reuse expert wins Stockholm Water Prize Considered the “world’s foremost expert on the safe and beneficial use of recycled water”, Takashi Asano, adjunct professor at the University of California–Davis, has been tapped to receive this year’s Stockholm Water Prize, the “Nobel Prize” of water conservation. From the late 1970s throughout the 1980s, Asano spearheaded basic water reuse research at the California State Water Resources Control Board that culminated in California’s water recycling criteria. These criteria now guide most international projects involving wastewater reclamation, recycling, and reuse. In this context, recycling water is defined as reusing treated wastewater for ir-
rigation, industrial processes, toilet flushing, and replenishing depleted groundwater aquifers. Recognizing early on that developing countries in arid and semi-arid regions could benefit significantly from his work, Asano has expanded and adapted his original water reuse research for use in other countries. He also has acted as a consultant to the World Bank, World Health Organization, and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization on water scarcity and sanitation problems. “I’ve helped to bridge the gap between water supply issues and pollution control issues through the reuse of wastewater,” Asano says. In this way, poorer countries with lim-
ited resources are able to conserve their precious drinking water supplies. “Instead of discharging [wastewater] to the environment, we’re treating it and using it more efficiently,” Asano adds. Asano says he plans to use the prize money to travel to different parts of the world, particularly northern Africa and Latin America, to help with water reuse projects, write a water reuse textbook, and possibly bring people to California to view first-hand how the practice is conducted there. The $150,000 prize will be awarded in August by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden during World Water Week in Stockholm. —KRIS CHRISTEN
2594–2600). They peg the globe’s net primary productivity, the amount of biomass generated by photosynthesizing plants on land and in the sea, at 111 to 117 petagrams of carbon per year, Behrenfeld says. The ocean upwelling associated with the transition from the El Niño weather phenomenon to the La Niña is largely responsible for the increased amount of carbon captured, or fixed, by ocean plants in the observation period, according to Jorge Sarmiento, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at Princeton University. Even so, Sarmiento says that the interna-
tional team of scientists from government and academia who collaborated on the research was surprised that the ocean’s productivity varied by 5%. The data show that half of the world’s photosynthesis takes place in the ocean, the data show. The new measurements serve as a baseline against which to evaluate future observations of carbon uptake, the authors note. “Our understanding of how the earth will change in response to climate change is very poor,” Sarmiento stresses. “We need to be able to distinguish between long-term trends and short-term aberrations,” adds Gene Feldman, an oceanographer with NASA’s Goddard Center. The data are crucial for the coupled atmospheric–oceanic models used to predict global climate change, Feldman says. One of the greatest uncertainties in those models is how biology will respond to increased amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, Sarmiento explains, noting that some models predict that it will cause the Amazonian rainforest to collapse, while others do not predict such an outcome. “We know even less about how ocean models will respond,” he says, adding that SeaWiFS repre-
Carbon cycle surprises
NASA
The first comprehensive observations of the earth’s carbon cycle proved surprising, according to Michael Behrenfeld, an oceanographer with the Goddard Space Flight Center, operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The earth’s plants are taking up “slightly” more carbon than scientists anticipated, he says, and the magnitude of the interannual variability was “unexpected”. The measurements, which were made over three years by NASA’s Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), were published in Science (2001, 291 (5513),
NASA’sSea-view ingW ideField-of-view Sensor(SeaW iFS)satellitemakes14passesaround the earth each dayto collectthe mostcomprehensive observationsofglobalbiologyever recorded.Scientistsexpectthe data to provide a baseline forevaluating climate change. 232 A
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sents the only global-scale data set on ocean plant productivity. The SeaWiFS satellites captured some information about two ocean fertilization experiments conducted by researchers from Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand in 1999 and 2000. Unfortunately, cloud cover precluded continuous observation of the chlorophyll plumes that resulted from adding iron in the hope of increasing the concentration of phytoplankton at the ocean’s surface, which in turn would take up more CO2 in the region. The data may nonetheless be used to improve models for assessing such fertilization’s potential to increase the remineralization of organic matter, thereby increasing the ocean’s production of nitrous oxide, Sarmiento says. Because N2O is a strong greenhouse gas, this side effect could counteract the effect of sequestering carbon through ocean fertilization, he explains. At present, the carbon data being captured by SeaWiFS are gleaned from sensors that measure chlorophyll, which also allow scientists to make observations about other aspects of ocean biology, such as the size and extent of coral reefs worldwide. But NASA hopes to supplement the satellites with sensors that directly measure CO2 in the future, Feldman says. KELLYN S. BETTS
Cleaning up dioxin with nanotubes Researchers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated that carbon nanotubes can efficiently remove dioxin from combustion of organic compounds associated with municipal, medical, and hazardous waste incinerators. Businesses trying to commercialize nanotubes for applications ranging from electronics to chemical sensors predict that large-scale quantities will be available within the next few years. Ralph Yang and Richard Long in the University of Michigan’s Chemical Engineering Department built and tested carbon multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) to demonstrate that carbon nanotubes remove dioxins far more effectively than the activated carbon that has been used in Europe and Japan since 1991 (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001,123, 2058). The researchers used data from their study to calculate that the interaction of dioxins with MWNTs can yield up to 1034 greater removal, making the approach vastly superior to alternatives like activated carbon, clays, alumina, and zeolites. Increased performance can be attributed to hexagonal arrays of carbon atoms in the graphene sheets that surround the tube axis, where the benzene rings of dioxin and the nanotube surface are expected to react strongly. Modified temperature-programmed desorption allowed researchers to obtain information about the parts-per-trillion range, which is important because the U.S. EPA requires dioxin to be removed from combustion waste below 1 ng/m3. Although activated carbon and nanotubes absorb dioxin, mercury, and other hydrocarbons, Yang is “certain that the required amount of carbon nanotubes would be much less than that of activated carbon for the same dioxin removal.” He also says, “We can make nanotubes from methane and low-cost iron- or nickel-containing catalysts, at fast rates and high yields.” Several companies, including Hyperion Catalysis in Cambridge, MA, and Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. (CNI), in Houston, TX, are producing single- or multiwalled nanotubes, but consumers are generally researchers. Requested quantities appear to be increasing. Reinette Marek, business manager at CNI, projects that brand-name, single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) will be mass produced by 2005 and predicts that the price for complex process SWNTs will fall from the current $500 per gram to $0.55 per gram by that time. Marek states that CNI’s focus remains on SWNT because “it is molecularly perfect … leading to more numerous and sophisticated applications for SWNT.” —RACHEL A. PETKEWICH
paper earns SETAC award Dutch scientist Niels Jonkers earned the Best Publication Award on Environmental Research presented at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’s annual European meeting in May for a paper published in ES&T. The award, which is sponsored by the ZENECA Brixham Environmental Laboratory, is presented only to researchers under the age of 35. A Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental and Toxicological Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, or IBED, Jonkers earned this year’s award for “Aerobic Biodegradation
Studies of Nonylphenol Ethoxylates in River Water Using Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Tandem Mass Spectrometry” (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2001, 35 (2), 335–340). The paper described Jonkers’ work with fellow researchers at the University of Amsterdam and the Institute for Water Research and Water Technology, or ESWE, in Wiesbaden, Germany, showing that nonylphenol ethyloxylates degrade following a previously unknown pathway, the second degradation pathway discovered for these chemicals. The research implies that, under aerobic conditions, nonylphenol ethyoxylates are unlikely to be the source
of nonylphenol, an endocrine disrupter, in the environment. “This paper is quite a good example of a controlled laboratory study on the aerobic biodegradation of nonionic surfactants,” says Walter Giger of the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, or EAWAG, who is an associate editor of ES&T. “It shows that even though these materials are complex mixtures of technical products, with new analytical techniques, one can get relatively precise information on the metabolites, including hydrophilic, acidic, and oxidized compounds.” —KELLYN S. BETTS
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Split registrations for U.S. pesticides such as that which permitted selling StarLink corn solely for animal feed and industrial purposes in the United States will no longer be an option for biotech products, according to the U.S. EPA. StarLink’s signature protein Cry9C made its way into the human food supply last fall creating huge financial losses and lawsuits against the producer, Aventis CropScience. The Cry9C protein remains in dry-milled finished food, but according to a March draft EPA report, essentially none is found in wet-milled food. About 80% of corn food products are produced by the wet-milling process. White Paper on the Possible Presence of Cry9C Protein in Processed Human Food Fractions Produced Through the Wet Milling of Corn is available at www.epa.gov/ pesticides/biopesticides. Technical progress reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been faster than anticipated, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The third component of the IPCC Third Assessment Report states that many cost-effective solutions to rising greenhouse gas emissions are available today. Promising technologies include wind turbines, hybrid cars, rapid elimination of byproduct gases from aluminum smelting, fuel 238 A
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cells, and waste-to-energy projects. The authors calculate reductions from these technologies could allow global emissions to drop below 2000 levels between the years 2010 and 2020. The report is available at www.ipcc.ch. PHOTODISC
More than 31 multinational companies will allow scrutiny of their environmental performance by committing to the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The companies include large chemical, electronics, and mining endeavors such as Nike, Ford Motor, and Texaco. The GRI, which was initially created to provide a means of verifying claims made in environmental performance reports, expects a major boost from the participation of such prominent companies. Reporting will now include a range of topics such as that individual companies may have previously chosen to omit. More information about the GRI is available at www.globalreporting.org.
Officials in New Orleans have figured out a clever way of tracking the masses. Although there is no exact way of determining Mardi Gras attendance numbers, 1520 tons of garbage were collected in the French Quarter along parade routes this year, according to a March article in the New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune. Arrests, hotel occupancy, and hospital visits are also used in making crowd estimates, but according to the article, trash was the top indicator in estimating attendance at 2 million for two years in a row. Electricity from a wind farm being built along the Washington–Oregon border will cost a record-breaking low of less than 2.5¢ per kilowatt-hour (kWh) with a 0.7¢/kWh federal tax credit, according to the nonprofit American Wind Energy Association. Pacific Gas & Electric, a utility, and the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit energy research organization, predict that wind will ultimately be the least expensive. Conventional combustion turbine generation costs from 3.8¢ to 6¢/kWh, according to the California Energy Commission and the Energy Information Agency. For more information, go to www. awea.org/pubs/factsheets.html.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / JUNE 1, 2001
Overall releases of chemicals to the environment in the United States, including those that were recycled or burned, were up by 5%—or almost 1 billion pounds—between 1998 and 1999, the U.S. EPA reports in its annual Toxics Release Inventory. The good news is that overall industrial chemical air emissions dropped by 2.5% from 1998 to 1999, primarily because of a 9.7% cut from the coal mining industry and a 5.5% drop from petroleum terminals and bulk storage facilities. Since 1988, manufacturers have achieved an overall reduction of 46% in chemical releases. To access the report, go to www.epa.gov/tri. U.S. government regulations deter companies from implementing technologies to maximize energy efficiency and reduce emissions, according to the Business Roundtable (BRT), an association of leading CEOs. BRT released 38 solutions intended to streamline the regulatory tax and trade laws that often unintentionally discourage new greenhouse-reducing or energyefficient technologies. Their goal is to find common ground among business, government, and environmental advocates to promote rapid innovation of these important technologies. Members propose solutions in the report Unleashing Innnovation: The Right Approach to Global Climate Change, which is available at www.brt.org. Through unilateral actions, countries have made substantial progress cutting industrial pollution, cleaning up polluted surface waters, and reducing toxic air emissions, finds a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The world’s more intractable environmental problems—such as overfishing, global deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change—will require more international cooperation, concludes OECD. OECD Environmental Outlook analyzes the forces driving environmental change, resulting changes in the state of the environment to 2020, and policy options. To purchase a copy, go to www.oecd.org.
