Honda's Insight is first hybrid vehicle to hit U.S. market This month, 4000 Honda Insights, the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle to be sold in the United States, will arrive in American showrooms. Another 4000 will be marketed in Japan and Europe this spring. The two-seater coupe topped EPA's fuel economy ranking of year-2000 models, getting 61 miles per gallon (mpg) in city driving and 70 mpg on the highway. Priced just under $20,000, it is the first gas-powered vehicle to meet California's ultra-low emission standards, with nitrogen oxides emissions of less than 0.02 grams per mile. The five-speed Insight is powered by a nickel-metal hydride battery pack, which boosts engine performance and recharges itself by acting as a generator during deceleration and braking.
The Honda Insight's ultra-thin 10 kilowatt electric motor boosts the performance of its light 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine.
"The Insight will have wider appeal than the EV Plus, our all-electric vehicle, since it doesn't have to be recharged and only needs to be refueled every 600 to 700 miles," said Robert Bienenfeld, American Honda Motor Company, Inc.'s manager of alternative fuel vehicles marketing. The Insight's design incorporates rigid-frame components made of recycled aluminum from engine blocks and an aerodynamic aluminum alloy body, which is 40% lighter—it weighs less than 2000 pounds—than a comparable steel body. Other efficient vehicles to follow include Toyota's gasoline-electric hybrid, Prius, expected in the United States and Europe next summer, and DaimlerChrysler's hydrogen fuel cell NECAR 4, which should go on sale in 2004. —PATRICIA E. DEMPSEY
Overflowing sewers cause backlog of water problems An EPA report to Congress on combined sewer overflows due this month could mark a defining point for the Clean Water Act (CWA), should the agency move to distinguish between wet and dry weather events and discharges. Current regulations do not reflect the intermittent nature of rainy weather and adverse water quality conditions that the resulting runoff can cause, particularly when sewers overflow. But just how to control urban runoff, now the second leading cause of water pollution behind agricultural runoff, has stymied regulators and was a hot discussion topic at the Water Environment Federation's (WEF) annual conference in New Orleans, La., in October. WEF represents wastewater and water quality professionals. Part of the problem lies with the uses designated for various water bodies. After the CWA was signed into law in 1972, most states followed its Section 101 to the letter, designating water bod-
ies as fishable and swimmable "wherever attainable." But few made distinctions between dry and wet weather events and discharges, and as a result, stringent water quality criteria were put in place to meet these fishable, swimmable goals. Whenever a heavy rain falls, however, inevitably somewhere a sewer pipe carrying raw sewage and industrial wastewater to a treatment facility will overflow and discharge directly to nearby rivers, lakes, estuaries, or coastal waters. These overflows do not represent a system failure; indeed, today's sewer systems are designed to overflow during some storm events once a certain capacity is reached. But the contaminants—which can include pathogens, nutrients, suspended solids, toxic pollutants, heavy metals, and floatable material— contained in these overflows make the water quality standards set for various water bodies difficult to attain.
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Even if such sewer overflows could be eliminated—viewed as an impossibility to many in the wastewater industry—current designated uses still could not be met, contended many present at the WEF conference. "There needs to be a recognition that, in some cases, science indicates that controls will not be effective or feasible," particularly in urban areas where a lot of concrete has been laid, said Paul Freedman, president of LimnoTech, Inc., an environmental consulting and engineering firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. For example, achieving water quality standards in a channelized stream flowing through an industrial area is extremely cost-prohibitive, Freedman said. "If we had designated streams properly, they wouldn't be swimmable during wet weather events and for some time thereafter," said Paul Calamita, an attorney with McGuire, Woods, Battle, & Boothe, LLP, in Richmond, Va.
Calamita represents a coalition of municipalities pushing for more realistic urban wet weather water quality standards in Congress and guidance from EPA. To address wet weather discharges, EPA, together with municipalities and environmentalists, developed the National Combined Sewer Overflow Policy in 1994. In addition to technology-based minimum controls and long-range control plans, the policy also requires states to review and revise water quality standards. Most cities with combined sewage and stormwater systems have incorporated the first two provisions as requirements in permits, but the standards review has proven too controversial politically. "Nobody wants to do anything that even hints like backsliding on water quality standards," Calamita said—at least not until after the elections in 2000. As a result, to date, only one use review, in Boston, Mass., has been completed nationwide that specifically addresses stormwater and sewer overflows. Bangor, Maine, is in the process of conducting a use review. Compounding the problem is that water quality control programs, including sewer overflows, stormwater, and total maximum daily loads, largely have been developed separately and in isolation, leading to inefficient spending by municipalities trying to meet the various requirements. Municipalities have therefore been lobbying Congress to pass the Urban Wet Weather and Watershed Act of 1999, which would combine all the urban water quality programs under one umbrella, allowing municipalities to prioritize and target financial resources to address the most serious water quality problems first. Likewise, "it's imperative that states and federal agencies get together and coordinate [water quality requirements under] the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the CWA, and Superfund" said Don Theiler, a wastewater treatment manager at the King County Department of Natural Resources in Seattle, Wash., at a congres-
Controlling urban wet-weather flows has proven to be a difficult challenge.
sional briefing in September. "Water quality standards are nice, but they may not meet the needs for endangered species," Theiler said, adding that EPA should be setting standards that meet ESA requirements rather than having another agency come in later in the game. "We shouldn't have to deal with multiple requirements." Calamita was hopeful, how-
ever, that EPA, in its report to Congress, will assume a leadership role on these issues by providing guidance on how states are to conduct use reviews, as well as badly needed financial assistance for carrying them out. "We want [EPA] to provide a political cover and directive for states to do these use reviews," he said. —KRIS CHRISTEN
ENERGY Fuel cells promise assured power for Postal Service What may be the world's largest commercial fuel cell system will provide pollution-free energy and off-the-grid self-sufficiency, and will require minimal maintenance for the U.S. Postal Service when it begins operation this month at a 24-hour mail processing facility in Anchorage. The assured-power system, which is owned and maintained by Chugach Electric Association, Inc., a member-owned cooperative, is the Anchorage Mail Processing and Distribution Plant's prime power source; the Chugach utility grid is the backup. "If there is a grid outage, this fuel cell installation will separate itself from the grid and operate seamlessly, preventing a disruption of the 24-hour, 7-daysa-week automatic mail processing," said Michael London, spokesperson for the Connecticut-based International Fuel Cells Inc., which developed and manufactured the PC25 fuel cells that were delivered in October to the Anchorage site. "We chose Alaska for our first fuel cell system because there is a high exposure to weather-related power outages and the economic partnerships were in place," said Dan De Miglio, the U.S. Postal Service's manager of public affairs and national environmental issues. Each of the five fuel cells generates 1000 kilowatts of electricity and more than 700,000 British thermal units per hour of usable heat. According to London, "The system generates more power than it needs, so the excess power is fed back into the grid. This eliminates the need to spend over $500,000 on backup generators and underground storage fuel tanks." —PATRICIA E. DEMPSEY
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