data set, the paper said. The reported inventory of industrial emissions is "inaccurate in its location, composition, and emission rates of major sources," the researchers wrote. Jim Price, senior scientist in the commission's monitoring operations division, said he is unsure of Henry's conclusions. The discrepancy in data could be accounted for by several factors, including incorrect identification of the facility's longitude and latitude, a bias in the airflow, or inaccurate reporting of emissions by the company. But lead researcher Henry maintains that his team's analysis provides strong empirical evidence that regulators are making predictions based on inaccurate industrial emissions. "The system we are using now, developed 20-30 years ago, was created at a time when the sources of pollution were pretty obvious," Henry said. Now that most large sources of pollution are being controlled, fugitive emissions are an important source of toxics from leaking pipes and unreported handling practices. But measuring fugitive emissions—when faced with as many as 500,000 sources in a large petrochemical plant, for example—is quite expensive and would be hard to quantify. Henry recommended that regulators set up more monitors and that companies make observed monitoring a higher priority for their environmental departments. "People don't want to talk about the discrepancies," Henry said. Most regulators don't believe that the inventory discrepancies are large enough to warrant a wholesale overhaul of the estimated inventory system. Although agreeing that inaccuracies occur, Steve Bromberg, director of emissions monitoring and assessment in EPA's air office, noted that often the inventories do match the observed data. "We could be more certain of our emission inventories before we develop the control strategies, but that doesn't mean that we have a problem now," Bromberg said. He added that EPA is working to narrow the gap between observed and reported emissions. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
EUROPEAN
NEWS
Fertilizer taxes could play a valuable part in reducing nitrogen pollution in the European Union (EU) by reducing fertilizer use, an international team of researchers has suggested. Current policies are unlikely to achieve desired standards for nitrates in water, according to the report, which was sponsored by the European Commission's research directorate. The report reviews the impact of current agricultural and environmental policies on nitrate levels. It calculates that a 30% tax on manufactured fertilizers would reduce excess nitrogen in the Netherlands by 8% and a 100% tax would cut levels by 25%. Recent EU policies that could reduce nitrate levels are a 1991 directive designed to cut nitrate in water and a 1992 reform of the EU common agricultural policy that reduced prices for certain cereals and livestock and was expected to lead to less intensive agricultural production. The researchers concluded that the agricultural policy has had "little effect" on nitrogen levels. The Dutch government's decision to relax its strict contaminated land policy was praised by Dutch industry on July 2. The new approach abandons a requirement for contamination to be removed to the maximum extent and instead permits cleanup on the basis of suitability for use. The Dutch government announced June 19 that it was dropping its "multifunctionality" approach requiring all polluted land to be cleaned sufficiently to make it suitable for any future use, including housing development. The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers welcomed the change as practical. Environmental groups have accused the government of undermining its commitment to sustainable development. Germany plans to quadruple funding for endocrine disrupter research, Environment Minister Angela Merkel announced July 3. The possible influence of certain chemicals on human and animal hormone systems "needs urgent clarification," Merkel said. Four chemicals suspected of having hormonal effects in humans and animals are at the center of the research program: tributyl tin, used as an antifouling agent in marine paints; bisphenol A, used in plastics production; alkylphenol ethoxylates, used in detergents; and phthalates, used to soften plastics. A draft European Union report on one suspected hormone disrupter, nonylphenol, already suggests that new regulations to reduce environmental exposure will be necessary, according to the German environment ministry. A proposal to collect and recycle all types of batteries by 2002 is moving forward within the European Commission. The commission's environment directorate, which has been considering an expansion of the 1991 batteries directive on the disposal of certain types of batteries, hopes to obtain formal approval for the proposal from the whole Commission before the end of the year. The proposal suggests that EU member states be required to introduce battery collection and recycling within two years of adoption of the amended directive, which could be as early as 2000. It also proposes phasing out cadmium use by 2008 and immediately banning the use of mercury. The latter is more of a formality because mercury in batteries was largely phased out by the 1991 directive. Limiting the sulfur content of fuel oils burned in power stations, refineries, and industry received a surprisingly positive hearing by EU national officials at a meeting in Brussels on July 3. The proposals were being discussed for the first time in a Council of Ministers working group. A draft directive published in March on the sulfur content of liquid fuels forms a central plank of a European Commission strategy to halve the area affected by acidification by 2010. There are currently no EU limits on the sulfur content of fuel oils. Some countries have average figures of 1% sulfur content or less; others have sulfur concentrations as high as 3.5%. The commission has proposed setting a 1% limit by 2000 for the EU.
—Reprinted with permission from ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's first daily environmental news service. Environmental Data Services, Ltd., London (http:llwww.ends.co.uk, e-mail
[email protected]. uk) VOL. 31, NO. 9, 1997 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 4 0 7 A
