Government▼Watch Environmental e-data comes to drinking water With the help of U.S. EPA funds, a five-state team is turning to the Web as a way to reduce data errors and delays in drinking-water monitoring and compliance. This marks the first time that electronic data transfer will be tried in any drinking-water program in the country. Internet-based secure data transfer has already transformed the workings of businesses such as banks, airlines, and scientific publishers but not the voluminous data management required by environmental regulations. This is because EPA and state environmental agencies generally have different database systems. In addition, regulations have required signed paper certification, according to Laurie Cullerot, an information technologist at New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services, who is one of the state project leaders. The feder-
al government is developing rules to be used in all agencies concerning the acceptance of secure certified data without the use of paper signatures, adds EPA’s Pat Garvey. Data submitted on paper by labs or companies are now re-keyed by EPA staff into their own drinkingwater data systems, for a number of reasons. Labs maintain data records in different formats for separate databases, and various programs have different names for the same waterquality parameter. The five states—New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont—together with EPA staff and a contractor are developing a scheme that will use standard Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) nomenclature as
often as possible to label contaminants or waterquality parameters with the same name across programs. The project will also use XML markup language, the lingua franca of e-data management and secure servers. EPA’s National Environmental Information Exchange, which began in fiscal year 2002, is funding the new drinking-water data project. Funding levels have ranged from $20 to 25 million in various years, according to Garvey, who chairs the exchange’s steering board. Thirteen states are pilot-testing strategies and supplying EPA with some electronic data for other programs that include aspects of air, water, and hazardous waste monitoring and compliance. Garvey expects 35 states to have Internet-based drinking-water reporting up and running by the end of this year. —REBECCA RENNER
EU ready to open CO2 trading market It looks like the European Union’s emissions trading scheme will be officially up and running by January 2005 after all, setting to rest fears that some member states were lagging behind schedule. In July, the European Commission (EC) approved eight countries’ national allocation plans, which set out how they intend to distribute carbon dioxide emissions allowances to energy-intensive industrial plants (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, 321A). The EC’s decision clears the way for more than 5000 facilities—out of an estimated 12,000 in the 25 member states—to participate in the scheme. The approved plans were from Denmark, Ireland, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Sweden; outlines from Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom were affirmed on condition that some technical changes are made. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström has been concerned that member states have been slow in submitting action plans and transposing the scheme’s directive into national law. However, “This decision shows that we … can start trading on the first of January next year as planned,” she said. By July, only 4 of the 15 core EU countries—Austria, France, Germany and Sweden—had enacted the necessary national legislation, even though the deadline was December 31, 2003. The EC has sent final warnings to the outstanding 11.
© 2004 American Chemical Society
Even if all countries don’t get their legislation in place, the scheme will go ahead, believes Stian Reklev of Point Carbon, an Oslo-based emissions-trading research group. However, companies from countries with no action plans can’t participate in the market until they have been allocated their allowances. “Legally,” he says, “this could cause the biggest problems for late countries, as their companies may challenge their governments in court if they feel that they are hindered from making a profit in the market as a result from not being allowed to participate.” Already about 25 companies are involved in so-called forward trading, even though they haven’t received allowances yet, reports Reklev. These companies are trading on paper only. They have signed contracts and are exchanging money, but they can’t shift allowances from one facility to another until January 2005 when the spot market opens. Since the first trade in February 2003, about 1.3 million tons have been traded and market liquidity is rapidly improving, he says. “The market price varies between 6.5 and 9.5 euros per ton, with the usual size of each trade around 5000 tons, but when the market really hits off next year many expect 50,000 tons to be the standard clip,” Reklev adds. —MARIA BURKE
OCTOBER 1, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 367A
