EnvironmentalMNews Alkylphenols in sewage sludge applied to land esearchers at the College of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have found high levels of alkylphenols in biosolids derived from several wastewater treatment facilities across the United States. Despite their toxicity and ability to disrupt the endocrine system, alkylphenols were not examined by the U.S. EPA in 1993 when it developed regulations for applying sewage sludge onto agricultural fields. The presence of these and other toxic compounds recently found in sewage sludge, such as brominated flame retardants and pharmaceuticals, has some scientists saying it’s time for EPA to reexamine the issue. Applying sewage sludge onto agricultural fields is an inexpensive way for wastewater treatment plants to dispose of their waste, and at the same time, recycle valuable nutrients. Sewage sludge, however, contains a myriad of toxic chemicals and microbial pathogens, and only a handful of them are regulated. EPA has established limits for some heavy metals and pathogens in sludge applied to land, and it plans to set limits for the dioxinlike compounds. But in general, U.S. limits are less strict than those in Europe and cover far fewer compounds (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2000, 34, 430A–435A). EPA’s 1993 legislation for managing sewage sludge is based on the National Sewage Sludge Survey conducted in 1988, which did not examine several contaminants in biosolids that are now of concern, says Mark La Guardia, who along with Robert Hale and colleagues at VIMS, reported nonylphenol levels as high as 887 mg/kg (dry weight) in U.S. biosolids destined for land appli-
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cation (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2001, 35, 4798–4804). In the nonylphenol study, the VIMS researchers analyzed a total of 11 biosolids, including 3 distributed for home garden usage. The biosolids were all derived from U.S. wastewater treatment plants and had been stabilized by using either compost, lime (alkali), heat, or anaerobic digestion techniques. Nine of the samples exceeded the current Danish limit by 6–33 times. The European Union has established a limit of 50 mg/kg for total nonylphenol and its mono- and diethoxylates in biosolids, but Denmark has an even stricter limit of 30 mg/kg and intends to lower that limit to 10 mg/kg in 2002. Currently, there are no limits for nonylphenol and its ethoxylates in U.S. sludge. Alkylphenol ethoxylates are used as surfactants in a wide variety of household products, including
detergents, paints, pesticides, and personal care products. They are known to degrade to more toxic and estrogenic alkylphenols during wastewater treatment processes. Alkylphenols are more hydrophobic than their parent compounds and therefore tend to accumulate in sewage sludge. Of all the alkylphenolic compounds, nonylphenol and its ethoxylates have generated the most environmental health concerns because they are the most abundant. Octylphenol, however, is reportedly 10–20 times more estrogenic than nonylphenol. Low levels of nonylphenol (8.3– 85.6 µg/L) have been shown to cause endocrine-disrupting effects in rainbow trout in laboratory studies (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2001, 35, 2909–2916), but there have been no field studies showing that biosolids containing high levels of alkylphenols and their ethoxylates cause deleterious effects to health or the environment when applied to agricultural lands, says Ellen Harrison, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute. Consequently, EPA has not shown much interest
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Researchers have detected nonylphenol in biosolids derived from wastewater treatment plants across the United States. Eleven biosolids were collected prior to land application and were stabilized by either anaerobic digestion (AD), compost, heat, or lime techniques.
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mobile. “On the whole, alkylphenols stick well to soil,” says Johnson. In laboratory experiments, the VIMS researchers subjected stabilized biosolids to EPA’s toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (EPA Method 1311) and saw about 2% of the alkylphenols in the leachate. If those biosolids had been applied to land, that 2% could have ended up in groundwater, they warn. “One of the ways wastewater treatment plants take care of their sludges is to put them in lagoons. There has been groundwater contamination of nonylphenols. There is a potential that these compounds can come out of the biosolids in the field and get into groundwater,” says La Guardia. Recognizing that in the future, it may need to look at additional chemicals and pathogens in sludge applied to land, EPA has asked a National Academy of Sciences committee to review the science behind its risk assessment. One of the committee’s charges is to examine EPA’s approach for identifying relevant chemical pollutants in sludge. The committee is expected to complete its review by summer 2002. —BRITT E. ERICKSON
Long-term environmental tracking foreseen for WTC fallout A national database has been created to track pollution resulting from the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse on Sept. 11. The collected data are being used to inform federal agencies’ response on environmental sampling, analysis, and interpretation for New York City over the short term, but the data are also expected to provide information on how to better respond to future incidents. “We’ll be doing a trend analysis,” says Bob Williams of the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. “Rather than looking at individual days, which is how the data [are] being used now, we’ll look across weeks and months to see if there are any statistically significant changes” in pollution levels. This will include a long-term
surveillance program administered by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the New York Department of Health surveying the WTC cleanup workers. Moreover, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with the city to develop a needs assessment for residents and office workers returning to the area, looking at what contaminants are present, what these population groups may have been exposed to, and how they may have been exposed, according to Williams. Data going into the central database primarily involve asbestos and particulate matter, but the monitoring stations surrounding the restricted area in lower Manhattan are also sampling for dioxins, poly-
Governmen At odds over PBDEs European lawmakers appear to be at odds over what to do about polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. The European Environment Council at the end of September unanimously overturned a European Parliament vote to ban nearly all PBDEs. Now the ban returns to Parliament for a second reading. PBDEs are used as flame retardants in computers, TV sets, and cars. They are considered emerging contaminants of concern because of their widespread use in consumer products, persistence, and evidence that some PBDEs bioaccumulate and exert toxic effects at low levels (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2000,34 (9), 223A). The Sept. 6 vote by Parliament to ban nearly all PBDE flame retardants, including octa-BDE and deca-BDE, came as a surprise. The Parliament approved the European Commission (EC) proposal to ban penta-BDE. But the lawmakers’ action, based on the precautionary principle, to ban octa- and decaBDE disregarded EC advice. European Union risk assessments for octa- and deca-BDE have not yet been completed. The lawmakers agreed that octa-BDE and penta-BDE should be banned from use and importation by July 1, 2003. Deca-BDE should be banned by January 1, 2006, unless risk assessment results demonstrate that this is unnecessary.
Toxic mold taken to task With the adoption of the Toxic Mold Protection Act in October, California became the first U.S. state to address public health risks from mold in residential and commercial buildings. Elevated levels of mold spores Continued on Page 13A
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PHOTODISC
in setting limits for alkylphenols in sludge, she says. Field studies have shown no adverse effects of alkylphenols in sludge applied to land on earthworms, insects, and birds, says Charles Staples, a private consultant with Assessment Technologies, who has worked closely with the Alkylphenols & Ethoxylates Research Council, an industry group composed of manufacturers, processors, users, and suppliers of alkylphenols and their ethoxylates. “Insects, in fact, thrived on sludge containing natural levels of nonylphenol and other toxic organic compounds. The nutrients in the sludge overwhelmed any kind of adverse effects on the insects that may have been seen,” he says. Some believe there is no need to regulate alkylphenols in sludge applied to land because under aerobic conditions, the compounds tend to degrade in about a month. “But once conditions go anaerobic, alkylphenols become much more persistent,” says Andrew Johnson of the U.K.’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxfordshire. Because of their hydrophobicity, however, alkylphenols will not be very
An aerialview ofthe W orld Trade Centerdisastersite as seen on Septem ber19,2001.
chlorinated biphenyls, metals, radioactivity, and volatile organic compounds, according to Williams. Sampling will continue as long as the cleanup operations are going on. Of the hundreds of air, dust, water, sediment, drinking water, and sewage outfall samples taken immediately outside the “ground zero” area in the days following the attacks, William says “we haven’t seen any elevated levels [of pollution] that would give us alarm.” However, an article in the New York Daily News recently reported high levels of toxic substances in the air and soil around the WTC site. Citing internal government documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, the article noted that on certain days, benzene levels, for example, were higher than government standards. The Daily News article refers to samples that were taken from the debris pile, where continuing fires and dust are causing elevated levels of contaminants, including benzene, dioxin, and sulfur dioxide, says EPA’s Mary Helen Cervantes in EPA’s Region 2 office. Elevated readings have been recorded in the breathing zone, Cervantes adds, and consequently, the agency continues to recommend that cleanup workers wear protective respiratory gear.
State and city officials are also becoming increasingly concerned over residents and workers trying to return to their apartments and office buildings, the insides of which are still covered in dust, near the WTC site. Sampling of the dust by the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, a nonprofit public interest organization, found levels of asbestos more than double the 1% level that EPA considers hazardous. Monona Rossol, an industrial hygienist who consulted on the project, consequently contends that many of these buildings may need to be professionally cleaned before being reoccupied. Federal agencies involved in the Environmental Assessment Working Group that is developing the national database include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Labor. New York’s Department of Health and Department of Environmental Conservation are also involved. For results of day-to-day air and water quality sampling, as well as information on the ongoing cleanup efforts, go to EPA’s Web site at www.epa.gov/epahome/wtc or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration site at www.osha.gov. KRIS CHRISTEN
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GM pigs produce less phosphorus waste Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, report producing “Enviropigs,” the first animals genetically modified (GM) for environmental benefit. The pigs produce manure with up to 75% less phosphorus, which should reduce contaminant levels in runoffs to streams and rivers from nearby pig farms. Yet, some environmentalists question if these transgenic animals will really clean up factory pig farming. Because swine cannot digest phytate, the most common form of phosphorus in their feed, giant pig farms that house thousands of pigs produce tons of phosphorus-rich waste. Of the 100 million pigs slaughtered annually in the United States, each produces ~17.5 pounds of waste per day, according to U.S. EPA reports. The researchers attacked the phosphorus problem by introducing into pig embryos a gene that combines an Escherichia coli gene that produces phytase, the enzyme necessary to break down phytate, with a mouse saliva gene. The engineered pigs digest phytate because they produce phytase in their saliva (Nat. Biotechnol. 2001, 19, 741–745). However, environmentalists remain skeptical. Applying genetic engineering to clean up large-scale pig farming is “like using a screwdriver when a hammer is needed for a nail,” says Jane Rissler, a CECIL FORSBERG
© REUTERS NEWMEDIA INC./CORBIS
Environmental MNews
UniversityofGuelph researchersgeneticallym odified the “Enviropig”to digest phytate,the m ostcom m on form ofphosphorusin feed.
senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. She is dubious that the Enviropig is the most sustainable answer, noting that some farmers have overcome economic and environmental issues with traditional, low-tech methods on smaller-scale farms that serve niche organic markets. John Robbins, an environmental health consultant, likens Enviropigs to “cutting down smoking from two packs a day to one-and-a-half packs a day.” He argues that the environment would still be damaged from the nitrogen and pathogens in pig waste. Reduced operating cost is one of the main benefits that farmers could reap from the Enviropig, because the pigs would not require expensive phosphorus supple-
Governmen
ments. Pig farmers do care about reducing environmental burdens but need to make a living, says Helmuth Spreitzer, a Canadian farmer who chairs the research committee for Ontario Pork, an industry group. Spreitzer adds that commercialization, with all of its regulatory hoops, is still a long way off. Researcher Cecil Forsberg reports that he and his colleagues are now working on “cousin-mating”— breeding pigs to have the usual two copies of the modified gene, which insures all offspring produce phytase. He adds that a method to genetically modify chickens is almost viable, which could also limit the phosphorus-laden waste production on poultry farms. —RACHEL PETKEWICH
in indoor environments can increase the risk of adverse health effects, particularly respiratory problems, according to California’s Department of Health Services (DHS). Increasingly, mold growth is associated with new buildings built to conserve energy. In such buildings, ventilation can be reduced and excessive moisture can accumulate behind insulation, according to Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento), who sponsored the legislation. Currently, there are no federal or state standards or threshold limit values for airborne concentrations of mold contaminants. However, because molds can have devastating health effects, such as severe asthma, and because the number of people who have been exposed to molds is high, some predict that molds will generate more litigation than asbestos, according to staff in Ortiz’s office. Once the DHS establishes permissible exposure limits, those owning properties containing mold above the limit must disclose this before the property can be sold, leased, or rented.
Sound techniques to measure atmospheric water vapor changes. However, water vapor has historically proven tricky to measure. In the December 15 issue of ES&T (pp. 4881–4885), a team of researchers from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; University of Szeged (in Hungary); Institut für Chemie der Geosphäre, FZJ; and ADAPTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
Two independent teams of European researchers are exploring techniques that take advantage of both sound and noise to study atmospheric water vapor. Understanding water vapor distribution in the atmosphere is critical to predicting long-term climate
Model water vapor density [g/m3]
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Mining rules are under fire The Bush administration’s amendments to hard rock mining rules issued under the Clinton administration remove new authority for the Secretary of the Interior Department to veto mine permits that cause substantial, irreparable harm to the environment or historic sites. The new rules, finalized on Oct. 30 (Fed. Regist. 66, 54,833), reflect recommendations made in a 1999 National Academy of Sciences report concluding that existing state and federal laws do an adequate job of protecting the environment, says Karen Batra, spokesperson for the National Mining Continued on Page 15A
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Environmental MNews satellites or ground receivers are delayed by atmospheric water vapor. “Precisely what the geodesists separate as ‘atmospheric noise’ is our water vapor signal,” explains researcher Gottfried Kirchengast. On the basis of high-resolution weather-analysis data from the
European Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasts and realistic error models, the researchers are confident that satellite data could provide accurate results at low cost where dense networks of GPS receiver equipment already exist. —RACHEL PETKEWICH
Ontario launches controversial smog trading program The new plan by Canada’s Ontario province to allow transboundary trades of smog pollution credits is incompatible with U.S. trading programs and will actually make smog worse, charge environmental critics. Taking effect January 1, 2002, the plan may also violate provisions of an international treaty with the United States, according to officials with Canada’s federal environmental protection agency. PHOTODISC
Institut für Meterologie und Klimaforschung, FZK (both in Germany) reports the first real-time water vapor measurements in chamber simulations of tropospheric and lower stratospheric conditions using diode-laser photoacoustic (PA) detection. PA detection, a spectroscopic method that detects sound waves emitted after molecules release energy from being excited by modulated laser light, is an established method to detect gases, but the tunable diode-laser creates a much simpler scheme than commonly used gas lasers, says team researcher Ulrich Schurath. Lyman-α and frost point hygrometers have been used to detect water vapor but are more expensive, or sensitive to condensable vapors like nitric acid, or cannot be automatically calibrated. Water vapor detection instruments for the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere must be able to make measurements unattended in planes, says Schurath. The researchers are working on increasing the sensitivity of the system by integrating a more powerful laser and aim to run additional simulation studies early in 2002, and they express hope that their efforts will eventually lead to an automated, practical, and low-cost instrument that is unaffected by interfering vapors. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Graz in Austria believe they are the first to combine ground and space navigation data to model water concentrations in the troposphere over different parts of the globe (J. Geophys. Res. 2001, 106, 27,221–27,231). Their model is a first step in a strategy that combines spaceborne and groundbased Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data to make tropospheric measurements. GNSS is composed of the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS), a similar system in Russia called GLONASS, and the planned European system, GALILEO. Used primarily for navigation and geodesy, the study of the earth’s shape and size, the L-band radio signals transmitted from between GPS satellites and low-earth orbit
The U.S.EPA isnotlikelyto recognize tradesunderOntario’sschem e because itlackscontinuousem ission m onitoring.
Announced on October 24, the provincial government’s new regulation phases in limits on utility emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx ) and sulfur dioxide and introduces an emissions trading program as an incentive to achieve pollution cuts, says Elizabeth Witmer, Ontario’s environment minister. The trading program is the first in North America to allow transboundary exchanges of pollution credits and permits trading between capped and uncapped sources in Ontario with 12 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. More than half of all smog-forming NOx in the northeastern United States comes from Ontario, and the
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plan is expected to cut the province’s utility emissions by 53% by 2007, which translates to 20,000 metric tons less NOx per year. U.S. states are unlikely to join a transboundary emissions trading market because Ontario cannot ensure the integrity of its pollution allowances, notes Deborah VanNijnatten, political scientist at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. For instance, the U.S. EPA, in its June 2001 comments on Ontario’s draft regulations, expressed concerns that the province was not requiring continuous emissions monitors (CEMs) on each smokestack in the program. EPA requires CEMs for all its trading programs to provide accountability and data that traders can trust, the comments made clear. EPA also expressed concerns that the complexity of the program would make it difficult to administer and incompatible with U.S. trading programs such as the acid rain program and the Ozone Transport Commission NOx budget trading program. “Ontario’s pollution credits are phony,” charged Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups. For example, the new regulations would allow a capped Ontario utility to purchase pollution credits from a U.S. source that had improved the efficiency of one of its boilers but may have increased its total emissions. “The new regulations won’t help the U.S.; instead, they will make smog worse,” he says. EPA does not allow U.S. companies to purchase pollution allow-
ances from Canada, and even if purchases were allowed, U.S. companies would not buy Canadian allowances because they are not credible, Gibbons says. Given that Ontario utilities must match U.S. NOx requirements in order to gain permission to sell energy across the border, it is surprising that the Ontario government has not been more responsive to EPA’s criticisms of its trading program, VanNijnatten says. Industry remains supportive of the program despite allegations that it may never result in a crossborder trade. Cap and trade programs are complicated, and Ontario’s utilities are pleased with the approach taken by the province, says John Earl, spokesperson for Ontario Power Generation, the province’s publicly owned electric company. Earl says he cannot respond to charges that the program is too complicated and creates credits of dubious value. The pollution limits for 15 of southern Ontario’s power plants, set
Governmen
at 37,638 tons of NOx annually (as NO2) in 2007, will help Canada meet its commitments under the December 2000 Ozone Annex to the Canada−United States Air Quality Agreement, says John Steele, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. The Annex stipulates that by 2007, these plants must cap their total annual emissions of NOx at 39,000 tons. Although Ontario’s emissions cap appears to more than meet these commitments, the province’s new program allows a capped power plant to exceed its NOx pollution allowance by up to 33% by purchasing pollution credits from an uncapped source, Gibbons explains. But the Ozone Annex specifically states that the NOx reductions must come from the capped utility sector alone, says Environment Canada, the federal environmental protection agency. The agency is concerned that the trading regime will exceed the treaty’s NOx cap, says Kelly Morgan, Environment Canada spokesperson. —JANET PELLEY
The number of environmental groups in China has been rising rapidly during the past three years, according to experts in both the United States and China. There are now 39 registered environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China, says Jennifer Turner, senior project associate for China at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Project. She acknowledges that the number seems relatively small, but stresses that not all groups take the trouble to register. Additionally, students’ and women’s groups have begun to take up environmental issues, she says. Spawned by a 1998 law that allows NGOs to register with the government, the new groups play an important role because local environmental protection bureaus often have no power, Turner says. Prior to the official acceptance of environmental groups, citizen mobs sometimes destroyed polluting fac-
WOODROW WILSON CENTER, DAVID OWEN/HAWXHURST PHOTOGRAPHY
Environmental groups forming in China
M a Zhong,ofRem in Universityin China’s SchoolofEnvironm entand Natural Resources,helped the Beijing Environm entand Developm entInstitute (BEDI)engineerChina’sfirstSO2 trade.
tories under cover of dark, she adds. The official tolerance of the new NGOs is notable because protecting the environment was traditionally
Association, a trade group. Environmental critics complain that the new rules remove federal protections for groundwater. Specifically, Bush dropped the Clinton administration’s requirement that mine companies minimize the impacts of pumping water out of open-pit mines, says Tom Myers, hydrologist with Great Basin Mine Watch, a conservation group in Reno, Nev. The groundwater pumping draws down the water table, drying up streams, springs, and wells used by people and livestock, according to Myers. Under the Clinton rules, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would have required the pumped water to be returned to the aquifer. The new rules also revoke BLM’s authority to protect groundwater quality when issuing mining permits, Myers says. Now, BLM cannot act if it discovers acid or heavy metal pollution in groundwater beneath waste rock piles or leaking tailings impoundments, he adds. Great Basin Mine Watch joined two other environmental groups to file a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington D.C. on November 23. The groups asked the court to prevent the rules from taking effect.
EU floats CO2 trading plan The European Commission (EC) has proposed draft rules for a European Union-wide carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme to start in 2005 as part its effort to meet targets in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The scheme’s first phase covers CO2 emissions from industrial and energy activities affecting about 4000−5000 large installations; chemical and waste incinerators are exempt. The EC plans to extend the scheme to other sectors and other greenhouse gases in the future. Overseen by an European Union Continued on Page 17A
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Environmental MNews the responsibility of the government, which was “not willing to accept open dissent and direct opposition to established projects or policies,” according to a report on the subject by the U.S. Embassy in China. The magnitude of the environmental problems that the country faces makes “discussion of environmental problems the only choice for China,” says Liu Jianqiang of Tsinghua University’s Center for International Communications Studies in Beijing. Although the country’s federal State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) reports that the situation is improving, numerous studies show that China has some of the world’s worst air pollution, and it faces severe water pollution, desertification, and farmland deterioration. One of the boldest new environmental NGOs is the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV), Turner says. Headed by legal expert Wang Canfa, the organization’s goal is to help the increasing numbers of citizens harmed by pollution receive adequate compensation for their losses. One of CLAPV’s current cases is a farmer from Inner Mongolia who claims that emissions from a nearby copper refinery damaged his
orchard. Although the China Forestry Science Institute’s investigation found that high levels of sulfur dioxide, arsenic, and lead—the chemicals emitted when the refinery’s desulfurization equipment broke down—killed the trees, a lower court did not rule in the farmer’s favor. So CLAPV is helping the farmer appeal his case. The Beijing Environment and Development Institute (BEDI) is another noteworthy group, Turner says. In late September, BEDI engineered China’s first SO2 trade in the city of Nantong, a new center of light manufacturing. The effort, which is part of a collaboration with Environmental Defense, a U.S.-based nonprofit, is part of a pilot project to reduce emissions from coal-burning boilers and power plants in two very different cities: Nantong and Benxi, an oldstyle center of heavy industry. The project has the influential backing of Ma Zhong, who heads the environmental science program at the Remin University in China. Groups like BEDI and CLAPV have achieved official status by working within some burdensome limitations, Turner says. Each of China’s environmental NGOs is required to be sponsored by a gov-
ernment agency, she explains, noting that the Chinese term for that government watchdog is “motherin-law”. Only one group is allowed in each subject matter and jurisdiction, limits that are in place because China wants to funnel foreign investments into its governmentorganized NGOs and SEPA’s research centers, she says. One of the motivations for these groups to register with the government is to avoid “being hassled by officials who might not like [their] work,” Turner says. Registered groups are also allowed to maintain official bank accounts, says Dan Dudek, an atmospheric policy specialist with Environmental Defense. Unlike BEDI and CLAPV, most of the newly formed environmental NGOs are not tackling politically sensitive issues like factory pollution, hazardous waste, or dam building, Turner cautions. Instead, she says, they tend to focus on “soft” issues like environmental education, recycling, nature awareness, and conservation. But both Dudek and Turner express confidence that the ranks of environmental NGOs will continue to grow and that these groups will eventually prove willing to stand up for more difficult issues. —KELLYN S. BETTS
PHOTODISC
Hazardous substance research funding In November, the U.S. EPA announced the identity of the Hazardous Substance Research Centers (HSRCs) that will be headquartered at five U.S. universities for the next five years. The agency’s administrator, Christie Whitman, announced that the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and Office of Research and Development are awarding a total of $22.5 million to the centers for basic and applied research projects. Established in 1989 under the Superfund reauthorization act of 1986, the centers receive funding for five years, after which they must reapply for the grants, says Mitch Lasat of the agency’s National
Center for Environmental Research. Only one of the new centers that are beginning operations in fiscal year 2002 was headquartered at the same university during the past five years, the center at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, La. A second center at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Ore., was previously associated with a center at Stanford University. Most of the HSRCs have ties with other universities; this year, 17 universities in addition to the five headquarter universities will receive some funding for hazardous substance research projects. In addition to EPA, the HSRCs are
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funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, academia, and other state and federal government agencies. “The goal for these centers is for them to become self-supporting,” Lasat says, although he was not aware if any of the centers that will no longer be funded would continue to exist. However, most—but not all—of the universities not receiving funding this year will continue to receive some grant money through their associations with the new centers. For example, Stanford University will continue to be actively involved with the center now headquartered at OSU, says Perry McCarty, the Silas H. Palmer Professor Emeritus at Stanford’s Environmental Engineering and Science Department.
The EPA Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments, which will be headquartered at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., will receive $5.2 million. It will focus on detecting, assessing, and managing risks associated with the use and disposal of hazardous substances in urban settings such as the abandoned industrial facilities known as brownfields. The other four centers will investigate how to remove contaminants from the environment. The Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Plains Hazardous Substance Research Center for Integrated Remediation Using Managed Natural Systems, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., will receive $4.5 million to focus on low-cost remediation technologies like phytoremediation to remove contaminants and restore ecosystem quality. OSU will be home to the Western Region Hazardous Substance Research Center for Developing In-
Situ Processes for VOC Remediation in Groundwater and Soils. The center has been granted $4.5 million to focus on subsurface technologies with an emphasis on mathematical and physical modeling. Dealing with contaminated sediments is the continued focus of the South and Southwest Hazardous Substance Research Center, which has been headquartered at LSU since 1991. The center will receive $4.5 million in additional funding. The fifth center is the Rocky Mountain Hazardous Substance Research Center for Remediation of Mine Waste Sites. Headquartered at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., it will receive $3.8 million to improve methods for cleaning up environmental problems such as the acid mining waste that contaminates water bodies. For more information about the HSRCs, go to http://es.epa.gov/ncer/ centers/hsrc. —KELLYN S. BETTS
Governmen (EU) administrator, member states will issue annual allowances equal to each plant’s CO2 emissions, with the government gradually reducing the allowances over time. Companies can then buy and sell allowances within the EU. Every year, each company will surrender allowances to match the preceding year’s emissions and will face penalties for having insufficient allowances. The EC expects that an EU-wide scheme will prevent competition problems arising from national programs. Debate on the draft directive could last several years before the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers finally approve any legislation. EC also proposed that member states should ratify the Kyoto Protocol by June 2002.
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News MBriefs
If the energy-efficiency and renewable-energy policy recommendations outlined by three nonprofit groups in the Clean Energy Blueprint became U.S. federal law, they claim that natural gas and coal use would be cut by 31% and 60%, respectively. Enacting the Blueprint would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60% and save consumers more than $440 billion between 2002 and 2020, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and Tellus Institute. Blueprint advocates claim the package would satisfy the economic freedom and environmental conscience of utilities and consumers. The Blueprint is at www.ucsusa.org/index.html. Planes, trains, and automobiles need to become more efficient, more equitable, and less environmentally disruptive, according to a three-year study by researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Charles River Associates. Sponsored by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in collaboration with General Motors, Shell, and Toyota, the $11 million Mobility 2001 report acknowledges that the world’s mobility systems are “significant contributors to . . . climate change, resource exhaustion, public health problems . . . and ecosystem collapse”. The report, which stresses
that rapidly rising vehicle emissions in developing countries are important challenges, can be found at www.wbcsd.org. Rivers in England and Wales are as clean as they were before the Industrial Revolution, according to the Environment Agency of England and Wales. The agency found a substantial improvement in the “chemical quality” of rivers, with 94% of rivers rated good in 2000, compared to 85% in 1990. Improvements can be partly attributed to the water industry’s investment in sewage treatment, says the agency. The Environment Agency also announced that a salmon was caught in North England’s River Mersey, the first in living memory. The survey is available at www.environmentagency.gov.uk/yo urenv/eff/water/ river_qual/gqa2000. PHOTODISC
Sweden comes the closest to sustainability in the first global assessment of sustainable development, according to rankings of 180 countries by The World Conservation Union (IUCN). Six developing countries—the Dominican Republic, Belize, Guyana, Uruguay, Suriname, and Peru—made it into the top 20. European Union countries dominated the top 10, whereas Canada was 7th, Japan 24th, and the United States ranked 27th. The IUCN assessment covers a wider range of human and ecological factors than traditional yardsticks such as the gross domestic product. Purchase a copy of The Wellbeing of Nations at www.eurospan.co.uk.
The health of North America’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay, declined between 2000 and 2001 for the first time in many years, according to the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). The decline in the bay’s health is troubling for all coastal waterways because its restoration plans are considered models for coastal waterway recovery around the world, says CBF in its fourth annual State of the Bay Report. CBF documents that the blue crab population declined significantly and that excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution continue to degrade water clarity and block sunlight to underwater grasses, choke fish, and smother shellfish. For a copy, go to www.cbf.org. Lists of drinking water contaminants for potential regulation should be “more defensible and transparent, and [their] development should take place with increased opportunities for public input and comment,” concludes a
18 A I ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / JANUARY 1, 2002
U.S. National Research Council (NRC) panel. Their report evaluates approaches for generating future contaminant candidate lists, which U.S. EPA is required to publish every five years. The NRC panel also recommends that EPA incorporate the use of bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics in identifying and assessing emerging waterborne pathogens. Classifying Drinking Water Contaminants for Regulatory Consideration is at www.nap.edu/catalog/10080.html. Environmental factors that may contribute to childhood autism and behavioral problems are the focus of four new children’s environmental health research centers announced by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and U.S. EPA. Each center will receive a total of $5 million from the two agencies over five years. Centers at University of California, Davis, and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey will focus on environmental links to autism. The University of Illinois at Champaign– Urbana center will assess the impact of ingesting mercury and PCBs from Great Lakes fish among AsianAmerican children in Wisconsin. The center at Ohio’s Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati will investigate how pollutants in the home and neighborhood affect children’s hearing, behavior, and test scores. The first product carrying the Protected Harvest ecolabel went on sale in U.S. stores in November. Healthy Grown brand potatoes earned the label by eliminating high-risk pesticides in favor of biologically integrated pest management on farms. Protected Harvest is the result of collaboration between between farmers, scientists, and environmental advocates and is endorsed by the Worldwide Wildlife Fund. The labeler plans to certify wine grapes, Florida tomatoes, peppers, and sweet corn soon, and expand standards to improve soil quality and biodiversity. Consult www.protectedharvest.org for information on the standards.
