sions reporting and reduction registry (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, 351A). Meanwhile, the federal government has not moved beyond a voluntary CO2 emissions registry, which is housed at the U.S. Department of Energy. Wisconsin has the longest experience with reporting—since 1993 the state has required all utilities to report their annual CO2 releases. In 2003, the state launched a registry for utilities and any Wisconsin firm to voluntarily report reductions of CO2 or any other greenhouse gas, according to officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Other state actions include creating tax incentives to build refueling sites for vehicles using alternative fuels, improving mass transit systems, and launching energy conservation programs for homes and businesses, according
to a September 2003 report from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Through State and Local Transportation Planning (http://climate. volpe.dot.gov/papers.html). Air pollution policy being shaped at the state level first is nothing new; several clean air laws and the Toxics Release Inventory were first tried at the state level before Congress approved them, Greenwald says. State initiatives are determining the next generation of climate change law. Although some federal oversight is needed for programs such as emissions monitoring and trading, it is hard to say whether the federal government will step in over the coming years, Rabe says. Nonetheless, this rush of innovation will be limited by the enormous fiscal crunch that states are facing, he adds. —JANET PELLEY
Data reveal pulses of banned POPs Mysterious sources of banned compounds, such as PCBs, are causing peaks in air concentrations over the Great Lakes every six years, according to a novel analysis of long-term air quality data in this issue of Environmental Science & Technology (pp 414–422). The study, conducted by Stephanie Buehler, Ilora Basu, and Ron Hites from Indiana University, raises questions about whether more effort is needed to stop PCBs from escaping into the environment. Buehler and colleagues used data collected by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN), a joint U.S.–Canadian venture on the Great Lakes (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2002, 36, 354A–359A). An earlier study with these data showed that PCB concentrations in the air around the Great Lakes were declining and that the amount of pollutants deposited in the lakes was less than the amount that
volatilized into the atmosphere. “But we could still see periodicity in the data and were curious about other effects that could cause the air concentrations to change,” Hites says. The new work focused on fluctuating air concentrations of pesticides and PCBs determined from 1990 to 2001 by the IADN. Examining a longterm air quality data set from the network, the Indiana scientists were the first to apply a statistical method— autocorrelation analysis—to damp out the “noise” arising from the variable air concentrations of persistent organic pollutants over time, which helped researchers tease out subtle changes that had remained hidden until now. Autocorrelation provided a rigorous way to look at periodicity in long-term data sets, Hites explains. The analysis showed that both PCBs and the banned fungicide hexachlorobenzene have peak concen-
News Briefs Water policy lacking Few European countries effectively manage their water resources to protect against excess water consumption and pollution, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). WWF’s Water and Wetland Index: Critical Issues in Water Policy across Europe assesses the water policies of 23 countries. Finland, Switzerland, and Belgium scored the highest, while Italy, Greece, and Spain ranked the lowest across a range of water issues. A big part of the problem, WWF finds, is the lack of integrated water management in related policy sectors, such as agriculture and land-use planning. In fact, most of the countries surveyed will be hard pressed to comply with the EU’s Water Framework Directive, which was designed to improve the management of freshwater rivers, lakes, and wetlands and must be implemented by 2004. To view the report, go to www.panda.org/ downloads/europe/wwireport.pdf.
Voluntary programs work More than 1 million products that meet Energy Star’s efficiency criteria have been sold to date, according to the U.S. EPA’s most recent annual report on voluntary programs, which addresses accomplishments for 2002. Among the achievements, noncarbon dioxide greenhouse gases—including methane, perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride—were reduced by 18 million carbon equivalents between 2001 and 2002, and the agency’s Green Power Partnership generated more than 500,000 megawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources in 2002. Change for the Better: Energy Star and Other Voluntary Programs is available at www.epa.gov/ appdstar/pdf/cppdann02.pdf.
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Environmental▼News trations in the air over the Great Lakes roughly every six years, Buehler says. The increase was especially noticeable in 1998 and 1999, Hites adds. The findings raise a lot of questions about what could be causing the blip in PCB concentrations, says Keri Hornbuckle, an environmental engineer at the University of Iowa. Dredging of PCB-contaminated lake sediments has increased significantly in recent years, and PCBs could be evaporating into the air
when sediments are dumped on the shore to dry before transport, she says. Brownfield remediation, sediment disturbance by storms, or changing weather patterns are also potential culprits, adds Melissa Hulting, an environmental scientist with the U.S. EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office. Although production and most uses of PCBs have been banned in the United States and Canada, Buehler’s findings show that governments still need to do some-
thing about existing sources, including old electrical transformers, some of which are still allowed to be used, and landfills, Hulting says. Decommissioning of old PCB-laden electrical transformers is now voluntary but is encouraged by the agency. EPA is working on a national action plan for PCBs that includes remediation of polluted sites, but the agency has not decided if it should create a new rule to mandate decommissioning of old transformers, she says. —JANET PELLEY
tides and waves. “The true economic value [of seagrasses] is difficult to measure, but this work suggests it is immense,” says Ed Green, one of the book’s 58 coauthors. According to the Atlas, seagrasses occupy an area of 177,000 square kilometers worldwide, around twothirds the size of Great Britain, but this is 15% less than the coverage of only 10 years ago. Fishing gear, anchors and propellers, land reclamation and coastal development schemes, and ecotourists can all cause damage to seagrasses. In some places, such as the Baltic Sea, sewage and chemical effluent encourage the growth of seaweeds that smother seagrasses, according to the Atlas. The 15% decline “is a very significant, very worrying finding,” said Ken Collins from the Southampton University’s oceanography center in
the United Kingdom. “The problem is that seagrasses are very fragile. In the Mediterranean Sea, for example, illegal trawling is tearing them up. There is concern because they are a key habitat. They are nursery grounds for a huge number of fish species and an important staging post in the life cycle of many commercial fish species.” In addition to raising awareness about the problems faced by seagrass, the Atlas trumpets some solutions. For example, coauthor Fred Short applauds the new $1 billion sewage processing system in Boston Harbor, which has encouraged seagrasses to return for the first time in 200 years. For more information about the Atlas, go to www.unep-wcmc. org/marine/seagrassatlas. The World Atlas of Seagrasses is available from www.ucpress.edu/books/ pages/10168.html. —MARIA BURKE
Seagrasses under threat The first global survey of the world’s seagrasses shows that the fragile aquatic plants are declining around the globe. Like coral reefs, the seagrasses are threatened by sewage effluent and coastal developments. Seagrasses are flowering plants that live in coastal waters from the Arctic to the Tropics. According to the World Atlas of Seagrasses, they provide food and shelter for many animals, including endangered manatees, dugongs, turtles, and sea horses. They are also nursery grounds for commercially important species, such as salmon, scallops, and crab. The Atlas, which was released on October 17, points out that seagrasses often protect coral reefs by filtering sediment and nutrients from the water. Seagrass roots also protect coastal resources by slowing the erosive impact of
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