Environmental News shed management director in Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources. Because nonpoint source pollution differs based on local geology, hydrology, and politics, it would be a mistake for the federal government to apply the point source paradigm of technology-based water quality permits to nonpoint source generators, he cautions. "There is no single answer to the question of how to address nonpoint source pollution," concurs Christophe Tulou, deputy director for intergovernmental liaison with the Environmental Council of States, an association of environmental commissioners. But the states agree that it is appropriate for the federal government to set benchmarks and allow states to decide how to achieve them through a combination of voluntary and mandatory tools, he says. —JANET PELLEY
Stamping out dioxin in food? The main conclusion of a rapid response workshop looking at dioxin contamination of food is that better controls and tougher guidelines are needed in Europe to define minimum requirements for monitoring programs, analytical Dutch sign declaring methods, and quality assurance. "Our chicken is dioxin free." The October workshop, which was run by the European Science Foundation (ESF), brought together 67 European scientific organizations and government agencies, and included 20 key scientists from Europe and the United States. The European Environmental Research Organisation called for the meeting after concluding that current procedures do not adequately control dioxin exposure through contaminated food. The workshop discussion highlighted that overall exposure to dioxins had decreased in the past decade, but accidental exposures have raised serious concerns with the public. Past incidents include the January 1999 contamination of the food supply in Belgium with polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins from transformer oil. "This was a special meeting. The scientists involved do not usually meet under these conditions; rather, they report to their national dioxin surveillance teams," says Jens Degett of the ESF. The report will provide recommendations to the European Commission. —DAVE BRADLEY
Fill 'er up with sun power This month, petroleum giant BP will begin delivering on its promise of running all of the company's new gas stations on solar power by opening the first three "BP Connect" stations in the United States and the United Kingdom, says Sarah Howell, director of environment and corporate communications for BP. Transparent photovoltaic panels atop a see-through canopy that shelters motorists are expected to generate about 15% of the stations' power. Over the past two years, BP has been retrofitting solar panels onto the roofs of existing stations in nine countries in North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim, Howell says. "The real emerging market for solar is going to be in the urban centers where it is connected to the grid," she says. More than 200 BP gas stations will be running on sunshine by the end of this year, she adds.
The photovoltaic panels being installed in the stations are made by BP Solar, which is the world's largest manufacturer of solar technology, as well as one of the largest users of solar power. The panels in the U.S. versions of the new BP Connect stations will include 20 kW worth of solar panels at a market price of over $200,000, says Bo Harmon, deputy director of Global External Affairs
for BP Solar. Because the electricity generated by the panels is connected directly to the grid, no storage batteries are required, Howell says. The panels in the new BP Connect stations use a thin-film technology that has been available for two years. These thin-film panels are only 7% efficient compared to the 1315% efficiencies achievable with silicon crystalline photovoltaics, but they are less expensive to manufacture and cost only $11/W, Howell says. The thin-film solar panels can generate power, albeit less efficiently, when the weather is overcast, but they do not function when it is raining, she says.
The first of BP's next generation of gas stations are set to open this month in London, Indianapolis, IN, and Cleveland, OH. All of these "BP Connect" stations will run on solar power.
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BP plans to open a new BP Connect station each month in the United States in 2001, Harmon says. —KELLYN S. BETTS
