Environmental t News Swimming in chlorine byproducts
icant. “I think this is a very important study, taking us beyond the inorganic chloramines and THMs.” hen athletes at this year’s Lachocki, head of the National Although MIMS has the potenU.S. national swimming Swimming Pool Foundation. But tial advantage of being portable, championships found in the new work (funded partly Richardson would like to see the themselves gasping for breath while by the foundation), Jing Li and spectra confirmed by gas chrocompeting at the indoor pool at InErnest “Chip” Blatchley, III, of matography/mass spectrometry. dianapolis University, event orgaPurdue University find a fuller Christian Zwiener, who studies the nizers said the culprit most likely spectrum of DBPs with a techeffects of trichloramine on lung was the disinfection byproducts nique called membrane introduccells among other water-quality is(DBPs) from the chlorine meant tion mass spectrometry (MIMS). sues at the University of Karlsruhe to keep the pool clean. Swimmers’ From laboratory experiments and (Germany), notes that it would be lung troubles—and other posassessments of four indoor swimdifficult to identify some of these sible long-term health efcompounds with either fects—generally have been method. attributed to breathing Blatchley says that he chloroform, trihalomethand his colleagues plan anes, and trichloramines, to sample more swimwhich form in such setming pools with a newly tings and volatilize at the developed portable MIMS water’s surface. But new redevice that has real-time, search published in ES&T sequential, and multiple (pp 6732–6739) indicates sampling capabilities. that other byproducts hid“The reality is that not den in the watery mix also a lot of research is done might be to blame. in the arena of public As people have increasswimming exposures and Swimmers breathe in a mix of volatilized disinfection byprodingly turned to swimming ucts, including some recently discovered to form in chlorinat- health,” says Lachocki. for its health benefits, a “The question [the new ed swimming pools. flurry of research relating study] leads to really is, is swimming-pool-water treatment to ming pools, an outdoor pool, and this of toxicological significance?” potentially hazardous byproducts a recreational water park, the reSwimming has health benefits has come down the pike. Alfred searchers teased out evidence of that need to be weighed against Bernard of the Catholic Universeveral compounds, including the risks of chemical exposures, he sity of Louvain (Belgium) and coltrichloramine, dichloromethylemphasizes. leagues have published data during amine, cyanogen chloride, and Treatments to reduce DBP loads the past several years that condichloroacetonitrile. include circulating water through nect early childhood exposures to The authors are the first to retraditional sand filters and impleindoor swimming pools with the port the formation of organic chlomenting UV light, a newer method development of asthma later in ramines in pools, in addition to that could reduce the precursors life. Higher chloramine levels in the inorganic chloramines and that would react with chlorine. indoor-swimming-pool air have haloforms already known to be The pools in Germany, which tend been correlated with upper respithere. “Dichloroacetonitrile has to use much less chlorine comratory complaints from pool workbeen identified as a respiratory irpared with the U.S., according to ers and swimmers, and chloroform ritant, so it is possible that some of Zwiener, use flocculation methand bromodichloromethane levels these newly identified volatile pool ods or regularly replace pool water in swimmers’ and workers’ urine DBPs may also contribute to asthto avoid extreme DBP production. have been suggested as markers of ma observed in swimmers,” says Many researchers who are focused trihalomethane (THM) exposures Susan Richardson of the U.S. EPA. on the DBP–asthma connection (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41, She hypothesizes that the presence met in Belgium in August for a 4793–4798). of dichloromethylamine—which workshop to discuss the state of THMs or trichloramines typiis not a known DBP in drinking the science and where to go next. cally are blamed, says Thomas water—may be particularly signif—NAOMI LUBICK Courtesy of Water Technology, Inc.
W
6634 n Environmental Science & Technology / October 1, 2007
© 2007 American Chemical Society
Jupiterimages
Record corn prices have scientists and federal officials worried about the impacts of a booming corn crop on already-stressed coastal waters. Both the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay are predicted to feel the impacts of fertilizer runoff from corn fields.
Increased corn production could mean more fertilizer use and therefore bigger dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay.
This year’s dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico covered 7900 square miles, an area about the size of New Jersey, according to results from a survey cruise in late July led by Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana Universities Marina Consortium (LUMCON). The region of low-oxygen water near the mouth of the Mississippi River was the third largest since measurements began in 1985. In July, scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, LUMCON, and Louisiana State University (LSU) predicted that the summer’s dead zone could be as large as 8500 square miles, which would have made it the biggest ever recorded. The actual size was about 7% smaller than predicted, possibly
because of stormy conditions that churned and aerated low-oxygen water in the Gulf. The forecast was based on particularly high nitrate loads delivered by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers in May. These levels are an important predictor of the size of the summer dead zone, according to Eugene Turner of LSU. Nutrients from fertilizers flow into coastal waters and stimulate the growth of algae, which later consume oxygen as they decay. Corn is a particularly fertilizerintensive crop, and the recent expansion of corn production (up more than 15% this year to 93 million acres) to supply ethanol could be an important reason why nitrogen loads are so high, according to researchers. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, predicts that the bay will also be threatened by increased corn production. Farmers in the bay’s sixstate watershed are expected to plant at least half a million more acres of corn in the next few years, according to the foundation’s report, which summarizes findings presented at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biofuels and Water Quality Conference. This could add millions of tons of fertilizer to the bay, authors say. Biofuel production could be managed responsibly to benefit both farmers and the bay, according to another report released in September by the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a group sponsored by the states of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Farmers could use conservation measures such as increased cover crops to reduce soil erosion and nonfertilized buffer crops to absorb excess fertilizer. —ERIKA ENGELHAUPT
News Briefs Children face health threats from chemicals
Nearly 30% of children around the world experience negative health effects from environmental causes, according to a report from the International Programme on Chemical Safety, published by the World Health Organization. A group of international experts produced the series of reports, Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children Associated with Exposure to Chemicals, released online in July. In addition to “traditional” threats, such as unsafe drinking water and vector-borne diseases, children—especially those living in poverty—now face emerging hazards from chemical exposures. The authors outline methods for assessing exposures and characterizing risks. They also emphasize the importance of exposure timing and life stage, particularly when extrapolating toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics from adults to children.
Seafood consumer guide
“Are you seafood savvy?” asks the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on its new website, FishWatch (www.nmfs. noaa.gov/fishwatch). Launched in August at the annual Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans, the website is aimed at helping consumers make informed choices about the seafood they eat and whether it is sustainable. It details the status of more than 20 species of marine animals, including their geographic range, population, nutritional value, life cycles, fishing history, and current management practices. The species listed include populations that are healthy (Pacific albacore tuna) and threatened (red snapper).
October 1, 2007 / Environmental Science & Technology n 6635
NOAA
High corn demand could harm U.S. waters
Environmentalt News The carbon footprint of transportation fuels have to track the GWI value and reduce it over time as required by California. The idea behind the UC researchers’ scheme is that, to meet the GWI, providers will force refiners, and everyone else down the line, to supply them with cleaner fuels. If not, the producers will take their business to those who can—such as the innovators. JupiterImages
How California implements the world’s first low-carbon fuel standard is “hugely important,” because the path it chooses is likely to transform energy industries and become a national and international model, says Daniel Sperling, director of the University of California (UC) Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. The state’s ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels by 10% by 2020 won’t be met without a significant retooling of fuel and vehicle technologies, Sperling and other UC researchers concluded recently. At the behest of state regulators at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), transportation specialists at UC Davis and UC Berkeley determined that the standard is technically feasible and offered suggestions on how it might be put into place. They made their recommendations in A Low-Carbon Fuel Standard for California Part 1: Technical Analysis and Part 2: Policy Analysis; both were finalized in August. To drive the necessary innovation, the researchers recommended that CARB staff members measure the global warming intensity (GWI) of each fuel type. In this case, GWI considers GHGs in addition to other processes that can affect climate, such as landuse changes that may result from biofuel production. To calculate GWI, the regulators should use a life-cycle assessment that covers all activities related to the production, transport, storage, and use of that fuel. The researchers also recommended that regulators assign a “pessimistic” GWI default value to each fuel type, or a conservative value that accounts for fuels produced outside of the state. For example, California wouldn’t have jurisdiction over corn ethanol being distilled in a refinery powered by a coal-fired plant in the Midwest. The fuel providers would
California leads the way in the U.S. by pursuing fuels with a lower carbon intensity by 2020.
To reduce the carbon content, producers could blend low-carbon biofuels into conventional gasoline or sell non-carbon-based fuels such as hydrogen. Fuel producers also could buy credits from providers of other fuels, such as lowcarbon electricity or natural gas. And if fuel manufacturers don’t agree with their assigned GWI value, they could petition to have it changed by providing documentation showing that their production process emits fewer GHGs. Environmental groups and petroleum industry representatives actually support this approach. The current life-cycle-analysis models used to compute the GWI have flaws, particularly for biofuels. Neither the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation model (GREET), developed by Argonne
6636 n Environmental Science & Technology / October 1, 2007
National Laboratory, nor the Lifecycle Emissions Model (LEM) has undergone rigorous peer review. And the outcomes for the same fuel types vary in each model. “One of the biggest advancements we’re all hoping for is cellulosic ethanol,” says Cathy Reheis-Boyd, chief operating officer for the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry group. But models don’t yet offer a good measure of how land-use changes from expanded biomass production could affect the environmental picture. “If, in the end, we pick an option that has a worse GWI, then you’ve done the worst thing,” Reheis-Boyd notes. Sperling and other UC researchers acknowledge the problems created by biofuels. “Scientific evidence is building,” says Sperling, to show that converting prairie lands or lightly forested lands into agricultural production areas can create a huge carbon release. Nevertheless, CARB “has enough information to produce a regulation that can be complied with and is reasonable,” with updates made as the science becomes clearer, he says. “We know we have to get biofuels right to solve global warming,” agrees Roland Hwang, vehicle policy director for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. “I don’t think the low-carbon fuel standard can be a cure-all for all these sustainability issues, but it creates a great structure for getting at them in a meaningful manner.” CARB regulators expect to finalize the low-carbon fuel standard by January 2009 and for it to take effect the following year. Meanwhile, U.S. EPA regulators are looking at ways to implement President Bush’s executive order issued in May that requires federal agencies to reduce GHG emissions related to federal transportation, says John Millett, an EPA spokesperson. As part of that analysis, EPA staff analysts are studying California’s approach. —KRIS CHRISTEN
News Briefs
Lead pipe replacement should go all the way
Removing organic contaminants in water
Partial service line replacements can cost as much as $2000.
don’t own. Consequently, most utilities only replace the portion of the service line that they own; this usually stretches from the water main to the connection nearest a homeowner’s property line. The costs amount to millions of dollars annually for some water companies. For a partial service line replacement, the water company digs up the street and replaces the section of old lead pipe with copper pipe. On average, each partial replacement costs a water company about $2000, with similar costs for the homeowners if they choose to replace their section, according to a 2004 survey conducted by engineering company Black and Veatch for AWWA. Environmental engineers have long known that tap-water lead levels usually spike right after the partial replacement, because the work can knock off lead-bearing pipe scales. Also, coupling the lead line to a new copper pipe can cause a galvanic effect that accelerates lead corrosion. Although engineers assume that lead lev-
A new report assesses 18 treatment processes used by U.S. water utilities to remove endocrine-disrupting contaminants (EDCs) and pharmaceuticals and personalcare products (know as PPCPs). Published by the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AWWARF), Removal of EDCs and Pharmaceuticals in Drinking and Reuse Treatment Processes describes analytical techniques developed by researchers at the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Arizona State University to assess the removal efficiency of the treatments and presents results from bench- and pilot-scale testing. The AWWARF report suggests ozona tion, advanced oxidation, granular activated carbon, reverse osmosis, or tight nanofiltration are most efficient for microcontaminant removal.
The future looks bleak for U.S. coastal waters
U.S. coastlines are experiencing more signs of eutrophic conditions, including toxic algal blooms and decreased dissolved oxygen, according to an assessment from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released at the end of July. The report card updates NOAA’s first survey of eutrophication completed 10 years ago. On the basis of self-reporting from estuary managers and other stakeholders across the U.S., “there’s been little change since the 1990s,” said NOAA’s Suzanne Bricker, lead author of the report (online at http:// ccma.nos.noaa.gov/publications/ eutroupdate). Bricker noted improvements in some systems, including shores from Cape Cod to the Middle Atlantic’s Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile, for shorelines from North Carolina to Florida, she says, “the future outlook is bleak,” as communities fail to control nonpoint nutrient sources.
October 1, 2007 / Environmental Science & Technology n 6637
NASA
U.S. EPA requires water companies that have lead service lines to begin replacing them with copper pipes. EPA regulations originally called for companies to replace the entire lead service line, but several court decisions noted that federal regulations cannot require water companies to replace pipes they Massachuse t ts Water Resources Authorit y
After several well-publicized episodes of exceptionally high lead levels in home tap water, a simple and commonly used technique to get the lead out is being called into question. Preliminary results from a new study of Canadian and U.S. cities, funded by the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AWWARF), a nonprofit group that supports drinking-water science, indicates that partially replacing old lead pipes with copper lines may not work. The findings are in accord with other previous work, says study leader Anne Sandvig, an environmental engineer with HDR Engineering, an architecture, engineering, and consulting company. Taken together, the studies suggest that “in many circumstances, there may well be no gain in doing a partial line replacement, at least in the short term,” says Sandvig. But she cautions that her study is not definitive. “The data look compelling, but there were still not very many sites, and lead piping is very site-specific,” she says. The new research implies that when water companies do this work, they could be wasting money. Partial line replacement most likely provides consumers with a false sense of confidence, according to water scientists who are familiar with Sandvig’s work. Lead service lines, which are more prevalent in the northeastern and midwestern U.S., are the small water pipes that connect larger water distribution pipes to individual homes. Lead service lines, lead solder, and leaching from brass plumbing fixtures are the most common sources of lead in home tap water. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that is linked to adverse effects at even very low levels and is particularly damaging to infants and young children. Water companies generally try to keep lead levels low by controlling water chemistry, but if tap-water lead levels exceed regulatory limits, the
Environmentalt News
University of Wisconsin-Madison
els rapidly decrease, relatively few data exist, according to Sandvig. The AWWARF multiyear study started in 2004 and involved water companies in four cities. At 16 sites, two of which were partial replacements, the researchers took sequential samples for 2 months after the replacement. Water consultant Abigail Cantor says she’s not surprised by the new data. “There never has been good evidence that partial replacement could solve the problem,” she says. “Replacing the entire line is far more effective.” Cantor, who owns the chemical engineering consultancy Process Research Solutions, has worked extensively with Madison, Wis., one of the few U.S. cities that completely replaced lead service lines. Another recent study from Cincinnati, Ohio, appears to bear this out. Starting in 1998, Greater Cin-
cinnati Water Works (GCWW) did five total lead service line replacements and five partial replacements. Before the work, average lead levels were 11.5 parts per billion (ppb). A year later, levels for partial replacements had hardly dropped, to 10 ppb, whereas those for full replacements had fallen to 3.5 ppb. In the meantime, tap-water lead levels were much higher for up to a month after the partial replacements, even though the water chemistry was optimized to control lead, according to Jeff Swertfeger, supervising chemist for GCWW. “This is an important issue, one of many that EPA needs to address in the upcoming 6-year review” of the Lead and Copper Rule, that deals with lead in drinking water, says Alan Roberson with AWWA, a group that lobbies on behalf of water utilities.
Faculty Positions Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
In 2000, EPA scientists reviewed three studies that examined partial service line replacement, according to EPA spokesperson Enesta Jones. The studies had limitations, Jones notes, but they all eventually found that lead levels declined after the new pipes were installed. In 2004, the agency convened a workshop on the issue and intends to revisit the success of partial lead pipe replacement when it reviews the Lead and Copper Rule, Jones adds. “There’s now enough evidence to support the contention that we should be doing all we can to encourage complete replacements,” says Sandvig. In the future, she adds, the challenge may be finding creative ways to convince property owners to replace their portion of the pipes, and to identify ways to help finance the activity. —REBECCA RENNER
The Essential Resource in Environmental Science and Engineering
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Wisconsin-Madison invites applications for faculty positions in the following specific areas:
ISI® Impact Factor: 4.040* Total Citations: 44,915*
Environmental Science and Engineering (particularly Environmental Chemistry) Information on the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the positions available can be found at http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cee/ Apply by November 15, 2007 to insure consideration. UW-Madison is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. We promote excellence through diversity and encourage all qualified individuals to apply.
6638 n Environmental Science & Technology / October 1, 2007
Editor-in-Chief: Jerald Schnoor University of Iowa
Visit the Environmental Science & Technology homepage at http://pubs.acs.org/est to view a listing of the most-accessed articles. *ISI® Journal Citation Reports
