called asphaltenes aggregate at high concentrations. Knowing that petroleum contains a lot of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and using fluorescence depolarization, a highresolution spectroscopic technique that classifies the molecule and ring size, Mullins showed that these molecules with flat ring structures stack one on top of the other, like pancakes. His low concentration technique avoids conditions that lead to aggregation. Ryan Rodgers, also a researcher at NHFML, presented “fingerprints” of crude oils and coals from around the world that were created from Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICRMS) results, a sophisticated method that uses magnetic fields to examine dilute samples. “Our detailed composition will ultimately be input for the molecular modelers,” adds Marshall. This is the second environmental “surprise” from the NHFML group, which also used FTICR-MS to reveal humic acids are regularly repeating polymeric structures that can appear as aggregates (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2002, 36, 373A). Hsu sees the benefit of using these analytical techniques to learn about composition but says differentiating the oil “fingerprints” in environmental samples remains difficult because refineries often blend many sources of oil, and interaction with the natural environment can alter samples. Mullins and the FSU researchers plan to collaborate on more extensive studies. —RACHEL PETKEWICH
USGS funding remains flat for FY ’03 Nearly five months after the start of the 2003 fiscal year (FY ’03), Congress restored most of the spending cuts proposed by the Bush administration for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). But the agency received no real funding increases over the previous year. Congress provided USGS with a total budget of $919.3 million, a 6% increase over the administration’s budget request and 0.6% more than
what the agency received in FY ’02. But when inflation and other uncontrollable costs, such as mandatory pay raises and increased rent costs for facilities, are factored in, the new USGS budget took a significant hit, say agency spokespeople who requested anonymity. According to agency estimates, USGS would have required roughly $956 million in allocations just to hold steady in FY ’03.
News Briefs Hybrids interest consumers Ninety percent of respondents to an online questionnaire would consider buying a hybrid if the vehicle they currently drive was available, according to Autobytel, the Internet automotive marketing services company that conducts the annual survey. The report bodes well for companies that have announced plans to roll out hybrid cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the next few years, especially because 37% of the respondents say they would pay an additional $1000 for a hybrid. Fifty-four percent of respondents currently own SUVs, but more than one-quarter of the respondents indicated that they either didn’t know enough about hybrids or have enough confidence to buy one yet. To see Autobytel’s 2003 Fuel Economy Guide and to take the survey, visit the research section of www.autobytel.com.
Perils of Arctic drilling Negative impacts of access roads and the “pad” where drilling takes place on the Arctic environment can extend several kilometers, according to a recent National Academy of Sciences report. Other potential environmental impacts include damage to tundra from extensive seismic exploration trails; dust, flooding, and sinking of permafrost from roads; changes to animal habitat and behavior; and altered migration patterns of bowhead whales as a result of the high-decibel seismic testing. The negative impacts of defunct structures, ice pads, and pipelines may span centuries as the Arctic’s natural recovery is slow. Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska’s North Slope can be accessed at www. nap.edu/openbook/0309087376/ html.
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of the oil industry’s environmental problems, according to researchers. This kind of information could help us prevent dangerous reactor explosions at plants or pipes bursting in the environment, explains Chang Samuel Hsu, a research scientist at ExxonMobil. If refiners know, for example, that a particular oil contains a component that will clog pipes, they can then take preventive measures to avoid environmentally damaging pipe ruptures. Moreover, detailed knowledge of composition could help with remediation following an oil spill, says Hsu. The U.S. EPA has shown interest in using these precise analytical techniques for developing a database of petroleum “fingerprints” to help identify whether oil found in the environment is natural or spilled from a tanker or pipeline. The researchers announced these findings in March during the “Petroleomics” symposium at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy. “I think people sort of chuckle when they see the term,” says Alan Marshall, an analytical chemist at NHFML who arranged the inaugural symposium. “But the basic pitch is that we have found more compounds in a single sample of crude oil than there are genes in the human genome.” By identifying the more than 20,000 components of petroleum, we ought to be able to then predict properties, such as solubility or how corrosive it is, he adds. Oliver Mullins, a researcher with SDR, said basic chemistry principles explain why petroleum components
Environmental▼News The lack of real funding increases for any of the USGS programs came as no surprise, the spokesperson says, given the current pressures of homeland security and defense, which have taken a higher priority. But the USGS is especially feeling the pinch “because we’ve had several years of this kind of trend,” the spokesperson notes. To cope with the ever-shrinking budget, “we now do far less science, fieldwork, and sample collection, and as a result it’s more difficult to attract and retain young employees.” Water resources investigations suffered the biggest funding decrease under the administration’s proposal of $177.8 million, which was roughly 14% less than FY ’02 funding levels. In restoring allocations for these programs, both the House and Senate strongly criti-
cized the Bush administration. “For the third year in a row, the committee has restored a number of high-priority research programs that were proposed for reduction or elimination by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the budget process,” House leaders wrote in House Report 107564, which accompanied bill H.R. 5093. OMB officials “seemingly believe that the Department of the Interior no longer needs science on which to base natural resource policy decisions,” despite recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences “detailing the need to expand, not eliminate the very programs that OMB has targeted as unnecessary,” they added. Likewise, Senate Report 107-201, which accompanied Senate bill S. 2708, noted that “the committee is
dismayed that the budget estimate for the USGS once again recommends large reductions to valuable ongoing programs,” such as the Toxic Substances Hydrology program and National Water Quality Assessment program. The House and Senate recommended higher total funding levels than what ultimately emerged in the spending package, $928.4 million and $926.6 million, respectively. In final negotiations between the two chambers, however, an across-theboard cut of 0.65% was agreed on for every item in the omnibus bill to bring overall spending down to a level Congress thought the president would approve. Bush has only requested $895.5 million for USGS for the fiscal year beginning this October (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, 131A). —KRIS CHRISTEN
New NGO to help save lakes from climate change Goldman, a professor of limnology at the University of California– Davis, who is world renowned for his work on saving Lake Tahoe from environmental degradation, will be the NGO’s first president. The NGO will complement the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Environment Monitoring System/ Water Programme, in which more than 100 countries participate in monitoring, assessment, and capacity building of freshwater resources, by adding a climate change component to the knowledge base. “We are facing a 21st century world water crisis,” warned Goldman BRITT E. ERICKSON/ENVIRON. SCI. TECHNOL.
As an offshoot of discussions presented at the 3rd World Water Forum, held in March in Japan, a new nongovernmental organization (NGO) has been established to rapidly assemble existing data on global climate change and water resources. The World Water and Climate Network will link researchers and organizations worldwide that have concerns about the impacts of climate change on water resources, and, wherever possible, take action to restore surface waters in danger. The new NGO will be headquartered at Lake Biwa Research Institute in Otsu, Japan, near Kyoto. Charles
Lake Biwa, which is shown here in the city of Otsu, is the largest lake in Japan. Like many other freshwater resources, it is facing danger from climate change. 208 A ■ ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / JUNE 1, 2003
at the World Water Forum. There is danger that in the future, wars will be fought over water, not oil, he said. Freshwater resources, which are already limited, are likely to be further stressed by climate change. As a result, long-term monitoring is a prerequisite, and data and information on surface water resources and climate change need to be integrated and disseminated, he said. On the basis of several presentations at the meeting, many freshwater lakes have already been affected by climate change. “For two consecutive summers, Lac Saint-Augustin in Quebec City has been closed to the public because of proliferation of cyanobacteria,” said Warwick Vincent of Laval University in Canada, who attributes the noxious algal blooms to the lake’s increasing temperatures. A warmer climate leads to increased stratification of the lake, resulting in less mixing, which, in turn, results in more phosphorus being released from the oxygen-depleted sediments, he explained. As a result, even stricter controls on nutrient inputs will be needed in warmer climates, he said. Meanwhile, fish productivity has dropped 28% in Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania because of the disap-
