Water Utilities Lobby for Security Funding

A representative from the American Water Works Association (AWWA) told members of a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that the Bush administration's 2004 budget request for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not adequate to meet the "homeland security needs of our nation's public water system infrastructure."

"Drinking water suppliers have a long history of security preparedness," said Michael Hooker, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority in Syracuse, New York who testified on behalf of AWWA.

"However, the post-September 11 world has added a new understanding of security and has added an unprecedented financial burden on public water systems for immediate steps needed to protect our citizens."

The nation's water utilities are in the process of filing security assessments with the EPA.

Suppliers with at least 100,000 customers had to file these assessments by March 31, 2003. The EPA provided these utilities with some $50 million in grants to complete these assessments, but the smaller suppliers have not been so fortunate.

And the Bush administration has only requested $18 million in the fiscal year 2004 budget for "technical assistance" funds for security at water utilities.

This figure is a long way from what the AWWA believes is needed. The organization is lobbying for some $460 million to fund public water system security costs in fiscal year 2004, including $450 for the EPA required security vulnerability assessments of utilities serving more than 3,300 people.

The balance of the request would fund public water system security training and the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which is designed to collect, analyze and communicate critical security warnings and threats to the nation's water utilities.

Utilities with 50,000 to 99,999 customers must file by December 31, 2003; those with 3,301 to 49,999 customers have to file by June 30, 2004. Smaller water suppliers do not have to file security assessments with the EPA.

Nuclear Regulatory Chief Focused on Threat Reduction

Nils Diaz, who was named NRC chairman last week, believes the staff of the commission have done a "tremendous job" in adjusting to a new environment post 9/11.

"Our nuclear facilities were the best protected in the civilian infrastructure before 9/11," Diaz said in a prepared statement. "The NRC has made numerous further improvements to insure these facilities remain secure.

"We are nearing the end of ordering needed improvements for nuclear power plants and have insured that interim measures are in place for all other significant nuclear facilities," Diaz said. "We have also laid in place the foundation on which we will build cradle-to-grave controls of high-risk radioactive sources. I intend to see all these initiatives through to completion."

Diaz said he will soon be issuing orders to enhance training and address security force fatigue.

The NRC will revise the design basis threats for operating nuclear power plants and category 1 fuel cycle facilities later this month, according to the chairman, and force-on-force security exercises have begun at a pace of approximately two per month.

Access authorization requirements for power reactors were previously tightened, Diaz said, but he does not rule out increased security measures.

"With the completion of the revised design basis threats, we expect that there will be a period of regulatory stability during which our power reactor licensees can consolidate the various enhancements that we have ordered," Diaz said.

"At each step over the past 17 months we have done what needed to be done to secure these facilities, but, as we learn more, I am confident that the NRC, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies will do whatever it takes to protect the people of this country."

Diaz has reorganized the NRC's Office of the Chairman to heighten the focus of security, while continuing traditional attention on reactor, materials and waste safety programs.

This reorganization involves the establishment of an executive assistant for materials and security, who will focus on security and materials safety issues, and an executive assistant for reactors and research, who will help push forward initiatives to complete security analyses and risk-inform reactor regulations.

Diaz said he will work to enhance safety at commercial nuclear power plants and pledged a commitment to informing the public and the Congress about agency decisions and actions.

"Open communication is critical to the success of the commission," Diaz said.

Government Lists Scotts Valley Polygonum as Endangered

It designated 287 acres as critical habitat for the plant, which was listed because the effects of development have put the survival of the species at risk.

Only 11 colonies of the Scotts Valley polygonum are found in two locations in the northern area of the city of Scotts Valley, California.

"The future of this plant is tenuous, because species that are contained in such a small area are more vulnerable to the impacts of development," said Steve Thompson, the Fish and Wildlife Service's California-Nevada operations manager. "It will take a concerted effort to assure the long-term viability of this species."

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, about 278 acres of the designated critical habitat for the polygonum are on private property, with the remaining nine acres owned by the Scotts Valley High School District.

The area designated as critical habitat overlaps with the critical habitat that was designated for the Scotts Valley spineflower in May 2002.

The development effects that threaten the species include erosion, soil compaction, habitat fragmentation, disturbance by people and pets, yard waste dumping, and introduction of non native species.

The Scotts Valley polygonum produces white flowers and reaches a height of only two inches. It was estimated that 5,000 individuals of the species existed in 1998, but more recent estimates put the number closer to 1,000.

The species is not listed as endangered by the state of California.

Conservationists Want California To Protect Burrowing Owl

The coalition members believe that the once common owl has been steadily declining over the past two decades because of sustained habitat destruction. They say breeding owls have been eliminated from at least eight to 10 percent of their former range in the state and are trending toward extinction in another 25 percent.

"Despite their adaptability, burrowing owls have been continuously shoved aside and their habitat destroyed by development," said Jeff Miller, spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the six groups who filed the petition with the California Fish and Game Commission.

"Without formal protection for burrowing owls, we face the unhappy prospect that the species will soon disappear from all rapidly urbanizing areas of the state and indeed most of their range," Miller said.

The other groups involved with the petition are the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, the California State Park Rangers Association, and the Tri-County Conservation League.

The western burrowing owl is a small ground nesting bird. In California, the species relies on burrows dug by ground squirrels and require open fields with adequate food supply, low vegetative cover for protection from predators and roosting sites.

The birds historically ranged throughout California's Central Valley and were also found in suitable habitat in coastal areas from California's Marin County south to the Mexican border. In addition, western burrowing owls were found in sparsely inhabited desert areas in northeastern and southeastern California.

Since at least the 1940s owls have been in continuous decline throughout the state, according to conservationists, and state surveys in the early 1990s found a nearly 60 percent loss in the number of breeding owl colonies known from the 1980s, and a decline in overall population numbers by eight percent per year.

"The real threat to owls is the loss of habitat and agricultural lands from rampant urban development," said Kim Delfino, Defenders of Wildlife.

The groups say an estimated 91 percent of all western burrowing owls left in California live on private lands, much of which is threatened by future development.

The species is listed as endangered in Canada and threatened in Mexico. It is listed as endangered by the states of Minnesota and Iowa, threatened in Colorado, and as a state species of special concern in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Oregon, and California.

Marine Reserves In Effect Around the Channel Islands

The California Fish and Game Commission voted on October 23, 2002 to adopt the Channel Islands plan and some hope the reserves may also encompass federal waters.

Conservationists who celebrated the official declaration believe these new protections will help the fish and wildlife of the Channel Islands rebound. Some species have declined by more than 90 percent.

"These reserves make the Sanctuary a real sanctuary, " said Rod Fujita, marine ecologist with Environmental Defense. "Science shows that reserves allow ocean habitats to heal themselves, and the people of California deserve a healthy ocean."

Supporters of the network of marine reserves say this approach offers the best balance between short term impacts on the fishing community and long term protections needed to fully restore the sanctuary's biological diversity. They contend that studies have shown any short term economic losses will be minimal.

"In this case, we believe the benefits far exceed the possible costs," said Warner Chabot of The Ocean Conservancy. "It will create long-term benefits by restoring the web of life and increasing fish populations that live in and around the reserves. Over time, this should help to improve fishing throughout the rest of the Sanctuary."

Overfished populations of giant sea bass, sheephead, sharks and rockfish should be able to bounce back now that the fishing pressure is gone, supporters of the marine reserves say.

But not everyone is pleased with the designation of the marine reserves. A lawsuit by sport and commercial fishers that aims to overturn the designation is still pending.

A New Tool for the Wild Fire Arsenal

The tool is a multispectral mapping system, which combines infrared and high resolution visible digital mapping cameras with a geographic positioning system, along with specially written software to operate the cameras and collect and interpret the data.

The suite of cameras will be mounted on a pointing mechanism on an aircraft and the cameras will snap images as they pivot back and forth, sweeping across the line of flight. Automated software will stitch the images into a mosaic and combine them spectrally to detect the presence of a fire.

Each camera will read a different spectral band. Three infrared cameras will detect heat in the shortwave, midwave and long wave bands of the spectrum, with a digital camera mapping the terrain in the visible spectrum.

According to Donald McKeown, one of the project's directors, the combination of a mapping camera with three infrared cameras is "is not really being done by anyone else."

McKewon expects the combination of cameras will allow the Forest Service to reliably detect fires with low false alarms even under bright sunlight, which normally reduces the effectiveness of current fire-detection systems.

Although it might not be ready to help the Forest Service during this year's wildfire season, McKeown and his colleague Michael Richardson expect to have the system installed on an aircraft in June for flight testing, data collection, and system characterization and calibration.

New Sponsors Join the Race to Stop Global Warming

Nike, Aveda and Toyota have decided to back the national series of races and walks, which are coordinated by the Green House Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a grassroots movement to stop global warming.

The Race to Stop Global Warming series was conceived to bring visibility to the issue of global warming while providing participants with information and practical solutions for how they can reduce their contribution to climate change. The first event was held in Portland, Oregon on April 22, 2000 - the 30th anniversary of Earth Day.

Some 600 individuals participated in that event, but the Green House Network hopes some 10,000 will take part in this year's events, which will take place in eight cities across the United States.

"There is a pressing need to educate the public about our rapidly changing climate," said Green House Network program director Matthew Follett.

"Runners and walkers are a natural fit for our message. How we affect the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink is a vivid reality for all of us who value the connection between our physical health and the health of the planet."

This year's Race to Stop Global Warming features runs and walks in Denver, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis/St. Paul as well as Portland, Oregon. The first event is in Denver on April 13.

The events will feature participation by a range of nonprofit environmental organizations to offer educational materials on the science and solutions of climate change. WWF has partnered with Green House Network for this year's campaign and will highlight this year's focus on the plight of the polar bear.

"WWF is racing to implement solutions to global warming while it is still possible to prevent disaster for polar bears and other wildlife," said Katherine Silverthorne, director of WWF's U.S. Climate Change Program. "The U.S. public awareness and support generated by events like these is critical to putting in place solutions such as using clean, renewable energy and more energy efficient technologies and processes."

More information about the race series can be found at www.racetostopglobalwarming.org.