• Shell Will Pay $28 Million to Clean Wells of MTBE
  
• Sustainable Development Called Security Imperative
  
• Abraham Boosts Nuke Power at International Meeting
  
• Rhode Island Plans for Greenhouse Gas Reductions
  
• Fuel Cells Could Reduce Diesel Pollution
  
• Turtle Supporters Warn of Toxic Swordfish
  
• Complex Ecosytem Ties Link Monkeys, Birds
  
• Pennsylvania Spends Most on Flood Damage
  

Shell Will Pay $28 Million to Clean Wells of MTBE

The settlement, reached Monday, ends a product liability lawsuit in which the utility district sought to make oil refiners, gas station owners, and MTBE manufacturers pay to help clean up the contaminated wells. Pollution with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) had forced the South Tahoe District to close one third of its drinking water wells by 1998, when the utility filed suit.

Combined with settlements reached with Chevron, Exxon and others, the district is expected to receive more than $69 million from refiners, which will cover cleanup and legal costs.

"When we started out down this road, we set out to recover enough money to fix the system and pay the bills, so our customers didn't have to pay for it out of their pockets," Dennis Cocking, a spokesperson for the district, told the "San Francisco Chronicle." "With the total settlement, we are able to do that."

In April, a jury in the case decided that gasoline containing the additive MTBE is a "defective product," and that Shell, Lyondell Chemical Company and Tosco Corporation knew about the problem when they began marketing fuels containing MTBE.

The jury found that the companies were aware that their product was defective but withheld that information from the public when they started selling gasoline boosted with MTBE. MTBE is an oxygenate added to gasoline to make it burn more completely, reducing vehicle tailpipe emissions.

But the water soluble chemical has made its way into drinking water supplies around the nation, contaminating the water with a foul smell and taste.

In July, MTBE manufacturer Lyondell Chemical Company agreed to pay $4 million to settle its role in the case. Before the case went to trial, Exxon settled for $12 million and Chevron settled for $10 million.

Shell's settlement was approved Monday by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Carlos Bea.

The settlements could set a precedent for similar cases now being tried in other states across the nation. At least 16 states have seen their drinking water supplies contaminated by MTBE.

California Governor Gray Davis has issued a ban on the use of MTBE in all fuel sold within the state, effective January 2004. At least three oil companies - Atlantic Richfield, Exxon and Shell, plan to stop boosting their gasoline with MTBE before that deadline.

Sustainable Development Called Security Imperative

UNEP will publish a special edition of its magazine, "Our Planet," to coincide with the upcoming World Summit for Sustainable Development, containing articles on environmental issues by a variety of international leaders, including Powell.

In his article, Powell describes sustainable development as a "compelling moral and humanitarian issue" and says that delivering environmentally friendly development is vital for delivering a more stable world.

"Poverty, environmental degradation and despair are destroyers of people, of societies, of nations. This unholy trinity can destabilize countries, even entire regions," Powell writes.

"Despite the stories and images of trouble we read in our newspapers and view on our television screens, this is a time of great opportunities to expand peace, prosperity and freedom," he continues. "The spread of democracy and market economies, combined with breakthroughs in technology, permits us to dream of a day when, for the first time in history, most of humanity will be free of the ravages of tyranny and poverty."

In another article, UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer argues that failure at the Summit cannot be contemplated, as the risks are too great.

"Unless a new course is chartered for planet Earth we risk a new 'Iron Curtain,' dividing not East and West, but the haves and the have nots - with all the ramifications of increased tensions, jealousies and hatreds between and within countries," Toepfer writes.

Other authors of articles for the magazine include Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, which is hosting the Summit from August 26 through September 4 in Johannesburg. Mbeki writes of the need to address the world's existing patterns of production and consumption.

"If the Chinese citizen is to consume the same quantity of crude oil as his or her United States counterpart, China would need over 80 million barrels of oil a day-slightly more than the 74 million barrels a day the world now produces," writes Mbeki.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the President of Brazil, writes that hosting the Earth Summit of 1992 has helped his country towards the path of sustainable development. He is convinced that such development is key to a healthy and wealthy society.

"It was gratifying to see the Kyoto Protocol recently receiving the approval of our National Congress in response to strong public demand," Cardoso notes.

Margaret Beckett, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, writes that a global response is needed to fight a variety of ills, including climate change. And Goran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden, argues that governments need the support of all sectors of society, including the private sector and civil society, to cope with environmental problems.

The special issue of "Our Planet" is expected to be published on August 12.

Abraham Boosts Nuke Power at International Meeting

Speaking at the World Nuclear Association luncheon in London, Abraham emphasized that nuclear power plants, which now account for 20 percent of U.S. electricity generation, emit none of the pollutants associated with the burning of fossil fuels and provide an energy supply that is both abundant and affordable.

"Plants are vastly more efficient than before. They are better run and better managed than in the past," Abraham said. "And the improved management practices standard at today's nuclear power plants not surprisingly have been accompanied by huge improvements in safety."

Abraham noted that the Bush administration's national energy plan includes a mix of fuels including oil, natural gas, coal, renewable sources, and nuclear power.

"Forcefully declaring that nuclear power should be part of the world's fuel mix took some people by surprise, but to us it was just common sense," Abraham said. "We studied the issue of nuclear energy carefully. We studied the industry, its history, its recent progress, its ongoing research, and its future promise - and we came to the undeniable conclusion that there are compelling arguments in favor of nuclear energy."

Anti-nuclear activists are concerned about the risk of radiation escaping if a nuclear power plant malfunctions. They are also concerned about the safe storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel and the safe transport of this spent fuel over the nation's roads and rail lines to a planned permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Abraham said the United States is investing heavily in advanced nuclear technology - which he said promises a new era of nuclear energy which will be marked by enhanced safety, improved waste reduction, better economic performance, and improved physical security and proliferation resistance.

Rhode Island Plans for Greenhouse Gas Reductions

Some of the plan's suggestions include requiring that a percentage of electricity sold to Rhode Island consumers come from renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass, and creating economic incentives to encourage the purchase of energy efficient automobiles.

The Action Plan is a product of a nine month process organized by the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Rhode Island State Energy Office in response to growing international agreement that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are warming the planet. Global warming is a major concern for Rhode Islanders because of its potential adverse impacts, including flooding in coastal areas, saltwater contamination of drinking water, extreme weather events, and damage to local crops.

The Action Plan, drafted by 33 representatives of government, business, industry, citizen groups and environmental organizations, outlines programs and policies the state could undertake to help meet a goal set by the New England Governors' and Eastern Canadian Provincial Premiers' (NEG/ECPP) in August 2001. The NEG/ECPP agreement aims to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, to at least 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and up to 85 percent below 1990 levels over the long term.

"Many of the policies and programs advocated by this plan would save energy and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions at little or no cost to society," said DEM director Jan Reitsma. "They would also help improve air quality, increase recycling, and stabilize energy supplies. Many options expand and extend existing Rhode Island programs and policies while others call for new initiatives."

The stakeholders reached consensus on 49 of the 52 options that were discussed. Stakeholders registered varying opinions on two options to upgrade state building codes for greater energy efficiency and an option to increase the state gasoline tax to provide an incentive for energy efficient motor vehicles.

Among the proposals the group adopted were providing incentives for larger commercial and industrial firms to reduce the use of oil and gas in space, water and process heating. The report also recommends integrating zoning and transit planning to reduce dependence on automobile travel, and increasing recycling across the state.

In addition to in state measures, the plan endorses regional and national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as national fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks that could double the average miles per gallon of these vehicles to about 50 miles per gallon by 2020. That program alone would result in more than 250,000 tons of carbon saved by 2020 and improve Rhode Island's air quality by reducing tailpipe emissions that cause ground level ozone.

"Rhode Island's Greenhouse Gas Action Plan is a terrific example of how states can help meet the challenge of climate change," said Robert Varney, New England regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "EPA is proud to support a plan that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, while at the same time generating net economic benefits for the state."

The Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas Action Plan is available at: http://www.state.ri.us/dem, by clicking on "Publications"

Fuel Cells Could Reduce Diesel Pollution

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), which serves Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, has approved a three year project to develop a non-polluting fuel cell to reduce toxic air pollution from idling diesel trucks.

"Diesel truck engines idle 20 percent to 40 percent of the time they run, sometimes just to provide comfort for the driver," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the AQMD. "Across the country, this idling consumes between 840 million and two billion gallons of diesel fuel annually, emitting tons of cancer causing and smog forming emissions."

AQMD's governing board approved a project to develop a fuel cell unit to provide a zero or low emissions power source to a truck and cab when it is not being driven on the road.

Truckers may idle their engines for several hours at a time while parked to power refrigerated trailers as well as heating, air conditioning, televisions, computers and other conveniences inside the cab. Running in idle mode, diesel engines are just five percent to 10 percent efficient, and emit toxic diesel particulates, sometimes in close proximity to residences and businesses.

Fuel cell power units for trucks will be developed using hydrogen, propane and diesel as a fuel source. Fuel cells use various hydrogen containing fuels and chemically convert them to electricity with little or no emissions.

The Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, will develop the fuel cells with $300,000 from AQMD and a total of $900,000 from the university, California Air Resources Board, U.S. Department of Energy, Carrier Transicold and the American Trucking Association.

Turtle Supporters Warn of Toxic Swordfish

The group says that eating swordfish endangers pregnant woman and children, and has also been identified by scientists as one of the leading causes in the near extinction of the Pacific leatherback sea turtle. The sea turtles become entangled and die in the fishing gear used to catch swordfish.

To launch the campaign, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project ran an advocacy ad, entitled "Swordfish: Dangerous for You. Fatal to Sea Turtles", in Monday's edition of the "New York Times." Additional activities are planned for the next several months.

"By issuing a public health advisory, Governor Davis could protect both public health and endangered species," said Doug Israel, project director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. "The increase in swordfishing in the Pacific has lead to a double crisis: the poisoning of pregnant women and the killing of endangered sea turtles."

Mercury accumulates in the liver, kidney, brain and blood. Even at low levels, exposure to mercury can harm a child's developing nervous system, leading to loss of motor skills, mental retardation and other birth defects.

Mercury can also cause kidney failure, cardiovascular collapse and genetic damage in adults. One in 10 women enter pregnancy with elevated blood levels of methylmercury, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project says.

The National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration have found serious health risks associated with methylmercury contamination of seafood, particularly for pregnant women and children. Top level predators such as swordfish have the highest levels of mercury contamination.

"The most prevalent form of mercury contamination comes through direct ingestion of methylmercury contaminated seafood, such as swordfish," said Israel. "This is a public health and environmental crisis that Governor Davis needs to address."

Swordfish is caught by industrial longline and gillnet fishing operations that catch, kill and discard thousands of sea turtles, sharks and seabirds in the Pacific every year, Israel noted. Scientists have predicted that the endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle, the world¹s largest reptile, will go extinct within as little as five years if the number of adults turtles caught by industrial fishing is not reduced.

More information is available at: http://www.seaturtles.org

Complex Ecosytem Ties Link Monkeys, Birds

The Duke University scientists found a strong correlation between numbers of monkeys and birds on islands created by a Venezuelan hydroelectric project.

"If you think about it, you wouldn't expect any sort of relationship between howler monkeys and birds," said Duke investigator Kenneth Feeley. "It took us by surprise."

A graduate student studying for his PhD at the university's Department of Biology, Feeley was brought in to explain the strange relationship first identified by John Terborgh, a professor of environmental science at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

Terborgh set up the research station on Lago Guri, a Venezuelan lake formed in 1986 by a dam impoundment, to study how plants and animals trapped on its many islands respond to the forced isolation.

The Duke professor "did a census of the bird communities in 1993 and 1995 and found that small islands had an extremely high density of birds, an average of two times what we found on the mainland, and on some islands almost 20 times as many," Feeley said.

Many of the smaller islands, only a few acres or less in size, also have howler monkey populations up to 30 times higher than those off the islands.

"Wherever there are lots of howlers there are also lots of birds," Feeley noted. "So we have a strong positive correlation between the two groups."

The reasons are less than obvious, because howler monkeys are vegetarians who eat leaves, flowers or fruits - not a reason to attract birds. But "we've come up with several hypotheses to link them," Feeley said.

The researchers favor a hypothesis that the plant eating monkeys are making the trees they feed on more productive, by increasing soil fertility.

"It's kind of a backward logic, but essentially it has to do with the rates of nutrient cycling," Feeley explained. "The dung of a howler monkey is recycled very rapidly, and so essentially trees benefiting from this are able to produce more vegetative matter," he explained.

Because plants are also eaten by insects, the extra growth "allows for a high density of insects, which in turn allows for a high density of insectivorous [insect eating] birds," Feeley said.

"We do have some evidence to support my hypothesis," Feeley said. "The density of birds is strongly, positively correlated with the density of howler monkeys. The growth rate of trees is also positively correlated with howler monkey densities. Finally, detailed foraging observations of the birds on small islands have shown that there do appear to be more insects available on the islands with dense bird populations."

Feeley and other researchers are now doing chemical and nutrient analyses of leaves from each of the islands. That work "will hopefully allow us to look in more detail at how howler monkeys may be influencing the nutrient cycling," Feeley said.

Feeley reported on his findings on Tuesday at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting in Tucson.

Pennsylvania Spends Most on Flood Damage

Researchers from the University of Colorado's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have compiled state and basin damage information as well as new and improved national damage estimates to provide a more accurate look at flood costs in the United States.

The new data set shows that from 1955 to 1999, Pennsylvania had flood damages approaching $12 billion. California came in a close second, with flood damages estimated at almost $11 billion.

"The data indicate that California's large damage is the sum of many damaging floods, whereas the damages suffered in Pennsylvania resulted from a few major events," said Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at CIRES. "But if you consider population, North Dakotans have suffered most per capita economic losses due to flooding."

"Despite programs intended to control the growing costs of such hazards, flooding cost the United States approximately $50 billion in damages during the 1990s alone," Pielke added.

There is no consensus on why flood costs continue to spiral, Pielke said. Potential reasons for the increase include climate change, increasing population and failed policies.

"Decision makers need to understand the roles that climate, population growth and development, and policy play in determining flood damage trends," he said.

Current policies are being crafted without adequate information, said the report's coauthor, Mary Downton of the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"Unfortunately, available records are inadequate for policy evaluation, scientific analysis and disaster mitigation," Downton said. "There are no uniform guidelines for estimating flood losses, no central clearinghouse to collect, evaluate and report flood damage, and the data that do exist are rough approximations that have been reported in lots of different ways."

"Most damage estimates focus on national totals, but scientists need data at river basin or community scale levels to make sense of flood causes and effects," added Downton. "The National Research Council has stressed the importance of a comprehensive and consistent database because sound flood policy making depends on having a continuous time series of damage estimates. Reliable loss data are critical for cost effective hazard mitigation and planning for future disaster response."

The new report is available at: http://www.flooddamagedata.org/

State by state flood damage estimates, and graphs of each state's damage due to floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, are available at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/sourcebook/index.html Click on "Floods"