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Questions Emerge About Yellowstone Buffalo Research BOULDER, Colorado, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) wants questions answered about the operation of a wildlife disease facility near the north boundary of Yellowstone National Park.NWF says the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has leased land in the vicinity of Gardiner, Montana and is developing a wildlife disease research facility there. It is believed the facility is to conduct research relevant to wild buffalo and their exposure to brucellosis. The organization says there does not appear to be any published environmental documentation from APHIS disclosing the potential environmental consequences of the proposed facility, including the impact on wildlife, livestock and human health. NWF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request Wednesday seeking documentation of the facility. "The public does not even know this research site exists, and yet it has been under APHIS control for three years," said Steve Torbit, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center. APHIS did not reply to requests for comment. Under the FOIA request, NWF has asked for documents from APHIS that include information regarding the authorization of the facility, contingency plans for the escape of research animals or pathogens, as well as documents relating to potential human health hazards associated with the facility. The conservation group has filed a request for documents from the National Park Service for information on APHIS coordination with Park Service about the research facility. "We are asking APHIS to be a good neighbor and disclose its intentions to the surrounding communities and the general public," said Torbit. "That is not only sound policy, it is APHIS' responsibility as a federal agency." According to the Centers for Disease Control, brucellosis is a disease requiring special handling by researchers to ensure the safety of wildlife, livestock and humans. Brucellosis can cause abortions in cattle and undulant fever in humans. The disease has been at the center of controversial management of Yellowstone's bison herd. The current management plan specifies that the herd must be kept to 3,000 animals and any ranging outside the park may be captured, tested for brucellosis, and sent to slaughter if they test positive. There has not been a single recorded instance of free ranging buffalo transmitting brucellosis to range livestock. But the interagency management plan allows the slaughter of bison that roam outside of Yellowstone because, Montana cattle ranchers are concerned lest they lose their brucellosis free status. Conservationists and tribal groups detest the policy, which they believe is irrational and allows the senseless killing of the nation's last free ranging wild herd of bison in the United States.
Comment Period Extended for Mountaintop Coal Mining WASHINGTON, DC, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - Federal and state agencies have extended the comment period for public review of a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) assessing the environmental damage of a controversial mining process.Mountaintop coal mining - labeled mountaintop removal coal mining by environmentalists - is a form of strip mining in which mining companies blast hundreds of feet off the tops of mountains to easily access coal deposits. The debris and waste rubble is bulldozed into surrounding valleys, and there is increasing concern about the impact it has on valley streams. The draft EIS recommends new actions to protect Appalachian streams from effects associated with the mining technique. The Bush administration released the draft EIS on May 29, and the public comment period was planned to close on August 29. Today's announcement, put out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, extends the comment period until January 6, 2004. The Army Corps issued no explanation for this extension and did not return calls requesting comment.
Environmental groups, both national and local Appalachian groups, have been critical of the administration's intent to change the regulation of mountaintop coal mining. These critics say the administration seeks to relax the approval process for this type of mining and to increase the limits on valley fill size. The administration has also proposed altering the buffer zone rule - a state and federal regulation prohibiting mining disturbances within 100 feet of larger, flowing streams unless that state can find that water quality will not be adversely affected. It has proposed elimination of the buffer zone rule's application to dumping mining waste in streams. The proposed changes would provide greater clarity to industry and balance the economic and environmental needs of regions that use the technique, according to the administration. An economic study prepared as part of the draft EIS, however, showed the economic costs of dramatically limiting the size of valley fills would be minimal. And the studies behind the draft EIS show that this mining practice impacts not only stream ecosystems, but also hundreds of acres of healthy, productive Appalachian forests. These forests are destroyed when the tops of mountains are blasted away, and cannot be restored to their previous health. The geographic focus of the area covered in the draft EIS is about 12 million acres encompassing most of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, western Virginia and scattered areas of east Tennessee. The agencies involved in preparation of the draft EIS include the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal Office of Surface Mining, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Study Heightens Concern About Flame Retardant Chemicals RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - Less than a week after California enacted the first U.S. ban on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a new study finds the chemicals are present in "extremely elevated" concentrations in the breast milk of U.S. nursing mothers.PBDEs are added to plastics, electronics, textiles, and construction materials as components of a common fire retardant. The study, published today in the online edition of the peer reviewed journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," detailed that participants - all Texas residents - had PBDE levels 10 to 100 times higher than contemporaneous levels reported in Europe. The authors say this is the first study of PBDEs in individual mothers' milk, and the levels are similar to those found in earlier blood and tissue samples from California and Indiana study participants. "The purpose of this study was to determine whether U.S. women have higher, equal, or lower milk PBDE concentrations than women in other countries. The answer is striking: the 47 individual U.S. women have markedly higher levels in their breast milk compared to Europeans," the study authors write. Recent research indicates that the chemicals, developed in the 1960s, could cause neurological and development disorders in children. PBDEs accumulate in the body, much like mercury, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and a recent study found that North American women have the highest level of PBDEs ever recorded. "This study does raise some flags," said Dr. Jim Burkhart, science editor for "Environmental Health Perspectives." "We have stopped using PCBs because they are clearly harmful," he said. "PBDEs have a very similar chemical structure, and we are seeing elevated levels in the U.S. versus those in Europe." Under the law enacted last week, the state of California will enact a ban on PBDEs in 2008. The European Union (EU) approved a ban similar to California's earlier this year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is investigating PBDEs. "It is probably not a coincidence that we are seeing levels decrease in Europe after many countries stopped allowing their use," Burkhart said. How the chemicals get into the environment is still uncertain, but PBDEs are being found worldwide in house dust, indoor and outdoor air as well as in the water and sediments of rivers, estuaries and oceans. PBDEs have been found in the tissues of whales, seals, birds and bird eggs, moose, reindeer, mussels, eels, and dozens of species of freshwater and marine fish.
Florida Environmental Enforcement Falling TALLAHASSEE, Florida, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - Enforcement actions taken against polluting Florida corporations have declined significantly during the past decade, according to state agency data released today by Florida Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Florida PEER).The group says that records obtained from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) indicate that while the number of cases opened against polluting companies has remained about the same, punishments have dropped off, and the largest violators receive only limited punishment. "This administration throws the book at mom and pop violators but lets big corporations off the hook," said Florida PEER Director Jerry Phillips, a former DEP enforcement attorney. "If a habitual thief avoided punishment by simply giving back stolen property each time he was caught, most would say that the system was broken, but that is precisely what is going on every day at DEP," Phillips claimed. Florida PEER says the DEP has moved away from long form consent orders, which require companies to clean up the air, water and hazardous waste pollution they generate. Instead, the department now relies almost exclusively on short form consent orders, which typically levy smaller fines without any requirement that cleanups occur. According to data released by Florida PEER, when short form consent orders were first used by the DEP in 1990, seven out of 10 enforcement cases continued to utilize the stronger long forms. By 2002, fewer than one in five cases used long forms. And Florida PEER's analysis of the 14 Florida corporations currently designated as Significant Non Compliers of industrial and domestic wastewater discharges shows that not a single one has a current DEP enforcement action against it.
Animal Rights Group Aims to Shoot Down Mute Swan Plan WASHINGTON, DC, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - The Fund for Animals filed a motion for a preliminary injunction today in the U.S. District Court to prevent the start of a mute swan killing program in Maryland that is scheduled to begin on August 27.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had authorized the state to kill up to 525 mute swans this year. The killing of mute swans in Maryland was previously blocked by a lawsuit filed by The Fund for Animals in May. This is only the latest legal action by the national animal protection organization, which earlier this week filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interior Secretary Gale Norton for granting Maryland and other Eastern states permits to kill mute swans. The Fund for Animals says the decision to kill mute swans throughout the Atlantic Flyway violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The group charged that the environmental impact of the planned killing of up to 31,000 mute swans over the next 10 years was not adequately studied and that non-lethal alternatives, such as egg addling, were not adequately considered. State and federal officials say the management plan is needed because mute swans are a nonnative species without natural predators. There are simply too many of the birds, officials say. In Maryland, state officials are primarily concerned of the birds' consumption of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), which is an important part of the Chesapeake Bay's ecosystem, providing food and shelter for marine species and improving water quality. Maryland state officials contend that mute swans are a nonnative species and that the state's current population of 3,600 birds is eating 10.5 million pounds of SAV a year. Blaming the mute swan for the Bay's pollution is unfair, says Heidi Prescott, National Director of The Fund for Animals. Prescott contends that the waste run off from the billions of chickens raised in intensive confinement every year on the Eastern Shore kills far more vegetation than the mute swans. A species native to Europe and Asia, mute swans were introduced to estates and parks in the eastern United States beginning in the 19th century. Maryland's population of mute swans originated when five birds escaped from captivity in 1962. The FWS considers mute swans are one of Chesapeake Bay's most harmful species, as they occupy habitat needed by native waterfowl and destroy the area's seagrasses. Maryland state officials say scientists believe that the current population is on the verge of an exponential increase in numbers and could reach 20,000 birds by 2010. Mute swans are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the International Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds, but the federal permit allows the swans to be killed at any time and in any location of the state. The Fund for animals says the Fish and Wildlife Service issued permits for killing of the birds without properly assessing alternatives or the environmental impact. "We hope this injunction will prevent the needless deaths of these graceful birds while the court considers our case," Prescott said.
Conservationists Buy 9,400 Acres of Pine Barrens CHATSWORTH, New Jersey, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - The New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) has exercised its option to purchase a 9,400 acre property in the heart of the Pine Barrens.Designated a Biosphere Reserve in 1988 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Pine Barrens contain the largest swath of open space on the mid Atlantic seaboard between Boston and Richmond. The 1.1 million acre Pine Barrens stretches across 22 percent of New Jersey. NJCF's option to buy the 9,400 acre DeMarco property, in New Jersey's Burlington County, was at a price of $12 million. The conservation group has raised $5 million towards the purchase price and will fund the $7 million balance with loans to be paid off over five years. The property has 1,500 acres of reservoirs and thousands of acres of wetland and upland forests including 600 acres of Atlantic white cedar swamp. It connects five state owned properties and 14 tributaries of the West Branch of the Wading River originate on or pass through the property. The land offers exceptional habitat for native and endangered species including bald eagles and the unique Pine Barrens tree frog. The New Jersey Conservation Foundation will manage the property as a nature preserve to provide recreational opportunities for hikers, birdwatchers and other visitors, and enhance habitat for a variety of threatened and endangered species by restoring the former agricultural areas. The property will be named for Franklin Parker, the first Chair of the Pinelands Commission from 1979 to 1988, and its cranberry bog areas will be named in honor of the DeMarco family. The property was once one of the largest and most productive cranberry operations in the United States. NJCF Board President Sam Lambert said the group is delighted to have raised the $5 million in less than a year, calling it "an unprecedented accomplishment." In addition to the remaining $7 million, Lambert says the group need $3 million for long term stewardship of the property.
Chicago Scientists Help Piece Together New Dinosaur JAIPUR, India, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - A new dinosaur has been identified from bones collected in India, according to paleontologists with the University of Chicago.The newly discovered dinosaur is a stocky, carnivorous creature with an unusual head crest and belongs to a significant line of predatory dinosaurs known from the Southern continents. The dinosaur has been named Rajasaurus narmadensis, which means "regal dinosaur from the Narmada." The bones were found near the Narmada River in western India. "It is fabulous to be able to see this dinosaur, which lived as the age of dinosaurs came to a close," said University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno. "It was a significant predator that was related to species on continental Africa, Madagascar and South America." Stored at a regional geological survey office in Jaipur, India, the 65 million year old bones turned into a dinosaur before paleontologists' eyes. The joint Indian-American research was led by Sereno, a National Geographic explorer in residence, Jeff Wilson of the University of Michigan, Suresh Srivastava of the Geological Survey of India, and Ashok Sahni of Panjab University. The research was funded by the National Geographic Society. The 30 foot long dinosaur was heavy and strong and would have pursued a diet that included the long necked sauropod dinosaurs that roamed the Narmada region, Wilson said. This dinosaur had a distinct look. "There is a bone that protruded from the top of its head, so we think it had some kind of horn on top - its closest relatives had either one horn or two," Wilson explained. Dinosaur skeletons are rare in India, in part because the terrain renders many of the key geological formations inaccessible to digging. This recent discovery represents the first skull ever assembled of a dinosaur of any kind in India. The dinosaur lived in India before the Himalayas existed and will offer "a glimpse of the animals that lived on India during its northern migration towards Asia at the end of the dinosaur era," Wilson said. The new species will be described in the upcoming issue of the journal "Contributions of the Museum of Paleontology of the University of Michigan." EAST LANSING, Michigan, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - Glaciers grow not just from snow accumulating on their surfaces but also from beneath by freezing of melt water that can affect the rate at which they can erode, according to a study published in today's edition of the journal "Nature." This new insight paints a new picture of how glaciers sculpture and erode the Earth's landscapes. "Glaciers have a profound effect on the landscape, especially in mountainous regions, and this research allows us to understand how glaciers accomplish this," said Grahame Larson, a professor of geological sciences at Michigan State University. Larson was part of a team of scientists who made winter treks to Alaskan and Icelandic glaciers to understand how glaciers erode and transport sediment. The researchers' interest was sparked when they observed that fountains of meltwater rushing from some glacier margins spawned icy rims. They eventually were able to link this phenomenon of nature to the less lyrical but instantly identifiable event of creating ice when one pops open a can of very cold soda just pulled from an ice chest. Rapidly transferring ice cold water from a high pressure environment - be it the inside of a can of soda or beneath a hulking glacier - to a lower pressure environment causes ice to form, Larson explained. "This is new," Larson said. "We are introducing laws of erosion for glaciers, and thus making it easier to understanding how glaciers subdue mountains." This soda can effect is now afforded a new name - glaciohydraulic supercooling. In the case of glaciers, this ice forms when meltwater at the glacier bed rushes up a steeply rising slope. The new ice then clogs drainage ways at the glacier bed, dumping sediment, thus reducing the ability of the meltwater and the glacier to erode. This action is called stabilizing feedback and results in the formation of a new dirty ice layer along the glacier's underbelly.
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