|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Conservationists Challenge Chugach Oil Plan ANCHORAGE, Alaska, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - A coalition of five conservation groups is challenging a proposed oil exploration project in the eastern Copper River Delta, which lies in the Chugach National Forest.The groups say the area - tucked within an area of the forest known as Katalla - faces detrimental impacts from oil exploration and allege that the Forest Service failed to consider significant impacts of the project. "The eastern Copper River Delta and Katalla region, even by Alaska standards, is an outstanding fish and wildlife habitat, especially for salmon and waterfowl," said Scott Anaya, project manager for National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Alaska Office. "We are talking about a world class part of the National Forest system," he said. NWF - representing itself - along with the Eyak Preservation Council, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Alaska Center for the Environment, and The Wilderness Society represented by Trustees for Alaska filed a complaint in District Court against the Forest Service earlier this week. They seek a full Environmental Impact Statement for this project and say the Forest Service only analyzed the impacts for one well to be drilled even though the plan submitted by Cassandra Energy Corporation clearly states that three wells are planned. "The list of impacts the Forest Service failed to consider goes on from there," Anaya said. Another concern for the conservationists is the risk of widespread oil contamination should a spill occur. The exploration project has a spill contingency plan for spills occurring on land, but no contingency plans should a spill occur on or reach the Katalla River or open ocean. And local fishermen fear a spill could easily blow across the famed "Copper River Flats", prime ground of the now world famous Copper River Salmon fishery. "A single Copper River king salmon is worth more than seven barrels of oil and we catch 50,000 of those a year," said Dune Lankard, a subsistence fisherman and director of the Eyak Preservation Council in Cordova. "Add in the worth of our sockeye salmon catch, and you are talking over a half million barrels of oil in salmon each and every year." The area is also key migratory habitat for some 16 million shorebirds and waterfowl.
Texas Governor Wants to Keep Water From Mexico AUSTIN, Texas, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, told federal officials Thursday that the United States should curtail the flow of water from the Colorado River to Mexico unless the nation abides by a 1944 water sharing treaty.The treaty agreed to in 1944 calls on Mexico to allocate some 350,000 acre feet of water each year from the Rio Grande to the United States, which in turn annually diverts some 1.75 million acre feet of water from the Colorado River into Mexico. Mexico currently owes the United States 1.4 million acre feet. Officials with the Mexican government say drought has caused the deficit in payments. Perry, speaking in the keynote address at the 2025 Water Conference, said the Mexican water debt is having negative impacts on Texas farmers. "If diplomacy will not yield a fair result for our farmers, then maybe withholding regular releases to Mexico will," he said. "I am not interested in causing a fight. I am interested in resolving a problem and doing so with the means at our disposal." The Texas governor says that although Mexican officials have claimed drought as a reason water has not been returned to Texas, satellite photos have shown little evidence of drought in the Chihuahua region. "I flew over that area, and I saw lush, green crops growing - not brown, drought stricken vegetation," said Perry. "The facts show that water stored in Chihuahua reservoirs has doubled in amount since last year." A study by Texas A&M University finds that the 1.4 million acre feet water debt has caused an estimated $1 billion loss to the Lower Rio Grande Valley economy during the past 10 years and caused 30,000 job losses. Federal officials say the option of shutting off water supplies to Mexico has not been considered, despite Perry's request.
Asian Oysters No Quick Fix for Chesapeake Bay WASHINGTON, DC, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - A plan to offset the dramatic decline of native oysters in the Chesapeake Bay by introducing a reproductive population of oysters from Asia should be delayed until more is known about the potential environmental risks, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council."Introducing these nonnative oysters in the Chesapeake Bay is not a magic bullet for either saving the oyster industry or restoring the bay," said Dennis Hedgecock, committee cochair and a geneticist at the University of California, Davis. "It is unrealistic to expect that such action can reverse the long term degradation of the bay in less than 10 years. But the panel did determine that carefully regulated aquaculture of sterile Suminoe oysters - an Asian species - could help the oyster industry and generate information necessary for assessing some of the risks. The Suminoe oyster, which is native to coastal China and other Asian countries, is an appealing alternative to the native oyster because it is resistant to the two diseases that have reduced oyster populations up and down the East Coast. It grows quickly and compares favorably to the native oyster in taste tests. But potential harmful effects of the Suminoe oyster on the ecology of the Bay still need to be investigated, the committee said. Past introductions of foreign oysters in other parts of the world have brought diseases, parasites, and predators that have decimated native oyster populations. Many of these threats can be reduced by using only sterile oysters grown in hatcheries that follow strict international guidelines, according to the committee. Several issues require further research, the report says, including the potential introduction of a new disease, competition with native oysters, dispersal of non native oysters outside the Chesapeake Bay, and market demand for non native oysters. Decades of heavy fishing and disease have depleted the native Chesapeake Bay oyster to less than one percent of its peak abundance in the 1870s. The decline over the past two decades has been steep. As recently as 1980, the bay accounted for roughly 50 percent of the U.S. oyster harvest. Over the past decade, however, the region has produced only one to five percent of the total domestic supply of oysters. The decline in quantity of oysters has been matched with a decline in price of Chesapeake oysters, down 24 percent in the last 10 years. Processors in both Virginia and Maryland now shuck and repackage oysters from the Gulf of Mexico and other regions outside the Chesapeake. The state of Virginia has been studying the possibility of using nonnative oysters since 1991, and began conducting field trials with the Suminoe oyster in 1996. But because of differing opinions among states and federal agencies about the environmental risks involved, the Chesapeake Bay Commission - representing Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania - requested the National Research Council report.
Report Finds U.S. Handling of Spent Nuclear Fuel Adequate WASHINGTON, DC, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - The likelihood of a serious accident or terrorist attack involving commercial spent nuclear fuel is low, according to a report issued Thursday by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress.The report does, however, recommend that the federal government assess potential options to further enhance security and safety of transporting this spent fuel as it develops plans related to the Yucca Mountain repository. Spent nuclear fuel, the used fuel periodically removed from nuclear power reactors, is one of the most hazardous materials made by humans. The Energy Department plans to open a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel at a repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada in 2010. Ensuring that transport of spent fuel to the repository from sites across the nation is a primary concern for critics and proponents of the Yucca Mountain repository. Nuclear power companies currently store some 50,000 tons of spent fuel at 72 sites in 33 states. The GAO says that the likelihood of a terrorist attack or severe accident causing enough spent fuel to be released as to pose a serious threat to human health is small. "Largely because spent fuel is hard to disperse and is stored in protective containers … studies found that most terrorist or accident scenarios would cause little or no release of spent fuel, with little harm to human health," the GAO wrote. Still, the report recommends that shipments of spent fuel be kept to a minimum. Critics say the report simply recaps old studies and fails to address problems with transporting waste to the Nevada site. "Even the GAO admits in the report that it did not assess the reliability of the data or the methodologies used in the studies it reviewed," said Lisa Gue, senior energy analyst with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Nor did the agency examine the economic or broader environmental effects of terrorist attacks or severe accidents involving nuclear waste transportation." Gue says the Republican congressmen who asked for the report set parameters that blocked the GAO from addressing the safety or viability of transporting nuclear waste from across the country. Earlier this week Public Citizen and other public interest groups criticized the Energy Department for shipping nuclear waste from New York to Idaho via train without informing local officials along the route. The public should not be fooled into thinking the GAO report shows that "nuclear waste transport is safe," Gue said. WASHINGTON, DC, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's top lawyer submitted his resignation Thursday. The resignation of EPA General Counsel Robert Fabricant, who came to the agency with former EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman from New Jersey, becomes effective on September 3. Prior to being appointed to the EPA post, Fabricant served as Whitman's chief counsel during her tenure as governor of New Jersey. "It has been an honor and privilege to serve the president and Governor Whitman and to play an important role in the many environmental accomplishments of this administration," Fabricant said in a prepared statement. EPA officials touted Fabricant's role in defending new air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter and said he played a key role in the defense of wetlands and other Clean Water issues. As general counsel, Fabricant managed more than 300 attorneys at EPA headquarters and in the agency's 10 regional offices. "Bob will be missed, not only at EPA, but throughout Washington," said Acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinko. "His strong leadership, advocacy and keen understanding of federal environmental law have played a key role in the many successes of the agency." Fabricant says he will return to the private practice of law in New Jersey. He is one of several officials with close ties to Whitman who have left the agency in the wake of her resignation in late May. Earlier this week the Bush administration nominated Utah's Republican Governor Mike Leavitt as Whitman's replacement. His Senate confirmation hearings will take place in September.
Recovery Plan Ready for Endangered California Plant SACRAMENTO, California, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released the final recovery plan for the Kneeland prairie penny-cress, an endangered plant found in only one location in Humboldt County, California.The species was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in February 2000. "This is a species that is experiencing a high degree of threat, but also has a high potential for recovery under the Endangered Species Act," said Steve Thompson, manager of the Service's California/Nevada Operations office. About 5,000 individual Kneeland prairie penny-cress plants exist in three semi-isolated colonies on private land immediately surrounding the Kneeland airport, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. State lands surround the private property - the entire penny-cress population encompasses about six acres. Critical habitat was designated for this species in October 2002 after a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity. This habitat includes 74 acres located on Ashfield Ridge immediately surrounding the Kneeland airport Much of the penny-cress's preferred habitat was covered by a road, airstrip and helicopter landing base - it is primarily threatened by a proposed airfield expansion. Fish and Widlife Service biologists believe the plant has always been restricted to the area where it is currently found, but know little about its long term needs. The recovery plan centers on monitoring and additional research on the habitat and growth requirements of the species, in part to see if its range could be expanded using artificial propagation. In its plan, the Fish and Wildlife Service recommend a secure genetic bank of penny-cress seed be stored at a conservation facility. The plan also proposes working with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to secure long term habitat protection for the species. The Fish and Wildlife Service predicts recovery of this species will take some 10 years and cost about $296,000. A perennial herb in the mustard family, the Kneeland Prairie penny-cress can grow to five inches tall. It has white flowers and favors outcrops of serpentine or shallow, gravelly soil high in iron, magnesium and silicates. ARLINGTON, Virginia, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - A newly discovered single celled microbe leads the hottest existence known to science and could shed light on the origins of life on Earth. The microbe survives in temperatures reaching 121 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit). Prior to its discovery, the upper known temperature limit for life had been 113 C (235 F). "The upper temperature limit for life is a key parameter for delimiting when and where life might have evolved on a hot, early Earth; the depth to which life exists in the Earth's subsurface; and the potential for life in hot, extraterrestrial environments," according to University of Massachusetts at Amherst researchers Derek Lovley and Kazem Kashefi. The researchers published their discovery in the August 15 issue of the journal "Science" and have given the heat loving microbe the preliminary name of "Strain 121." The microbe comes from water at the ocean bottom, from a deep sea realm of hydrothermal vents. Heated to extremes by the Earth's magma, water spouts forth through leaks in the ocean floor and the pressure of the immense depths prevents such hot water from turning to steam. Water from these leaks can reach temperatures near 400 C (750 F). The sample cultured by Lovley and Kashefi was collected in the Pacific Ocean about 200 miles offshore from Puget Sound, Washington and nearly a mile and a half deep. It was retrieved with a remotely operated submarine from the Pacific Ocean's Juan de Fuca Ridge, a lightless seascape where vents called "black smokers" rise up like 30 to 40 foot chimneys and continuously spew a blackening brew laced with iron and sulfur compounds. According to Lovley, Strain 121 uses iron the way aerobic animals use oxygen - the iron allows the microbe to burn its food for energy. "It is a novel form of respiration," Lovley says. Chemically, the respiration process reduces ferric iron to ferrous iron and forms the mineral magnetite The presence of vast deposits of magnetite deep in the ocean, its presence as a respiratory byproduct of some heat loving microbes, and the abundance of iron on Earth before life began all led Lovley and Kashefi to write that "electron transport to ferrous iron may have been the first form of microbial respiration as life evolved on a hot, early Earth."
Florida Conservation Deal Under Scrutiny TALLAHASSEE, Florida, August 15, 2003 (ENS) - A plan by the state of Florida to purchase a conservation easement on 24,000 acres in Glade County would not conserve the land, but would subject it to severe environmental harm, according to the environmental law firm Earthjustice.The $23 million purchase would allow changes that undermine calling it a conservation easement, says Earthjustice attorney David Guest. A conservation easement is widely defined - in principle - as a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. The aim is to protect the land and leave it in its natural state, thereby providing habitat for wildlife. But Guest says the proposed agreement would allow significant changes to the land, which is owned by agricultural giant Lykes Brothers. The Earthjustice attorney cautions that the deal would allow drilling for oil and gas, including the construction of roads, oil rigs and pipe lines on any part of the land. Guest says the deal okays construction of reservoirs holding and treating polluted agricultural water, which would come mainly from Lykes Brothers Inc. agricultural operations. The deal would allow the plowing under and conversion of any part of the land, including all of the natural areas, to high intensity vegetable farming, and would okay construction of commercial well fields that would be authorized to withdraw at least three billion gallons per year. "Subjecting the lands of Glades County to this type of development will cause irreparable harm," Guest said. "This is not a conservation easement, it is a development permit and the taxpayers are paying the bill."
|
