|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Settlement Could Bring Cleaner Air to U.S. Parks WASHINGTON, DC, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) has agreed to complete new rules to protect national parks and wilderness areas from air pollution as part of a court settlement announced Tuesday. In its settlement with Environmental Defense, the EPA would set new rules by April 2005 and require states to take measures to limit air pollution that affects parks and wilderness."Cleaning up the power plants and other industrial sources that pollute our national parks and wilderness areas will protect some of the nation's most revered scenic vistas," said Environmental Defense senior attorney Vickie Patton. "If well designed, the clean air program required under this settlement will also help the millions of Americans that visit our national parks and live in surrounding regions breathe cleaner, healthier air." Environmental Defense sued the agency to enforce deadlines in the Clean Air Act. The law required EPA to adopt rules more than 20 years ago to clean up air pollution in national parks and wilderness areas, including setting emission limits on aging power plants and factories that are in part responsible for air quality problems. A previous EPA attempt to adopt such limits was overturned by a federal appeals court last year as a result of an industry challenge. But the court did not question EPA's duty to adopt the pollution limits, rather it held that the prior rules improperly infringed on state authority in certain respects. According to Earthjustice, which filed the suit on behalf of Environmental Defense, the settlement puts the EPA on track to address the court's concerns, and propose new rules by April 2004 and adopt final rules by April 2005. "This settlement is a big step toward cleaning up the air in our national parks and wilderness areas," said Earthjustice attorney David Baron. "The law sets a national goal of clearing the skies in these special places, for the enjoyment and inspiration of present and future generations. The pollution limits required under this settlement are long overdue." There is little question that air pollution is a serious problem for many national parks. The National Park Service says human caused air pollution impairs visibility in national parks and wilderness areas almost constantly. Average visual range in most of the Western United States is now about one half to two thirds of what it would be without man made air pollution. In most of the East, the average visual range is about one-fifth of what it would be under natural conditions. The settlement must go through a public comment process and requires approval by the court before it is finalized.
EPA Sued For Allowing Atrazine Use WASHINGTON, DC, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has failed to protect endangered species in the Chesapeake Bay, Mississippi River, Missouri River, and other major Midwestern and Southern rivers from the herbicide atrazine, according to a lawsuit filed today by Natural Resources Defense Council.The national nonprofit environmental group says the EPA is permitting the widespread use of atrazine even though the agency acknowledges it might harm endangered species. "The EPA knows that rivers and streams across the country are so contaminated with atrazine that sea turtles and other endangered species are at risk but the agency is sitting on its hands," said Aaron Colangelo, an NRDC staff attorney. Of particular concern to NRDC is the threat atrazine poses to endangered sea turtles in the Chesapeake Bay, salamanders in Texas, freshwater mussels in Alabama, and fish in the Midwest. NRDC called on the EPA to ban atrazine in June 2002 after studies showed it poses a significant threat to public health. The agency is reviewing studies on health effects of the herbicide on animals and humans. The herbicide is been banned in several European countries, but it continues to be one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States. Between 60 million and 70 million pounds of atrazine are applied annually to fields, golf courses and lawns. EPA has found that there is widespread atrazine contamination in U.S. waterways, and has concluded that atrazine may harm endangered fish, reptiles, amphibians, mussels, and the aquatic plant life that provides habitat for endangered species. Atrazine also contaminates drinking water and may harm people as well - more than one million Americans drink from water supplies that are contaminated with atrazine at levels higher than EPA's drinking water standard.
Energy Secretary Says Rocky Flats Free of Nuclear Weapons Material WASHINGTON, DC, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced Tuesday that the Department of Energy has completed a major cleanup milestone of its Rocky Flats weapons facility. The final shipment of nuclear weapons usable material has been shipped from the site near Denver, Colorado, Abraham said.The nuclear material removed from the site will be turned into fuel for nuclear reactors, a move that meets a nonproliferation goal of the United States. The occasion marks the end of the Rocky Flats facility as one of the nation's largest nuclear weapons facilities and Abraham said it also shows that the government is ahead of its clean up schedule for the facility. "Rocky Flats helped the United States win the Cold War and it is no longer in the nuclear weapons business," Abraham said. "Rocky Flats is on a path to close under budget. The hard work of all those involved in the Rocky Flats cleanup has helped beat target dates for key milestones, and maintained the commitment to the American people of this country to shutdown and cleanup this facility." Earmarked for shutdown in 1992, the federal government aimed to remove all bomb making material by 2015. According to Abraham, the site is now on schedule to be cleaned and closed in 2006. The Energy Department says early forecasts estimated that it would take more than 60 years and $37 billion dollars to complete a cleanup and closure. If the work is completed by 2006 as Abraham predicts, the total clean up cost is expected to be $30 billion. "This accomplishment is probably the most important milestone of the Rocky Flats Closure Project to date," said Department of Energy Rocky Flats Site Manager Gene Schmitt. "It also saves close to $2 million in security costs each month that can be applied directly to accomplishing more cleanup work." The Rocky Flats weapons plant was responsible for the fabrication of all the plutonium triggers currently at use in the nation's nuclear stockpile. Rocky Flats operated for more than 40 years. When cleanup work is complete, there are to turn the site into a National Wildlife Refuge.
California Commission Opposes Offshore Oil and Gas Inventory SACRAMENTO, California, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - The California State Lands Commission voted Tuesday to oppose a provision of the 2003 federal Energy Bill that would assess oil and gas reserves along the California coastline and in other federal waters.The commission unanimously passed a resolution by State Lands Commissioner and State Controller Steve Westly in an attempt to send a clear message to Congress that California will not allow its coastal waters to be exploited. "As a commission, we have consistently registered our opposition to oil drilling off our coast," said Commission Chair and California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. "This resolution will once again remind the federal government that California will not stand for any expansion of offshore drilling." The provision in the energy bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to take an inventory of potential oil and gas resources of the entire U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) including coastal areas from Maine to Florida and Washington to California. Since 1982, Congress has prevented the Interior Department from conducting leasing, pre-leasing and related activities in areas that have been declared off limits by a federal moratorium. The moratorium covers waters along the East and West coasts, as well as some waters off the coast of Alaska and within the Gulf of Mexico. The provision orders the Interior Secretary to use any available technology to conduct the inventory and requires the use of seismic surveys, which are prohibited by the current moratorium. The technology uses high energy air guns that are banned in California waters because of their potential threat to young fish and other marine life. Although the version of the energy bill with the inventorying provision was scrapped in favor of the 2002 Senate bill, Congressional Republicans - in particular New Mexico Republican Senator Pete Domenici - have said they will include the provisions from the original bill. Domenici says the inventory is responsible policy as the nation wrestles with economic and security issues that result from dependence on foreign energy sources. "We know what Senator Domenici is up to," said State Lands Commission and State Controller Westly. "The federal inventory is a first step toward new offshore oil and gas development. We must protect our coastal waters from drilling and the 3D seismic technology used in the inventory that would harm marine life."
Public Keen to Clean Up Diesel WASHINGTON, DC, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - On the final day for the public to weigh in on a proposal to sharply reduce diesel pollution, public health and environmental groups announced that more than 136,000 Americans have written to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urging the Bush administration to follow through on its diesel cleanup proposal.In April the Bush administration announced a new two phase proposal to cut 90 percent of harmful emissions from non road diesel engines used in construction, industrial, and agricultural equipment by 2014. The public health and environmental advocates say they are concerned the Bush administration will bow to industry pressure to weaken the rules, especially following the departure of EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who had championed the regulation. The administration's proposal covers the fuel and engines used to power diesel construction, farm, surface mining, and industrial equipment, a massive and long-overlooked source of air pollution. The proposal requires reduction in the sulfur content in nonroad diesel fuel from the current average of 3,400 parts per million (ppm) to 500 parts per million (ppm) in 2007 - the same standard as current highway diesel fuel. It calls for this standard to be further tightened to 15 ppm by 2010. Cleaner fuel will enable the second component of the EPA's plan, which is the requirement that new engines meet tighter emissions standards for NOx and PM by 2014. The EPA has said that it will issue a final rule in April 2004. But industry groups have concerns the timetables are too aggressive and will be costly for the industry, but supporters of the proposal say the health effects of diesel pollution are too great to ignore. "Cleaning up diesel heavy equipment and fuel is a no brainer," said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust. "This is a huge source of pollution, but we have the tools to clean it up as long as the EPA does not bow to special interests." According to the groups' estimates, at least 136,300 Americans wrote letters, signed postcards, and sent emails calling on the Bush administration to protect public health and follow through on the diesel proposal. The groups called on Utah Republican Governor Mike Leavitt, who has been nominated to head the EPA, to publicly commit to the proposal. They note that as co chair of the Western Regional Air Partnership, Governor Leavitt called on the EPA in January 2003 to adopt regulations to clean up diesel heavy equipment and other non road diesel engines. "Cleaning up harmful diesel pollution is one of the most important steps we can take to help millions of Americans breathe healthier air," said John Kirkwood, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. In addition to calling on Governor Leavitt to support the rules, the groups say the administration should speed up the cleanup, extend the standards to trains and ships, and drop economic analyses that reduce benefits by discounting the elderly.
State of the Great Lakes Not So Great CHICAGO, Illinois, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada have released the joint State of the Great Lakes 2003 report and it paints at best a mixed view of progress in cleaning up the world's largest freshwater ecosystem. The report offers information about half of the 80 Great Lakes indicators originally proposed in 1998.Indicator data, collected over the past four years, are being applied in an effort to get a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the environmental condition of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The State of the Great Lakes 2003 report finds the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem mixed, based on lake by lake and basin-wide assessments of 43 indicators. "The information from the indicators gives Great Lakes managers a clearer picture of how our existing programs are working and provides a direction for future environmental restoration and protection activities," said Thomas Skinner, Great Lakes National Program manager. "It is critical that the Great Lakes community acts quickly and efficiently to solve these environmental problems." Continued threats from invasive species and from a broad range of point and nonpoint source pollution top the negative signs of degradation cited in the report. In Lake Erie, phosphorous levels are increasing and Type E botulism outbreaks are resulting in deaths of fish and aquatic birds. Scud - bottom dwelling organisms that are critically important to the aquatic food chain - are seriously declining in Lakes Ontario and Michigan. Positive signs of recovery cited in the report include self sustaining lake trout populations in Lake Superior, declining persistent toxic substances in many fish and successful bald eagle nesting and reproduction along the shoreline. Phosphorus targets have been met in all lakes except Lake Erie, according to the report. Some 181 federal and 68 state programs spanning 10 agencies in all eight Great Lakes states aim to restore the ecological health of the Great Lakes, but there is increasing concern that these efforts are not coordinated and do not reflect an overarching strategy for recovery.
El Nino Reveals Another Piece of Global Climate Puzzle SEATTLE, Washington, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - Scientists using data from a U.S. satellite say El Nino events produce more of a steady rain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.The finding is important, according to the scientists, because whenever there is a change in the amount and duration of rainfall over an area, such as the central Pacific, it affects weather regionally and even worldwide. The findings appeared in a paper published in a recent issue of the "American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate" by Courtney Schumacher and Robert Houze, atmospheric scientists at the University of Washington, Seattle. They used data from the National Atmospheric and Space Administration's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite to look at rainfall over the Pacific during the 1997-1998 El Niño. El Niño occurs when warm water shifts from the western to the eastern Pacific Ocean and trade winds that usually blow from east to west across the equator diminish. As a result, rainfall patterns around the globe change during the life of these periodic climate events, and in some areas create floods or droughts. Schumacher and Houze noticed an unusually steady rainfall over the central Pacific - they described it as much like a gray day with light rain and drizzle. The scientists say that this "stratiform rain" is surprising over the central Pacific, an area normally known for thunderstorms that build up during the heat of the day from rapidly rising air or convection, and then rain themselves out within an hour. Defining the type of rain is important to climatologists because when water condenses and raindrops form, heat is released. That heat is a main driver in the circulation or movement of the atmosphere. "Convective rain, like from thunderstorms, releases heat lower in the atmosphere, while the steady, light, stratiform rain releases heat higher in the atmosphere," Houze said. Heat released at different levels of the atmosphere affects the vertical and horizontal movement of air. As a result, the heat from different types of rain can alter weather patterns, such as the familiar jet stream which impacts the United States. Although scientists are still uncertain why such large amounts of stratiform rain happen in the middle of the Pacific, especially during El Niño, observations from the TRMM satellite have allowed them to recognize this pattern. By identifying the type of rainfall, climatologists and meteorologists believe they can make better rainfall forecasts in other areas of the world during the event.
A Wet Solution to Controlling Mosquitoes OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi, August 20, 2003 (ENS) - A familiar suggestion to anyone trying to reduce mosquito populations is to limit standing water, which the pesky insects use for breeding. But one marine biologist/parasitologist says giving mosquitos water is a better way to control the insects.By providing water for mosquitoes, letting them lay their eggs, and then removing the larvae about every six to 10 days - depending on temperature and species - the numbers of mosquitoes will be decreased, says Dr. Adrian Lawler, the former head of the J.L. Scott Aquarium in Biloxi, Mississippi. And less mosquitoes means less people getting mosquitoborne, diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever and West Nile virus. Lawler explains his idea as similar to the method used to reduce screwworm fly larvae in cattle from the southwestern United States, where scientists released sterilized male flies and thus made the female flies waste their eggs. His suggestion for mosquitoes is to provide them with prime laying areas, then destroy the larvae. Mosquitoes lay their eggs virtually anything that contains water, including hollow trees. Lawler says people should still empty various containers where mosquitoes can lay, unless they are going to eliminate the larvae periodically. He suggests using pond, stream, or standing water because natural waters already contain mosquito larvae foods such as bacteria, algae, and protozoa. Lawler says add a small amount of organic matter - such as manure, hay, leaves or seeds - to serve as a food source for bacteria and protozoa - and then let the mosquitoes lay eggs. He recommends removing the larvae from the water, but saving the water to return to the container because it contains a pheromone that tells other mosquitoes that the water is safe to lay in. Lawler says his idea is something humans have done for ages to other animals - attract them to food, water, salt, laying site, or something else they need so they can be easily slaughtered.
|
