• Space Shuttle Astronauts See Environmental Destruction
  
• Suspect Mad Cow Tests Negative
  
• Oily Waste Dumping Costs Tanker Owner, Operator $1.5 Million
  
• Bechtel Jacobs Fined for Nuclear Safety Violations at Oak Ridge
  
• Texas Doubles Renewable Energy Standard
  
• Endangered Fish Could Repopulate Rio Grande
  
• Facilties Managers: Planning for Natural Disasters Inadequate
  

Space Shuttle Astronauts See Environmental Destruction

Suspect Mad Cow Tests Negative

In a statement Wednesday, John Clifford, deputy administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the negative results came from both the department's own laboratory in Iowa and an internationally recognized laboratory in England.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, has determined that the non-definitive test result reported on July 27 is negative for BSE," Clifford said. "Tests conducted by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, England, are also negative for BSE."

“Needless to say, we are very pleased with these results," Clifford said. "I do want to emphasize that the most important protections for human and animal health are our interlocking food-safety protocols. Our enhanced surveillance program is designed to provide information about the level of prevalence of BSE in the United States, which by any measure is extremely low."

Two confirmed cases of BSE have been discovered in the United States, one a Canadian-born cow in Washington state in 2003 and the other a cow in Texas in June 2005.

Prompting the two tests in the third suspected case were ambiguous results from an initial test for immunohistochemistry. Clifford said the department simply took "the prudent course" by having the additional tests conducted.

The tested cow died in April after giving birth, but USDA has not disclosed the location of the farm where the cow died. No test exists to check for BSE in live animals.

Oily Waste Dumping Costs Tanker Owner, Operator $1.5 Million

Bechtel Jacobs Fined for Nuclear Safety Violations at Oak Ridge

“One of our top safety priorities is to improve the performance of subcontractors, and to do that we need to hold prime contractors responsible,” said John Shaw, assistant secretary for environment, safety and health. “Our goal is to have work conducted in a manner that protects workers, the public and the environment.”

The violations cited today took place in 2004. On May 14, 2004, leakage from a radioactive waste shipment originating from the new Hydrofracture Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory caused contamination to spread to public roadways. The response to the contamination required that several roads be temporarily closed and that contaminated sections be removed and repaved. There was no contamination to personnel or private vehicles.

The second event occurred at a radioactive material storage area on the Oak Ridge Reservation known as the Hot Storage Garden. On August 10, 2004, four workers were exposed to radioactive materials while working with contaminated metal storage baskets.

Although the occupational radiation exposures resulting were well below DOE regulatory limits, worker exposures could have been much higher, the DOE said.

Although both events involved BJC subcontractors, DOE fined BJC the entire penalty. The penalty was partially mitigated in recognition of the corrective actions already taken, including BJC’s acceptance of responsibility for the subcontractors’ performance.

The Price-Anderson Amendments Act of 1988 authorizes the Energy Department to undertake regulatory actions against contractors for violations of its nuclear safety requirements. The enforcement program encourages DOE contractors to identify and correct nuclear safety deficiencies at an early stage, before they contribute to or result in more serious events.

Texas Doubles Renewable Energy Standard

"This legislation moves Texas to the forefront in the nation for renewable standards," said Texas State Senator Troy Fraser, a Republican, who authored the bill. "As energy costs continue to rise, it was important for the Legislature to pass legislation that will help Texas become more energy independent."

The Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires the state of Texas to install a specific amount of generating capacity by 2015 from renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar energy. The RPS allows a combination of federal and state incentives for the development of renewable energy to private companies.

Fraser's bill expands the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard and requires Texas to use renewable energy technology, such as wind or solar, for a certain amount of electric generating capacity.

Before the new legislation was passed, the Texas RPS law called for 2,880 megawatts of installed renewable capacity by 2009. The state is currently on track to surpass this goal.

The RPS set by the new law is higher - the total installed renewable capacity must be 5,880 megawatts by 2015.

The legislation directs the Public Utility Commission to identify competitive renewable zones that would be used to facilitate the construction of transmission infrastructure and promote the development of other renewable energy resources.

"This is a good public policy decision for the state," Fraser said. "SB 20 will create more jobs, less air pollution and more tax revenue for our schools as we find ways to ease our dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oil."

Senate Bill 20 comes from recommendations compiled by the 22 member Texas Energy Planning Council, representing a diversified interest in the Texas energy sector. The Council was created by Governor Perry in 2003 to develop a plan that will fuel Texas' future economic growth and prosperity.

Combining consumer energy needs and agriculture industry trends with the legislation will push the research to become reality, said Dr. John Sweeten, resident director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at the Texas A&M University System Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Amarillo.

Researchers are concentrating on finding alternative uses for the growing supplies of manure, Sweeten said. Irrigated cropland use of manure as a fertilizer is dwindling, but the livestock industry is growing.

Energy production has been researched for more than 20 years, but "$60 a barrel oil recruits a lot of interest in biomass," Sweeten said. "The question becomes, how do you convert biomass into energy?"

Endangered Fish Could Repopulate Rio Grande

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, August 4, 2005 (ENS) - It has been more than 50 years since the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow inhabited the Rio Grande in the Big Bend region.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with the people of Texas to determine if reintroducing the silvery minnow to this reach of the river holds potential for improving the species' future.

The Endangered Species Act encourages experimental reintroductions as a way to help recover a species while keeping federal regulations to a minimum.

"We believe the long-term survival and recovery of this species can be better secured by establishing experimental populations under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act within the fish's historical range," said Larry Bell, acting deputy director of the Service's Southwest Region.

"Under this scenario, we have much more flexibility in working with the community to manage experimental populations so that current and future land or water uses and activities should not be restricted while helping to recover the fish," Bell said.

Once one of the most abundant and widespread fishes in the Rio Grande Basin from northern New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico, in the 1950s, it was the most common fish in the Big Bend stretch of the Rio Grande. Now the silvery minnows are gone from Texas and only occur in central New Mexico.

The silvery minnow’s decline is due to decreased and interrupted stream flows, dams, reservoirs, and stream channelization. Water quality declines and interactions with non-native fish add to the minnow's problems, the Service says.

Diversion dams on the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico are barriers to the movement of silvery minnows upstream. Historically, after periods of low or no flow the silvery minnow may have been able to repopulate downstream habitat the following year by the drift of eggs from upstream populations.

But today, when the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico dries and dams prevent upstream movement, the silvery minnow can become trapped in some areas and die in isolated pools before the river becomes wet again.

The inability of the population to find adequate habitat during prolonged periods of low or no flow, and to repopulate reaches where they may have disappeared, creates a very unstable population in the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico, the Service says.

The Service will be preparing a draft Environmental Assessment to look at the potential impacts of reintroducing endangered fish into the Rio Grande. The agency has scheduled information sessions and public scoping meetings in Presidio, Alpine, and Sanderson to receive input from residents. People can also provide written comments.

The Service is asking residents, state, county, and local officials, landowners, farmers, recreationists and others to comment on its proposal to reintroduce experimental populations of the small fish.

Three scoping meetings are scheduled to receive input from residents. All meetings start with an informational session at 5:30 pm. The formal meeting begins at 7 pm with a presentation followed by people giving comments, suggestions or recommendations.

• September 20 in Sanderson at the Sanderson Community Meeting Hall, 108 Hackberry St
• September 21 in Alpine at the Sul Ross State University, Gallego Center, Room 129, East Highway 90
• September 22 in Presidio at the Presidio Activity Center, 1400 East O'Reilly St.

The deadline for all comments is October 7. Information received by the deadline will be used to explore a range of approaches to reintroducing experimental populations of the minnow. When complete, the Environmental Assessment will be available for public review and comment.

Facilties Managers: Planning for Natural Disasters Inadequate

OLD SAYBROOK, Connecticut, August 4, 2005 - A majority of environmental health and safety professionals who responded to an online poll in July say that emergency planning at their facility is not ready to handle a natural disaster.

The poll conducted by Enviro.BLR.com, a website from Business & Legal Reports Inc. has 151 respondants between July 14 and July 20.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said “no” when asked, “Do you think your facility is prepared for a natural disaster?”

“It is somewhat alarming to learn that there are so many facilities that don't have viable emergency response plans,” said Steve Quilliam, managing editor of Enviro.BLR.com,

“Considering that such planning is required under multiple environmental and occupational safety and health regulations, and that there have been so news stories highlighting the need lately, these results are disappointing.”

Enviro.BLR.com's team of environmental compliance editors recommends that, at a minimum, facilities take the following steps:

• Identify vital records and create a backup for storage in a safe place.
• Train employees on what to do in the event of a disaster.
• Compile and make employees aware of a list of emergency telephone numbers.
• Inventory and repair all disaster response equipment.
• Identify emergency power requirements, and purchase a generator, if necessary.
• Determine computer requirements for employees who must maintain operations during a disaster.
• Verify that communications equipment is operational.
• Collect, label, and store emergency supplies.
• Ensure that your facility is in compliance with any legal or regulatory requirements such as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations

To help in the development of a disaster response plan, BLR is providing a free copy of its feature article “Emergencies: Readiness Makes a Difference” at: http://www.blr.com/80502500/PRS38