• Depletion of Ozone Layer Leveling Off
  
• Poor Communities Entrusted With Natural Resources Flourish
  
• Oregon Rancher Pays for Chopping and Channeling River
  
• EPA Offers Nonpoint Source Guidance for Wetlands, Streams
  
• Conservationists Sue for a Cleaner Anacostia River
  
• Stressed Out Corals Will Get a Break From Dredging
  
• Purdue Scientists Find Key to Hydrogen Production
  

Depletion of Ozone Layer Leveling Off

Poor Communities Entrusted With Natural Resources Flourish

The report, "World Resources 2005: The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty," stresses the need to look beyond aid projects, debt relief and trade reform and focus on local natural resources to address the crisis of poverty in all parts of the globe.

"Traditional assumptions about addressing poverty treat the environment almost as an afterthought," said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

"This report addresses the stark reality of the poor," Lash said. "Three-fourths of them live in rural areas; their environment is all they can depend on. Environmental resources are absolutely essential, rather than incidental, if we are to have any hope of meeting our goals of poverty reduction."

The report finds that environmental organizations have not addressed poverty and development groups have not considered the environment enough in the past.

The report details how natural resources - soils, forests, water, fisheries - managed at the local level are often the most effective means for the world's rural poor people to create wealth for themselves.

Control over restoring 700,000 local acres of denuded forests and grazing lands was given by the Tanzanian government to the Sukuma people, for example, and they now have higher household incomes, better diets, as well as increased populations of tree, bird and mammal species, WRI shows in the report.

Ucunivanua villagers in Fiji were given control by the government of clam beds and coastal waters, and because of local restrictions placed on fishing, mangrove lobster and harvestable clam populations have increased.

In India, community control over the watershed has led to a nearly six-fold increase in the cash value of crops grown in Darewadi Village.

"There are encouraging examples of ecosystems being managed for the long-term to create wealth for poor communities, but there is still a huge job to do," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

"Natural resources can be properly used to greatly reduce poverty," Toepfer said. "The time has come to reverse the course of worsening diseases, depleted natural resources, political instability, inequality, and the social corrosion of angry generations that have no means to rise out of poverty."

"We need to stop thinking of the environment as a passive element," said Warren Evans, director of environment with the World Bank. "It is a fundamental part of community-based decision making."

"Unfortunately," said Evans, "the poor often lack legal rights to ecosystems and are excluded from decisions about ecosystem management. Without addressing these failures through changes in governance, there is little chance of using the economic potential of ecosystems to reduce rural poverty."

The moment is critical in the battle against poverty because of converging current events, WRI says.

At the G-8 Summit in July, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other world leaders focused on the problems of global poverty.

Prior to the G-8, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - a report by an international panel of 1,300 scientists - found how humans have modified and degraded the world's ecosystems in the past 50 years.

In mid-September, heads of state at the United Nations Summit are expected to review progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, one of which is to lift as many people as possible out of extreme poverty..

"Community stewardship of local resources should be a critical element of any poverty-reduction model," said Olav Kjorven, director, Energy and Environment Group, Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme. "With greater income from the environment - call it environmental income - poor families experience better nutrition and health, and begin to accumulate wealth. In other words, they begin the journey out of poverty."

Oregon Rancher Pays for Chopping and Channeling River

EPA Offers Nonpoint Source Guidance for Wetlands, Streams

The new guidance contains information on the best available, economically achievable means of reducing nonpoint source pollution through the protection and restoration of wetlands and riparian areas, as well as the implementation of vegetated treatment systems.

The most recent national water quality inventory, conducted in 2000, shows that nearly 39 percent of assessed rivers and streams, 45 percent of lakes, reservoirs, and ponds, and 51 percent of estuaries in the United States remain too polluted for fishing, swimming, and other uses.

Habitat alterations, such as hydromodification, dredging, streambank destabilization, and the loss or degradation of wetlands, contribute to the impacts on quality.

Many pollutants are delivered to these surface waters and to ground water from no single point. These nonpoint sources include urban runoff, agricultural runoff, and atmospheric deposition of contaminants.

The leading causes of impairment are nutrients, pathogens, siltation, oxygen-depleting substances, metals, and suspended solids, the EPA says.

Wetlands and streamside areas can protect water quality and reduce adverse water quality impacts associated with nonpoint source pollution, and they help decrease the need for costly storm water and flood protection facilities.

So, the EPA advises in this guidance document, wetlands and riparian areas are an important component of a combination of management practices that can be used to reduce nonpoint source pollution pollution.

In their natural condition wetlands and riparian areas provide habitat for feeding, nesting, cover, and breeding to many species of birds, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

Although wetlands have long been recognized for their water quality improvement functions, unrestricted use of natural wetlands as receptacles for point and nonpoint source pollution, such as urban stormwater and other sources of runoff, could have an adverse effect on wetlands and wetland organisms, the EPA cautions.

The guidance provides a brief introduction to NPS pollution and the national effort to control it. It introduces wetlands, riparian areas, and vegetated treatment systems, explaining what they are, how they function, and what their importance is in terms of nonpoint source pollution.

It defines what management measures are and how they work to prevent nonpoint source pollution, and it describes four management practices for the protection of wetlands and riparian areas.

The document explains what restoration is and discusses three practices to implement the management measure for restoration of wetlands and riparian areas. Finally, it describes the management measure and three practices related to vegetated treatment systems.

Use of the information in the guidance is voluntary, the EPA says, though many states have requirements for protecting wetlands and riparian areas from nonpoint source pollution.

National Management Measures to Protect and Restore Wetlands and Riparian Areas for the Abatement of Nonpoint Source Pollution is online at: http://epa.gov/owow/nps/wetmeasures/

Conservationists Sue for a Cleaner Anacostia River

In a court action filed last week by Earthjustice on behalf of the conservation group, Friends of the Earth is calling for stronger pollution caps to protect the environmental and recreational value of the river for the benefit of local residents and visitors.

The challenge was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in an appeal from a November 2004 decision by the DC federal district court.

“The Anacostia River is so severely polluted that District residents are routinely warned by EPA to avoid fishing or swimming in it,” said Earthjustice attorney Howard Fox. “The Clean Water Act was enacted over 30 years ago to protect our waterways from harmful pollution. Three decades later, the Anacostia remains a heavily polluted waterway running through the heart of our capital.”

The Clean Water Act requires EPA to approve or establish total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for each relevant pollutant in a given waterway. These pollutant loads must be set at a level that cleans up the river so it meets water quality standards.

Earthjustice and Friends of the Earth allege that EPA’s approved TMDLs for biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids allow continued violations of water quality standards.

“EPA has fallen short of protecting water quality for the Anacostia River,” said Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder. “The residents of Washington, DC are being robbed of the opportunity to fully enjoy this beautiful river. The continued pollution of this jewel is an absolute shame.”

Pollution in the Anacostia River is caused by the discharge of sewage and storm water runoff into the river during and shortly after rainfall.

Much of the District is still served by an antiquated combined sewer system in which sewage from homes and businesses is combined with rainwater draining from streets. Even relatively light rainfall can exceed the capacity of the pipes, resulting in the discharge of raw sewage and storm water directly into the river.

In other parts of the District, separate storm sewers carry polluted stormwater from streets directly into the Anacostia.

EPA approved pollutant loads that average pollution levels over a long period of time - as much as a year, alleges Fox, even though the Clean Water Act clearly requires that TMDLs be set as “daily” loads.

Even short doses of the pollutants are capable of doing serious damage. “Fish die from short-term pollutant peaks - and murky, polluted water keeps people from enjoying the river even if it only occurs on some days,” said Fox.

“There is so much potential for this river to become a clean, beautiful waterway that can be enjoyed by all,” Fox said. “EPA needs to fulfill its responsibility to protect this river for those of us who live here and for future generations to come.”

Stressed Out Corals Will Get a Break From Dredging

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, August 31, 2005 (ENS) - For the first time researchers are measuring the stress level of coral organisms with a new high tech process. The test will measure the effect of a beach restoration project in Broward County, Florida on an adjacent coral reef.

The new stress measurement technique allows for identification of sub-lethal stress, providing managers with early diagnosis before damage becomes irreversible.

The approach is based on a coral stress level scale developed by researchers at the NOAA sponsored National Coral Reef Institute at Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center in Fort Lauderdale.

NOAA is working with Broward County to protect coral reef ecosystems against potential impacts of dredging as the county undertakes the beach restoration project.

The project involves movement of sand from local offshore sources on the beaches between Port Everglades and the border between Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

If coral stress levels due to excess turbidity or sedimentation during dredging activities exceed a pre-established threshold, the County’s Biological Monitoring Plan, as agreed to with Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, states that the county will suspend activities until coral condition improves and dredging can be safely resumed.

In order to determine stress levels, researchers from the National Coral Reef Institute rate corals in the field according to experimentally determined stress levels.

They also collect small tissue samples for lab examination at the cellular and sub-cellular level to accurately categorize the stress level and calibrate field observations.

The new technique could have worldwide applicability helping resource managers protect coral reef ecosystems from damage due to a variety of human activities.

“This project is an excellent example of NOAA’s dedication to transition research into practical applications,” said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. “NOAA’s support for the work on these important marine ecosystems directly assists the resource management community in making important decisions.”

“This monitoring program gives the County near real-time feedback regarding the effects of the beach nourishment project on corals,” says Stephen Higgins, Broward County’s beach erosion administrator. “As a result we are able to flexibly manage project operations to achieve maximum productivity with minimal impacts to resources.”

The National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) was established by Congressional mandate in 1998. NCRI's primary objective is the assessment, monitoring, and restoration of coral reefs through basic and applied research and through training and education.

Purdue Scientists Find Key to Hydrogen Production

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, August 31, 2005 (ENS) - A novel technique for producing hydrogen from water and organic material that could help speed the creation of safe and inexpensive hydrogen production and storage technology has been discovered at Purdue University.

Hydrogen is the most plentiful element on Earth and, once isolated, is a clean burning fuel that produces neither greenhouse gases nor toxic emissions. Hydrogen fuel cells are viewed as a potential replacement for internal combustion engines in automobiles.

The new method of producing hydrogen has not yet been evaluated for economic feasibility on a large scale, but chemist Mahdi Abu-Omar says it could offer solutions to several problems facing fuel cell developers.

The technique requires only water, a catalyst based on the metal rhenium (REE-nee-um) and an organic liquid called an organosilane, which can be stored and transported easily.

"We have discovered a catalyst that can produce ready quantities of hydrogen without the need for extreme cold temperatures or high pressures, which are often required in other production and storage methods," said Abu-Omar, an associate professor of chemistry in Purdue's College of Science.

"It is possible that this technique could lead to fuel cells that are safe, efficient and not dependent on fossil fuels as their energy source," he said.

Abu-Omar's research team, which includes Purdue's Elon Ison and Rex Corbin, published their findings today in the Journal of the "American Chemical Society."

Because hydrogen can be used for electricity production, transportation and other energy needs, many see a changeover to a hydrogen economy from the current petroleum based economy as the solution to global energy problems.

But before hydrogen can be used as fuel, it must be extracted from other substances that are often fossil fuels, and then stored safely in sufficient quantities. If these problems can be solved, hydrogen-powered generators, known as fuel cells, might replace internal combustion engines everywhere from electrical plants to cars.

Abu-Omar and his colleagues were not concentrating on these problems when they began studying organosilanes, a group of organic molecules that have been slightly modified in the laboratory.

"Initially, we were concerned with finding useful catalysts to convert these silicon-based fluids into silanols, another type of substance that is valuable in the chemical industry," he said. "It's the sort of work chemists do all the time, and it's usually of interest only to other chemists. But sometimes the byproducts of conversions are as interesting as what you wanted in the first place."

Abu-Omar's team took a compound based on rhenium, a rare metal found while mining copper, and added it to the organosilane in the presence of water. Over the course of an hour, the organosilane changed completely into silanol, leaving the water and rhenium catalyst unchanged. But the team also noticed there was a gas bubbling from the mixture.

"It turned out to be pure hydrogen," Abu-Omar said. "The reaction is not only efficient at creating silanol, but it also generates hydrogen at a high rate in proportion to the amount of water."

The team estimates that about seven gallons each of water and organosilane could combine to produce 6.5 pounds of hydrogen, which could power a car for approximately 240 miles.

"The big question is, of course, whether it would be economically viable to create organosilane fuels in the quantities necessary to power a world full of cars," Abu-Omar said. "As of right now, there simply isn't enough demand to make more than small volumes of this liquid, and while it's a relatively easy process, it's not dirt cheap either."

"I think the big point here is that hydrogen can be produced from water and a form of organic matter," he said. "If this rhenium-based catalyst can do the trick on organosilanes, perhaps we can find other catalysts that can generate hydrogen from garbage, or from biomass left over from the harvest."