• Chesapeake Cleanup Stalled for Lack of Funds
  
• Judge Strikes Down Species Permit Policy
  
• Park Service Issues Yellowstone Snowmobile Decision
  
• Congress Sets Conditions for Aerial Fumigation in Colombia
  
• U.S. Dismantles Last Nuclear Artillery Shell
  
• New Jersey Rolls Out Mercury Emissions Plan
  
• Frog Deformities Could Be Sign of Emerging Disease
  
• Bacteria With an Appetite for Radioactive Metal
  
• Conservationists Warn of Mercury Impact on Loons
  

Chesapeake Cleanup Stalled for Lack of Funds

The governors of Maryland and Virginia pledged to develop a plan to make restoration of the bay a national priority and called for a federal state partnership along the lines of the one created to restore Florida's Everglades.

"We are going to launch an effort to raise the Chesapeake Bay issue to one of national importance," said Virginia Governor Mark Warner.

But the pledge feels far too familiar for many environmentalists, who believe the council again sidestepped clear measures to accelerate restoration of the troubled ecosystem.

The council failed to take a single action to reduce nitrogen pollution from agriculture or sewage treatment plants, the two largest sources of nitrogen pollution that plagues the Chesapeake Bay.

"The politics of postponement have once again prevailed," said William Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "The Chesapeake Bay is in critical condition, and the best our leaders could do is to agree to work together to gain more federal funding."

Federal funding is important, Baker said, but "the need for it is not new and states' request for it is certainly not unprecedented."

Baker says leadership to require actions to reduce nitrogen pollution is the most pressing need.

"The continued lack of leadership from our states' elected officials call into question their ability to meet the goal they set of a restored Chesapeake Bay by 2010," he said.

Baker's organization and others had hoped the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council would set enforceable limits and timetables on reducing nitrogen pollution from sewage treatment plants as a first step to make real progress in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

And nitrogen has become a symbol of a restoration effort behind schedule - some 300 million pounds of nitrogen flow into the bay every year, causing algae overgrowth that kills fish and harms bay grasses, which are vital habitat for crabs and small fish. It is estimated that in the early 1600s, the bay absorbed some 50 million pounds of nitrogen annually.

Dead zones - areas of the Chesapeake Bay starved of oxygen because of nitrogen pollution - have reached record levels this year.

At one point in 2003 the dead zone covered 40 percent of the Chesapeake's main stem and stretched 150 miles.

Nitrogen enters the Chesapeake comes from four major sources: agricultural run off, air pollution, urban runoff and sewage wastewater.

Wastewater from sewage treatment plants, which contributes some 60 million pounds of nitrogen to the Bay each year, is the most tempting target for regulators because it is easy to identify and control.

More than two thirds of sewage treatment plants that discharge wastewater into the Chesapeake Bay do not use any technologies to remove nitrogen pollution.

Last week the Chesapeake Bay Foundation petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to demand that water discharge permits for sewage treatment plants and industrial facilities within the Bay's watershed include adequate, enforceable effluent limits on nitrogen pollution.

"Although we are discouraged, our resolve is steadfast," Baker said. "We will keep the pressure on. The legislative sessions are on the horizon in Maryland and Virginia, and we will be ready."

Judge Strikes Down Species Take Permit Policy

The process by which the Clinton administration adopted the rules violated federal law to the detriment of endangered species, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in his 47 page ruling.

"The public has consistently been denied the opportunity, absent a court order, to be notified of substantive changes to regulations enforcing the [Endangered Species Act], and to weigh in on decisions likely to have significant effects on public resources," Sullivan wrote in the ruling released Thursday.

The permits in question - called incidental take permits - are available to landowners and developers who agree to mitigate impacts to listed species on private lands under the guidance of a Habitat Conservation Plan.

In 1994, the Clinton administration - through the Commerce and Interior Departments - issued a rule outlining a policy called "No Surprises." The policy intended to give developers, land owners, timber companies and other permit holders certainty that the terms of habitat conservation plans, once granted, would not be revised.

Environmentalists argue the ESA is supposed to provide assurances to endangered species - not developers and other permit holders.

In 1996 environmental groups filed a legal challenge against the policy on the grounds that it violated the ESA and that the Clinton administration had failed to follow the public rulemaking process.

In 1999 - as the litigation was still pending - the Clinton administration announced the Permit Revocation Rule (PRR) to outline how the process for revoking permits under the No Surprises policy.

The plaintiffs argued that the PRR also undermined the ESA and was a substantial revision to the ESA subject to an open and public rulemaking process.

Sullivan ruled in favor of the plaintiffs' procedural challenges to the PRR and determined that "resolution of those claims effectively disposes of the entire case."

Sullivan also ordered the government to reconsider its entire approach to the No Surprises issue, after fully taking into account public comment on all of the pertinent regulations.

"This ruling is a huge victory for imperiled animals and plants, as well as the public's basic right to have a say in how public resources are managed," said Leeona Klippstein, executive director of the California based conservation group Spirit of the Sage Council, the lead plaintiff in the case.

How the Bush administration will deal with the court decision remains to be seen. In October - after Judge Sullivan award summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs - the Fish and Wildlife Service suspended approval of Habitat Conservation Plans.

Some 400 Habitat Conservation Plans are in place, covering more than 500 species and some 38 million acres.

Park Service Issues Yellowstone Snowmobile Decision

The rule sets daily limits for the number of snowmobiles allowed in the parks, bans most old, two stroke snowmobiles in favor of quieter and less polluting models, and requires most snowmobile users to travel with guides in order to protect wildlife.

The rule calls for a daily limit of 1,190 snowmobiles - 950 in Yellowstone and 190 in Grand Teton and the parkway that connects the two parks.

Snowmobile manufacturers say the limits go too far and believe the proposal is based on overestimates of snowmobile emission and sound levels.

The Bush administration's policy has also drawn the ire of environmentalists and animal rights groups, who supported a proposal by the Clinton administration to ban snowmobile use in Yellowstone and have filed suit to block the Bush plan.

The final rule will become effective December 17, 2003 - the start of the winter recreation season in the parks - but could be halted by a federal judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan will hear oral arguments on the case Monday and has said he will issue a ruling before the winter snowmobile season begins.

The legal challenge has been filed by animal rights and environmental groups, who believe the Bush administration's regulations to allow snowmobiles violates the law and a prior settlement in another case.

Critics say the plan fails to consider the agency's findings on the effects of snowmobile use and to evaluate the environmental impact on the park wildlife - a violation of its 1997 settlement with The Fund For Animals.

Over the past decade the Park Service has studied the impacts of snowmobile use on park wildlife, air quality, human health and visitor experience. The agency's research, which included 375 scientific studies and 22 public hearings, revealed that snowmobile use was negatively affecting each of these factors.

Studies by the Park Service's Air Resource Division have found that snowmobiles contribute up to 68 percent of the park's annual carbon monoxide emissions, and up to 90 percent of its hydrocarbon pollution.

Recent studies by the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration, the federal government agency charged with safeguarding the health of American workers, found that Yellowstone employees were exposed to dangerous levels of noise, carbon monoxide and benzene.

In the past few winters, the government provided Park Service employees with respirators and earplugs to safeguard against the pollution and noise of the snowmobiles.

The lawsuit would allow road packing and oversnow motorized winter use to continue in Grand Teton National Park, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, and from the south entrance of Yellowstone to Old Faithful. The road between Mammoth and Cooke City traversing the Lamar Valley would also remain open to public use.

The suit also asks the court to force the government to respond to a 1999 petition submitted by the Bluewater Network asking that snowmobiling be banned in all national parks.

Congress Sets Conditions for Aerial Fumigation in Colombia

The funds are part of the "Plan Colombia" drug eradication program, which is part of the Andean Counterdrug Initiative - a key element of the U.S. "War on Drugs" in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The provision in the U.S. State Department's fiscal year 2004 budget conditions funding for such spraying on compliance with Colombian law and a determination by the State Department that "there are no effective alternatives to reduce drug cultivation in these areas."

The policy of using aerial spraying to eradicate illicit crops poses significant threats to human health and the environment, says Astrid Puentes, legal director for the non profit environmental law firm AIDA, but the conditions imposed by Congress are a step in the right direction.

Yet Puentes stressed that to truly protect the environment in Colombia "we must ensure that the eradication forces begin complying with Colombian laws and stop trying to weaken them."

As in previous years, the Congress required that in 2004 the State Department certify that: the use of these herbicides in Colombia does not pose unreasonable risks or adverse effects to humans or the environment; the eradication program complies with the Colombian Environmental Management Plan; and the governments investigate and fairly compensate meritorious complaints about health harms and the destruction of legal crops.

But for the first time, however, the Congress also referred to and conditioned the spraying of national parks and reserves.

In 2001, Colombia's environmental authorities specifically excluded national parks and natural reserves from the regions that are subject to aerial herbicide spraying - opting instead for manual or mechanical means be used to destroy coca and poppy crops in these areas.

The authorities also prohibited the spraying of significant buffer areas surrounding the parks to avoid harms from spray drift or accidental spraying.

These special protections are in line with the Colombian Constitution and environmental laws that establish special protections for these environmentally sensitive areas.

These conditions show that spraying in these areas is clearly illegal, environmentalists say, but it has happened in Colombia's national parks thanks to U.S. funding.

In June 2003, the Colombian National Council on Narcotics attempted to legalize such spraying. This action is being contested in Colombian courts for violating the Constitution and other laws.

"As the U.S. Congress has now recognized for the national parks, spraying should be the last recourse, but unfortunately it is the only one that has been systematically implemented until now," said Anna Cederstav, a scientist with AIDA. "A policy that creates no viable economic alternatives for farmers simply perpetuates the cycle of farmers cutting forests to plant coca and the government spraying herbicides to destroy the fields."

U.S. Dismantles Last Nuclear Artillery Shell

The agency has now completed the elimination from the U.S. arsenal a type of battlefield nuclear weapon that comprised a key element of America's Cold War arsenal.

"Eliminating the last nuclear artillery warhead marks the end of an era in U.S. defense policy that included ground launched battlefield nuclear weapons," said NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks.

The United States introduced artillery fired atomic weapons in its defense arsenal in 1957. Six types were deployed over the years - the final shell dismantled this year was a W-79, a shell designed to be fired from an eight inch artillery piece.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced his decision to retire artillery fired atomic weapons in the U.S. stockpile - the decision was made unilaterally, apart from any arms control agreement with the former Soviet Union.

U.S. Secretary Spencer Abraham praised the dismantling of the weapons and said the administration of President George W. Bush is "committed to reducing the threat of nuclear weapons worldwide."

But critics say the Bush administration's policies are increasing the threat. The White House requested, and received from Congress, funding to research new types of nuclear weapons and the lifting of a decade old ban on researching new low yield nuclear weapons.

Congress has also approved a Bush administration request to shorten the time required to prepare for a full scale nuclear test from 24 months to 18 months.

The administration received $7.5 million for research into nuclear "bunker buster" weapons and $6 million for low yield nuclear weapons less than five kilotons.

The Bush administration says research into these new nuclear weapons will make the nation's nuclear arsenal into a more effective deterrent, because these kinds of weapons could reduce the potential for causing civilian casualties and could improve the effectiveness of nuclear weapons in destroying deeply buried and hardened targets.

But critics are concerned that the Bush administration's plan blurs the line between the use of nuclear and conventional weapons and could undermine the international effort to contain the world's development of nuclear weapons.

The United States has more than 10,000 nuclear weapons.

New Jersey Rolls Out Mercury Emissions Plan

The rules aim to reduce mercury contamination in water and fish that poses a serious public health risk for New Jersey's communities, said New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley Campbell.

"New Jersey's largest sources of mercury air pollution must use today's technology wherever possible to protect our children and families from the harm that exposure to mercury causes," Campbell said. "These rules will reduce annual emissions of mercury by up to 1,500 pounds statewide."

Airborne mercury falls into surface waters where it can accumulate in streams and oceans. Bacteria in the water transform mercury into methylmercury, which fish absorb when they eat aquatic organisms and humans absorb when they eat fish.

Scientists have shown that methylmercury can cause brain and nerve damage and studies indicate children and women of childbearing age are at a disproportionate risk.

The proposed regulations call for up to a 90 percent reduction of mercury emissions from New Jersey's 10 coal fired power plants by 2007. The rules allow for some flexibility, giving plants the option of meeting the standards by 2012 if they also make major reductions in their emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulates.

The new regulations also mandate a reduction of mercury emissions from the state's six iron and steel melters by 75 percent by 2009 and calls for a further reduction of mercury emissions from New Jersey's five municipal solid waste incinerators of at least 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2011.

The proposal comes in the wake of the Bush administration's controversial decision to use an emissions trading program as the basis for federal regulations to reduce mercury emissions from coal fired power plants.

There are currently no regulations to limit mercury emissions from coal fired power plants, which currently emit some 48 tons of mercury each year and are the nation's largest source of new mercury emissions, contributing some 40 percent of the U.S. total.

"Now that the Bush administration has chosen to neglect the environmental harms caused by mercury, New Jersey yet again must shoulder the responsibility of protecting public health," Campbell said. "If New Jersey's rules were enacted nationally, annual mercury emissions from coal fired power plants alone would decline from approximately 48 tons to about five tons."

New Jersey joins several other states who have moved to curb mercury emissions. In 2003, Connecticut became the first state in the country to regulate mercury pollution from coal fired power plants, approving regulations to cut these emissions by 86 percent. Other states including Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire have proposed or are considering new tightened standards.

Frog Deformities Could Be Sign of Emerging Disease

The research, described in the December issue of "Conservation Biology," shows that while amphibian malformations and the parasitic worm that causes them have been found in lakes and ponds for more than 50 years, they have substantially increased in their abundance during this period.

Sightings of deformed frogs may be more common today, but they have been reported by scientists, as well as the public, since as early as the 1940s, says Pieter Johnson, a University of Wisconsin at Madison graduate student in zoology and lead author of the recent paper.

To date, severely malformed frogs, toads and salamanders have been found among 60 different species in nearly all U.S. states, as well as parts of Canada, Japan and several European countries.

Researchers have investigated everything from ultraviolet radiation to chemical contaminants to trematodes - parasitic flatworms that burrow into the hind legs of tadpoles.

Knowledge of the connection between parasites and deformities came in the early 1990s and coincided with frequent reports of frogs with missing or extra limbs.

The timing, Johnson says, led some scientists to question whether what they were observing resulted from some new phenomenon, or something that had always been present in the environment.

Both field and lab studies show that the more abundant the parasite, the more frequent and severe the malformations, Johnson said.

To determine how "new" the deformities caused by trematodes were, Johnson and his colleagues studied historic records to determine if the parasitic worm was involved in the deformities reported decades ago. They focused on reports from 1946 to 1988 that described findings from nine historical "hot spots" in California, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio and Texas.

Johnson reports by and large, the majority of historical specimens had deformities in the hind legs, similar to what is observed today.

Nine specimens from one site, for example, had 40 extra hind limbs. The researchers also found that the parasitic flatworms had infected specimens from six of the historical sites, suggesting that amphibian malformations caused by trematodes have occurred since the 1940s.

The finding of greatest significance, Johnson says, is in the increase in the number of lakes and ponds that support deformed frogs during this period.

While fewer than one dozen of these sites are known from before 1990, Johnson says he and his colleagues have discovered more than 50 hot spots for amphibian malformations during the last seven years.

Based on this evidence, Johnson and his collaborators classify the frog and other amphibian deformities as an emerging disease, one that has substantially increased in occurrence, distribution and severity during the last 30 years.

By understanding the history of this disease in amphibians, Johnson says researchers can begin to pinpoint ecological changes over the years that are driving the emergence of more and more deformities in frogs, toads and salamanders.

While some scientists are investigating changes in pollution or climate, Johnson is examining the role nutrient enrichment of water plays in promoting the trematode parasite and amphibian deformities.

"The ecological changes that drive disease emergence are often complex," he said, "but an understanding of such changes is critical toward preventing future epidemics in wildlife or in humans."

Bacteria With an Appetite for Radioactive Metal

In an article published in the December 12th issue of "Science" researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, report that the Geobacter species possesses the capability to convert uranium and other radionuclides dissolved into water in solids that can be extracted.

And its capability to transport electrons and "reduce" metal ions could be exploited as an energy source.

"The genome of this tiny microorganism may help us to address some of our most difficult cleanup problems and to generate power through biologically based energy sources," said U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

The project was in part funded by the Energy Department, which is keen to find new tools to deal with the groundwater contaminated with radionuclides and metals at former nuclear weapons production sites.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have previously found that the species can precipitate a wide range of radionuclides and metals - including uranium, technetium and chromium - from groundwater, preventing them from migrating to wells or rivers where they may pose a risk to humans and the environment.

The analysis of the genome sequence revealed a number of capacities that had not been previously suspected from past research on this microbe.

"We have provided a comprehensive picture that has led to fundamental changes in how scientists evaluate this microbe," said Barbara Methe, the TIGR researcher who led the genome project and is the first author of the paper. "Research based on genome data has shown that this microbe can sense and move towards metallic substances, and in some cases can survive in environments with oxygen."

Geobacter reduces metal ions in a chemical process during which electrons are added to the ions, explained coauthor Derek Lovley, a professor of microbiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"As a result, the metals become less soluble in water and precipitate into solids, which are more easily removed," Lovley said.

Small charges of electricity are also created through the reduction process, Lovley added, a characteristic that has the Energy Department interested in geobacter because of its potential to create an electrical current in a "bio-battery."

Conservationists Warn of Mercury Impact on Loons

The finding comes from researchers from the Bronx Zoo based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations who are conducting an ongoing study of common loons in the Adirondacks.

Scientists representing the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program (ACLP) - a partnership of WCS, the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks (NHMA), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, BioDiversity Research Institute (BRI), and the Audubon Society of New York, are concerned

The researchers say that data already shows that mercury pollution impacts loons in the Adirondacks and other areas, causing lower reproductive rates.

One recent sample of 100 Adirondack loons by BioDiversity Research Institute (BRI) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service revealed that 17 percent of the birds had mercury levels high enough to potentially affect their reproductive success and behavior.

"Models indicate that, partly due to mercury contamination, reproductive rates of loons may already be too low to maintain their populations in portions of Maine and eastern Canada," said Dr. David Evers, BRI's executive director and collaborator with the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program.

Mercury toxicity causes behavioral changes in loons, making them more lethargic, due to its neurotoxic effects. Adult birds incubate and feed their young less, while chicks feed less and ride on their parents' backs less, making them more susceptible to predation and chilling. Mercury levels in loons elevates as you go farther east in North America, due to prevailing winds from power plants in the Midwest, scientists believe.

Coal fired power plants currently emit some 48 tons of mercury each year and are the nation's largest source of new mercury emissions, contributing some 40 percent of the U.S. total.

There are currently no regulations to limit mercury emissions from coal fired power plants and the Bush administration has proposed a plan to reduce emission that is less aggressive than one proposed by the Clinton administration.

"We are very concerned that any increase in mercury emissions could spell further trouble for loons in the Adirondack Park and elsewhere in the Northeast," said Dr. Nina Schoch, coordinator for the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program. "Loons are already suffering from mercury pollution here and in other locations. More mercury will mean greater impacts on northeastern loon populations and their habitats."