• Bush Urges Senate to Vote on Estrada
  
• Toxic Spill Prompts $3.8 Million Settlement
  
• 57 Million More Americans Expected by 2050
  
• Hydroelectric Licensing Process Streamlined
  
• Program Looks at Future Impacts of Today's Decisions
  
• $500,000 Grant Supports Missouri River Research
  
• Illegal Tortugas Shrimper Fined $20,000
  
• Lancaster, PA Gets Lead Awareness Grant
  

Bush Urges Senate to Vote on Estrada

"I nominated Miguel Estrada for the Court of Appeals because he's a man of talent and character who will be an excellent judge," Bush said. "Yet after 21 months, he still cannot get an up or down vote from the Senate."

Estrada would be the first Hispanic judge to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - considered the second most important court in the nation, particularly regarding conservation laws. Estrada was first nominated by President Bush in May 2001, when Democrats controlled the Senate, but after one hearing, the Senate failed to come to a vote on the nominee.

With Republicans now controlling the Senate and all its committees, Estrada's nomination passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on a narrow, 10-9 vote, split along party lines. However, the full Senate has been blocked from voting on the nomination by Democrats who say not enough is known about Estrada's views on important issues.

Estrada has no previous judicial experience, and has refused to comment on his record or views. The Department of Justice, which employed Estrada from 1992 to 1997, has also declined to release any information about him. Such materials were made available for previous judicial nominees such as Robert Bork, William Rehnquist, Frank Easterbrook and Stephen Trott.

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, responded to Bush's radio address, arguing that "President Bush is asking for something no president of either party should ask for. He is asking the Senate to vote without having straightforward answers from a nominee for a lifetime judgeship."

Bringing Estrada's nomination to a vote without more information "would set a dangerous precedent that would lessen the independence of the federal judiciary. When any nominee does not answer basic questions, the Senate clearly has a constitutional responsibility to ask for the answers," Leahy added.

Bush argued that "Democrats are stalling Miguel Estrada's nomination, while they search in vain for a reason to reject him," accusing the Senate's Democratic leadership of "playing politics." Leahy countered that Estrada "will not answer basic questions about his judicial philosophy, yet he is asking the Senate to confirm him to a lifetime job on the second highest court in the land."

"This court affects every single American in countless ways through its decisions on everything from clean air and water, to the rights of working men and women, to the voting and civil rights of all minorities," noted Leahy.

Estrada is opposed by a variety of conservation and public interest groups, including Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Feminist Majority, and Planned Parenthood.

Toxic Spill Prompts $3.8 Million Settlement

The agreement between the Department of Justice, the Commonwealth of Virginia and Certus Inc. would help address damage to the Clinch River and its native species by the spill.

On August 27, 1998, a tanker truck overturned in Tazewell County, Virginia and released more than 1,300 gallons of a toxic, liquid chemical product used in carpet manufacturing. The spill damaged the aquatic habitat along a six mile stretch of the Clinch River in southwestern Virginia and destroyed populations of three endangered species of freshwater mussels, as well as causing major injuries to fish, other aquatic life and other natural resources.

Certus has agreed to pay $3.7 million for the restoration of native, freshwater mussels injured by the spill and more than $90,000 to reimburse all remaining unpaid costs incurred in assessing the injuries caused by the spill. The recovered funds will finance a multi-year program to breed juvenile mussels in a laboratory setting for reintroduction into the impacted reaches of the Clinch River, to reestablish stable mussel populations in the affected areas of the river.

"This settlement will enable us to restore critically important populations of endangered freshwater mussels and other natural resources injured by this unfortunate incident," said Tom Sansonetti, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's environment and natural resources division. "We are pleased to have worked productively with both federal and state natural resource trustees to achieve this result."

The chemical spill from the tanker truck, which was being operated by an employee of Certus, damaged a particularly diverse stretch of the Clinch River. The impacted area provided habitat for mussels and, prior to the spill, was home to populations of more than a dozen species of native, freshwater mussels, including the endangered tan riffleshell, purple bean and rough rabbitsfoot mussel species.

The environmental agencies involved in the settlement said that the mussels' unique reproductive characteristics mean that laboratory propagation techniques will be critical to restoring the injured mussel species to stable population levels.

The settlement was reached by the Justice Department on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and the Virginia Office of the Attorney General on behalf of the Virginia Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality.

57 Million More Americans Expected by 2050

The Alliance estimates that the U.S. population will grow from 281 million in 2000 to 338 million by 2050, if current patterns of fertility, mortality, and migration remain as they are today. That is the core findings of a new demographic analysis released by the Alliance, titled "The Population of the United States: 2050."

The projections are provided by demographer Dr. Leon Bouvier, based on estimates of U.S. fertility, death rates and net migration provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Bouvier is a former vice president of the Population Reference Bureau, and has served as a demographic advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives on population and immigration policy.

Bouvier found that the estimates of annual immigration continue to climb, noting that a July 2002 estimate assumed immigration to be 3.279 million since April 1, 2000," or almost 1.5 million a year - far higher than previous Census Bureau estimates. The projections show that immigration rates, and the resultant increase in population pressures, will be a factor in whether sustainable environmental strategies have a chance to work in the United States.

The Alliance for Sustainable Environmental Strategies is a relatively new public interest group based in suburban Washington, DC, working for policies that minimize sprawl, promote sensible land use planning and lead to reduced growth rates in communities overwhelmed by population pressures.

"We are particularly interested in promoting the best tactics that communities have used to fend off the pressures from big developers and other special interests that seek to promote population increases and overbuilding for private financial gain," said Sharon McCloe Stein, executive director of the Alliance.

Stein said population pressures are feeding a "build at any cost" agenda among developers.

"The Alliance works to make people understand that the developers agenda begins with population pressures, and ends by making demands on local communities to accommodate more density and overbuilding," she said. "Our goal is to educate millions of Americans to the inter-relationships between underlying demographic dynamics and the driving force of today's political pressures to build."

Hydroelectric Licensing Process Streamlined

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has unveiled a plan that the agency says will result in a "more efficient and timely process while balancing stakeholder interests and improving the quality of decision making."

The proposal, referred to as the "integrated" process, would become the Commission's primary licensing process, with the existing alternative licensing process (ALP) and the traditional process remaining as options for applicants in certain situations.

FERC is responsible for issuing long term licenses for hydroelectric dams, licenses that remain effective for 30 to 50 years. The licensing or relicensing process is often the only chance that the public and other concerned parties have to raise concerns about the environmental impacts of such dams.

FERC says the benefits of the proposed rule include:

• increased assistance by Commission staff to the potential applicant and stakeholders during the development of a license application;
• greater coordination among the Commission and federal and state agencies with mandatory conditioning authority;
• the Commission's environmental scoping process to be carried out in conjunction with the applicant's pre-filing consultation;
• increased public participation in the pre-filing consultation process;
• establishing schedules and deadlines for all participants, including Commission staff;
• development of a Commission-approved study plan by the applicant, with informal resolution to study disagreements, followed by mandatory, binding study dispute resolution, if necessary; and
• elimination of the need for post-application study requests.

FERC's notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) also proposes to create a new position at the Commission of Tribal Liaison. This person would be the point of contact for Native Americans' concerns about any hydroelectric project.

The traditional licensing process would be modified by increasing public participation, FERC says, and by establishing mandatory, binding dispute resolution for any conflicts that arise.

Prior to issuing the NOPR, FERC staff held regional forums around the country to discuss potential a new licensing process. Drafting sessions were held in Washington, DC to discuss the comments received at the forums as well as develop draft regulatory language.

Next month, regional workshops will be held in Washington DC and around the country to discuss stakeholder concerns about the proposed rule. A four-day workshop in April in Washington has been scheduled to develop draft language for the final rule.

Details on these events can be found at: http://www.ferc.gov/hydro/docs/hydro_rule.htm

Program Looks at Future Impacts of Today's Decisions

If decision makers are not satisfied with the results the computer program produces, the EPA says they can use the web based system to compare the implications of other choices.

The new tool will be available to the public for the first time at the EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) conference in Philadelphia, scheduled to be held May 13 - May 15.

The computer program maps current conditions of forest productivity, air quality, groundwater quality, water quality, aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, human health, and fiscal health in the mid-Atlantic states. Based on the environmental decision proposed, the program can forecast the effects that could occur by altering resource extraction, land use, climate change, pollution and pollutants, invasive species, and human population.

The web based maps are created from monitoring data from many agencies incorporating the latest developments in remote sensing, landscape ecology, spatial modeling, and ecological risk assessment, to give the clearest projections possible.

However, this type of ecological forecasting is much like predicting weather. Short term forecasts are quite reliable in a small area, but longer term predictions are more difficult and require analysis from a broader geographic perspective.

The program is designed to create that broader perspective, to give decision makers realistic predictions.

Since most decisions for change are based on multiple criteria, the program allows the user to weigh criteria for what they see as most important. For example, if protecting a community's water supply is the top priority, users would weigh that priority over all others.

The program's tools map the projected results of the proposed land use change on water supply, and delineate the areas that would be effected. Planners and environmental decision makers can select other priorities and compare the economic, human health and environmental results of a decision.

This decision making tool is tailored for the mid-Atlantic region which comprises Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. But the EPA says it also has applications for the entire nation.

For more information about the ReVA conference, visit: http://www.reva-maia.org

$500,000 Grant Supports Missouri River Research

In 1999, the University of South Dakota established the Missouri River Institute to develop and promote scholarly research, education, and public awareness of the natural and cultural resources of the Missouri River basin.

The Missouri River flows for 2,500 miles, from Montana south to the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river's basin covers 524,200 square miles within 10 states.

Over the next three years, the grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will support the Institute's water quality monitoring and assessment of the 59 mile reach of the Missouri River from Gavins Point Dam to Ponca State Park in Nebraska, just north of Sioux City, Iowa. This reach was designated by Congress as the Missouri National Recreational River.

The EPA's grant will allow the Missouri River Institute to conduct a focused and much more intensive monitoring of the Missouri National Recreational River. Ongoing studies of the Missouri River, by nature of their large scale design, include collection of a limited number of samples from limited sampling sites.

In addition, the grant will help the Institute to develop academic programs on important environmental issues associated with the Missouri River basin, as well as an active public outreach program to promote awareness of the effects of water pollution on the resources of the Missouri River.

The Missouri River Institute will continue to offer the Annual Missouri River Research Symposium and the Missouri River Special Lecture Series to the University of South Dakota.

Illegal Tortugas Shrimper Fined $20,000

Christine Ho, owner of the Fishing Vessel Miss Christine V, and vessel captain Cu Nguyen, face a combined penalty in the incident. The Coast Guard vessel Nantucket cited the Miss Christine V on December 16, 2002, five days after Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers had cited the Miss Christine V for illegal shrimp trawling inside the Tortugas Shrimp Sanctuary.

The shrimp sanctuary was closed to shrimping through a cooperative agreement between the state of Florida and the Department of Commerce.

The Nantucket escorted the Miss Christine V to Key West, where its catch of 1,117 lbs. of pink shrimp was seized and sold by an agent from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The $1,733.38 proceeds from the sale remain in escrow pending settlement of the case.

"Once again, we thank the United States Coast Guard for helping to provide the effective enforcement that is critical to the success of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve," said sanctuary superintendent Billy Causey. "Law abiding commercial and recreational fishermen, who are by far the majority, deserve to know that those who violate the reserve's protections will pay the price."

The Tortugas Ecological Reserve, established in 2001, protects 151 square nautical miles of deep coral reefs and other essential habitat for fish and other marine life. The reserve is the largest of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's network of 24 "no-take" areas set aside to protect habitat and preserve the diversity of marine life in the coral reef ecosystem of the Florida Keys.

NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) seeks to increase the public awareness of America's maritime heritage by conducting scientific research, monitoring, exploration and educational programs. Today, 13 national marine sanctuaries encompass more than 18,000 square miles of America's ocean and Great Lakes natural and cultural resources.

The NMSP is now conducting a sanctuary designation process to incorporate the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve into the national sanctuary system.

Lancaster, PA Gets Lead Awareness Grant

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the grant last week during a ceremony at the Lancaster Daycare Center, located in the heart of Lancaster City. Children under the age of six will be the primary beneficiaries of the funding initiative.

"Lead poisoning affects people of all ages, but most severely affects young children under the age of six, whose primary source of exposure is deteriorated lead paint and lead dust in their homes," said Donald Welsh, EPA's mid-Atlantic regional administrator. "This grant will help raise awareness about the dangers of lead exposure."

Welsh presented the $130,000 check to Lancaster Mayor Charlie Smithgall to help the city explore successful techniques for screening and treating children for lead poisoning. The grant will also support public education and community outreach programs, lead paint assessment and abatement activities, and launch a healthy homes initiative.

Some of the funding will also go for training landlords, contractors and workers who renovate housing about lead safe work practices. If not conducted properly, certain types of renovations can release lead from paint and lead dust into the air.

Federal law requires that contractors provide lead information to residents before beginning remodeling or renovations that disturb painted surfaces, such as scraping off paint or tearing out walls. These activities create large amounts of lead dust.

"Lead poisoning is dangerous but the risk of lead poisoning can be reduced," Welsh said. "It can even be prevented. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proud to partner with the City of Lancaster to reduce this risk and to protect the health of all its residents, especially children."

For more information on lead poisoning awareness and prevention, visit: http://www.epa.gov/lead