• Snowmelt in Eastern North America Earlier Than Last Century
  
• Tibetan Antelope Placed on U.S. Endangered Species List
  
• Exelon to Remove Tritium From Illinois Groundwater
  
• Fetal Arsenic Exposure Linked to Lung Disease
  
• Bi-Partisan Bill to Curb Global Warming Introduced in House
  
• Pennsylvania Power Plant to Install Cooling Towers
  
• U.S., Mexico Collaborate on Capture, Reuse of Methane Gas
  

Snowmelt in Eastern North America Earlier Than Last Century

Tibetan Antelope Placed on U.S. Endangered Species List

The listing, published in Thursday's Federal Register, takes effect April 28, 2006.

The Tibetan antelope's range covers 50,000 square miles of rugged terrain with elevations over 13,000 feet, making anti-poaching efforts difficult, said the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a Massachusetts-based group that welcomed the U.S. decision. Tibetan antelope wool is smuggled through Nepal into Kashmir, where it is woven into shahtoosh shawls and sold internationally.

"Tibetan antelope are being driven to extinction for fashion products that no one needs, said IFAW Asia Regional Director Grace Gabriel. "The Endangered Species Act listing provides U.S. law enforcement agencies with additional power to prosecute criminals involved in illegal trade of this highly endangered species."

The species has been listed since 1975 under the CITES treaty to which the United States and 168 other countries are signatories. Since 1979, the Tibetan antelope has received the highest level of protection from CITES, which means that the species, including its parts and products, is prohibited from international trade for commercial purposes.

Although CITES prohibits the importation of Tibetan antelope and its products into the United States for commercial purposes, a black market persists, particularly in shahtoosh shawls.

Shahtoosh, "the king of wools," is made from the fine underlayer of hair that is removed from the animals after they are killed. Shahtoosh shawls sell for thousands of dollars and are considered fashion status symbols. A single shahtoosh shawl can sell for more than US$15,000.

“With today’s listing, the United States has made a real commitment to helping ensure the future of this beautiful species,” said Dr. George Schaller of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “We commend the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its decision to provide even more protection to the Tibetan antelope through the Endangered Species Act, one of this country’s most important environmental laws.”

Working with Chinese biologists, Dr. Schaller was the first western scientists to document the biology of the chiru, which lives in the isolated Tibetan plateau in China.

An upcoming National Geographic film will chronicle the plight of the chiru, and the extraordinary enforcement efforts undertaken by China to help eliminate poaching. The film premieres in New York and Washington next month.

"As a mascot of the 2008 Olympics the world's attention is on the chiru," Dr. Schaller said. "With that, and its full protection, the vast herds of the past could once again roam the Tibetan uplands."

The antelope is endemic to the Tibetan Plateau of China, India and Nepal and has suffered a dramatic population decline in the past 30 years attributed to poaching for the wool.

China and India have endorsed the latest U.S. action, which reinforces CITES protections by prohibiting interstate and foreign commerce of the Tibetan antelope and its products, in addition to import and export.

Exelon to Remove Tritium From Illinois Groundwater

For more information from Exelon, visit: www.braidwoodtritium.info or call the hotline, 815-458-7000.

Visit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at: http://www.nrc.gov

To read the ENS article "Illinois Sues Exelon for Radioactive Tritium Releases Since 1996" click here.

Fetal Arsenic Exposure Linked to Lung Disease

The risk of dying due to bronchiectasis, usually a rare lung disease, is 46 times higher than normal if the child's mother also drank water contaminated with arsenic while pregnant, according to the study.

These findings provide some of the first human evidence that fetal or early childhood exposure to any toxic substance can result in increased disease rates in adults.

"The extraordinary risk we found for in utero and early childhood exposure is a new scientific finding," says the study's lead author, Allan Smith, professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health.

Classified as a semi-metal, the element arsenic is one of the most potent cancer causing agents known. Skin, bladder and lung cancer rates are substantially higher in regions where the tasteless, colorless substance occurs in drinking water.

A recent study by Smith showed that adults exposed to arsenic can also develop decreased lung function similar to that experienced by cigarette smokers.

And, in a paper to be published on April 1 in the "American Journal of Epidemiology," Smith and his colleagues provide evidence that women exposed to high concentrations of arsenic during pregnancy experience six-fold increases in stillbirths and other adverse effects.

Arsenic is prevalent in Region II, a province in the north of Chile and one of the driest places on Earth. In 1958, the Region II cities of Antofagasta and neighboring Mejillones tapped into arsenic laden rivers to supply their growing populations with water.

For the next 13 years, until an arsenic removal plant was installed, the water supply for all residents in the two cities was laced with an average of 860 micrograms per liter of arsenic. A microgram is a millionth of a gram.

In contrast, the standard for arsenic in drinking water in the United States was recently dropped from 50 micrograms per liter to 10 micrograms per liter, with compliance required in 2006.

Working with colleagues Guillermo Marshall and Catterina Ferreccio from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Smith compared the death rates from 1989 to 2000 of young adults in the two cities with the rates in the rest of Chile, outside of Region II.

The team focused on two groups: those born between 1951 and 1958, when the water supply to the cities had relatively low arsenic concentrations, and those born during the high-exposure period of 1958 to 1971.

Both groups were exposed to high levels of arsenic throughout some or most of their childhoods, but the second group would also have been exposed while in the womb. Exposure for both groups would have declined when the arsenic removal plant went online.

The researchers found that for people exposed to arsenic only as children, the death rate from lung cancer was seven times greater than in the rest of Chile, while the death rate from bronchiectasis was 12 times greater.

For those with both early childhood and in utero exposure, the death rate from lung cancer was six times greater than that in the rest of Chile, and the death rate from bronchiectasis was 46 times greater.

"In all my career, these are the most amazing findings I've confronted so far," Smith says. "Not only are these the highest death rates for lung cancer and bronchiectasis ever discovered among young adults, but they are also the strongest evidence I know of to date that implicates not just arsenic, but any environmental exposure in utero or in early childhood to any adverse health effect in adults."

The study will appear in the July print issue of "Environmental Health Perspectives," a monthly journal of peer-reviewed research published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The paper, "Increased Mortality from Lung Cancer and Bronchiectasis in Young Adults Following Exposure to Arsenic In Utero and Early Childhood," is now online at: http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/8832/abstract.html

Bi-Partisan Bill to Curb Global Warming Introduced in House

WASHINGTON, DC, March 30, 2006 (ENS) - U.S. Congressmen Tom Petri, a Wisconsin Republican, and Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, introduced the "Keep America Competitive Global Warming Policy Act of 2006," on Tuesday in an effort to put the United States on the road toward curbing global warming.

Udall and Petri say that it is time for America to take steps to address global warming. "Our bill is modest, certain and efficient," the Congressmen said. "It begins to slow the growth of greenhouse gases, but minimizes the negative impacts to the U.S. economy."

This legislation is the first comprehensive economy-wide, cap and trade global warming bill to include a prospective baseline, a safety valve, and to protect U.S. competitiveness in case developing countries do not take comparable actions to curb global warming emissions.

"The continuing absence of a meaningful, mandatory policy in the United States is a significant impediment to a global consensus to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. By introducing this bill, we are working to fill that void and encourage lawmakers to take the first step toward responding to the increasingly urgent signs of global warming," Udall and Petri said.

The Congressmen say their legislation will spur innovation and keep America as a leader in global technology. "Having a policy to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of first stabilizing and then ultimately reducing emissions would be a major and positive step forward."

The bill sets a prospective baseline for greenhouse gas allowances. This would base the number of allowances at the outset of the program on the level of emissions three years following the enactment of the legislation. By being prospective, it gives the regulated industries the ability to plan ahead and not prematurely retire capital stock.

The Udall-Petri legislation includes a policy device known as a safety valve. The safety valve, initially set at $25 per ton of carbon, puts a ceiling on the price of an allowance in order to prevent an economically devastating price run-up. The legislation also allocates allowances to help make whole any industries and individuals who are adversely impacted by the legislation.

Udall and Petri say their bill protects U.S. competitiveness by tying future increases in the price of the safety valve allowances to the emissions-reducing actions of developing countries. Under the bill, only after the President and Secretary of State certify that developing countries are making comparative greenhouse gas reductions does the safety valve price increase beyond inflation.

The bill also allocates allowances to promote an advanced research and development program for technologies that will help curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"The solution to global warming rests on the development and implementation of low and no-carbon technologies. This legislation promotes the development of these technologies," the Congressmen said. The bill would be revenue neutral to the U.S. Treasury.

Pennsylvania Power Plant to Install Cooling Towers

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, March 30, 2006 (ENS) - Three years of negotiation between the state of Pennsylvania and Allentown-based PPL Brunner Island LLC have ended as the company has agreed to install cooling towers to address high temperature discharges into the Susquehanna River from its electric generation facility in East Manchester Township, York County.

The company agreed Thursday to the installation of the cooling towers, estimated to cost $120 million, as an alternative to facing possible enforcement action by the state department of Environment Protection (DEP) aimed at ending violations of the state Clean Streams Law.

The resolution addresses the effects of high temperature cooling water discharge on aquatic life in the river. The violations of state law and the federal Clean Water Act had caused several large fish kills and impairment of fish habitat.

PPL also will pay $183,386 for nutrient and sediment reduction projects in the Lower Susquehanna watershed.

“This is a significant victory for the health of the Susquehanna River in York County,” said DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty.

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture), along with Michael Helfrich, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper; Robert Clouser, owner of Clouser’s Fly Shop in Royalton, and the Susquehanna Smallmouth Bass Alliance praised the settlement reached by the state and the company.

The agreement comes after PennFuture filed a notice of intent to sue to force cleanup at the plant on behalf of PennFuture’s members, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Clouser and the Smallmouth Alliance.

“This historic agreement is a national model for stopping thermal water pollution from older power plants. Other power generators and regulators should follow the lead of PPL and DEP to clean up the U.S. fleet of aging power plants,” said Kurt Weist, senior attorney for PennFuture.

The Brunner Island Steam Electric Station was constructed in the 1960s and consists of three coal-fired generation units with a total capacity of 1,495 megawatts. The facility draws water from the Susquehanna River at a design rate of 795 million gallons per day. Following steam condensation, the water is discharged back into the river at a downstream location.

DEP granted a variance to PPL in 1981 that allowed the company to discharge more heat to the river than would be allowed under state water quality standards. The department historically has granted “thermal variances” based on demonstrations that exceeding water quality standards will still provide for a balanced, indigenous aquatic life community in the receiving body of water.

In 2002, the DEP issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to PPL that required further studies to confirm that the variance granted to the company in 1981 should be continued.

PPL conducted the studies in 2002 through 2005. River flows during the summers of 2002 and 2005 were lower than at any previous time during the review of the original thermal variance. This provided the department with an opportunity to evaluate PPL’s discharge at low flow conditions.

The results indicated that adverse impact has occurred to aquatic life along some three miles the river’s western shore. At that time, DEP began discussions with PPL to modify the thermal variance in its NPDES permit.

PPL has agreed to install mechanical draft-cooling towers to treat all of the once-through cooling water during the period of March 1 through November 30. The cooling system will be designed to remove a minimum of 55 percent of the heat during worst case, high humidity summertime conditions.

PPL’s civil penalty will be used for nutrient and sediment reduction projects in the Lower Susquehanna watershed. At the request of PennFuture and its clients, PPL will pay the fines assessed by DEP directly to the Lancaster and York County Conservation Districts for measures to protect streams in the lower Susquehanna watershed.

The projects will help to finance state efforts to meet federally established goals for nutrient and sediment reduction to remove the Chesapeake Bay from the U.S. Clean Water Act’s list of impaired waters by 2010.

The DEP will review and approve PPL’s final design of the cooling system through a Water Quality Management permit. Construction of the system must be completed by December 31, 2009, or two years from issuance of the permit.

The thermal variance will be modified to allow for temperatures in excess of water quality standards in the winter and be subject to additional verification studies to ensure protection of aquatic life.

U.S., Mexico Collaborate on Capture, Reuse of Methane Gas

On Friday, U.S. and Mexican officials signed a letter of cooperation to advance the capture and beneficial use of methane, the second most prevalent greenhouse gas.

The letter was signed by U.S. EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Acting Administrator Frederick Schieck was well as Mexico's Undersecretary of Environment Jose Ramón Ardavin.

Under the terms of this agreement, the national agencies will work with local governments and the private sector to share and expand the use of technologies to recover and use methane gas that is currently released from natural gas and oil systems, landfills, underground coal mines, and agricultural operations.

"EPA is looking forward to working closely with our colleagues in Mexico and USAID to reduce methane emissions and bring clean energy to markets," said Peacock. "This work will help us realize our joint commitments under Methane to Markets and meet our shared goals of reducing global methane emissions while enhancing economic growth, promoting energy security, and improving the environment."

Schieck announced that USAID will provide $800,000 for initiative programs in Mexico. "USAID is committed to working with EPA and the Government of Mexico to promote and find productive uses for renewable energy."

"USAID is providing this aid in continued support for environmental protection and economic growth in Mexico to assure Methane to Markets Partnership success," said Schieck.

The projects will be developed under EPA's Methane to Markets Partnership, a U.S. led Presidential initiative. The United States and Mexico are two of the 17 countries currently participating in the partnership, launched in November 2004 to advance cost effective, near term methane recovery and use as a source of clean energy.

Methane is a clean burning fuel that is the main component of natural gas. The U.S. government is committing up to $53 million over the next five years to support the Methane to Markets Partnership.