• House Approves Nuclear Dump at Yucca Mountain
  
• Wisconsin to Hold Special Session on Wasting Disease
  
• Organic Foods Shown to Have Less Pesticide Residue
  
• California Conserves Power for Second No Blackout Summer
  
• Idaho National Lab Chosen for Wildland Fire Trials
  
• Groups to Sue Army Corps over Endangered Sturgeon
  
• Research Ships Investigate Southern Ocean Food Chain
  

House Approves Nuclear Dump at Yucca Mountain

"Nobody expected that we would win this vote in the House. In fact, almost everyone expected we would lose by a landslide, said Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a Democrat who like all Nevada elected officials is against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

"The House Republican leadership and the nuclear energy industry were hoping that they would be able to roll over the State of Nevada with at least 350 votes, and roll into the Senate with all the momentum of a nuclear freight train."

"Naturally it is disappointing to lose such an important vote by a large margin, but by garnering more than 100 votes, we were able to defy expectations, deny the nuclear industry the huge win that they wanted, and slow the momentum on the bill as it moves to the Senate," Berkley said.

A majority of the Democrats in the U.S. House voted against Yucca Mountain, and Nevada politicials hope that will be able to help Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, as he attempts to defeat the bill in the Senate.

The decision comes after Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, a Republican, vetoed the Bush administration's initial decision to move forward on siting a permanent high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Representing the view of the majority of House members, House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert of Illinois declared in January, "Speaking on behalf of the millions of electric utility customers from coast-to-coast, we've been tapped each and every month since 1983 for the federal government's Nuclear Waste Fund with little to show for it. Secretary [Spencer] Abraham's sound decision will finally enable us to take a necessary step forward and get something back on the billions of dollars invested over the years for our families, our environment and the future use of a safe and viable energy source."

"In Illinois alone - the state with the most nuclear energy - we've contributed nearly $2.4 billion over the last 18 years to the now $18 billion, and growing, Nuclear Waste Fund created to locate and build a safe storage site," he said.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) applauded the House vote. "After spending more than $6 billion to determine the safest and most secure site, the government has correctly concluded that it is safe to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain," CCAGW president Tom Schatz said. "In addition, keeping the waste at its current location at nuclear plants around the nation wastes taxpayer dollars."

Opponents of Yucca Mountain cite studies by international atomic energy experts that show the scientific underpinnings of the project are weak and incomplete.

Berkeley and the entire Nevada Congressional delegation warn that transporting 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste across 43 states is not safe. A video on Berkeley's website shows a U.S. Army test during which a small missile was able to pierce the type of cask that would be used to transport the waste by road and rail.

The Yucca Mountain battle now moves to the Senate which is expected to vote on the issue this summer.

Wisconsin Lawmakers to Hold Special Session on Wasting Disease

"We are faced with the most serious animal health crisis in our history. I have requested $18.5 million from the federal government to fight chronic wasting disease, and my administration is prepared to move quickly to implement an action plan." McCallum said.

"The white-tailed deer is an important part of Wisconsin's landscape and heritage. Deer are the favorite type of wildlife in Wisconsin - among both hunters and nonhunters," the governor said.

The legislative leadership agreed in principle yesterday to hold the special session that will develop a strategy to combat the disease.

Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Darrell Bazzell said the department is issuing special deer harvest permits starting yesterday to landowners to reduce the deer herd within a core area where chronic wasting disease has been documented in western Dane and eastern Iowa Counties.

The DNR is also asking landowners and hunters to join a voluntary ban on deer feeding and deer diet supplements in the area infected with CWD and adjacent management units. The extent of the CWD Core Management Area will be defined based on analysis of sampling results by a CWD Interagency Health and Science team.

"Getting a handle on, and appropriately managing, this animal health crisis is crucial. It is not a political issue; it is a cultural issue and a health issue. Therefore, it is my expectation that we can address this issue in a relatively short timeframe and then return to negotiations to pass a budget and get it on my desk immediately," Governor McCallum said.

Organic Foods Shown to Have Less Pesticide Residue

Organic foods are grown without most synthetic chemicals used in conventional farming. Consumers who buy organic do so to avoid dietary pesticides. But the issue has been controversial, with some conservative and media commentators claiming organic foods have just as many residues as other foods.

The paper published today is the first detailed analysis of pesticide residue data in foods grown organically as compared with those grown by conventional means now that enough good data have become available to do a rigorous analysis.

Edward Groth III, Senior Scientist at Consumers Union and one of the paper's co-authors says, "We have shown that consumers who buy organic fruits and vegetables are exposed to just one-third as many residues as they'd eat in conventionally grown foods, and the residues are usually lower as well."

The study team included analysts from Consumers Union (CU), publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, and from the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI), an independent research, education and evaluation organization based in Eugene, Oregon.

The authors analyzed test data on pesticide residues in organic and non-organic foods from three independent sources:

• Tests done on selected foods by CU in 1997
  
• Surveys of residues in a wide array of foods on the U.S. market conducted by the Pesticide Data Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1994 through '99
  
• Surveys of residues in foods sold in California, tested by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation in 1989 through 1998.

The combined residue data sets covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 different crops; 1,291 of those samples were organically grown

"The results are remarkably consistent across all three data sets," says Brian Baker of OMRI, a co-author of the study. "If we take the results as a whole, the evidence is very convincing that, as you'd expect, there are fewer residues by far in organically grown foods."

When the researchers excluded residues of persistent, long banned organochlorine insecticides such as DDT from their analysis of the USDA data, the fraction of organic samples with residues dropped from 23 to 13 percent.

Most residues in organic foods, and some of the residues in conventional foods, can readily be explained as unavoidable results of environmental contamination by past pesticide use or by "drift" or sprays blown in from adjacent non-organic farms.

A summary of the study can be found at http://wwww.consumersunion.org

California Conserves Power for Second No Blackout Summer

California is rated by the U.S. Department of Energy as the nation's most energy efficient state.

"We want to build on our success of record conservation last year," said Davis. "In addition to the construction of 11 new power plants, caps on the price of wholesale power and long term contracts, conservation was largely responsibly for getting through last summer without a single blackout."

"California's energy challenge is not over," Davis warned. "The energy market is not yet stabilized, the West's growth is putting more strain on our regional power grid, and there's always the chance it will be an unusually hot summer. We need to continue to be vigilant."

Californians successfully conserved up to 5,570 MW last summer, helping the state avoid blackouts One megawatt is enough energy to power approximately 1,000 homes.

While the California Energy Commission expects 3,454 megawatts of energy from new power plants to be online by the summer of 2002, Governor Davis said conservation is crucial until the state has a surplus of electricity generation.

This week the state launched a new program with nearly 1,100 retailers to promote energy efficient lighting, appliances, and equipment. Coordinated rebates, training, signage, and advertising will encourage the use of energy efficient products.

The state will focus also on the commercial and industrial sector, which is responsible for 57 percent of peak demand in summer months. A Demand Reserve Program will be announced to draw down demand at peak when needed.

The state will continue its outreach to conserve energy among agricultural users, who are responsible for 4.5 percent of summer peak demand.

While state government cut its own power use by 22 percent last year, state officials say they will launch more efforts to reduce energy use.

The state estimates that there has been a permanent energy reduction of 1,200 MW at peak from efficient lighting, appliances, and equipment installed in 2001 and the first half of 2002.

Idaho National Lab Chosen for Wildland Fire Trials

The Department of Energy (DOE), the Bureau of Land Management and the Nature Conservancy have provided funding for the three year long Wild Lands Fire Recovery Research Project. Stoller Corporation of Idaho Falls is conducting the fieldwork in the 890 square mile area.

"The Nature Conservancy recognizes the INEEL is probably the best sagebrush steppe in the western United States, in terms of the high quality condition of the land and the size of the site," said Trish Klahr, director of science for the Nature Conservancy in Idaho.

"Wildfire is one of the biggest threats," Klahr said. "The other one is weeds. And we have found after any disturbance, particularly a fire, the weeds move in, especially cheat grass. When that happens, the vegetation burns more easily the next time. It's a vicious cycle."

"We are planning three seasons in the field, because it can take awhile to see changes in vegetation," said plant ecologist Roger Blew with Stoller Corporation.

This summer, scientists will begin detailed studies to satisfy three project objectives, Blew said. One is how quickly vegetation regrows after a fire in areas with good ecological conditions.

A second objective is to look at vegetation regrowth in areas where sagebrush was seeded from the air, Blew said. In this process, the seeds are broadcast from airplanes and land atop the snow. When the snow melts in spring, the seeds are deposited on the soil surface, with a ready supply of moisture to help them germinate.

The third objective is to determine how soon after a fire sagebrush steppe land used for grazing can be reopened for livestock to graze.

In operation since 1949, the INEEL is a science based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's missions in environment, energy, science and national defense. Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC, operates the INEEL site for the DOE.

The INEEL is used regularly by federal and state agencies, universities and private research foundations for a variety of plant and animal studies. The DOE mission of protecting environmental quality is directly served by this project. The knowledge gained will help DOE, and other federal and state agencies better protect the remaining sagebrush steppe lands in the West.

Groups to Sue Army Corps over Endangered Sturgeon

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Ecology Center and the Idaho Conservation League claim that operation of the Libby Dam is driving the endangered Kootenai River White Sturgeon to extinction.

Listed as endangered in 1994, the Kootenai River White Sturgeon require large spring flows and gravel riverbed to successfully spawn. Following completion of Libby Dam in 1974, spring flows were reduced by more than half and fine sediments covered many gravel areas. As a result of these changes, the sturgeon has not successfully spawned since Libby Dam became operational.

"Libby Dam is placing the Kootenai River White Sturgeon in immediate danger of extinction," warns Noah Greenwald, a conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an opinion in December of 2000 ordering Army Corps to implement a water management plan called VAR-Q by January 1, 2002. The plan, which was developed by the Army Corps and is supported by the state of Montana, stores water to create spring flows that will allow the sturgeon to spawn. To date, the Army Corps has not implemented VAR-Q or taken other steps called for by the Fish and Wildlife Service to save the sturgeon.

"The Army Corps' continued foot dragging is a clear violation of the law," says Greenwald, "and one that is harming the sturgeon."

The Kootenai River White Sturgeon is one of 18 landlocked populations of the normally anadromous white sturgeon. It is believed to have been isolated from other white sturgeon since the last Glacial Age and exhibits unique adaptations to the environment of the Kootenai River. It can grow to 350 pounds and live to be 90 years old.

The three groups say that the Libby Dam is contributing to the decline of a number of other fish species in the Kootenai River, including burbot, bull trout, Kooteney Lake kokonee, westslope cutthroat trout, and interior redband trout.

Research Ships Investigate Southern Ocean Food Chain

Research vessels the Laurence M. Gould and the Nathaniel B. Palmer will serve as the home to about 100 scientists and support personnel for six weeks as they cruise the waters of Marguerite Bay on the Western side of the Antarctic Peninsula in the second data gathering cruise of the Southern Ocean Global Ecosystem Dynamics (SO GLOBEC) program.

Eileen Hofmann of Old Dominion University, the project's chief scientist, noted that the project last year gathered the most comprehensive set of data currently available on a host of factors such as the distribution and abundance of krill in the Southern Ocean. Next year, the data gathered over both seasons will be analyzed for trends and patterns that will allow scientists to grasp how environmental conditions affect life in one of the world's most biologically productive bodies of water.

In a key feature of this year's SO GLOBEC cruise, the ships will return to an area that was studied intensively last spring. This will give scientists an important comparison of conditions over time, said Hofmann.

"Repeating the cruise in the same area this year will tell us quite a bit about year-to-year variability," she said. "We already know from satellite data that the sea ice is more extensive this year, and that's good, because one of the projects' science objectives is to test the extent to which over-wintering krill are dependent on the extent and position of the sea ice."

The Southern Ocean's productivity depends on the miniscule but abundant Antarctic krill. Krill feed on microscopic plants and animals and, in turn, are eaten by whales and fish. Seals, penguins and other sea birds eat the fish.

At the other extreme of size, biologists of the International Whaling Commission will examine whales to see how actions at the microscopic scale eventually affect the Southern Ocean's dominant predators.

"We're a lot smarter this year. We know a lot more now about where we might expect to find seals, for example," Hofmann said. "Last year we were able to identify what people were calling "hot spots" or places where krill aggregate. There were also lots of whales, seals and birds there. The first time around we had to find these hot spots. This time, we're going to spend more time using those areas for specific studies."