• Federal Judge Rules Government Snake River Water Plan Illegal
  
• Sustainable Design Competition Opens for New Orleans' Ninth Ward
  
• Arsenic Found in New England’s Bedrock Aquifer Wells
  
• Stormwater Misdeeds Catch Up with City of Dallas
  
• Oil Dumped on Dusty Roads Washes into Washington Waterways
  
• FDA Approves Claim That Eating Barley Reduces Heart Disease Risk
  
• Maine Students Go on First Live Internet Hemispheric Field Trip
  

Federal Judge Rules Government Snake River Water Plan Illegal

Sustainable Design Competition Opens for New Orleans' Ninth Ward

The competition is a central component of Global Green’s sustainable rebuilding initiative for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, which began 10 days after the landfall of Hurricane Katrina.

The final details of the competition were announced this week. The historic Holy Cross Neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward is the focus of Stage 1 of the competition.

The competition will be conducted in two stages. In Stage 1, participants are asked to provide a sustainable urban design of a 1.25 acre site that focuses on a green, healthy multi-family building with a community center and single family housing.

Submissions will be asked to achieve several sustainable design and green building goals, including net-zero energy - meeting all energy needs for buildings on the site through passive and active strategies.

In Stage II, finalists identified from the first round will draw on their submissions from Stage I, working with local architects and community groups, to create a plan for selected areas in different neighborhoods of the city. They will design single-family housing and a community facility in the neighborhood.

Competitors are also challenged to develop innovative architectural and planning solutions that respect and draw from the rich design heritage of New Orleans while balancing sustainability and affordability.

Joining Brad Pitt as a sponsor and initial underwriter for the competition are Suzanne Friewald, Sean Cummings, and an anonymous donor.

Entrants may submit as individuals or as part of a team. Multi-disciplinary teams are encouraged. However, if no one on the design team is a registered architect, and the team or individual advances to Stage II, they will be matched with a local Louisiana-registered architect.

Pitt and Global Green USA, the U.S. branch of the environmental group founded by former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev, say they view this competition as an opportunity to give back to New Orleans, the birthplace of great culture, music, food, and architecture.

Due to the widespread damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, the city’s infrastructure and neighborhoods need significant rebuilding. To date, progress has been slow.

Given the worsened impact from the storm due to coastal erosion and global warming, Global Green USA hopes to evoke designs that represent restorative design and climate neutral strategies.

Projects will be reviewed for design quality, sustainable design, and technical competence. The confirmed members of the design jury include Pitt and Matt Petersen as well as William Morrish of the University of Virginia School of Architecture; David Orr of Oberlin College Environmental Studies Program and Pam Dashiell, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association in the lower Ninth Ward.

Interested parties can register for the competition and learn more about Global Green’s “Healthy Homes, Smart Neighborhoods” at: www.globalgreen.org/competition. All submissions must be received by the competition sponsor in New Orleans by no later than 5:00 pm Central Time on July 6, 2006.

Arsenic Found in New England’s Bedrock Aquifer Wells

Stormwater Misdeeds Catch Up with City of Dallas

The settlement requires the city to construct two wetlands at an estimated cost of $1.2 million - one along the Trinity River, and one along Cedar Creek near the Dallas Zoo. In addition, the city must pay a civil penalty of $800,000.

"This settlement benefits everyone in Dallas by helping to keep the city's rivers, lakes, and streams clean," said Richard Greene, regional administrator of U.S. EPA Region 6 in Dallas. "I am particularly pleased that we and the city were able to resolve this matter in a way that improves our urban environment by building water-purifying wetlands along the Trinity River and at the Zoo."

The settlement agreed with with the the U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this month resolves allegations that the city failed to implement, adequately fund and adequately staff its stormwater management program.

The settlement requires the city to have at least 36 people working in its stormwater management section, a 25 percent increase over the number of people on staff in February 2004 when EPA issued its order adressing the Dallas stormwater problem.

The consent decree also requires the city to inspect at least 500 stormwater discharge pipes per year, 500 industrial facilities each year, and large construction sites every two weeks.

"We are pleased to conclude this matter with a settlement that will result in vigorous city efforts to keep the city's stormwater compliant with applicable law," said Sue Ellen Wooldridge, assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "We expect all cities to comply with the stormwater requirements of the Clean Water Act."

Under the settlement agreement, the city will prepare a formal environmental management system for 12 city run facilities, including the city's service centers, and then have a third-party auditor review the management systems. The EPA plans to conduct a full audit of the stormwater system within the next one to three years.

The first wetland the city will construct will be a 60 acre or larger area along the Trinity River downstream of Sylvan Avenue, in the vicinity of the Pavaho pump station. Currently, the city pumps stormwater directly from the sump to the Trinity River. This project will use the stormwater to water a wetland that will provide urban green space and filter impurities out of the stormwater before it is reaches the Trinity.

The second wetland will be a small one along Cedar Creek near the Dallas Zoo. The wetland will be the last in a series of treatment steps designed to treat runoff from a portion of the zoo. The system will be designed so that water emerging from the wetland can be returned to the zoo for use in drip irrigation.

As with the wetland along the Trinity River, a detailed design plan must be approved by the EPA before work begins.

Oil Dumped on Dusty Roads Washes into Washington Waterways

SPOKANE, Washington, May 26, 2006 (ENS) - Officials with Spokane County and the Washington Department of Ecology in Spokane say they are receiving many complaints about people illegally using used motor oil for dust suppression on dirt roads - a practice that threatens to pollute lakes, streams and underground water.

State and country officials say that even if it appears that the oil is dumped far from a body of water, rain and snowmelt cause the oil to run off into the nearest creek or stream. The toxic materials adhere to dirt particles and wash into the water with the soil.

"This time of year, dust becomes a problem and some people collect their used oil all winter to pour on the road," said Jim Bellatty, Ecology's water quality supervisor in Spokane. "People are doing their spring automotive tune-ups. We need to make sure they know what the laws say and how to correctly and safely dispose of their oil."

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the used oil from one oil change can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water.

Federal, state and local laws prohibit dumping oil products to the environment. Used motor oil is insoluble and may contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals that persist in the environment for many years.

Used oil is a major source of oil contamination in many bodies of water and can even pollute aquifers.

Nearly a half million people in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene depend on the Rathdrum-Spokane Aquifer for clean drinking water.

"Water resources staff at both Ecology and the County are very concerned about inappropriate oiling of roads, in terms of pollution of our waters," said Director Bruce Rawls with Spokane County Utilities. We plan to dedicate more staff time to investigating complaints."

Spokane County prohibits the use of any dust suppressant without a permit and prohibits the use of used oil under any circumstances.

Rawls says no dust suppression materials may be used at all within 50 feet of any body of water, such as stream crossings near Newman Lake, Liberty Lake, Little Spokane River, Hangman Creek, Spokane River and Silver Lake, where there is a possibility that the material will be washed into the lake or stream.

Residents can take used oil at no cost to the household hazardous waste drop sites at the Waste to Energy Plant, 2900 S. Geiger Blvd., to the North County Transfer Station, 22123 Elk Chattaroy Rd., or to the Valley Transfer Station, 3941 N. Sullivan Rd.

The county's recycling hotline at (509) 625-6800 maintains a list of other oil drop-off sites in Spokane County and the hours the facilities are open.

The used motor oil cannot be mixed with gasoline, antifreeze or hazardous wastes, and the oil must be brought to the sites in five gallon or smaller containers.

Businesses can get information about disposing of larger quantities by calling the Department of Ecology at 509-329-3400 or Spokane County at 509-625-7898.

FDA Approves Claim That Eating Barley Reduces Heart Disease Risk

WASHINGTON, DC, May 26, 2006 (ENS) - The Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule that allows foods containing barley to claim that they reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Whole grain barley and dry milled barley products such as flakes, grits, flour, and pearled barley, which provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving, may bear the health claim.

The approved wording states, "Soluble fiber from foods such as [name of food], as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. A serving of [name of food] supplies [x] grams of the soluble fiber necessary per day to have this effect."

Coronary heart disease claims nearly half a million lives a year across the United States. High total cholesterol levels and high levels of low density lipoprotein LDL cholesterol are known to increase one's risk for heart disease, so consumers are encouraged to keep these levels as low as possible.

Scientific evidence indicates that including barley in a healthy diet can help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by lowering LDL and total cholesterol levels.

"FDA is pursuing new initiatives to help consumers improve the choices they have for healthy and nutritious diets," said FDA Deputy Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. "We firmly believe that one of the best ways to encourage healthier eating habits is to help consumers get truthful, up-to-date, science-based information about food products so that they can make choices that are based on a better understanding of the health consequences of their diets," said Gottlieb.

FDA began allowing the claim in December 2005 under an interim final rule, while at the same time accepting public comments on the rule for 75 days. During this time no comments were received that warranted changes to the interim final rule.

Maine Students Go on First Live Internet Hemispheric Field Trip

HALLOWELL, Maine, May 26, 2006 (ENS) - A classroom from Portland’s Breakwater School was one of the student groups selected to participate in an environmental education project on Thursday that took North American students out into the field to observe birds via the Internet.

Called Americas’ Bird Trek, the event brought together children from across the U.S. and Canada to visit nature centers in Ecuador, Mexico, the U.S., and Canada during the same one-hour period through streaming audio and video technologies.

The live online field trip began in Ecuador’s Yanayacu Research Station in the tropical cloudforest at the headwaters of Ecuador's largest Amazon tributary - the Napo River. Here a naturalist showed the 1,000 students assembled on the Internet the tropical forest and the field station where biologists study its inhabitants.

They saw spectacled bears and tropical tanagers and hummingbirds that spend their lives here as well as olive-sided flycatchers and blackburnian warblers that are here only during the winter.

Next students were introduced to the staff of Rancho La Libre in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains two hours east of Mazatlan, Mexico. Here they looked out over a valley near the little town of El Palmito.

Naturalists here told of the tufted jays, mountain trogons, and lilac-crowned parrots within these mountain forests - habitats that also harbor Nashville warblers and Lincoln’s sparrows fattening up in order to make the 3,000 mile journey north to their Boreal nesting ground in the northern forests of Canada.

Then students headed to the shores of Cape May, New Jersey in the Atlantic Flyway. Thousands of shorebirds stop here to feed on the millions of tiny eggs laid by horseshoe crabs. Migrant warblers and songbirds also pass through the area on their journey northward. The view behind the host naturalist is of Cape May Harbor where the cries of laughing gulls can be heard across the Internet.

The last stop was in northern Alberta at the Boreal Center for Bird Conservation in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park, north of Edmonton - the destination of the birds from South and Central America.

As an educator at the Center described the spruce and aspen forests students could hear in the background the clear whistled notes of a white-throated sparrow.

Then the students had a chance to ask questions and to be heard by the field trip leaders they met. They could see and hear the leaders as they answered with explanations using the habitat and sounds around them to clarify the points of information.

The fieldtrip sequence is archived for others to experience in their own time. Along with the archived fieldtrip are video and sound clips of birds and habitats and podcasts explaining more about ecology and conservation.

Technology support for the project was provided by corporate sponsors including SciQ, Marratech, Apple, Infosat, Inukshuk, and Akaimai. Organizations like the Boreal Songbird Initiative, Alberta Parks and Protected Areas, Nature Canada, Pronatura, New Jersey Audubon, Birdlife International, and the Berkeley Hall of Science are among the conservation organizations involved in hosting the event.