• Dam Case Tests Clean Water Act Authority
  
• Administration's Fuel Efficiency Proposal Panned
  
• Carbon Sequestration Experiments Approved
  
• Thinning May Benefit Certain Young Forests
  
• Restoration Begins at Hanford Fire Site
  
• Old Growth Hunger Strike in Sixth Week
  
• Alaska Offers Help After Spain's Oil Spill
  
• Profiling Could Help Target Dangerous Invasives
  

Dam Case Tests Clean Water Act Authority

Today, states and environmental groups squared off in a federal courtroom against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the hydroelectric industry's lawyers and lobbyists. Both sides presented oral arguments in a lawsuit over the environmental regulation of hydropower dams.

The environmental groups charge that FERC is trying to use the case to strip states and citizens of their Clean Water Act rights and powers.

Three judges will rule whether FERC can allow Alabama Power to modify Martin Dam without first acquiring a water quality permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The petitioners want to compel the federal regulators to provide the state with an opportunity to review consequences for the Tallapoosa River before the new turbines are installed.

FERC, however, has gone further - asking the court to rule that the Clean Water Act does not apply to hydropower dams at all. Despite dim prospects for this argument prevailing, Alabama Power Company and the industry's DC lobbyists have weighed in with amicus briefs supporting the federal regulators' novel theory.

"The same industry lobbyists that piously tout the benefits of 'clean hydropower' have not hesitated to pile on to this long shot effort to exempt their dams from the Clean Water Act," said Andrew Fahlund, senior director for dams at American Rivers. "It's not so much that we're afraid they'll win, it's that we can't believe they even asked."

Although most of the public does not equate hydroelectric turbines with industrial effluent pipes, hydropower dams can have impact downstream water quality. The conservation groups say there is a substantial body of law supporting the regulation of hydropower dams under the Clean Water Act.

Dams can deplete dissolved oxygen in the water, suffocating fish and other species, or increase dissolved nitrogen in the water, which poisons aquatic life. Dams can discharge unnaturally cold or warm water, and scour downstream habitat with sudden surges released to meet peak demands.

"Alabama Power Company spends huge amounts on public relations efforts to convince consumers that they are good to the environment," said Brad McLane of the Alabama Rivers Alliance. "It's disturbing that they will go to such lengths to duck state oversight and avoid paying modest amounts of money for modern technology to protect the environment."

Under current law, state governments will have the opportunity to improve water quality in 130 rivers over the next 10 years, as utilities seek new licenses for some 400 dams. But if FERC and its industry allies prevail on procedural grounds, state authority in these procedures will be eroded.

Should the court accept FERC's argument that the Clean Water Act does not apply to dam licensing, conservationists expect utilities to begin petitioning FERC to amend their licenses to relax clean water requirements.

Twenty-one states and territories have signed on to an amicus brief supporting the conservation organizations, writing "If accepted by the court, this proposal by FERC could eviscerate state authority to protect state streams, rivers, and lakes from the far reaching, long term, and dramatic impacts of hydroelectric facilities."

The state of Alabama had originally signed on to the amicus brief, but has since dropped off, under pressure from Alabama Power, conservation groups believe.

"We have a right to expect state officials to protect our heritage and stick up for our interests against encroachment from powerful industries and the federal agencies that look out for them," said Dick Bronson with Lake Watch of Lake Martin.

Administration's Fuel Efficiency Proposal Panned

The proposal drafted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, first reported in Wednesday's "Wall Street Journal," calls for a 1.5 mile per gallon (mpg) increase in light trucks between model years 2005-2007. Critics of the proposal say it shortchanges American consumers and national security because automakers already have the technology to raise fuel economy much more.

"If President Bush is serious about reducing our oil dependence and saving consumers money at the gas pump, he should tell the automakers to reach a fleet average of 40 miles per gallon - which can be done right now with existing technology," said Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program.

According to the "Wall Street Journal," the NHTSA has proposed three fuel economy increases for light trucks and SUVs of 0.5 mpg over three years starting with model year 2005, for a total increase of just 1.5 mpg. Some critics say the Bush administration leaked the proposal due to rising criticism by conservation and public interest groups that the administration has done little to reduce U.S. oil consumption and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says an analysis of the proposal shows that what the administration is proposing is less aggressive than what the automakers have said they would do voluntarily by 2005.

In 2000, Ford Motor Co. committed to improving the fuel economy of its fleet of SUVs by 25 percent over five years. Assuming Ford made no improvements to its other light trucks, its commitment would yield a 1.8 mpg increase for its light truck category by 2005.

By contrast, the administration's proposal would give the automaker two more years to improve its light trucks by 1.5 mpg.

"This is merely political theater to create an impression the administration is doing something to reduce oil dependence," said Michelle Robinson, senior analyst for UCS. "To give the administration political cover, the auto industry will protest the proposal. If the administration really cared about reducing our oil use, this proposal would be very different."

A recent analysis by the National Academy of Sciences that shows that the technology exists to raise the fuel economy of SUVs and pickups higher than the NHTSA proposal, without compromising vehicle safety or making automakers spend more than they can afford. And a national survey of pickup truck drivers conducted in August by the Mellman Group found that 76 percent of pickup drivers favor increasing the average miles per gallon of pickup trucks.

"Increasing the fuel economy of cars and SUVs is the biggest single step the United States can take to reduce our oil dependence and global warming pollution," said Becker. "At a time when oil dependence plays a large role in our foreign policy, the administration should support real fuel economy increases."

Dan Lashof, science director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council, calls the Bush administration's proposal "a trivial solution to a serious energy security threat."

"This proposal would save just a few drops from the ocean of imported Middle East oil," Lashof said. "Americans have a right to expect much more. We can achieve much more substantial fuel savings in cars and trucks of all sizes, using technology that's already available."

Carbon Sequestration Experiments Approved

Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions to prevent their release into the atmosphere.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, speaking today to the National Coal Council, said that the federal government intends to create a nationwide network of four to 10 "regional sequestration partnerships," and called on industry, state and local agencies, universities, and others to join with the Department of Energy (DOE) in forming the partnerships.

"These regionally focused efforts will become the centerpiece of our sequestration program. They will help us determine the technologies, regulations, and infrastructure that are best suited for specific regions of the country," Abraham said.

Abraham said the DOE has approved a proposal by American Electric Power (AEP) and Battelle to begin studying potential sequestration sites in the Ohio River Valley where carbon emissions from power plants might be injected deep underground.

"The focus will be on the deep saline formations that lie thousands of feet below the surface - well below the aquifers commonly used for drinking water," Abraham said. "Theoretically, they could hold all of the carbon dioxide emitted by the nation's coal burning power plants for the next 100 years. But we will move deliberately, because we want to go as far and as fast as the science takes us."

The AEP/Battelle project will focus on the injection of carbon gases into brine filled formations thousands of feet underground. The DOE says that, in theory, these deep saline formations, which underlie all or part of 35 states, could hold all of the carbon dioxide emitted from the nation's coal burning power plants.

Researchers will study whether the deep saline formations beneath the Ohio-West Virginia border are suitable for trapping large quantities of carbon dioxide. The study will take place in the heart of the largest concentration of fossil fuel power plants in the nation.

During the next 18 months, researchers will conduct seismic surveys of the underground rock formations and drill a 10,000 foot exploratory well on the power plant property. No decision will be made on proceeding beyond the current study phase until the subsurface geology is deemed safe and suitable for carbon sequestration and cost estimates have been prepared.

The DOE, through its National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), is providing $3.2 million of the project's total $4.2 million cost.

Abraham said the DOE will issue a call for additional proposals later this month, asking industry, state and local agencies, universities and others to begin forming the regional partnerships.

The government will offer up to $2 million per partnership for initial planning efforts. Later, as much as $7 million per partnership could be provided for actual field verification tests and more detailed regulatory and infrastructure planning.

More details on carbon sequestration research can be found at: http://www.fossil.energy.gov

Thinning May Benefit Certain Young Forests

The findings, which were made by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Oregon State University (OSU), hold special significance for the management of many young forests, with trees less than about 60 years old, which cover vast portions of the Pacific Northwest.

The conclusions are based on a number of related studies funded in recent years by the USGS.

According to John Tappeiner, a professor at OSU and retired USGS forest scientist, the forests in the Pacific Northwest that were clearcut in past decades were replanted with dense, uniformly spaced tree seedlings. The original management goal of most plantations was to produce high yields of timber and associated wood products.

This management goal shifted for millions of acres of young forests on federal lands with the adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994. Many dense, young forests were incorporated into a network of large conservation reserves intended to provide habitat for plants and animals more often associated with older forests.

Although researchers and land managers had assumed that these dense, young forests would, in time, grow to resemble the old growth forests they replaced, a group of researchers have accumulated a wide range of evidence suggesting that this may not occur unless the young forests are thinned to allow the remaining, uncut trees to grow under less dense conditions.

Crowded young trees develop differently from more open grown individuals, the scientists found. Widely spaced trees have larger crowns and diameters than closely spaced trees of the same species and age.

Dense young forests typically have over 200 trees per acre at 50 years of age, but studies of 90 old growth forests revealed an average of just six to eight large trees per acre, each measuring more than 40 inches in diameter.

The research also shows that thinning of young, dense tree stands may increase the diversity and abundance of some lichens, particularly those that are important as forage for wildlife. The abundance of forest songbirds was also greater in thinned young stands and old growth stands than in young unthinned stands.

There are more caterpillars and other insects in thinned stands that encourage more hardwood shrubs, though there were few differences in the number of species of moths.

"Taken together, these studies suggest that thinning may have positive results for plants and animals if the methods used protect shrubs, hardwoods, large trees, and old trees," Tappeiner said.

Pat Muir, a professor of botany at OSU, said it also important to consider that the sites studied were thinned only 15 to 20 years ago, with a primary objective of commercial tree harvest.

"As a group we found indications of positive benefits for some plants and animals less than two decades after thinning, even though the thinning was conducted without bearing in mind the effect on these organisms, and some benefits of thinning may not be seen for many decades," Muir said. "I suspect even greater benefits would be evident if thinning were conducted with a long term goal of enhancing forest biodiversity."

Restoration Begins at Hanford Fire Site

On June 27, 2000, a major wildland fire spread through the Hanford area, resulting from a fatal motor vehicle accident on State Route 24. The "24 Command" Fire destroyed native grasses and shrubs on the monument's Fitzner-Eberhardt Arid Lands Ecological (ALE) Reserve.

Following the fire, in consultation with Native tribes, the Department of Energy and local technical and academic experts, the USFWS developed a comprehensive Burned Area Rehabilitation Plan (BAER) to address short and long term rehabilitation needs. During the months of November and December this year, the USFWS will implement rehabilitation treatments identified in the 2000 BAER plan.

The goals of the treatments are to stabilize erosive soils, prevent the spread of non-native invasive plant species such as cheatgrass, and to restore native plant communities.

The rehabilitation projects will include replacing 30 miles of boundary fence, planting 700,000 sagebrush plants on 1,600 acres within the ALE, aerial spraying 10,000 acres to help control nonnative species, and aerial seeding native species on 10,000 acres within the ALE.

The sagebrush seedlings will be planted to provide islands of shrubs to shelter wildlife such as the sage grouse, and to provide a seed source for the entire burned area. Sagebrush does not re-sprout following fire, and the heat of the fire destroyed all the seed that was in the ground.

The most visible operation to the general public will be the aerial spraying and seeding operations. A light dose of the herbicide Round-up® (3.5 ounces per acre) will be applied on 10,000 acres where most native vegetation and seed sources were removed from the soil due to the intense heat of the fire.

Since the fire, these areas are either bare soil or contain a large percentage of undesirable annual species including cheatgrass, tumble mustard and tumbleweeds. All herbicide applications will be weather dependent to avoid drift into non-target areas.

The seeding operation, which will the herbicide spraying by about two weeks, will apply native seed mixes on 10,000 acres of burned lands. Seed mixes have been chosen using local and eco-region derived species, and are being produced by a local seed grower.

About $4 million of this stabilization and rehabilitation effort will benefit the local economy through the award of contracts to local businesses.

Old Growth Hunger Strike in Sixth Week

Moloney is pressing California Governor Gray Davis to keep a four year old campaign promise to protect the state's old growth trees. So far, Davis has not agreed to meet with Moloney.

"By rejecting Susan's formal request for a meeting, Governor Davis has squandered the opportunity for dialogue and agreement, and now bears the responsibility for Susan's health along with the survival of the last three percent of old growth trees remaining in California," said Dan Hamburg, a former state Representative and executive director of Voice of the Environment.

In a March 1998 address to the Planning and Conservation League, then gubernatorial candidate Gray Davis pledged to ensure that, "all old growth trees are spared from the lumberjack's axe." Despite Davis's promise, the cutting of California's old growth trees continues, and has even accelerated.

Moloney began her hunger strike on October 7th and has only consumed liquids during the past six weeks.

"This brave woman has put her body on the line to remind the Governor that he has failed to keep his promise," said Kent Stromsmoe of the Forestry Monitoring Project. "The governor has a responsibility to keep his promises, to protect our environment and to meet the concerns of all the people in California, not just the factions that line his campaign coffers with donations."

In addition to urging Davis to uphold his campaign promise, Moloney would like to ask the governor to endorse the Heritage Tree Preservation Act, a statewide initiative to protect California's remaining ancient trees. If included on the 2004 ballot, the initiative would give the Californian voters the opportunity to decide the fate of the state's oldest trees.

The text of the initiative can be found at: http://www.ancienttrees.org

More information on Susan Moloney, her hunger strike, and the Campaign for Old Growth can be found at: http://www.fastforoldgrowth

Alaska Offers Help After Spain's Oil Spill

A fuel slick 70 miles long by five miles wide is moving onto the Spanish coast, where fishing has been temporarily banned in an area famous for its shellfish, octopus and crabs. The Bahamian flagged tanker Prestige, which sprang a leak during a storm on November 13, split in half Tuesday morning amid salvage operations about 130 miles off Spain's Atlantic coast.

The stern sank with little seepage of fuel from its tanks, salvage officials said, and the bow sank later in the day, according to Spanish authorities.

On Tuesday, Governor Tony Knowles sent a letter to the Honorable Camillo Barcia, consul general of Spain, offering Alaskan help.

"We are fortunate in Alaska to have technical experts in spill response management, oil spill response and cleanup, shoreline impact assessment, and related areas that could assist you in the response effort," Knowles wrote.

Knowles named Commissioner Michele Brown of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as Alaska's lead contact for coordinating Alaska's resources, should Spain take up the state's offer of assistance.

"As you may know, the state of Alaska experienced a catastrophic oil spill in 1989 when the tanker Exxon Valdez went aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound," wrote Knowles. "The spill had widespread impacts on a formerly pristine marine environment. Hundreds of miles of shoreline were oiled and the cleanup effort lasted several years. Spills of this size are potentially devastating and demand prompt, effective and coordinated response efforts."

Given its experience with response to significant oil spills, the state offers assistance to others facing the same situation. According to the DEC, the state has offered help to five foreign entities in recent years, including England, Taiwan, Spain, South Africa and Ecuador. England and Taiwan accepted the state's offer.

The amount of oil aboard the Prestige is about twice that lost during the Exxon Valdez spill. Salvage officials said the ocean where the ship sank is about 11,800 feet deep and the fuel in the tanks should congeal at the temperatures at that depth, minimizing further damage.

Profiling Could Help Target Dangerous Invasives

The technique could help prevent invasions of species like Asian carp and zebra mussels, which states are now spending millions of dollars to contain.

"Once an invasive species becomes established in a new environment, its impact often is irreversible," said David Lodge, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant researcher and a biologist at the University of Notre Dame. "If we knew which ones would be likely to present problems in the future, we could focus our efforts on preventing those particular species from taking hold," said Lodge, who is a member of the Federal Invasive Species Advisory Committee.

To provide some answers, Lodge and fellow researcher Cindy Kolar, developed a risk assessment "decision tree" that environmental agencies and managers can use to predict possible culprits of tomorrow. This computer model identified nuisance fish with a high degree of accuracy, the researchers report in the November 8th issue of the journal "Science."

Using data from as far back as the glacial age, the researchers gathered information on a range of species characteristics to identify those that are likely to be adaptive in new environments.

"Introduced species that are successful have several traits in common," said Lodge. "More so than unsuccessful invaders, they tolerate a wide range in temperature and salinity. These fishes are also smaller at maturity and have higher reproduction rates."

By applying the profiles to fishes that have not yet been introduced to the Great Lakes, Lodge and Kolar have identified 22 species that one day may pose problems. With this sort of information, prevention efforts can be targeted.

"An immediate rapid response to a species that is a likely threat even if it is fairly expensive might save a great deal of money and effort, and reduce environmental effects, down the road," said Lodge.

For example, three federal agencies, the International Joint Commission, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission are now providing about $300,000 to help prevent the spread of Asian carp, which are now making their way up the Mississippi River toward the Great Lakes.

The funds were made available to supply backup power hardware for an electrical barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. This barrier is the first - and right now the only - line of defense against the Asian carp.

"The Great Lakes benefit millions of Americans and Canadians who rely on them for food, water, recreation, and livelihoods," said Ambassador Mary Beth West, deputy assistant secretary of state. "If Asian carp migrate into the Great Lakes, they could significantly threaten this shared natural resource."