• Energy Innovations Save Federal Agencies $39 Million
  
• Florida Growers Get Half a Billion in Hurricane Assistance
  
• Gulf of Maine Restoration Strategy Proposed
  
• Stormwater Remediation Funded for Delaware's Inland Bays
  
• New Jersey School Buses Get an Exhaustive Makeover
  
• Upstate New York Town Buys Open Space With Federal Funds
  
• Alaska Plans to Double Aerial Wolf Kill Area
  
• Nearly Extinct, Guam Birds Get Few Acres
  

Energy Innovations Save Federal Agencies $39 Million

The six million tons of waste held by Sandy Hill Landfill in Bowie, Maryland generates about 2,300 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas which now is used to heat the Goddard Space Flight Center buildings and will continue to do so during the life of a 10 year utility energy services contract with Toro Energy signed last year.

The innovation has won the Goddard Space Flight Center one of the 2004 Federal Energy and Water Management Awards from the Department of Energy - the Renewable Energy Award to an Organization.

Goddard is one of 27 individuals, teams, and organizations throughout the federal government that were named to these awards on Friday. Together they have saved almost $39 million in energy costs during the past year through energy efficiency improvements and energy saving strategies.

Announcing the awards, Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow honored employees of the Armed Services; the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, and Interior; the EPA; the General Services Administration; NASA; and the Social Security Administration at federal facilities around the United States, Europe and Korea.

Some federal facilities also received ENERGY STAR and Energy Saver Showcase Awards for superior building performance and sustainable construction.

Presented each year since 1981, the awards recognize efforts that have paid off in progress toward energy efficiency goals set for the government by the President and Congress.

“The goals are well within reach. I am confident we will achieve the goals, thanks to the efforts of today’s winners and the commitment of other energy champions in the federal sector,” said McSlarrow. “Their work will continue to benefit the government and our nation for years to come.”

The 2004 winners were selected from 100 nominations submitted by 17 federal agencies.

Accomplishments of the winners include:

• Installing distributed generation technologies, such as fuel cells and combined heat and power plants, to increase energy reliability, improve national energy security and reduce environmental impacts;

• Implementing energy savings performance contracts and utility financed contracts to obtain private sector funds to cut federal energy costs;

• Exceeding federal sustainability mandates by purchasing green power, installing renewable energy systems, using salvaged and recycled building and construction materials; buying environmentally-preferable office products, and using energy efficient technologies and strategies such as daylighting, reflective roofing, high-performance windows, high-efficiency lighting, motion detectors and efficient HVAC equipment.

The complete list of the 2004 winners is online at: www.eere.energy.gov/femp/services/awards_fewm2004.cfm

Florida Growers Get Half a Billion in Hurricane Assistance

"Today, USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] is beginning to issue payments to Florida producers just 75 days after the first hurricane struck," said Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman. "This financial relief, amounting to more than $500 million, will provide a much-needed boost to Florida's agriculture industry."

Payments to citrus producers are based on damages generally correlating to the distance from the eyes of the hurricanes and are for production loss, tree loss, rehabilitation and cleanup costs.

Nursery crop payments are equal to 25 percent of the actual dollar value of inventory loss and a flat rate of $250 per eligible acre for cleanup.

Fruit and vegetable producers must suffer a minimum of a 50 percent crop loss. Per-acre payments are based on the type of production practices utilized by producers.

Sign up is ongoing for the three programs contained under the Florida Hurricane Disaster Assistance Program. The end of the sign up periods will be announced at a future date, the agency said.

The USDA crop estimates for Florida citrus released today cite the orange crop suffered a 27 percent loss over last year’s production and the grapefruit crop experienced a 63 percent loss over last year. It is expected that these losses will reduce orange juice inventories by 29 percent and grapefruit juice by 68 percent this season.

Still, the estimated orange crop combined with ample juice reserves, should provide enough for U.S. consumption,” said Robert Norberg, director, Economic and Market Research for Florida Department of Citrus.

Gulf of Maine Restoration Strategy Proposed

Stormwater Remediation Funded for Delaware's Inland Bays

“EPA is pleased to be a partner in the Center for the Inland Bays’ aggressive approach to cleaning up areas of the estuary that have been impaired by stormwater related runoff," said Donald Welsh, administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region. "The projects supported by this funding are vital to protect and improve water quality and to preserve the natural habitat.”

Delaware's Inland Bays consist of three interconnected bodies of water in southeastern Sussex County - Indian River Bay, Little Assawoman Bay, and Rehoboth Bay.

The bays and their tributaries cover about 32 square miles and drain a watershed of about 320 square miles. The Inland Bays are shallow, with an average depth ranging from three to eight feet and are especially sensitive to environmental changes.

Increases in pollutants, changes in salinity and fluctuations in water temperature can have dramatic effects on water quality and on the plants, fish, shellfish, and microscopic creatures that live in the bays.

Funding for the Center for the Inland Bays, based in Lewes, will focus on reducing stormwater pollution which deposits large amounts of nutrients and sediments into the bays.

The main sources of nutrients to these waters is from agriculture and failing septic systems throughout the Inland Bays watershed.

Harmful algal blooms such as the brown tide organism, Aureococcus anophageafferens, have been the result.

In addition, the recent blooms of sea lettuce, Ulva lactuca, and other macroalgal species in the bays have been problematic and demonstrate a continuing change in the ecology of these impaired waters.

Since these organisms thrive in stressed estuaries, like the Inland Bays, scientists are focusing on the need to reduce nutrient contributions, especially phosphorus, from a variety of point and non-point sources in the watershed.

Research projects focus on renewing dwindling resources and establishing best management practices to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the bays.

The Center for the Inland Bays is funding 10 research projects this year, including projects to study the exact causes of algae blooms and how they can be prevented. Other projects monitor the viability of the bays to reestablish and maintain fisheries such as shellfish and educate the public in ways that they can help restore the estuaries.

New Jersey School Buses Get an Exhaustive Makeover

At the Clinton Avenue School in Newark on Friday, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley Campbell announced that Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) has joined forces with Camptown Bus Lines to install retrofit devices on up to 46 school buses in Newark.

"On average, children spend an hour and a half each weekday riding in school buses," said Campbell. "That amounts to more than 300 hours every year that Newark school children will be breathing cleaner air."

The retrofits will reduce particulate emissions by over 50 percent. Work on 14 buses has been completed and the remainder will be done by year end.

PSEG is contributing $100,000 to retrofit the 46 buses owned and operated by Camptown Bus Lines. MJ Bradley Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts developed and is managing the retrofit project.

Environmental Services Worldwide is providing the emissions reduction technology and Environmental Systems Products is the provider of remote emissions measuring technology that will monitor and document the emissions reductions.

Clinton Avenue School is one of 19 schools that will be served by the low emissions buses.

Diesel emissions are a likely carcinogen, and include fine particles, known as soot. These pollutants are known to cause asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, heart disease and premature death.

Diesel exhaust ranks among the air pollutants that pose the greatest risk to public health. Research has shown that fine particles are harmful because they bypass the body's natural defense mechanisms and penetrate deep into the lungs.

Children are particularly susceptible to the harmful effects of soot because their respiratory systems are still developing and they have a faster breathing rate than adults. The incidence of asthma among school children in urban areas is especially high and increasing at an alarming rate.

The retrofits are one element of a campaign by the Department to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust. In early October, the DEP opened its anti-idling campaign, urging school districts and school bus operators to voluntarily eliminate school bus idling while waiting to load and unload students.

To learn more about diesel emissions and public health, visit DEP's Web site: www.stopthesoot.org

Upstate New York Town Buys Open Space With Federal Funds

The acquisition in the Dwaas Kill Natural Park is funded by a federal grant of $320,000 plus a $10,000 grant from the Saratoga County open space program.

Governor Pataki said, "Preserving the Dwaas Kill is critically important to help protect the Capital Region's unique outdoor resources and expand public access to this site for the enjoyment of our children and future generations."

The undeveloped 250 acres cover about half of the total acres in the Dwaas Kill Natural Area identified for preservation on the open space plans of both the state and the town, located about 15 miles north of Albany. Town Supervisor Phillip Barrett said Clifton Park is interested in preserving the other acreage.

Hiking and biking trails and fishing access points will be developed in the area, Barrett said. The site is adjacent to the historic Stone Viaduct off Charlton Road and includes diverse ecosytems for birds and wildlife.

The area is identified as an important wildlife habitat, said David Miller, executive director of the Audubon New York and co-chair of the town open space committee.

The funding is provided from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. Created in 1964, the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund shares the revenues from coastal nonrenewable resources with state and local governments for the establishment of permanent recreational facilities.

Since the fund's inception nearly four decades ago, more than $200 million has been invested for 1,100 local and state projects across New York.

Alaska Plans to Double Aerial Wolf Kill Area

This proposal will target wolves and bears on federal lands in Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve and the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge.

Both the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have sent letters to the Board of Game asking that these areas be excluded from the state's control plans because this activity has not been approved by the two federal agencies, and would result in a significant conflict between state and federal management.

The proposal attempts to sidestep its obligation to first obtain federal consent by suggesting the state need only "coordinate" its activities with appropriate federal agencies.

Defenders of Wildlife will testify in opposition at this week's hearing on these proposals.

"This Board's blatant disregard for science based wildlife management and the public's strong opposition to aerial wolf killing is unmatched in the history of Alaska's wildlife management," says Karen Deatherage, Alaska program associate for Defenders of Wildlife. "Given this proposal to expand aerial wolf control and kill bears was prepared at the request of the Board of Game, unfortunately there is a strong likelihood it will pass."

The Alaska Board of Game will meet November 2 through 5 in Juneau to deliberate on the proposal which will target up to 400 wolves, as well as an unknown number of grizzly bears.

This will be the first time since Governor Frank Murkowski overturned a citizen's prohibition on public aerial predator control that grizzly bears are targeted.

Under the state's new Bear Conservation and Management Policy, hunters will be able to land and shoot, and baiting, the killing of sows and cubs, and trapping to kill grizzly bears in this area would be allowed.

Defenders believes the aerial control programs are illegal under the Federal Airborne Hunting Act and has petitioned Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to enforce the Act and stop the state's practice of using airplanes to chase down wolves and shoot them.

Norton denied the initial petition, filed last spring, and she has yet to respond to an amended petition that was filed by Defenders in August based on the Board of Game's proposed large-scale expansion of the area designated for aerial control programs.

Last winter, 147 wolves in a 10,000 square mile area were killed by gunning teams using aircraft.

In March, the Board of Game added two more control programs thus tripling the area to 30,000 square miles. Nearly 500 wolves are slated to be killed this winter. Applications for aerial gunning teams are currently under review by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, with permits expected to be issued by early December.

A map of the area is located online at: www.defenders.org/wildlife/wolf/approvedareasonly10-20-04.pdf.

Nearly Extinct, Guam Birds Get Few Acres

The final rule excludes almost all lands on Guam originally proposed for critical habitat status for these three species, but maintains most of the lands proposed as critical habitat for the Mariana crow on the island of Rota.

A total of 376 acres, all within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Ritidian unit of Guam National Wildlife Refuge, are being designated as critical habitat for the three species on the island of Guam. Approximately 24,800 acres in two critical habitat units were originally proposed on Guam.

The Guam Micronesian kingfisher fell prey to the introduced brown tree snake and it is now extinct in the wild. A captive population of 63 birds exists in U.S. mainland zoos.

The Mariana crow experienced a similar fate, disappearing from most of the island as the snake spread. The population on Guam now numbers 12 birds, 10 of which were brought in from Rota or from mainland zoos.

The Service did not designate critical habitat for the little Mariana fruit bat (Pteropus tokudae), Guam broadbill (Myiagra freycineti), and Guam bridled white-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus conspicillatus) because "all three species likely are extinct," the agency said.

On Rota, a total of 6,033 acres, out of 6,084 acres originally proposed, are being designated as critical habitat on private and government land. The Rota critical habitat is designated only for the Mariana crow since the fruit bat is not currently a listed species in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Guam Micronesian kingfisher is native only to the island of Guam.

"The Endangered Species Act allows us some flexibility to exclude lands from critical habitat," said Pacific Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Dave Allen.

"We developed a proposed rule based on existing scientific knowledge; now we have refined it based on biological reasons, exclusions of some military lands provided under an amendment to the Act, conservation benefits, and other considerations," Allen said.

The Federal Register Notice detailing the final rule is online at: http://pacific.fws.gov/news/2004/guam_&_rota_fch_10_28_04.pdf