• U.S. Seeks International Shark Finning Ban
  
• Lawsuit Takes EPA to Task Over Toxic Boiler Emissions
  
• Four Cities Must Remove Sewage Discharges to Charles River
  
• Two Industry Connected Appointees Off Coal Waste Committee
  
• Last Roadless Rule Public Comment Day
  
• Universities to Study Environmental Impacts of Nanotechnology
  
• Pennsylvania Governor Seeks Funding for Farmland Preservation
  
• Two Endangered Whooping Cranes Shot During Migration
  

U.S. Seeks International Shark Finning Ban

The proposal asks other shark fishing nations to ban shark finning and adopt procedures like those followed by U.S. fishermen and resource managers. NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher detailed the U.S. proposal on shark management to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) today during a news conference at the ICCAT meeting in New Orleans.

More comprehensive catch data is necessary to support development of effective management for Atlantic sharks throughout their migratory range, and this can only be accomplished at the international level, he said.

"We are serious about managing our fisheries in a sustainable way. The United States is inviting other countries to join us in improving the outlook for Atlantic sharks," said Lautenbacher. "Healthier shark populations would bolster economic opportunities for all shark harvesting nations, and we believe this action will help get us there."

The United States has managed domestic Atlantic shark fisheries since 1993. But populations of many shark species have continued to decline over the past decade.

Domestic shark fisheries are subject to a commercial limited entry program, low annual quotas, recreational catch limits and a prohibition on shark finning - the practice of cutting the fins off the shark and disposing of the carcass. Since sharks are migratory, fishermen from many nations fish on the same stock even though data collection and management efforts are not consistent between nations.

"This proposal is key to moving ICCAT closer to an ecosystem management approach for Atlantic highly migratory fisheries," said William Hogarth, director of NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. government commissioner to ICCAT. "It would result in a win-win situation for sharks, fishermen and the economies of all fishing nations that depend on healthy shark populations."

As the regional fishery management organization with responsibility for migratory fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico, the United States believes ICCAT is best equipped to take the lead in developing binding commitments for international shark management.

The U.S. shark proposal includes the following binding measures that would apply in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico:

• A requirement for nations to report scientific data from all fisheries that catch sharks
  
• A ban on shark finning
  
• A requirement for nations to limit the number of vessels that target sharks
  
• A request for vessels to attempt the release of live sharks that are encountered as bycatch
  
• A call for scientific research to identify shark nursery areas and expand knowledge of these species' basic life history
  
• A call for nations to develop fishing gear that would reduce bycatch and improve post-release survivability of sharks.

ICCAT will deliberate on this and other proposals during the week, and a decision is expected by the conclusion of the meeting on Sunday.

Lawsuit Takes EPA to Task Over Toxic Boiler Emissions

The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Integrity Project, represented by the non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice, filed the suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Three plaintiff groups allege that the administration’s rule, finalized in September, violates the Clean Air Act and fails to protect the public from deadly pollutants emitted by an estimated 58,000 industrial boilers across the nation.

The covered boilers burn an array of wastes that can include chemically treated wood waste, used oil waste, solvents, old tires, sewage gas, paint sludge, toxic fly ash, wastewater treatment sludge, and paper mill sludge.

“The Bush EPA is allowing thousands of facilities across the country to burn industrial waste without adequate controls,” said Earthjustice attorney Jim Pew. “The waste is burned in so-called ‘boilers’ and ‘process heaters’ that emit tons of highly toxic pollution into communities, homes and schools.”

The plaintiffs charge that the EPA has approved “no control” standards, which require no emission reductions at all, for benzene, a known human carcinogen, mercury, a toxic metal linked to birth defects and developmental damage in children, and other toxics.

The rule allows boilers to not clean up emissions of toxics such as acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and lead, all probable human carcinogens.

EPA has never claimed that boilers’ emissions of these substances is safe. “The Bush administration is far more interested in protecting the pocketbooks of its industry sponsors than the health of families and communities exposed to these dangerous toxins,” said Jane Williams, chair of Sierra Club’s Toxics Committee.

Four Cities Must Remove Sewage Discharges to Charles River

Two Industry Connected Appointees Off Coal Waste Committee

Coal industry lobbyist Edward Green is no longer a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee and Dr. Patricia Buffler, who consults for the Electric Power Research Institute, has resigned.

"It's imperative that this committee, which will evaluate the harm this practice is doing to coal field communities across the nation, carry out its mission in an open and unbiased way," said Lisa Evans, senior attorney for the Clean Air Task Force.

On October 26, 42 citizen groups wrote to National Academy President Bruce Alberts protesting the conflicts of interest and lack of balance on the Mine Placement of Coal Combustion Wastes study committee.

The committee was commissioned by Congress to study the health effects of this practice, and comes under the rules of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This law precludes professionals with conflicts of interest from serving on federal advisory committees and requires that panels be balanced with regard to points of view expressed.

"To improve the panel's make up and comply with federal law, the NAS must add scientists who acknowledge the environmental damage resulting from the dumping of coal combustion waste in mines," Evans said. "There are still four committee members with direct conflicts of interest and other ties to the coal and utility industries."

"We're glad the NAS moved quickly to correct two flaws in the panel's make up," said Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit health advocacy group.

"The Federal Advisory Committee Act prohibits professionals with direct conflicts of interest from serving on advisory committees. Appointing a coal industry lobbyist to serve on a committee studying the health effects of dumping coal combustion wastes in abandoned coal mines was an obvious violation of the law," Goozner said.

Last Roadless Rule Public Comment Day

For six years, Americans have been saying that we should protect the roadless areas still left in our national forests. A total of four million comments have poured in as the Roadless Rule has evolved. The overwhelming majority opposed commercial logging and road building in these pristine places.

"So far, the administration has tried to ignore the public. In fact, the latest proposal is nothing less than an outright repeal of the rule. It replaces what Americans have supported for years with a meaningless and confusing petition process that tries to hide the fact that they are eliminating the rule all together," Meadows says.

"Under the proposed plan, governors will be forced to petition the federal government to protect roadless forests in their states. That is bad enough. Even worse, the Forest Service would have the power to reject the petitions," he warns.

If the Bush administration proposal is approved, the result could be different rules for managing national forests in each state.

Nine governors in states that would be directly affected by this decision believe the plan is misguided and will cause more - not less - confusion, and will increase financial burdens on their already over-extended state agencies.

Illinois ranks second behind California for states most strongly opposed to repealing the federal Roadless Area Conservation Rule, according to Citizen Action/Illinois, a state based conservation group. More than 121,000 Illinois residents participated in a letter-writing campaign aimed at the U.S. Forest Service.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule garnered 10 times more public comments than any federal rule in history when it was enacted in 2001 in the last days of the Clinton administration.

Governors in favor of revising the rule include Idaho's Dirk Kempthorne, a Republican , whose state sued the agency over the original rule.

While New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, has pledged to request protection of his state’s roadless forests, he is not optimistic that the U.S. Forest Service will comply.

Universities to Study Environmental Impacts of Nanotechnology

The grant is one of 12 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to universities to investigate the potential health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials: unusually small manufactured particles that are measured in billionths of a meter - nanometers.

Nanotechnology allows scientists to work at the molecular level, atom by atom, to create materials and structures with fundamentally new functions and characteristics.

"Nanotechnology is a promising new field that may lead to great advances in environmental protection," the EPA said in a statement Friday. The agency gives examples of filter systems for drinking or waste water that be designed at the nanoparticle level to remove even the most minuscule of impurities.

Researchers at the University of California - Davis have been awarded a similar size grant, also to study the health effects of inhaled nanomaterials.

"It is anticipated there will be an exponential increase in the commercial use of these materials in society as carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and silicon/metal alkoxides," the California proposal states. "This use will lead to a concomitant increase in exposure of the general population to nanomaterials in products and the environment through incidental introduction to the soil, water and air."

"Little is known what the environmental fate of these particles will be," the California researchers state. They propose to test the hypothesis that "inhaled nanomaterials cause respiratory effects in the form of oxidative stress and inflammation."

Nanoscale materials are being used in a wide range of products, such as sunscreens, composites, medical devices and chemical catalysts. As new nanomaterials are manufactured, there is the potential of human and environmental exposure from waste streams or other pathways entering the environment.

Six of the grants awarded will investigate if manufactured nanomaterials could have any negative health effects or environment impacts.

The other six grants will study the fate and transport of nanomaterials in the environment.

The grants were awarded through EPA's Science to Achieve Results research grants program. More information on the nanotechnology STAR grants and the 12 recipients is available here.

Pennsylvania Governor Seeks Funding for Farmland Preservation

“This milestone spotlights our commitment to the farmland preservation for years to come,” Rendell said during a State Land Preservation Board meeting at the Shea Farm in Hamburg, Berks County. “While we celebrate this great accomplishment, we also face a sobering reality - the reality that development is outpacing preservation. If farmland continues to disappear at a rate of more than 200 acres a day, Pennsylvania’s agricultural economy is in jeopardy.”

The governor is lobbying for his Growing Greener II proposal, whereby the state Farmland Preservation Program would receive $100 million as part of a proposed $800 million bond issue distributed among the following three areas over a four-year period - $330 million for parks, open space and farmland; $300 million for environmental cleanup; and $170 million to revitalize older communities.

“Despite the willingness of farmers to preserve their land, lack of funding has created a backlog of more than 1,900 farms,” said Rendell. “In the Sheas’ case, they have waited on the list for 14 years. The longer these farms wait, the greater the danger that prime farmland will fall victim to developers, and Pennsylvania will forever lose the land for agricultural use.”

“Growing Greener II funding will allow Pennsylvania to continue to preserve farmland in Pennsylvania,” said state Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff, who appeared with the governor.

“As Pennsylvania loses its farms, farmland and farmers, we lose our competitive edge and economic advantage over other states and nations regarding agricultural production, trade and power. The additional $100 million will allow us to preserve an additional 375 farms or 43,000 acres—and help us keep the agriculture industry strong in the Commonwealth.”

Pennsylvania leads the nation in farmland preservation. Since purchasing the first development rights in 1989, the state's Agricultural Land Preservation Board has preserved 2,513 farms totaling 290,040 acres.

Through the preservation program, the state and individual counties can purchase development rights, called easements, on farmland. Landowners are compensated for offering their development rights for the land while permanently protecting the farmland for agriculture.

Two Endangered Whooping Cranes Shot During Migration

The annual whooping crane migration has reached its mid-point with cranes resting in Oklahoma before reaching their wintering grounds along the Texas coast.

In light of the investigation into the recent shooting of the two migrating whooping cranes in Kansas, the Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking the public in Oklahoma and Texas to be alert to the presence of the endangered birds as they continue their winter migration.

Service Special Agent Tom McKay recommends, "hunters, know your targets."

Their large size, white plumage and red facial mask distinguish whooping cranes from other birds. Tom Stehn, National Whooping Crane Coordinator based at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Austwell, Texas, said, "Approximately 210 whooping cranes are expected to winter at the refuge. They are a remarkable bird and the species has made an incredible comeback."

"The Endangered Species Act protects such animals and any unlawful take can be costly with fines of up to $100,000 and/or up to one year in jail," McKay said. "Perpetrators are also subject to significant state and civil criminal penalties."

If anyone has specific information concerning the shooting of these birds, please contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement at 303-236-7540.

Anyone with information about illegal hunting activities that impact endangered and migratory birds should report such incidents to the Service's Law Enforcement office in Albuquerque at: 505-248-7889