• Bush Betrayal of National Forest Wildlife Taken to Court
  
• California Water and Environmental Restoration Plan Enacted
  
• 40 Million Doses of Avian Flu Vaccine In the Works
  
• Clean Coal Gets Multi-Million Dollar Boost
  
• Cleanup Set for Superfund Site Near Long Island Daycare Center
  
• Inexpensive Sulfate Salts Can Remove Arsenic From Groundwater
  
• Land in Arizona's Coal Mine Canyon Bought for Endangered Fish
  
• Dolphin Brain Evolution Described for the First Time
  

Bush Betrayal of National Forest Wildlife Taken to Court

The lawsuit challenges a September 29, 2004, Bush administration rule that attempted to rescind environmental protection regulations that have been in place since 1982 under the National Forest Management Act.

“The Bush administration is trying to make it legal to drive wildlife species toward extinction in the national forests,” said Earthjustice lawyer Tim Preso. “We don’t think that is right, and we intend to stop them.”

Earthjustice is representing Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and the Vermont Natural Resources Council. The plaintiff groups say the National Forest Management Act regulations support populations of elk, moose, and black bear, and help keep sensitive and rare species off the endangered species list by identifying and correcting wildlife population declines before species become imperiled.

The Bush administration provided no notice or opportunity for public comment in connection with the September 29 rule, as required by law. Instead, claiming its action was merely a legal interpretation of prior policies, the Bush administration said no public involvement was necessary and sought to make its repeal of decades old wildlife protections effective immediately.

“The Bush administration tried to use its old tricks of quietly tinkering with the fine print to gut environmental regulations, hoping no one would notice,” said Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society. “But we noticed and we are going to do something about it.”

The lawsuit against U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth challenges the Bush administration’s failure to involve the public before unilaterally deciding that wildlife extinctions in American’s national forests are acceptable.

The complaint calls the move by Veneman and Bosworth, "a back door attempt by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to rescind important regulatory protections for the 192 million acre National Forest System through a legislative rulemaking masquerading as an interpretive rule."

Mike Leahy of Defenders of Wildlife said, “The commitment to sustain wildlife on public lands should be standard practice, but is apparently unacceptable to the Bush administration, which appears to view wildlife solely as an impediment to logging, drilling, and mining."

California Water and Environmental Restoration Plan Enacted

CALFED, formally known as the Water Supply Reliability and Environmental Improvement Act, appropriates $395 million for a long-term collaborative plan covering statewide water supplies, flood control and water quality.

Praise for the legislation came from bipartisan quarters. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the "major environmental initiative" would restore California's critical Bay-Delta estuary while also addressing the needs of urban and agricultural waters users.

"This landmark legislation represents the culmination of a strong bipartisan effort by the California Congressional delegation to secure California's water future," Norton said.

"As the largest and most comprehensive water-management plan in the nation, the CALFED program is a national model of collaborative resource management. The Department of the Interior affirms its commitment to working with the state of California and water and environmental interests to address California's water needs," she said.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "This means the federal government will be a true partner in our efforts to increase water storage, improve water quality and enhance our natural resources."

The legislation was based on a compromise bill sponsored by California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, along with New Mexico Senators Pete Domenici, a Republican, and Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, chairman and ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, whose Chairman Richard Pombo also took credit for the measure.

CALFED is a partnership of 24 California and federal agencies and representatives of California's environmental, urban and agricultural communities.

CALFED agencies have spent $1 billion over the last decade to improve the ecological health of the Bay-Delta watershed by restoring and protecting habitat and enhancing the environment for fisheries and wetlands.

The CALFED Program includes actions to recover species listed under the state and federal endangered species acts. The newly signed legislation ensures that CALFED will continue species and ecosystem restoration using the best available science.

The legislation also will drive forward state and federal efforts to modernize California's water-management infrastructure. CALFED is pursuing the construction of new water storage reservoirs, groundwater storage programs, water recycling and conservation programs.

The CALFED program contains elements to assist Southern California in reducing its use of water from the Colorado River, which will cause water and environmental benefits to ripple up the Colorado River basin to the other six states that rely on the river.

"CALFED's great strength is its requirement of balanced progress toward the primary objectives of ecosystem restoration, water supply and reliability, water quality, and levee system integrity," Norton said. "This legislation reinforces this goal by mandating continuous progress across all program elements."

40 Million Doses of Avian Flu Vaccine In the Works

Clean Coal Gets Multi-Million Dollar Boost

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, joined by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Senator Norm Coleman Monday made the announcement in Duluth on Tuesday.

The award is part of the Bush administration's Clean Coal Power Initiative to invest $2 billion over 10 years to advance cleaner burning coal technologies.

Excelsior Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips will construct and operate the 531 megawatt Mesaba Energy Project in Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. It will be an oxygen-blown gasification plant using bituminous coal.

The project will incorporate results from technology studies and lessons learned at the Wabash River Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

The total cost for the coal-based demonstration project is $1.18 billion, of which DOE will contribute $36 million as the federal cost share.

Abraham promised that the plant will mean "more than 1,000 local construction jobs during the three years it takes to build the plant, and at least 150 permanent high-tech jobs when commercial operations commence."

The project was one of two selected to demonstrate advanced power generation systems using IGCC technology, a variation on a natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant in which a coal-derived gas, produced by the coal gasifier, replaces the natural gas.

In a combined cycle plant two power generators, or cycles, are used in combination to generate electricity in a very efficient manner.

The gas from the coal is first passed through a gas turbine to generate electricity; then the hot gas leaving the turbine is used to heat water to produce steam to power a steam turbine and generate electricity a second time.

This technology increases the amount of electricity that can be generated from a ton of coal in an environmentally sound manner. IGCC promises dramatically increased efficiency and reliability, improved environmental performance, reduced capital and operating costs, and flexibility to process both high and low-rank coals.

Also on Tuesday Secretary Abraham visted Gilberton in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the site of a clean coal project that will convert waste coal to ultra-clean diesel fuel and electricity.

The $612 million proposed project would be the first commercial scale demonstration of coal waste gasification and synthesis of liquid hydrocarbon fuels in the United States. The Energy Department's share is proposed at $100 million.

Abraham said, “Pennsylvania's 250 million tons of waste coal may contain as much energy as three-trillion cubic feet of natural gas - almost as much natural gas as the entire nation required last year for utility power generation.”

Through traditional mining practices, waste coal piles are a potential source of soil and water contamination. Currently, as much as 300 million tons of this material exist in Pennsylvania.

Cleanup Set for Superfund Site Near Long Island Daycare Center

Jackson Steel was a metal forming facility that operated from 1970 through 1991. As part of its operation, the company used tetrachloroethylene and 1,1,1-trichloroethane as degreasers. Degreasing sludge was stored in drums on a paved area southwest of the building.

The practice of disposing of wastes into on-site dry wells, as well as probable spills and leaks that occurred during the facility's operations, are the likely sources of the contamination in the soil and ground water.

The EPA placed Jackson Steel on the Superfund List of the nation's most hazardous waste sites in February 2000.

"We are eager to begin the next phase of the cleanup at Jackson Steel so that this site can be returned to productive use," said EPA Regional Administrator Jane Kenny. "Contaminated properties like Jackson Steel detract from the vitality of surrounding neighborhoods, but this plan again makes this property viable."

The site is located on the edge of a mixed-use area, with commercial and industrial properties located to the south and west and residential properties located to the north and east.

As a result of the detection of tetrachloroethylene in air samples collected from an adjacent daycare center and a billiards club and the concern that the Jackson Steel site could be the source of this contamination, in 2002 the EPA installed systems to remove soil vapors from underneath these buildings. The EPA has also installed ventilation systems to provide fresh air circulation in the nearby buildings.

Now, the agency plans to install systems to remove volatile organic compounds from subsurface soils and will chemically treat contaminated shallow ground water. In addition, EPA will excavate and dispose of contaminated surface soils and materials in dry wells and sumps inside and outside the Jackson Steel building, and the building floor will be decontaminated.

The agency will also investigate to determine if the site is the source of contamination in deeper ground water and, if necessary, the ground water will be extracted and treated.

Drinking water within four miles of the site comes from public municipal supply wells sourced in the Upper Glacial, Magothy, and Lloyd Aquifers. The nearest well drawing from the aquifer of concern is located 3,100 feet to the south. Potable wells within four miles of the site, and drawing from the aquifer of concern, serve more than 300,000 people.

Inexpensive Sulfate Salts Can Remove Arsenic From Groundwater

Arsenic contamination of water is a serious threat to human health. It has been linked to hypertension, cardiovascular disease and a variety of cancers.

In the Ganges Delta of Bangladesh arsenic contaminates many wells, but it does not stop there. The United States is affected by arsenic in many areas.

"The threat extends to Central Illinois, where there are very high levels of arsenic contamination in a number of wells," said Craig Bethke, a professor of geology at Illinois and corresponding author of a paper to appear in the November issue of the journal "Geology."

"We also discovered important links between the amount of organic material dissolved in the groundwater and the concentrations of sulfate and arsenic."

The researchers analyzed water from 21 wells at various depths in the Mahomet aquifer, a regional water supply for Central Illinois. "The Mahomet aquifer was produced by a glacier, which pulverized and homogenized the sediments," Bethke said. "As a result, arsenic sources that leach into the groundwater are pretty uniformly distributed."

But researchers were surprised when they found that arsenic concentration varied strongly from well to well, Bethke said. "Concentrations may reach hundreds of micrograms per liter in one well - which is enough to make people very sick - but fall below detection limits in a nearby well."

The concentration of arsenic varied inversely with the concentration of sulfate, the researchers found. Methane concentration also varied with the sulfate content.

"We believe this reflects the distribution of microbial populations in the aquifer system," said graduate student Matthew Kirk. "Our analyses suggest the aquifer is divided into zones of mixed microbial activity, some dominated by sulfate reducing bacteria, others by methanogens."

Sulfate reducing bacteria will consume sulfate and reduce it into sulfide. The sulfide then reacts to precipitate arsenic, leaving little in solution.

If the sulfate-reducing bacteria run out of sulfate, methanogenic bacteria take over as the dominant metabolic force, Kirk said. Because methanogenic bacteria do not produce sulfide, there is no precipitation pathway for the arsenic, which then accumulates to high levels in the groundwater.

"The majority of wells in Central Illinois belong to individual homes and farms," Bethke said. "Lacking effective water treatment and testing, private wells are more at risk of arsenic poisoning."

Groundwater contaminated with arsenic might be identified and remediated. Adding sulfate to naturally contaminated groundwater might be a simple but effective method to sequester the arsenic, Kirk said. "The bacteria are already present, so all you have to do is stimulate them." Sulfate salts, he said, are inexpensive, readily soluble and easily obtained.

Land in Arizona's Coal Mine Canyon Bought for Endangered Fish

The grant will go toward the acquisition of 1,900 acres in Coal Mine Canyon, critical to providing protection to the fish, a key objective of the Service recovery plan for the species.

The property abuts the 5,000 acre Sonoita Creek State Natural Area and will be managed for threatened and endangered species habitat through ownership of the land by Arizona Game and Fish Department.

"We are excited about the ability to purchase this habitat for threatened and endangered species," said Bob Broscheid of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "Our partnerships with the Trust for Public Land, the Service, and Arizona State Parks are enabling this project to proceed."

The grant was awarded by the Service through the Recovery Land Acquisition grant program, authorized under the Endangered Species Act. This program provides federal funds to protect the habitat of threatened and endangered species in support of approved recovery plans.

"Trust for Public Land is very pleased to be part of a multi-partner collaborative effort to protect this critical wildlife habitat - which also is an important watershed for Sonoita Creek - in an area that had been slated for residential development," said Jenny Parks, Arizona State Director for the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land conservation organization.

Arizona State Parks will be managing the property for the benefit of the topminnow and other endangered species, in conjunction with its adjacent Sonoita Creek State Natural Area.

Once the most common fish in the Gila River Basin, the introduction and spread of exotic predatory and competitive fishes, water impoundments and diversions, and habitat destruction and degradation reduced the Gila topminnow to a mere fraction of its historic range.

By 1967, the drastic reduction in population size prompted the Service to list the fish as endangered. Today, the Coal Mine Canyon population is one of only a few populations of Gila topminnow known to exist.

"The watershed that includes Coal Mine Canyon is one of the best remaining natural Gila topminnow sites," said Doug Duncan, fisheries biologist with the Service in Tucson. "Acquiring this property, from a willing seller, helps protect the critically important native fish that rely on Coal Mine Canyon and its interconnecting waterways."

The property will also provide habitat for the lesser long-nosed bat, Mexican spotted owl and the western yellow-billed cuckoo.

Dolphin Brain Evolution Described for the First Time

The study, which will appear in the December issue of "The Anatomical Record," was done by Emory psychologist Lori Marino, a faculty member in the university's Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program, and her colleagues Daniel McShea from Duke University and Mark Uhen from the Cranbrook Institute of Science.

They investigated the fossil record of the toothed whales - dolphins, porpoises, belugas and narwhals - and found that many modern toothed whale species have brains that are larger than expected for their body sizes and second only to those of modern humans.

To investigate how the large brains of toothed whales changed over time, Marino and her team quantified and averaged estimates of brain and body size for fossil cetaceans using computed tomography, and analyzed these data along with those for modern toothed whales.

The only data previously available were a small handful of fossils that provided a very limited record.

Marino and her colleagues spent four years gathering the data and tracking down fossils at The Smithsonian Institution and other museums. A total of 66 fossil crania were scanned and measured. This subset was added to brain and body weight data from 144 modern cetacean specimens for a total sample of 210 specimens representing 37 families and 62 species.

Their work produced the first description and statistical tests of the pattern of change in brain size relative to body size in cetaceans over 47 million years. They found that encephalization level increased in two critical phases in the evolution of toothed whales.

The first increase occurred with the origin of toothed whales from the ancestral group Archaeoceti nearly 39 million years ago, and was accompanied by an increase in brain size and a decrease in body size.

This change occurred with the emergence of the first cetaceans to possess echolocation, Marino says.

The second major change occurred in the origin of the superfamily Delphinoidea - oceanic dolphins, porpoises, belugas and narwhals - about 15 million years ago. Both increases probably relate to changes in the animals' social lifestyle, Marino says.

In addition to their large brains, toothed whales have demonstrated behaviors previously only ascribed to humans and great apes. These abilities include mirror self-recognition, the comprehension of artificial communication systems based on symbols and abstract concepts, and the learning and intergenerational transmission of behaviors that have been described as cultural.

The study is available online via Wiley InterScience at http://www.interscience.wiley.com/ar.