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Widespread contamination of fish in U.S. lakes and reservoirs

2009-11-11T10:49:00.001+05:30

Salt Lake. Photo:Bobjgalindo/WikimediaA new EPA study shows concentrations of toxic chemicals in fish tissue from lakes and reservoirs in nearly all 50 U.S. states. For the first time, EPA is able to estimate the percentage of lakes and reservoirs nationwide that have fish containing potentially harmful levels of chemicals such as mercury and PCBs.

"These results reinforce Administrator Jackson's strong call for revitalised protection of our nation's waterways and long-overdue action to protect the American people," said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Water."EPA is aggressively tackling the issues the report highlights. Before the results were even finalised, the agency initiated efforts to further reduce toxic mercury pollution and strengthen enforcement of the Clean Water Act – all part of a renewed effort to protect the nation's health and environment."

The data showed mercury concentrations in game fish exceeding EPA's recommended levels at 49 per cent of lakes and reservoirs nationwide, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in game fish at levels of potential concern at 17 per cent of lakes and reservoirs. These findings are based on a comprehensive national study using more data on levels of contamination in fish tissue than any previous study.

Burning fossil fuels, primarily coal, accounts for nearly half of mercury air emissions caused by human activity in the U.S., and those emissions are a significant contributor to mercury in water bodies. From 1990 through 2005, emissions of mercury into the air decreased by 58 per cent. EPA is committed to developing a new rule to substantially reduce mercury emissions from power plants, and the Obama Administration is actively supporting a new international agreement that will reduce mercury emissions worldwide.

The study also confirms the widespread occurrence of PCBs and dioxins in fish, illustrating the need for federal, state and local government to continue efforts to reduce the presence of these harmful chemicals in our lakes and reservoirs and ensure that fish advisory information is readily available.

It is important that women of child-bearing age and children continue to follow the advice of EPA and the Food and Drug Administration on fish consumption as it relates to mercury. This study is also a strong message to state and local governments to redouble their efforts in looking for opportunities to reduce mercury discharges, as well as developing fish advisories, especially to reach those in sensitive and vulnerable populations.

Results from the four-year National Study of Chemical Residues in Lake Fish Tissue show that mercury and PCBs are widely distributed in U.S. lakes and reservoirs. Mercury and PCBs were detected in all of the fish samples collected from the nationally representative sample of 500 lakes and reservoirs in the study. Because these findings apply to fish caught in lakes and reservoirs, it is particularly important for recreational and subsistence fishers to follow their state and local fish advisories.

EPA is conducting other statistically based national aquatic surveys that include assessment of fish contamination, such as the National Rivers and Streams Assessment and the National Coastal Assessment. Sampling for the National Rivers and Streams Assessment is underway, and results from this two-year study are expected to be available in 2011. Collection of fish samples for the National Coastal Assessment will begin in 2010.

Water evaporates from the climate change negotiating text

2009-11-06T00:36:00.001+05:30

The Stockholm International Water Institute joined governments, NGOs and United Nations agencies this week in calling on negotiators working to develop a climate change deal in Copenhagen later this year to recognise the critical role of water in climate change adaptation.

Participants in a special Water Day event on Tuesday called for recognition that water is the primary way that climate change will impact people, society and ecosystems, due to predicted changes in its quality and quantity.

The way that water is managed in and between countries will be a critical component for the success of any efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change, according to the Stockholm International Water Institute. It will also be a vital consideration for many mitigation activities, including hydropower, agriculture and forestry projects.

However, negotiators meeting this week in Barcelona for the last round of UN climate talks before a big conference in Copenhagen next month are working on negotiating texts that have no reference to water and its management as tools for climate change adaptation.

“It is imperative that negotiators recognise the crucial importance of wetlands and freshwater as key factors in any climate adaptation plan,” said Denis Landenbergue, WWF International’s Manager of Wetlands Conservation. “To ignore the role of water is to cripple any climate change adaptation plans.”

Landenbergue said he encouraged negotiators to follow in the steps of their colleagues from the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Last year, they adopted a resolution promoting the conservation and proper management of wetlands and their natural resources – including water – as key requisites in national climate change mitigation and adaptation plans.

Previous negotiating texts discussed in Bonn and Barcelona contained clear references to proper land and water resource adaptation as key to stemming the effects of climate change. However, a streamlined text being discussed this week lacks any direct reference to water, even in sections about climate change impacts.

"Let me be very clear. There is no development without water,” said Pasquale Steduto, Chair, UN-Water and Service Chief, Food and Agriculture Organisation. “There is no food security without water. There is most likely also no energy security without water. Water is the primary medium through which climate change influences the Earth's ecosystems and therefore people's livelihoods and well-being. If water is not further recognised in adaptation strategies and plans, we are making a big mistake."

"Even with the best mitigation strategies, water related effects of climate change will come,” said Anders Berntell, Executive Director, SIWI. “The challenge for many nations is how to adapt. Climate Change is in effect Water Change, since it will be through water that the changes will be realised first and foremost."

Many developing countries already are beginning to experience the devastating impacts of climate change on the water cycle.

If precautions are not taken, this may lead to an increase in conflicts related to water availability and distribution. Extreme weather events leading to drought and floods, as recently witnessed in Kenya and the Philippines, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change, and are likely to become the norm' in coming decades.

Water-conserving irrigation strategies minimise overwatering, runoff

2009-11-05T20:44:00.000+05:30

Overhead irrigation system used to irrigate the three-gallon container-grown landscape shrubs in the experiment. Photo: Aaron WarsawContainer-grown woody ornamentals thrive with daily water use irrigation regimen

Conserving water and reducing the environmental impact of runoff are two of the most important issues confronting container nursery operations. Current regulations and laws in five states limit water consumption by container nurseries, and some states also limit nutrient concentrations in runoff. Excessive runoff from container plants often results from poor irrigation efficiency; in some cases as little as 13 per cent to 26 per cent of overhead irrigation is retained in the container.

When runoff is not properly managed, water, fertilisers, and other agricultural chemicals can end up in surrounding water resources, with the potential for environmental contamination. Facing predictions of increased water costs, lower water availability, and increasingly stringent legislation, nursery owners have a keen interest in implementing irrigation practices that conserve water and reduce runoff without adversely affecting crop quality.

Aaron L. Warsaw, R. Thomas Fernandez, Bert M. Cregg, and Jeffrey A. Andresen of Michigan State University published a research experiment in HortScience that investigated whether irrigation scheduling based on daily water use (DWU) – the combined loss of water from plant transpiration and substrate evaporation – could conserve water without negatively impacting plant growth. The researchers set out to determine the effect of scheduling irrigation according to DWU on water conservation and plant growth, determine DWU and water use efficiency (WUE) of several types of common container-grown woody ornamentals, and evaluate the effect of irrigation volume on substrate soluble salt levels.

Fernandez explained the significance of the experiment, remarking; "Applying irrigation based on plant demand or daily water use is a key concept in water conserving irrigation scheduling. However, scientific information regarding the water use of woody ornamentals is limited. Quantifying the DWU of a wide range of container-grown woody ornamentals will allow various species and cultivars to be categorised by water use so those with similar water uses can be grouped together, thus minimising overwatering and excess runoff."

Ten different woody ornamental plants were grown in containers in 2006 and 2007, and five in 2008. Overhead irrigation was applied in four treatments: a control irrigation rate, irrigation scheduled to replace 100 per cent DWU per application, irrigation alternating every other application with 100 per cent replacement of DWU and 75 per cent DWU, and irrigation scheduled on a three application cycle replacing 100 per cent DWU followed by two applications of 75 per cent DWU. Irrigation applications were separated by at least 24 hours during the experiment.

Daily water use was calculated by measuring the difference in volumetric moisture content 1 hour after irrigation and just prior to irrigation the following day. Species were classified as low, moderate, and high water users with six low, five moderate, and 13 high water users in the study.

According to the study, "scheduling irrigation according to plant DWU substantially reduced the amount of irrigation applied compared with a control for 23 of the 24 species of container-grown ornamentals evaluated in this experiment while producing larger or the same sized plants for all species."

The authors note that the best DWU treatment to use will depend on a number of factors. The ideal irrigation regimen should provide the most economical balance between crop returns and water management concerns; the cost of water, type of irrigation system, and programming capabilities of the system should all be considered when deciding which regimen to use.

"For example, a nursery in close proximity to a large urban area in a state where water use and runoff are highly regulated may elect to irrigate at a slight deficit using either the 100-75 or 100-75-75 irrigation schedules to minimise water extraction and runoff. However, using deficit or DWU irrigation techniques requires monitoring of soluble salts, which, although not found in our study, may build up under these regimes depending on climatic factors."

Robot fish could monitor water quality

2009-11-02T23:02:00.001+05:30

Michigan State University assistant professor of zoology Elena Litchman. Photo: G.L. Kohuth, Michigan State UniversityMichigan State University scientists developing biomimetic probes

Nature inspires technology for an engineer and an ecologist teamed up at Michigan State University. They're developing robots that use advanced materials to swim like fish to probe underwater environments.

"Fish are very efficient," explained Xiaobo Tan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. "They can perform very efficient locomotion and manoeuvring in the water."

Robotic fish – perhaps schools of them operating autonomously for months – could give researchers far more precise data on aquatic conditions, deepening our knowledge of critical water supplies and habitats.

Tan and Elena Litchman, an assistant professor of zoology based at MSU's Kellogg Biological Station on Gull Lake in Kalamazoo County, recently won funding from the National Science Foundation to integrate their research.

"The robotic fish will be providing a consistent level of data that hasn't been possible before," Litchman explained. "With these patrolling fish we will be able to obtain information at an unprecedentedly high spatial and temporal resolution. Such data are essential for researchers to have a more complete picture of what is happening under the surface as climate change and other outside forces disrupt the freshwater ecosystems. It will bring environmental monitoring to a whole new level."

The robotic fish will carry sensors recording such things as temperature, dissolved oxygen, pollutants and harmful algae. Tan also is developing electronics so the devices can navigate and communicate in their watery environment.

"This project will greatly advance bio-robotic technology," Tan said. "The project is very practical and we are designing the fish to be inexpensive so they can be used in various applications like sampling lakes, monitoring aquafarms and safeguarding water reservoirs."

The robotic fish might detect toxic algal blooms, for example.

"As air temperature increases, the lakes and reservoirs also heat up," Litchman said. "Increasing water temperature creates strong stratification within the various layers of the water and this may lead to increased growth of harmful algae. Some of these algal blooms create poor conditions for fish and exude toxins that also endanger people."

To mimic how fish swim and manoeuvre, Tan builds "fins" for robotic fish with electro-active polymers that use electricity to change shape. Similar to real muscle tissue, ion movements twist and bend the polymer when voltage is applied. The effect works in reverse, too – slender "feelers" could signal manoeuvring circuits in a sort of electro-active central nervous system. Infrared sensors also could be used for "eyes" to avoid obstacles.

The robots will communicate wirelessly with a docking station after surfacing at programmed intervals and could similarly be linked to other robotic fish for coordinated manoeuvres or signal relay. Global positioning system technology and inertial measurement units will allow precise navigation.

It's not big, but it's a keeper: A 9-inch prototype now swimming in Tan's laboratory tank is modelled on the yellow perch by John Thon, a member of the research team who teaches art at nearby Holt Junior High School. The device isn't strong enough to resist stiff currents, so for now must be confined to relatively still waters. Future versions will incorporate the ability to change buoyancy to assist locomotion and manoeuvre.

UN organisation targets land tenure for the first time

2009-10-29T23:00:00.002+05:30

Unravelling the land tenure issueLand ownership laws a key instrument in fighting hunger

UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has begun widespread consultations over the first ever international guidelines on governance of tenure to land and other natural resources such as water supplies, fisheries and forests.

The consultations and negotiations, responding to requests from the international community and from governments, will take more than a year to complete.

They will involve governments, the private sector, poor farmers, indigenous groups, local authorities, academia and independent experts and will be led by a secretariat based at FAO headquarters.

“Secure access to land is seen as a key condition to improving food security of some of the world’s poorest people,” said Paul Munro-Faure, the Chief of the Land Tenure and Management Unit of FAO.

“FAO is taking the lead in this exercise because secure land access is the best safety-net for the poor, and because good governance of land is a necessary condition for secure land access and land tenure rights”.

Laws ignored

Although most FAO member nations have rules to protect farmers and forest dwellers, as well as domestic and foreign investors, from being thrown off their land or having their land seized arbitrarily, laws are often ignored or badly enforced.

“Competition for land and other natural resources is increasing due to population and economic growth, foreign direct investment for large scale food production, demands for biofuels and urban and industrial expansion,” said Alexander Müller, Assistant Director General of FAO’s Natural Resources Department.

“A shrinking natural resource base increases competition as land is abandoned because of degradation, climate change and violent conflicts,” he said. “Without responsible governance, growing demands for land threatens to foster social exclusion as the rich and powerful are able to acquire land and other natural resources at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.”

Weak governance is a cause of many tenure-related problems and hinders economic growth because of a reluctance to invest, from both large and small players.

"It also affects the sustainable use of natural resources, causing environmental degradation and condemning people to a life of hunger and in the worst scenarios can cause conflict and war,” he said.

Women vulnerable

Women, the disabled, illiterate and elderly are particularly vulnerable to having the land they farm arbitrarily seized as they often lack legal and social rights, or where those rights do exist are powerless to enforce them.

The work done by FAO and many other international partners has shown that there is a growing and widespread interest in an international instrument to improve governance of tenure of land and other natural resources.

The voluntary guidelines are intended to provide practical guidance to states, civil society and the private sector on responsible governance of tenure.

The guidelines will provide a framework and a point of reference that will allow government authorities, the private sector, civil society and citizens to judge whether their proposed actions and the actions of others constitute acceptable practices.

Germany, together with IFAD, Finland and GTZ are providing funding with UN agencies (UN-Habitat, UNDP), IPC, the International Land Coalition, the International Federation of Surveyors and many others closely supporting and collaborating with the initiative.

The guidelines will also steer a path for governments trying to cope with the growing trend of large-scale foreign investments for food and biofuels, as well as for investor countries with limited water and arable land.

Soil moisture and ocean salinity satellite ready for launch

2009-10-29T22:24:00.001+05:30

SMOS Credits: ESA - P. CarrilA new European Earth observation satellite will be launched in the early hours of Monday morning (2 November 2009) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

The European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture & Ocean Salinity (SMOS - pronounced SMOSS) satellite aims to measure both moisture levels in the Earth's soils and the saltiness (salinity) of the surface waters of the world's oceans from space for the very first time. British scientists and engineers have been involved in the mission from the start.

Global measurements of salinity and soil moisture will improve our understanding of how water is transported around the Earth, and how it circulates around the oceans, and lead to more accurate weather forecasts and climate simulations.

Professor Meric Srokosz from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton – who was part of the international team that first proposed the mission in 1998 – said, "The temperature and salinity of the water in the oceans determine its density, variations in which are important in driving ocean currents. We've been making salinity measurements from ships for many years, but with SMOS we will be able to get a global picture every few days."

"The oceans play a major role in the climate system and possible future changes in currents are important as the oceans interact with the atmosphere, taking up, releasing and re-distributing heat and freshwater. These interactions are key processes affecting both weather and climate," he added.

Professor Robert Gurney from the University of Reading and the National Centre for Earth Observation, who is working on the mission, said, "SMOS will give us global measurements of soil moisture for the very first time. The mission itself is very challenging because it is the first of its type, and allows us to look at a key area of the planet's water cycle. Soil moisture is important for understanding and predicting floods and droughts, and for predicting the future climate."

Dr Phil Newton, NERC's Director of Science Delivery, said, "The great advances in understanding weather, climate and environmental change promised by a successful SMOS mission cannot be achieved by single European nations acting alone. The European Space Agency provides an essential framework for pooling our intellectual, technological and financial resources, so making possible this sort of big science."

The launch of SMOS comes during the build-up to the crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. Director General of the British National Space Centre (BNSC) Dr David Williams said, "SMOS is an important mission with key UK involvement. Satellites such as SMOS are vital for predictions of how our climate is changing and British scientists and engineers are world leaders in using data from space to improve our understanding of the Earth. The recently-opened ESA research facility at Harwell in Oxfordshire will reinforce the UK's focus on climate change research."

SMOS is the second of ESA's Earth Explorer missions and follows the successful launch of the GOCE (Gravity field and steady state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite earlier this year.

Green parking helps environment friendly study

2009-10-28T22:02:00.000+05:30

EPA’s New green parking lot allows scientists to study permeable surfaces that may help the environment

Paved parking lots and driveways make our lives easier, but they often create an easy pathway for pollutants to reach underground water sources and alter the natural flow of water back into the ground. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a study that will investigate ways to reduce pollution that can run off paved surfaces and improve how water filters back into the ground.

EPA is testing a variety of different permeable pavement materials and rain gardens in the parking lot at the agency's Edison, N.J. facility, which houses offices and its laboratory. Most major sources of pollution going into our waterways are well-controlled, but pollution runoff from hard surfaces remains a complicated problem.

"Runoff from parking lots and driveways is a significant source of water pollution in the United States and puts undo stress on our water infrastructure, especially in densely-populated urban areas," said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou.

"By evaluating different designs and materials, this study will help us develop strategies to lessen the environmental impacts of parking lots across the country and make our communities more sustainable."

This summer, EPA replaced a 43,000-square-foot section of the parking lot at its Edison facility with three different types of permeable pavement and planted several rain gardens with varying vegetation for the study. Over the next decade, EPA will evaluate the effectiveness of each pavement type and the rain gardens in removing pollutants from storm water, and how they help water filter back into the ground. The parking lot will be functional during the study to accurately evaluate how the different types of pavement handle traffic and vehicle-related pollution like leaking oil.

Storm water runoff is generated when precipitation from rain and snow flows over land or impervious surfaces, like parking lots or rooftops, and does not readily flow back into the ground. As the runoff flows over the land or impervious surfaces, it accumulates debris, chemicals, sediment or other pollutants that could adversely affect water quality if the runoff discharged is not properly treated.

This study is part of an effort by EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory to evaluate permeable pavement as it relates to storm water management practices on a national scale. While the installation of permeable pavement systems has become more prevalent, there is a lack of full-scale, outdoor, real-world permeable pavement research projects.

EPA also recognises the potential of rain gardens as a green infrastructure management tool to lessen the effects of peak flows on aquatic resources. While local governments and homeowners are building many of these systems, relatively few studies have quantified the ability of rain gardens to allow the ground to better absorb and filter storm water, which reduces peak flows.

Geologists studying groundwater arsenic levels empower women, children

2009-10-23T22:26:00.004+05:30

Photo: Kansas State UniversityA Kansas State University geologist and graduate student are finding that the most important tools in their fieldwork on groundwater arsenic pollution are women and children armed with pamphlets and testing kits.

"When going into a foreign land, you need the common people's help, support and understanding of the work you are doing," said Saugata Datta, a K-State assistant professor of geology. Datta's research examines arsenic levels in the groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.

In his quest to understand how and why the naturally occurring arsenic gets into groundwater, Datta is helping Bengalis identify contaminated water sources so they can make more informed decisions about where to dig wells as they look for cleaner water. At K-State, Datta is joined by Andrew Neal, a master's student in geology from Byron, Ga.

"We are targeting the women and children 13 to 15 years old, because they are the most available people, more so than the men of the family," Datta said. "These women are not formally educated, but when it comes to this type of suffering, they have a huge voice and they can really articulate the message very clearly to their neighbours and their own families."

The researchers give women and children information about how sediment traits like colour and texture may indicate arsenic contamination. They also arm them with arsenic testing kits to use when wells are being drilled in their communities. If these water testing kits indicate high levels of arsenic, they can send a sample to a laboratory in the city for further testing before more contaminated water is distributed to the community. These tests are being done for both shallow and deep aquifers in those districts.

Although much research and action has been done to mitigate arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, the researchers said the process has been slower in India.

"They are very nice people in West Bengal, but when you talk to them you see that they are very frustrated," Neal said. "They want to have some way of knowing how they can get rid of this problem. They want to know where to get clean water to drink so their kids don't get sick."

Datta said that some of the wells that the researchers tested have 30 times more arsenic than is accepted by the World Health Organisation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Datta said the effects of arsenic in groundwater aren't apparent immediately but rather build up over time. It causes skin lesions and skin cancer that spreads to other parts of the body. It can lead to paralysis and organ failure.

"Technically this is a natural source of pollution," Datta said. "The major hypothesis is that the Himalayan river systems that feed the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta have been carrying down sediments that are the major source of arsenic. These sediments in the form of specific minerals and in the right environmental conditions trigger the release of arsenic into the groundwater."

The researchers suggest that as the arsenic-rich water enters the river, the chemistry causes it to precipitate and adhere to iron-bearing minerals in the sediments.

In effect, they said, the sediments form an "iron curtain" to keep the arsenic out of surface water in the river. But recycling of these arsenic-laden sediments to the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta aquifer may lead to further groundwater contamination.

Datta is collaborating with Karen Johannesson at Tulane University and John F. Stolz at Duquesne University. Results of studies by Datta and Columbia University researchers in the Meghna River in Bangladesh appeared Oct. 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Neal presented their research at the Geological Society of America meeting Oct. 18-21 in Portland, Ore.

Stanford moves aggressively to cut energy use, reduce carbon impact

2009-10-22T13:00:00.004+05:30

In an effort to tackle the threat of global climate change head on, Stanford University has developed an ambitious, long-range, USD250 million initiative to sharply reduce the university's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Detailed designs for the plan - drawn up after two years of engineering study - are beginning now.

Changes outlined in the Energy and Climate Plan could reduce the campus carbon impact by as much as 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, far exceeding the aggressive goals of California's landmark AB 32 Global Warming Solutions Act.

While the initial phases of the plan rely on aggressive energy conservation and major changes to the campus heating and cooling scheme, even more greenhouse gas reductions may be possible through the use of renewable electricity and other energy management technologies now being explored.

The Energy and Climate Plan, presented to the Stanford Board of Trustees Oct. 12, is one of the most ambitious carbon-reduction programmes of major U.S. universities. It includes higher-than-required energy standards for new buildings, major retrofitting of existing buildings, a significant transformation of the campus energy plant, and programs to teach students, faculty and staff how to cut back on their energy use.

"At Stanford, we're taking steps to reduce greenhouse gases through improved efficiency both in consumption and generation of energy," said Stanford President John Hennessy. "Our goal is both to lower our energy costs and to lower our carbon emissions, which is the right step for Stanford and for our planet."

A team of campus faculty and facilities operations experts, headed by Joe Stagner, the university's executive director of the department of sustainability and energy management, worked on the climate and energy plan for two years. After a painstaking study of campus energy use involving hour-by-hour readings for a year, they came to a surprising conclusion.

Unexpectedly, they discovered that over half the university's heating demands could be met with heat that is already being removed from buildings by the campus cooling system. Such a reuse of energy would cut the amount of natural gas burned for heating purposes dramatically, reducing energy costs as well as emissions of greenhouse gases.

Reconfiguring the university's heating and cooling scheme, despite the USD250 million price tag, would save money over the next four decades. Energy, water, and other operating cost savings are expected to be about USD639 million from 2010 to 2050, after repayment of the initial capital investment.

When discussion of the plan began, "We said, 'We're going to figure out the best business case. It's not going to rely on future technology,' " said Jack Cleary, Stanford's associate vice president for land, buildings and real estate. "This was really taking a look at what the research supports. It's a solution that's based entirely on fact."

Taking a long-term view is key, Stagner said.

The energy-reduction plan revolves around this fact: Campus cooling systems do their job by using chilled water to remove unwanted heat from buildings. For years, that unwanted heat has been piped away from the buildings in the form of warm water, only to be discharged into the air through evaporative cooling towers at the central plant.

But studies by Stagner and his team indicate that if the water were not sent to the cooling towers, 70 per cent of that lost heat could be recovered from the water and immediately reused to heat buildings. That's enough spare heat to take care of half of the campus heating needs. The result is that much less natural gas would be burned to warm offices, classrooms, dormitories and laboratories.

Such a system is possible where campus buildings are being cooled and heated at the same time. That's often the case at Stanford, in part because of its mild Mediterranean climate, and also because research facilities make extensive use of refrigeration.

As an additional secondary effect of this "regeneration" project, the elimination of the cooling towers would cut campus water use by about 18 per cent, Stagner said.

This simultaneous heating and cooling provides the opportunity for the transfer of excess heat, but capturing and distributing the heat will require construction digging across campus. Most buildings are now heated by steam; for the new system to work, the steam will be replaced with hot water, requiring the replacement of underground pipes over the next five to 10 years.

This conversion from steam to hot water provides another significant opportunity for energy efficiency. Because of the high temperatures and pressures in the steam pipelines coming from the central energy plant, they are expensive to operate and maintain, and allow about 12 per cent of the energy to leak out.

Converting the steam distribution system to a hot water system will greatly reduce operating costs and cut energy leaks to less than 4 per cent.

Similar conversions are now taking place in many parts of the world for the same reasons, from the city of Munich in Germany to Auburn University in Alabama, providing valuable information to Stanford on the best ways to plan and execute such a major effort.

The project also will bring changes to the university power grid. Stanford's Cardinal Cogeneration plant, which burns natural gas both to create steam heat and generate electricity for the campus, will shut down in a few years under the new energy plan. Instead, electricity will be purchased from PG&E or, if state regulators allow "Direct Access" to reopen, directly from other providers. Direct Access would allow Stanford to control its electricity supply, balancing cost and carbon emission as required to meet university greenhouse gas reduction goals over the long term.

If the university instead purchases its electricity only from PG&E, significant additional greenhouse gas reductions could still be accomplished as PG&E moves to increase the amount of renewable electricity within its portfolio to 33 per cent by 2020, as required by current state law. The cost of green energy, however, and whether it will be supported by government subsidies, remains an issue.

The heat recovery programme is an extension of existing Stanford efficiency efforts. New buildings, for example, are constructed to be 30 per cent more energy efficient than required by code. The signature building of that endeavor is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building, which uses interior atriums to guide hot air up and out, and windows that open at night to let the cool air in.

Much of the carbon reduction envisioned by the Stanford Energy and Climate Plan can be realised in a few years, as soon as the pipes and equipment needed for the hot-
water cooling system are installed.

"It will inspire people; it will set an example of what's possible," said Jeff Koseff, co-director of Stanford's Woods Institute for Environment. "I think that's part of the university's mission, to show people the way."

Study shows water shortages in southeast US

2009-10-22T11:50:00.001+05:30

A new study by Columbia University climate experts has determined that the drought that caused water shortages in the southeastern United States in 2007 and 2008 was not unprecedented in severity, but in fact a “typical event.” The researchers concluded that the resulting water shortages were actually due to explosive population growth in the region.

Between 1990 and 2007, the state of Georgia’s population leaped from 6.5 million to more than 9.5 million, an increase of nearly 50 per cent over just 17 years. “Despite attempts to blame this water crisis on Mother Nature, intrusive regulations, or endangered species, this study clearly identifies the true culprit,” said Randy Serraglio, conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The culprit is us: a rapidly growing human population with unsustainable consumption habits.”

When Lake Lanier reservoir, the foundation of Atlanta’s water supply, shrank to historic lows in the midst of the drought, Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue led the charge to avoid the uncomfortable reality of unsustainable population growth. Calling the drought “manmade,” he sought to halt or severely restrict water releases from Lake Lanier reservoir, directly threatening numerous aquatic species downstream, including endangered mussels and sturgeon. The crisis triggered litigation and inflamed decades-old tensions into a full-blown water war involving the states of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.

“The Columbia research shows that while the drought was a natural event, the water shortages were indeed caused by humans,” said Serraglio. “This is what happens when you have a dramatically increasing population relying on the same limited supply of water. Unfortunately, it is usually other species that pay the price for our inability to responsibly manage growth and consumption.”

In July 2009, a federal judge ruled that Atlanta, where water demand is projected to double over the next 30 years, must find another source of water, and made the following observation: “Too often, state, local, and even national government actors do not consider the long-term consequences of their decisions. Local governments allow unchecked growth because it increases tax revenue, but these same governments do not sufficiently plan for the resources such unchecked growth will require. Nor do individual citizens consider frequently enough their consumption of our scarce resources, absent a crisis situation….”

“No one should be lulled into complacency by recent heavy rains in the region,” said Serraglio. “When the natural cycle of drought returns — as it certainly will — water shortages will return with it, unless bold steps are taken to reduce consumption and control population growth.”

Helping to secure Australia’s groundwater future

2009-10-19T16:01:00.000+05:30

The Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Water, the Hon. Dr Mike Kelly AM MP, has announced AUD2.1 million in funding for three new projects to better manage Australia’s groundwater whilst launching National Water Week 2009 at Parliament House in Canberra.

Dr Kelly said, “The theme for this year’s National Water Week is ‘Securing Our Water Future’ and this is particularly appropriate when it comes to Australia’s groundwater management. Groundwater makes up approximately 17 per cent of Australia's accessible water resources and accounts for over 30 per cent of our total water consumption.Yet this precious resource is neither understood nor managed as well as it needs to be.

“The first project that I am announcing today will help secure our groundwater quality. The Rudd Government has allocated AUD1.8 million to assess the vulnerability of Australia’s coastal groundwater resources to seawater intrusion. Seawater intrusion occurs when seawater is drawn into a coastal aquifer, and is usually caused by excessive levels of groundwater extraction.”

This project will improve our understanding of the risk of seawater intrusion to coastal groundwater systems, especially where there is continuing or planned groundwater pumping.

Dr Kelly said, “As we increasingly tap into groundwater reserves to supplement declining surface water supplies, we need to ensure that we do not harvest these resources faster than they are replenished.

“Accordingly, I am announcing AUD250,000 to assess and improve Australia’s groundwater licensing, metering and extraction estimation arrangements and techniques. Effective metering of groundwater use is critical to managing impacts on groundwater dependent ecosystems, nearby groundwater users and connected surface water resources, and is vitally important in many catchments and irrigation areas.

“A further AUD75,000 will be used to scope a decision support system that could improve assessment and response times for groundwater trades.

The National Water Commission has funded these projects under its National Groundwater Action Plan. Project details are available on the National Water Commission website.

Plan to retool and reinvigorate clean water enforcement program

2009-10-15T23:45:00.003+05:30

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has announced at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing that the agency is stepping up its efforts on Clean Water Act enforcement.

The Clean Water Action Enforcement Plan is a first step in revamping the compliance and enforcement program. It seeks to improve the protection of water quality in the United States, raise the bar in federal and state performance and enhance public transparency.

“The safety of the water that we use in our homes – the water we drink and give to our children – is of paramount importance to our health and our environment. Having clean and safe water in our communities is a right that should be guaranteed for all Americans,” said Administrator Jackson. “Updating our efforts under the Clean Water Act will promote innovative solutions for 21st century water challenges, build stronger ties between EPA, state, and local actions, and provide the transparency the public rightfully expects.”

The plan announced today outlines how the agency will strengthen the way it addresses the water pollution challenges of this century. These challenges include pollution caused by numerous, dispersed sources, such as concentrated animal feeding operations, sewer overflows, contaminated water that flows from industrial facilities, construction sites, and runoff from urban streets.

The goals of the plan are to target enforcement to the most significant pollution problems, improve transparency and accountability by providing the public with access to better data on the water quality in their communities, and strengthen enforcement performance at the state and federal levels. Elements of the plan include the following:

•Develop more comprehensive approaches to ensure enforcement is targeted to the most serious violations and the most significant sources of pollution.

•Work with states to ensure greater consistency throughout the country with respect to compliance and water quality. Ensure that states are issuing protective permits and taking enforcement to achieve compliance and remove economic incentives to violate the law.

•Use 21st century information technology to collect, analyse and use information in new, more efficient ways and to make that information readily accessible to the public. Better tools will help federal and state regulators identify serious compliance problems quickly and take prompt actions to correct them.

Last July, Administrator Jackson directed EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance to develop the plan in response to data showing that the nation’s water quality is unacceptably low in many parts of the country.

True costs of Belo Monte dam in Brazilian Amazon revealed

2009-10-13T12:42:00.001+05:30

The true costs of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Project, planned for the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, have been revealed in a new independent review by a panel of 40 specialists. The panel found that the dam would have serious consequences for the region, its inhabitants, and ecosystems of the Amazon rainforest.

The panel - comprised of scientists from major Brazilian research institutions - reviewed the project's environmental impact assessment and delivered a 230-page report to Ibama, the Brazilian government's environmental agency, on October 1.

One of the most alarming impacts identified by the specialists is that Belo Monte Dam would require diverting more than 80 per cent of the flow of the Xingu, with impacts to fish, forests and navigation along a 100-km stretch of the river inhabited by indigenous communities. Impacts to fisheries would be severe, with the project causing the death of millions of fish along the river's Big Bend.

The dam would cause the loss of biodiversity along the Xingu including the possibility of species extinction such as the zebra pleco and sheep pacu fish. The experts also found that the number of people who would be directly affected by the dam is likely far greater than the 19,000 indicated in official studies. More than 40,000 people could be affected.

Belo Monte Dam would be the world's third largest dam project. However, despite having an installed generating capacity of 11,231 MW, it would generate as little as 1,000 MW during the three to four month low-water season.

Francisco Hernandez, electrical engineer and co-coordinator of the panel, said: "The expert panel reports highlight the folly of Belo Monte. According to private investors, the project could cost up to USD19 billion, making it an extremely inefficient investment given that the dam will generate only a fraction of its installed capacity during the dry season. And this doesn't even take into account the enormous social costs and devastation the project would cause. No one knows the true costs of Belo Monte."

Glenn Switkes, Amazon Programme Director for International Rivers, said, "A major part of the energy generated by Belo Monte will likely go to fuel the expansion of aluminum smelters and other mining and metals processing plants in the Amazon. Brazil has less destructive and cheaper energy alternatives - the Brazilian people don't need Belo Monte."

The panel also questioned the project's technical feasibility. According to Hernandez, "Belo Monte's engineering viability is doubtful, since the project would be extremely complex - consisting not only of a single dam, but in reality a series of large dams and dikes that would interrupt the flow of water over an extensive area, requiring moving a volume of earth and rocks on the scale of that excavated for the building of the Panama Canal."

The project is the largest in the Brazilian government's Growth Acceleration Programme, which focuses on large-scale infrastructure projects, yet there has been little public debate regarding Belo Monte and its impacts. Last week, Brazil's energy minister called critics of the dam "demoniac forces that are trying to pull Brazil down." Brazil's environmental licensing agency, Ibama, is currently evaluating the project and says it should be able to issue a provisional license soon. The government plans to offer the concession for the project by December.

UNDP launches "Water Governance Programme for Arab States"

2009-10-12T16:55:00.000+05:30

Key water issues including socio-economic and environmental concerns, uncertainty due to climate change as well as conflicts related to shared water resources were at the forefront of discussions of the High-level Partners Meeting on Water Governance, which the League of Arab States hosted today.

The meeting brings together key stakeholders in the water sector, including Arab Water Ministers, high level officials as well as regional and international development partners to deliberate over two days the main challenges facing the water sector and the need for joint action to complement and strengthen ongoing work in the sector.

The Regional Bureau for Arab States of the UN Development Programme (UNDP-RBAS) together with the League of Arab States organised the meeting to mark the official launch of its newest regional initiative, the “Water Governance Programme for Arab States (WGP-AS).”

The programme, initiated in January of this year, in Cairo, aims to support regional efforts to improve the effective management and use of scarce water resources in Arab States by addressing socio-economic and environmental dimensions of water governance within the integrated water resources management context.

“The water challenge in the Arab States is on top of the League’s list of priorities,” asserted Amre Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States in his address to the meeting. “The newly established Council of Arab Water Ministers will be instrumental in enhancing inter-Arab cooperation on vital water issues and in formulating a united Arab vision on how to deal with the challenges we face on this front. We welcome the launch of UNDP’s initiative to provide technical and policy support to Arab efforts in water governance through this new programme (WGP-AS),” he added.

Water stress is accelerating due to increasing demand for water from an ever growing Arab population, and climate change is compounding the problem. The Millennium Development Goals set a target to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. According to the UNDP global Human Development report of 2006, some of the Arab States will miss this target by 27 years.

“The Arab Human Development report 2009, which we have launched recently, presents compelling evidence that the burgeoning water scarcity problem in the Arab region presents a serious threat to Human security,” commented Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa, Regional Director of UNDP-RBAS, who added “This region has 5 per cent of the world’s population and only 1 per cent its fresh water resources. It is the most water-stressed region in the world. By 2025, the per capita share of renewable water resources in the region will be lower than the world-agreed extreme water poverty levels. The WGP-AS, presents a unique opportunity to address such vital developmental issues and to optimise coordination and partnerships in this crucial sector.”

The preparatory phase of WGP-AS, supported by the Government of Japan, worked closely with relevant decision-making bodies in the region to promote the adoption of an integrated water resources management approach and conducted a comprehensive mapping of related needs. The programme is designed to address regional water challenges resulting from geographic and climatic conditions; lack of peace and security; population growth and increasing water demand; inadequate access to clean water and sanitation; insufficient capacity and limited resources; in addition to deficiencies in data and monitoring tools. WGP-AS will provide support in the form of technical and policy advice; capacity strengthening, knowledge management and catalytic funding for project development and implementation.

Hosny Khordagui, Director of WGP-AS emphasised: “establishing innovative partnerships and platforms of collaborative work on water issue in the region rank high on the agenda of WGP-AS. The importance of this meeting lies in providing a platform for greater coordination among the existing network of key partners active in the water sector in the region.” He further elaborated, “Not only does the meeting provide an opportunity to enhance communication flows, synergies and the sharing of successful experiences, but as well, we hope it will facilitate the forging of new partnerships that complement and maximise the impact of on-going work in this sector for the benefit all countries in the region.”

In addition to leading partners supporting WGP-AS including Japan, Finland and Sweden Khordagui pointed out that new partnerships are being established with the private sector to support public awareness of water governance issues in the region.

The right climate for green energy in Mozambique

2009-10-09T21:02:00.001+05:30

Photo for representation purpose onlyLight or water? That’s a choice Southern Africa could face in a few years if current plans to build more large dams on the Zambezi proceed.

A new report reveals that Mozambique's plans to build the USD2 billion Mphanda Nkuwa Dam on the Zambezi River will mostly serve South Africa’s needs, while exporting social and environmental impacts in Mozambique, and ignoring climate-change warnings that show major hydrological problems ahead for Southern Africa. The Zambezi, Africa's fourth largest river, is expected to be especially vulnerable to climate change. Millions of people depend upon it for their livelihoods.

In a new report being released in Johannesburg on October 11 and in Maputo on October 19, author Mark Hankins, a Nairobi-based renewable energy expert, describes how Mozambique could develop a domestic electricity supply system based on market-ready, clean-energy options that are low-cost, rapidly implementable, and well-suited to the geographical distribution of local demand.

The plan focuses on distributed renewable energy and energy efficiency that would meet the energy needs of the far-flung parts of the country that do not now have access to electricity. Most of the technologies described in the report are also well-suited to meeting the growing need of urban areas already tied to the grid. Currently, 80 per cent of Mozamibue's population does not have access to electricity.

“It’s time we begin to address our own energy needs, and in ways that will protect our important natural treasures like the Zambezi River,” said Anabela Lemos, the director of the Maputo-based NGO Justica Ambiental (JA!). “Clean, decentralized energy for all should be the top priority, not damming the Zambezi to support energy-hogging industry and cities in South Africa.” JA! is the sponsor of the report.

Mark Hankins said, “As long as the Mozambique’s power planners focus on the huge consumer next door, they will never adequately meet the needs of their own country, which remains largely off-grid and unconnected. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Hankins says that in Mozambique, “The average electricity per capita is 450kW hours per year per capita, but when you remove the energy consumed by the aluminum smelter at Mozal, it goes down to 50KW per capita – among the lowest use in the world. South African consumption is about 50 times higher.”

Hankins says there is also huge potential for cost-effective energy efficiency measures in South Africa that could greatly reduce the need or new big dams on the Southern African grid. “Right now, Mozambique is supporting wasteful electricity use south of its border. In fact, South Africa has the potential to quickly save 3 to 5 times Mozambique’s entire consumption with energy efficiency measures. Demand-side management, primarily in South Africa, must be considered as an alternative to endless investment in megadams and coal fired power plants.”

He says another benefit is long-lasting employment for locals. "Green power creates more jobs than coal and hydro, and safer jobs."

The report notes there is significant potential for green biomass with five large sugar farms that could contribute considerable bagasse from sugar cane waste to biomass fired electricity. Converting sugar waste into biofuel could put another 60MW on the grid that could extend electrification to rural areas.

The report details the nation’s potential for solar, wind, small-scale hydro, and biomass. It describes key energy efficiency measures that could help Mozambique reduce its energy load going forward. And it describes steps needed to help its energy sector develop these kinds of decentralised energy systems.

Hankins notes: “Eskom is the fifth largest power company in the world and South Africa has been very successful in giving people access to electricity. Green energies tend to be more expensive, but they create jobs and don’t damage the environment. In Kenya electricity costs three times what it does in South Africa. Getting South Africans off cheap electricity is like getting Americans off cheap gasoline.”

“Cheap electricity is usually dirty electricity, but at some point you still have to pay for the costs of ruined river basins and polluted air and water,” says JA's Lemos.

Waterbourne diseases feared after Sumatra earthquake

2009-10-05T12:01:00.003+05:30

Heavy rains in Sumatra could lead to the spread of waterbourne diseases following the earthquake which has killed hundreds of people, ActionAid has warned.

ActionAid’s Hanizam Ghani in Banda Aceh said: “Parts of Sumatra are experiencing heavy rains which are worsening an already dreadful situation. There is a real fear that unhygienic conditions could lead to the spread of waterborne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera.”

With houses, hotels and hospitals destroyed, the death toll is expected to rise sharply,

Medical services need to reach people in time to avoid long-term disabilities from initial injuries. Special needs of women and children such as security and nutrition must be considered.

Hanizam Ghani continued: “Our experience of previous earthquakes such as Indonesia, Kashmir and Gujarat shows that what people need immediately are tents, food, water and medical supplies. But as well as meeting physical needs, psychological care is also vital following a traumatic event like this.”

ActionAid said its assessment teams will soon be in the area and aim to work with local people on the ground as part of the rescue and relief operations.

More corn for biofuels would hurt water

2009-09-29T16:24:00.001+05:30

More of the fertilisers and pesticides used to grow corn would find their way into nearby water sources if ethanol demands lead to planting more acres in corn, according to a Purdue University study.

The study of Indiana water sources found that those near fields that practice continuous-corn rotations had higher levels of nitrogen, fungicides and phosphorous than corn-soybean rotations. Results of the study by Indrajeet Chaubey, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Bernard Engel, a professor and head of agricultural and biological engineering, were published in the early online version of The Journal of Environmental Engineering.

"When you move from corn-soybean rotations to continuous corn, the sediment losses will be much greater," Chaubey said. "Increased sediment losses allow more fungicide and phosphorous to get into the water because they move with sediment."

Nitrogen and fungicides are more heavily used in corn crops than soybeans, increasing the amounts found in the soil of continuous-corn fields. Sediment losses become more prevalent because tilling is often required in continuous-corn fields, whereas corn-soybean rotations can more easily be no-till fields, Engel said.

"The common practice is there is a lot of tillage to put corn back on top of corn," Engel said. "Any time we see changes in the landscape, there is a potential to see changes in water quality."

Chaubey said there was no significant change in the amount of atrazine detected in water near fields that changed to continuous-corn rotations. The commonly used pesticide sticks to plant material and degrades in sunlight, keeping it from reaching water through runoff or sediment.

U.S. Department of Agriculture data has shown that corn acreage has increased with the demand for ethanol, with 93 million acres in 2007, an increase of 12.1 million acres that year.

"As we look forward here, if corn stover is going to be a preferred bio-feedstock, we would see more corn acreage being planted," Engel said. "We need to know how that will affect water quality."

The USDA and Purdue funded the study. Chaubey and Engel are expanding their research to Iowa, Tennessee and Arkansas. That three-year study will include impacts of various biofeedstock, such as switch grass, and developing management practices to reduce sediment, nutrient and pesticide losses.

APAC consumers feel bottled water safer, cleaner

2009-09-29T12:57:00.001+05:30

Photo: Verne EquinoxConsumers in Asia Pacific (APAC) countries drink bottled water because it is "safer and cleaner than drinking tap water," according to a study by Frost & Sullivan.

The research, Voice of the Customer: Perceptions and Behaviors toward Bottled Water Markets, found that taste, affordable price and availability are the other features that influence purchasing decisions.

The study measured, among other things, the brand awareness, brand perceptions, current usage and satisfaction levels of bottled water and water filter consumers within Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

Fifty per cent of APAC respondents consume bottled water daily, whilst twenty-five per cent consume bottled water twice weekly. The country analysis shows more consumers in Indonesia and Thailand consume bottled water regularly, compared to other APAC consumers.

The bottled water market in the APAC region is dotted by many players who are strong and may dominate in their own countries, but not across the APAC region.

Aqua, Samsadoo and Singha lead for unaided awareness, whilst Amshore, Nestle and Aqua have the best brand perceptions. In the country analysis, Amshore and Aqua are most consumed in Malaysia, whilst Nestle and Singha have strong brand reputations among consumers in Thailand. Global food/beverage brands such as Coca Cola and Nestle are at least present in most of the APAC countries surveyed, albeit in small percentages.

Although Aqua is the brand of bottled water known by most APAC consumers, Amshore is the brand of bottled water most regularly consumed, although this is heavily influenced by consumers in Malaysia and Singapore. Overall, brand perception results closely align with consumption results and consumption by brand is localised as well.

Overall, the APAC region is aligned regarding the top-three bottle water features – quality of water, taste, and affordable price. However, South Korean consumers rate affordable price as slightly less important. Brand name is of minimal importance among APAC consumers.

"These results suggest manufacturers should promote their brands surrounding the purity/source and quality of their bottled water products. However, only a small proportion of APAC consumers actually think their tap water is unsafe to drink so bottled water manufacturers should temper marketing campaigns and avoid aggressive advertising utilising scare tactics. Given other important attributes stated by APAC consumers, manufacturers could also consider focusing on the taste and convenience of bottled water" analyzes Fowler.

Satisfaction with the top regularly consumed bottled water brands is fairly high. Satisfaction among consumers of Singha is highest with 96 per cent of respondents very/somewhat satisfied. The survey also showed types of bottled water consumed are not aligned throughout APAC as consumers in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand prefer mineral water, while consumers in Indonesia, Australia, and South Korea prefer spring water.

Initiative to improve Mississippi river water quality

2009-09-25T16:03:00.005+05:30

A new USD320 million, four-year initiative announced by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has the potential to significantly improve drinking water quality for tens of millions of Americans in the Mississippi River Basin, according to Environmental Defense Fund.

Among the most significant challenges facing the Mississippi River is runoff of excess nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, from farming operations in the upper part of the river basin that contributes to both local water quality problems and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative will leverage funding in the 2008 farm bill for voluntary conservation programmes administered by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) with state, local, and private resources. It will help farmers in 12 states improve the management of their lands during Fiscal Years 2010-2013 to benefit water quality in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The states include: Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

"We commend USDA for utilizing the 2008 farm bill's conservation provisions and funding in a way that holds tremendous promise for addressing one of the nation's biggest environmental priorities: improving the health of the Mississippi River," Sara Hopper, agricultural policy director for Environmental Defense Fund. "We look forward to working with the agency to make this initiative a success."

The USDA conservation programmes - the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI), the Conservation Innovation Grants programme, and the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Programme - engage partners in innovative, focused efforts to improve the management of cropland and livestock operations in watersheds that are currently delivering significant excess nutrients to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. These partners include state and local governments, producer associations and conservation and environmental organizations. CCPI, through which USDA will provide USD200 million of the USD320 million for the Mississippi River Basin Initiative, was authorized by Congress for the first time in the 2008 farm bill with the strong support of Environmental Defense Fund and other conservation and farm organizations.

"Among the most promising of the solutions is the targeted use of incentives to help farmers reduce the loss of excess nutrients from their fields in the areas of the basin where it will produce the biggest benefit to water quality," concluded Hopper. "The USDA's Mississippi River Basin Initiative represents the kind of approach that is required to start making real progress in efforts to improve the health of the Mississippi River."

How good are tests for E. coli in streams?

2009-09-23T13:27:00.002+05:30

Unexpected research findings show resource managers and researchers may have to rethink how they determine if water will make people sick.

Bacteria commonly used to indicate health risks in recreational waters might not be so reliable after all. Pathogenic E. coli were pervasive in stream-water samples with low concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria.

This is one of the unexpected findings from recent research that may affect how researchers and resource managers rely on indicator bacteria to determine if water is contaminated with bacteria that can make people sick. Although harmless themselves, fecal indicator bacteria such as nonpathogenic forms of E.coli, enterococci, and fecal coliform bacteria have long been used as an easy-to-measure surrogate to determine if pathogens are present.

“We saw little relation between pathogenic E. coli and fecal indicator bacteria criteria for recreational waters,” said Joseph Duris, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Michigan Water Science Center scientist who led the study. “This is intriguing because we rely on indicator bacteria to tell us whether or not the water could make people sick,” said Duris, whose study was published in the September-October issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality.

For this study, scientists collected water samples from 41 river sites in Michigan and Indiana from 2001-2003 and measured fecal indicator bacteria concentrations and markers of pathogens. Scientists grouped samples on whether or not they met recreational water quality criteria. The frequency of pathogen detection was compared between the sample groups.

Among the key findings:

Gene markers for pathogenic E. coli were pervasive in water from Michigan and Indiana streams even in water with low concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria.

Water samples exceeding the fecal coliform criteria for recreational water were significantly more likely to contain two of the tested pathogen markers. But for the three other tested pathogen markers, there was no significant difference between the groups.

There was no difference in the frequency of pathogen marker occurrence between groups based on exceeding the E. coli or enterococci indicator organism recreational water quality criteria.

In natural waters, low concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria, such as fecal coliform bacteria, E. coli and enterococci are presumed to indicate the absence of fecal inputs, and therefore, the absence of fecally-derived pathogens. However, the distribution of pathogenic bacteria in river systems and the relation of these bacterial pathogens to fecal indicator bacteria concentrations is poorly understood.

“We will need a more intensive study to determine what might be driving the relationship between fecal indicator organisms and pathogenic E. coli occurrence,” said Duris, whose team of USGS microbiologists completed the study with funding provided in part by the USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program.

The USGS Michigan Water Science Center is involved in several other studies investigating the relation between pathogen occurrence and fecal indicator bacteria criteria. National studies to assess the impacts of non-point source pollution are underway.

Two regional studies are ongoing to investigate the occurrence of other bacterial pathogens including Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter, and the pathogenic types of E. coli. Factors that could influence the occurrence of these pathogens in river systems, such as hydrology, season, land-use, and source are being investigated for relation with pathogen occurrence.

Turning stormwater into drinking water

2009-09-17T11:12:00.002+05:30

Schematic representation of the processes for turning stormwater into drinking water. Photo: CSIRO Land and WaterThis is your chance to taste what science can do for you. CSIRO scientists bottled Recharge, pure drinking water that was once stormwater.

The water was captured in the City of Salisbury, on the Northern Adelaide Plains in South Australia. It was stored under Salisbury in a porous limestone aquifer 160m below ground.

When recovered it was found to meet drinking water health standards.

“This is an exciting demonstration of the value of stormwater and the drinking water that can be produced from it by using a combination of natural treatment processes and engineered methods,” CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship Urban Water Stream Leader Dr Peter Dillon said.

“The stormwater was first treated by passing it through a reed bed or wetland,” Dr Dillon said.

“This allows particles to settle. It was then injected via wells into a limestone aquifer for storage and months of natural slow filtration through the aquifer.”
After recovery the water was rigorously tested in National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA)-accredited laboratories.

For extra safeguard and aesthetic quality the water was aerated, filtered through an activated carbon filter and it underwent microfiltration and ultraviolet disinfection.

‘Recharge’ complies with the same health standards as tap and bottled water.
Dr Dillon said the water demonstrates that drinking water can be produced from stormwater, and that the concept can be part of a suite of diversified water supply options.

“Compared to other common alternative supplies stormwater harvesting is cheaper, energy-efficient and has a small carbon footprint.”

“It also avoids the economic, social and environmental costs of building new dams for water storage and shows the value of urban aquifers.”

CSIRO scientists are continuing to test the robustness of the concept to ensure water can be produced that consistently meets drinking water health standards.
Recharge was produced by CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Flagship and the City of Salisbury.

Chloride level harmful to Northern US aquatic life

2009-09-17T09:53:00.000+05:30

Levels of chloride, a component of salt, are elevated in many urban streams and groundwater across the northern US, according to a new government study.

Chloride levels above the recommended federal criteria set to protect aquatic life were found in more than 40 per cent of urban streams tested. The study was released by the US Geological Survey (USGS). Elevated chloride can inhibit plant growth, impair reproduction, and reduce the diversity of organisms in streams.

The effect of chloride on drinking-water wells was lower. Scientists found chloride levels greater than federal standards set for human consumption in fewer than 2 per cent of drinking-water wells sampled in the USGS study.

Use of salt for deicing roads and parking lots in the winter is a major source of chloride. Other sources include wastewater treatment, septic systems, and farming operations.

“Safe transportation is a top priority of state and local officials when they use road salt. And clearly salt is an effective deicer that prevents accidents, saves lives, and reduces property losses,” said Matthew C. Larsen, USGS Associate Director for Water. “These findings are not surprising, but rather remind us of the unintended consequences that salt use for deicing may have on our waters.

Transportation officials continue to implement innovative alternatives that reduce salt use without compromising safety.”

This comprehensive study examines chloride concentrations in the northern US covering parts of 19 States, including 1,329 wells and 100 streams.

Land use matters

Chloride yields (the amount of chloride delivered per square mile of drainage area) were substantially higher in cities than in farmlands and forests. Urban streams carried 88 tons of chloride per square mile of drainage area. Forest streams carried about 6 tons of chloride per square mile.

Only 4 per cent of the streams in agricultural areas had chloride levels that exceeded the recommended federal criteria set to protect aquatic life (compared to more than 40 per cent of urban streams). Overall, 15 per cent of all streams had chloride levels exceeding the criteria.

Chloride concentrations in shallow groundwater (not used for drinking) were 16 times greater in urban areas than in forests, and 4 times greater in urban areas than in agricultural areas.

Highest levels in streams in the winter

In urban streams, the highest levels of chloride (as great as 4,000 parts per million, which is about 20 times higher than the recommended federal criteria) were measured during winter months when salt and other chemicals are used for deicing.

Increases over time

Increases in chloride levels in streams during the last two decades are consistent with overall increases in salt use in the US for deicing.

Increasing chloride yields are linked to the expansion of road networks and parking lots that require deicing, increases in the number of septic systems, increases in wastewater discharge, and increases in saline groundwater from landfills.

Sources can vary locally

Chloride in ground and surface waters comes from many sources including the use and storage of salt for deicing roads, septic systems, wastewater treatment facilities, water softening, animal waste, fertilisers, discharge from landfills, natural sources of salt and brine in geologic deposits, and from natural and human sources in precipitation.

More water usage by timber plantations

2009-09-16T11:24:00.002+05:30

This Hawaiian forest is made up mostly of native ohia trees, which grow more slowly and use up to 2.5 times less water than exotic timber plantations.Photo: Aurora KagawaVegetation in an area may determine its usable water supply, ecologists find

Ecologists have discovered that timber plantations in Hawaii use more than twice the amount of water to grow as native forests use. Especially for island ecosystems, these findings suggest that land management decisions can place ecosystems – and the people who depend on them – at high risk for water shortages.

"Scientists used to think that forests in same environments use water in the same way," says Lawren Sack of The University of California at Los Angeles, who coauthored the study with graduate student Aurora Kagawa in the September issue of the ESA journal Ecological Applications. "Our work shows that this is not the case. We need to know the water budget of our landscape, from gardens to forests to parks, because water is expensive."

Although forests like these Hawaiian timber plantations can be valuable for their contributions to human society, such as fibre, fuel and carbon sequestration, they are dominated by non-native vegetation.

Kagawa, Sack and their colleagues compared the water use of trees in native forests, composed mostly of native ohia trees, with water use in timber plantations containing exotic eucalyptus and tropical ash. The team inserted heated and unheated probes into the trees' trunks and monitored the temperature differences between the two as sap flowed past them. This technique allowed them to determine the rate of sap flow through the tree. A faster flow rate means that the tree is using more water.

"The way plants grow determines how fast they can take up water," says Sack. "Plants open their leaf pores, called stomata, to take in carbon dioxide. But when these pores are open, the plants also lose water. Like a wet towel on a clothesline, the insides of the leaf can dry pretty quickly." Since fast-growing exotic plants typically have more open leaf pores than native, slow-growing trees, Sack says, they lose more water in less time.

The researchers found that individual eucalyptus and tropical ash used three and nine times more water, respectively, than individual ohia trees. Since each of these forests is dominated by these three species, the team was able to scale up their results to predict how much water a whole section of forest uses. Even when including other native plants that use water quickly, such as tree ferns, the tropical ash forests still used water at a rate of 1,800 kilograms of water per square meter per day, more than 2.5 times that of the other forests.

The researchers found, however, that the non-native eucalyptus plantation used similar amounts of water as native forest. This is because water use depends on the specific tree species, stand organisation and age, and location and climate, says Sack.

Hawaii's non-native tree plantations were originally intended for timber production and to conserve the islands' top soil. In the early part of the 20^th century, ranches and plantations producing sugar cane and pineapple covered much of Hawaii's agricultural areas. But years of these practices led to increased soil erosion, and fast-growing non-native trees were planted to hold the soil in place and to preserve water by preventing runoff. At the time, however, the importance of biodiversity and the dangers of exotic species weren't as clear as they are today.

Especially with climate change rapidly changing many ecosystems, Sack says, it's vital that land management plans recognise and integrate the fact that water use by plants can affect the clean water supply.

"When making decisions to restore a native forest or preserve or establish a plantation, we need to do a more detailed valuation that includes the cost of water they're using," he says. "There are a lot of reforestation projects underway to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, where people are prioritising fast-growing trees. But we shouldn't let alien plants sweep over native forests. Our findings make a clear case that we need to know how much water landscapes are using and conserving."

Water quality in orbit

2009-09-14T10:10:00.002+05:30

University of Utah chemist Lorraine Siperko (right) works on a water quality monitoring system while experiencing weightless conditions at the top of an arc-shaped flight path by a NASA C-9 research plane nicknamed the "vomit comet." Photos: NASA.University of Utah tests H2O disinfection on International Space Station

Space is not a fun place to get a stomach bug. To ensure drinking water is adequately disinfected, University of Utah chemists developed a two-minute water quality monitoring method that just started six months of tests aboard the International Space Station.

"Now they bring water back on the space shuttle and analyse it on the ground. The problem is there is a big delay. You'd like to be able to maintain iodine or silver [disinfectant] levels in real time with an onboard monitor," says Marc Porter, a University of Utah professor of chemistry and chemical engineering.

The new method involves sampling space station or space shuttle galley water with syringes, forcing the water through a chemical-imbued disk-shaped membrane, and then reading the color of the membrane with a commercially available, handheld color sensor normally used to measure the color and glossiness of automobile paint.

The sensor detects if the drinking water contains enough iodine (used on U.S. spacecraft) or silver (used by the Russians) to kill any microbes. The International Space Station has both kinds of water purification systems.

"Our focus was to develop a small, simple, low-cost testing system that uses a handheld device, doesn't consume materials or generate waste, takes minimal astronaut time, is safe and works in microgravity," says Porter.

University of Utah chemist Lorraine Siperko experiences weightlessness during a flight aboard a NASA "vomit comet" aircraft. Siperko made several such flights to test a new system designed to monitor drinking water quality aboard spacecraft. The system includes a commercially available color sensor (blue device in foreground) that checks the level of disinfectant in drinking water. The water quality monitoring system was delivered to the International Space Station in August for six months of tests.As a spinoff, the test is being modified so it can quickly check water for the level of arsenic, a natural pollutant in places like Bangladesh and the U.S. Southwest and Northeast, and it can be adapted to quickly, inexpensively test for other pollutants.

"It is a general method," says Lorraine Siperko, a senior research scientist in Porter's laboratory. "It could be used on the ground for testing all kinds of water contaminants such as arsenic, chromium, cadmium, nickel and other heavy metals."

The method is easy to use and much cheaper than existing tests, says Porter.

From the 'Vomit Comet' to the Shuttle to the International Space Station

The water-monitoring system fits in a pack the size of a small ice chest. It was launched Aug. 28 on space shuttle Discovery bound for the International Space Station.

The project is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Utah Science, Technology and Research (USTAR) economic development initiative and two universities where Porter worked previously: Arizona State and Iowa State. The project team now includes NASA, USTAR and the University of Utah, Iowa State University and Wyle Laboratories. Porter is a professor hired under the USTAR program.

During the past decade, the water quality monitoring method was developed and tested during about two dozen low-gravity flights on NASA's "vomit comet" research aircraft such as the KC-135 and C-9, which took off from Ellington Air Force Base in Texas. During a flight, each plane makes 40 parabola-shaped arcs through the sky, climbing steeply, then leveling and diving. Weightless conditions exist for about 30 seconds at the top of each arc.

Porter rode the KC-135 twice in 2002 and 2004, and became very motion sick. Siperko rode the C-9 five times in 2006 and 2007, developing and testing the water-quality monitoring technique, including how to remove drinking water samples from collection bags without excessive bubbles, which don't easily separate from water in weightless conditions. The handheld sensor and chemicals used in the testing process also were checked for reliability during the low-gravity plane flights.

Now, "the experiment is in space for the first time," Siperko says. "It's very rewarding and exciting to know that something you worked on is so important that NASA put it on the shuttle for a six-month test on the International Space Station."

Porter called the space station "the coolest place to do experiments."

On the space station, "once per month they will check the water for iodine and silver," Siperko says. "That data will be downloaded and relayed back to Earth, to Johnson Space Center" in Texas.

"We have teleconferences with them, and they will transfer the data to us electronically for us to look at," she adds. "That way we can judge if the experiment is working correctly. If any unforeseen problems arise, then we can advise them as to what we think might be the problem and how to correct it."

Keeping it clean in orbit

The project began a decade ago, before Porter joined the Utah faculty, when NASA sought proposals for disinfectant or "biocide" monitors to check the safety of drinking water on manned spacecraft.

"You can't sterilise water well enough to keep things from growing in it," Porter says. "Nature happens."

NASA uses iodine as a disinfectant on U.S. spacecraft. The Russians use colloidal silver, pure silver nanoparticles, some of which go into solution.

The problem for both iodine and silver is that microbes grow in the water if levels are too low. If levels are too high, iodine-treated water tastes bad and eventually might cause thyroid problems, and silver at excessive levels can turn the skin grayish blue.

Space station water now is sampled and returned to Earth for testing at intervals of months because "they don't have an acceptable onboard technique," Porter says.

He says the space station is a proving ground for technologies for longer manned flights to the moon and Mars, even though those flights are unlikely anytime soon due to high costs and other priorities.

Water for astronauts is carried into orbit and also produced on the space station as a byproduct of hydrogen and oxygen reacting in fuel cells. Disinfectants or biocides are added during flight, but actual levels in drinking water cannot be tested until samples are brought back to Earth. Porter says required biocide levels in drinking water are 0.1 to 1 part per million silver and 0.1 to 5 parts per million iodine.

How it works

To test whether drinking water is adequately disinfected, space station astronauts will collect galley water in sealed plastic bags, and then use syringes to remove some water from the bags and push it through a cartridge that contains a half-inch-diameter, polymer, porous-membrane disk impregnated with a chemical to detect either iodine or silver. The disks, known as "solid phase extraction membranes," capture either iodine or silver, depending on the chemical in the disk.

Next, the bottom half of the cartridge, which contains the disk, is placed against a German company's handheld "diffuse reflectance spectrometer," which shines light on the disk so it can read the disk's color in about two seconds. Porter says the device was developed to measure the reflectivity or gloss, and thus the quality, of finishes such as automotive paint, industrial surfaces, stainless steel and decorative metals.

Each handheld device, two are in the kit taken to the space station, weighs 1.1 pounds, runs on four AA batteries, has a readout screen and measures 7 inches by 3.7 inches by 3.2 inches.

To test for iodine, the disk is impregnated with PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone), a nontoxic chemical in contact lens cleaning solutions. The PVP reacts with iodine, and the intensity of the resulting yellow color reveals the concentration of iodine in the water.

To test for silver in water, the disk is imbued with DMABR, which is short for 5-(dimethylaminobenzylidene)rhodanine. A yellowish color indicates silver is absent, while flesh to brighter pink reveals how much silver is present.

"We can do this whole analysis in about two minutes on the ground or in space," Porter says.

Research to cool runoff to protect coldwater streams

2009-09-11T16:38:00.001+05:30

Photo: Wing-Chi PoonThe ocean of stormwater that flows off of the sun-baked urban landscape is packing heat, and trout are starting to feel it.

"When it rains, heat energy from rooftops and streets gets transferred to the runoff and is carried directly to storm sewers and to coldwater streams, raising the temperature," explains Anita Thompson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of biological systems engineering who works to mitigate stormwater problems.

"Species like trout have very specific temperature preferences, so increases in stream temperatures can be lethal," she adds.

Groundwater comes to the surface at about 51 degrees, and the area's trout species have acclimated to that, explains Scott Stewart, a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

"Runoff from the first part of a rainstorm could be 100 degrees, much warmer than what those fish have adapted to," says Stewart, who notes that brook trout, the most temperature-sensitive, can tolerate temperatures into the upper 60s.

The problem isn't just water temperature, but also volume, adds Jeremy Balousek, an engineer with Dane County's land and water conservation department.

"Many of these streams have a very low base flow, as little as 2 cubic feet per second. During a large storm, the runoff from an urban area might flow at 30 cubic feet per second," Balousek says. "If the runoff water is hot, it's going to raise the temperature of the stream."

About a third of Dane County lies in the watersheds of thermally sensitive streams. A developer who wants to build in one of those areas must first determine if there will be a thermal impact, and if so, have an approved plan to mitigate the problem, Balousek explains.

About 10 years ago, UW-Madison researchers began work on a computer model to help with such an evaluation. Thompson is now refining that model, making it more user-friendly, incorporating new data about runoff rates and volumes, and developing uniform criteria for using the model to ensure consistent results.

To collect data, she set up plots of asphalt and sod at the university's West Madison Agricultural Research Station, with sprinklers to simulate rainfall and probes to record runoff, temperatures of surface, runoff and rainwater, solar radiation and other information.

"The goal was to understand how much asphalt and sod heat up during the summer and how both of those surfaces transfer the heat to runoff," she explains.

She found that the asphalt surface in her plots got up to 133 degrees, while the runoff from that asphalt reached temperatures of about 108 degrees.

Thompson also collected data on a common mitigation practice, an underground rock-filled chamber, or crib, used to cool down stormwater. She built a miniature stone crib in her lab so that she could control water temperatures and flow rate.

She incorporated data from both experiments into the computer model, which builders can use both to predict temperatures of runoff and, if need be, determine the size of rock crib needed to cool it down. Thompson is now evaluating the model at a 30-acre development in Sun Prairie.

If she needs a reminder of why the work is needed, she can follow the runoff from that development to where it flows into Token Creek, one of the county's most threatened coldwater streams.

"Right now less than 10 percent of the surface in the Token Creek watershed is impermeable," says Balousek. "Projections show that by 2020, that could be up to 30 percent. Once you get over 10 percent impermeable surface you start to see degradation (of the streams). Our job is to mitigate those impacts."