And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MAY 19, 1999 Year to Date 7th Warmest Fire at Pilgrim Nuclear Plant San Francisco Bay Contains Dioxins, Furans, DDT Rethinking Needed to Cut Cost of Natural Disasters Rays from Sun Lamps, Sun Beds May be Carcinogens Idaho Groups Fear Water Contamination from Montana Mine New Satellite Instruments Improve Ozone Measurements Ants Controlled with New Attractant & Repellent Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999 For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may99/1999L-05-19-09.html AmeriScan: May 18, 1999 YEAR TO DATE 7TH WARMEST The year-to-date, January-April, was the seventh warmest January-April period in the lower 48 United States since records began in 1895, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported today. About 40 percent of the country averaged much warmer than normal, while near zero percent of the country averaged much cooler than normal. Preliminary precipitation data indicate that the year-to-date was the 47th wettest January-April on record for the lower 48. About two percent of the country was much wetter than normal for this period, while about four percent of the country was much drier than normal. This contrasts with the wettest January-April on record, which occurred just last year during the strong El Niño episode. For the year-to-date, January-April, 358 tornadoes have been documented. This ranks as the third most active year-to-date, behind the count of 373 recorded just last year. The most tornadoes observed during this same four-month period was 405 in 1991, while the fewest was 83 in 1987. During April 1999, 152 tornadoes were documented across the contiguous United States. The 47-year average for April is 111. The most tornadoes observed in the April record was 269 during the record outbreak month of April 1974, while the fewest was 20 in April 1987. Information on the year-to-date climate and on the climate of April are online at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/research/1999/apr/apr99.html * * * FIRE AT PILGRIM NUCLEAR PLANT A fire at the Pilgrim Unit I nuclear power reactor Tuesday night caused plant officials to declare an emergency before it was safely extinguished. Operated by Boston Edison Company, the reactor is four miles southeast of Plymouth, Massachusetts on the west coast of Cape Cod Bay. The fire in a main transformer occurred while the reactor was refueling, not producing power. During a test of the transformer, fire erupted, and the Plymouth Fire Department was called. Carbon dioxide was used for fire suppression, and no injuries were reported. The fire was extinguished within half an hour. No damage assessment has yet been released. * * * SAN FRANCISCO BAY CONTAINS DIOXINS, FURANS, DDT The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added dioxins, furans and the pesticides DDT, dieldrin and chlordane as high priorities to California's list of pollutants that are impairing water quality in San Francisco Bay. The chemicals are released during industrial and agricultural activities. The action is part of the EPA's larger decision to add 37 rivers and streams and 12 additional pollutants to the State Water Board's 1998 list of impaired waters in need of pollution control plans. The list includes 35 Bay Area creeks that are affected by the pesticide diazinon and Oakland's Lake Merritt, which has problems with low dissolved oxygen and excessive floating material. The EPA approved the state's list in November, which for the first time includes exotic species as a threat to the Bay. "It's time to get serious about dioxins and PCBs," said Felicia Marcus, EPA regional administrator. "This decision will focus federal and state attention on a series of pollutants that have been compromising San Francisco Bay and other critical California waterways for too long." These compounds include seven types of dioxin, 10 types of furans, and 12 types of PCBs. The state had already listed PCBs, but the EPA is setting a higher priority ranking for dioxin-like PCBs because they pose an unacceptably high health risk to people who eat fish from the Bay. The agency recently proposed a rule that would require a lower threshhold for dioxin discharges that companies would have to report as part of the Toxics Release Inventory, a federal community right-to-know program. The EPA is working with Bay Area environmental groups, other government agencies and the hospital industry to minimize hospital waste, which is linked to dioxin formation during incineration. The agency has set a number of technical standards for business and industry nationwide aimed at reducing dioxin discharges. * * * RETHINKING NEEDED TO CUT COST OF NATURAL DISASTERS The cost of natural hazards in the United States has averaged as much as $1 billion per week since 1989 and is expected to keep rising, according to a new study released today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. "The really big catastrophes are getting larger and will continue to get larger, partly because of things we've done in the past to reduce risk," said Dennis Mileti, who led the study team of 132 experts. The five-year, $750,000 study, "Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States," was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation's Engineering Directorate. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency also contributed funding. The study team was asked to evaluate what is known about natural hazards and come up with ways to reduce their social and economic costs. Mileti chairs the sociology department and directs the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Mileti advocates rethinking disaster planning. "For example, building a dam or levee may protect a community from the small and medium-sized floods the structures were designed to handle. But additional development that occurs because of this protection will mean even greater losses during a big flood that causes the dam or levee to fail." The 1994 Northridge earthquake in California was the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, at more than $25 billion. Japan's 1995 Kobe earthquake was the world's most expensive disaster, at $100 billion. * * * RAYS FROM SUN LAMPS, SUN BEDS MAY BE CARCINOGENS The National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will be reviewing three types of ultra-violet rays for their cancer-causing effects. UVA, UVB and UVC, the three wavelength groups of ultraviolet light found in sunlight and in artificial light from sun lamps and sun beds, will be reviewed for possible listing in the federal government's 10th Annual Report on Carcinogens, National Toxicology Program officials said today. The Report on Carcinogens is a Congressionally directed listing of known and reasonably anticipated human carcinogens. Its preparation is delegated to the National Toxicology Program (NTP) by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. NTP is the nation's major agency for toxicological testing and for developing and improving toxicological test methods. Additional substances to be considered for listing are: The fire retardant chemicals 2,2-bis-bromomethylpropanediol and 2,3-dibromo-1-propanol vinyl bromide, a chemical used in the making of flame-retardant synthetic fibers vinyl fluoride, used in the production of plastics two classes of dyes used in textiles, leather, plastic, paper, plastics and rubber: the dimethoxybenzidine dyes and the dimethylbenzidine dyes styrene-7,8-oxide, used in preparing fragrances and in some epoxy resins IQ, a substance found in cooked meat and fish beryllium and beryllium compounds, which will be reviewed for possible upgrading to "known human carcinogens" from the current listing as "reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens" Public comment and data relevant to the substances may be submitted by June 3 to: Dr. C. W. Jameson, NTP Report on Carcinogens, PO Box 12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. * * * IDAHO GROUPS FEAR WATER CONTAMINATION FROM MONTANA MINE Five conservation groups are urging Idaho's Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) to oppose the Rock Creek Mine in Montana because the groups fear violation of Idaho water quality standards. If permitted, the mine would dump up to three million gallons of polluted water every day into the Clark Fork River. The Clark Fork River is the main source of water for Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho's largest fresh-water lake. "This is a litmus test on Governor Kempthorne and his DEQ" said Scott Brown, state issues director for the Idaho Conservation League. "Idaho has the right to object to this discharge in Montana," said Brown. The request is based on information presented by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) which demonstrates that there will be a 7.6 percent increase in inorganic nitrogen and an 8.4 percent increase in phosphates at the state line. The mine would also cause measurable increases of the toxic heavy metals arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, manganese, selenium and zinc at the Idaho border, according to the MDEQ. This information was only recently made public and is found in the "Draft-Final Fact Sheet and Statement of Basis for Proposed Permit Limits." Both Lake Pend Oreille and the Clark Fork River in Idaho are designated as state Special Resource Waters and Idaho law says that "no new point source can discharge pollutants, to any water designated as a special resource waterÖor to the upstream segment of a special resource water." * * * NEW SATELLITE INSTRUMENTS WILL IMPROVE OZONE MEASUREMENTS A $91 million contract has been awarded to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation of Boulder, Colo., to develop a suite of satellite instruments that will significantly improve the accuracy of Earth's ozone measurements, Commerce Secretary William Daley announced today. The contract will be followed by others later this year and next year for development of a series of satellite instruments that will improve short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate prediction, Daley said. They will be part of the administration's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program, a key element of Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review initiative aimed at making government less costly, more efficient, and more responsive to public needs. Daley said the NPOESS program, once operational in the next decade, will save the taxpayers about $1.8 billion over its lifetime. * * * ANTS CONTROLLED WITH NEW ATTRACTANT & REPELLENT A new attractant and repellent mean double trouble for pest ants, including fire ants that infest southern states and are now showing up in California. This repellent relies on chemical scents repugnant to ants, discouraging them from entering certain areas or forcing them to leave. It also reduces reliance on insecticides. Many commercially available baits have oil or sugar-based formulas that attract either oil-loving or sugar-loving ants, but not both. The new patent-pending attractant, developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers, is attractive to multiple ant species. It can be used in combination with water-soluble toxicants to create a bait. This attractant degrades easily and has little environmental impact, researchers say. ARS entomologists conducted studies showing that the bait attracted imported fire ants, Argentine ants, Pharaoh ants, little black ants, carpenter ants, ghost ants, big-headed ants, little fire ants, acrobat ants and crazy ants. Many of these pest ants are problems both indoors and outdoors, and cause either agricultural, structural or other damage. The repellent could potentially be effective against pest ants in other parts of the world such as leaf-cutting ant species that can defoliate an entire citrus tree overnight, which are problematic in central South America. *************************************************************************** E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE *************************************************************************** Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
