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Saving Wild Iowa – The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation says it has embarked upon “the largest single private campaign” ever launched in the state for natural land protection.

Saving Wild Iowa

The goal of the new effort is to protect 15,000 acres of what’s left of “wild Iowa,” the foundation says.

At least 7,500 acres in the Bluffs country is on the foundation’s preservation wish list, including the Mississippi River blufflands and the Upper Iowa River.

The topography of the Upper Mississippi in northeastern Iowa is rugged with limestone and sandstone bluffs, deeply carved valleys, numerous caves, sinkholes, and springs that supply productive trout streams. Many streams in this karst region disappear into sinkholes, flow through caves and reappear as springs.

The foundation wants to safeguard about 6,000 acres in the Loess Hills of western Iowa as well as Iowa’s northern lakes. Iowa’s largest natural lakes stretch along1,500 acres of natural shorelines and wildlife areas, including the Iowa Great Lakes and Clear Lake.

It will cost at least $40 million to accomplish those protection goals, says the foundation.

The project got some recent help in the form of a $3 million grant for its ongoing work from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which protects wildlife areas around the United States.

This campaign accomplishes part of the Upper Midwest Wildlife Habitat Protection Initiative, the group says, and it is intended as a supplement, not a replacement, for the on-going work of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation across Iowa.

Anita O’Gara, the foundation’s vice president and director of development, says the Duke grant requires a dollar for dollar match of 5-to-1 but the natural heritage foundation wants to raise a 9-to-1 match in Iowa.

Partners include Ducks Unlimited, the Conservation Fund and five land trusts involved with the Bluffs Alliance.

California Red-Legged Frog Jumps into Court – Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today in federal district court in San Francisco seeking to overturn a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce protected habitat for the California red-legged frog.

California Red-Legged Frog Jumps into Court

The frog, dramatized in Mark Twain’s story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” is a California native once found from the central coast to the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The public interest law firm Earthjustice filed the California red-legged frog suit on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity against Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

At issue is an April 13, 2006 Endangered Species Act rule adopted by the service that reduced the critical habitat for the California red-legged frog from 4.1 million acres to about 450,000 acres.

The suit claims that the service agreed to revise the frog’s critical habitat rule as a result of a “closed-door settlement” between industry and the service that was approved over the objections of a coalition of conservation groups.

The California red-legged frog suit is one of 13 being filed today challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to properly designate and protect “critical habitat” areas for 13 endangered species in California, Oregon, New Mexico and North Carolina.

Today’s lawsuits challenge the slashing of 4,223,036 acres of critical habitat for the California red-legged frog, arroyo toad, three plants in California and four invertebrates in New Mexico, and the failure to consider critical habitat protection for four additional plants in California, Oregon and North Carolina.

The suits are part of broader effort by the Center to challenge political corruption harming 55 endangered species and over 8.5 million acres of wildlife habitat.

Lawsuits over six other species were filed in November.

The California red-legged frog’s critical habitat rule is one of several dozen species decisions that may have been manipulated by former Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald, who resigned in disgrace in May 2007.

Both the Inspector General and Government Accountability Office have ongoing investigations in political interference by MacDonald and others in Endangered Species Act decisions.

The lawsuit claims the service’s decision that over 3.5 million acres is not frog “critical habitat” is a “direct result of pressure by the Interior Department, in particular by former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald, to reduce protections for the frog for the benefit of private landowners, the livestock industry, and other special-interest groups, at the expense of the scientific integrity of the final rule.”

“The red-legged frog won’t survive unless we protect its habitat,” said Mike Senatore, senior counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity, “Julie MacDonald’s interference is inexcusable.”

“We’re headed back to court not only to protect Mark Twain’s celebrated jumping frog, but also to protect the scientific integrity of the Endangered Species Program,” said attorney Erin Tobin of Earthjustice.

In its complaint, the Center for Biological Diversity says, “The final critical habitat rule excludes over 200,000 acres based on an economic analysis that does not meaningfully consider nor analyze all of the likely benefits of designating such areas as critical habitat for the frog.”

Benefits of designating critical habitat ignored by the Service in the final rule include protection of ecosystem functions such as water filtration, erosion control, and climate and air quality control.

“Although members of the public repeatedly informed the Service of this error in public comments on the proposed rule, the Service did not consider many such benefits because the Service found that it was too ‘difficult’ to estimate their value,” the conservation group complains.

“The California red-legged frog, once common across the state, appears to have been the victim of politics,” said Tobin. “We urge the Department of the Interior to promptly revise the frog’s critical habitat and fix the mess created by Julie MacDonald and possibly others.”

The California red-legged frog, Rana aurora draytonii, is the largest native frog in the western United States, ranging in size from 1.5 to five inches long, but it is smaller than the introduced bullfrog, one of its biggest predators.

EPA Rejects California’s Greenhouse Gas Tailpipe Law – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has denied California’s request to impose greenhouse gas emissions limits on motor vehicles. It is the first time the EPA has ever denied a waiver request under the Clean Air Act, and California officials are already preparing their lawsuit.

EPA Rejects California’s Greenhouse Gas Tailpipe Law

California sought a waiver of federal standards as the state is entitled to do under the Clean Air Act so that the state could adopt stricter standards.

California’s law requires a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions standards from motor vehicles by 2016, while the federal government does not regulate greenhouse gas emissions at all.

The denial will trigger a lawsuit against the EPA, said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today.

“There is absolutely no legal justification for the Bush administration to deny this request,” he said. “Governor [Arnold] Schwarzenegger and I are preparing to sue at the earliest possible moment.”

Sixteen other states – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington – have adopted, or are in the process of adopting California’s emissions standards. Approval of California’s waiver would have meant that other states get approval automatically.

In rejecting California’s request, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said the energy bill signed into law by President Bush today is “a national solution” that is better than a “confusing patchwork of state rules – to reduce America’s climate footprint from vehicles.”

But the Energy Independence and Security Act does not regulate greenhouse gas emissions, although it does mandate a fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon in the year 2020.

The two policies differ in that the California Clean Cars Program would begin with model year 2009, a decade before the 35 miles per gallon standard in the energy bill kicks in.

“It is completely absurd to assert that California does not have a compelling need to fight global warming by curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cars,” said Brown.

State and local clean air officials today decried EPA’s denial of California’s request for a waiver. Executive Director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies Bill Becker said, “By refusing to grant California’s waiver request for its new motor vehicle standards to control greenhouse gas emissions, the Administration has ignored the clear and very limited statutory criteria upon which this decision was to be based. Instead, it has issued a verdict that is legally and technically unjustified and indefensible.”

Environmentalists are angry. Fred Krupp, president of the nonprofit Environmental Defense, called the denial “outrageous.”

“Doing nothing about global warming is bad enough – but going out of your way to block the leaders who are trying to solve this is an outrage,” said Krupp, adding that he will be working “with the rest of the environmental community to explore all legal avenues to fight this decision.”

The nonprofit Environment California said the EPA “has chosen to ignore the science behind global warming and the Clean Air Act and bowed to political pressure from automobile industry and their friends in the White House.”

“While President Bush signed into law fuel economy standards today, the two policies are not comparable with regards to global warming pollution reductions by 2020,” Environment California said in a statement.

“In fact, California will emit three times more global warming pollution per year by 2020 under the fuel economy standards signed into law today by President Bush, than it would have under the Clean Cars Program had the waiver been granted,” the organization said.

David Doniger, Climate Center policy director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said denial of the waiver will be damaging to the climate.

“The California standards are the single most effective step yet taken in the United States to curb global warming,” he said. “By blocking the California standards, the administration has stuck a thumb in the eye of governors from both red and blue states who have led the way on global warming by adopting these landmark rules.”

“Their right to do so has been affirmed by three federal court decisions this year, including the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant, just like any other,” Doniger said. “The new energy law signed by the president today explicitly preserves this Clean Air Act authority.”

EPA Administrator Johnson argues that California’s current waiver request is “distinct from all prior requests” because previous requests “covered pollutants that predominantly impacted local and regional air quality. Greenhouse gases are fundamentally global in nature,” said Johnson.

“These gases contribute to the challenge of global climate change affecting every state in the union,” Johnson said. “Therefore, according to the criteria in section 209 of the Clean Air Act, EPA did not find that separate California standards are needed to “meet compelling and extraordinary conditions.”

But Attorney General Brown argues that California does face compelling and extraordinary conditions.

There are 32 million registered vehicles in California, twice the number of any other state and cars generate 20 percent of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, and at least 30 percent of such emissions in California,” Brown said.

“If California’s landmark global warming law – and the corresponding 30 percent improvement in emissions standards – were adopted nationally,” he said, “the United States could cut annual oil imports by $100 billion dollars, at $50 per barrel.” Today, the price of oil hovers around $90 per barrel.

Light Bulbs to Light Trucks Efficiency Shapes New Energy Law – Congress on Tuesday passed a new energy bill and sent it along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House in a hybrid Prius car. Today President George W. Bush signed the measure, which includes the first increase in vehicle fuel economy standards in 32 years.

Light Bulbs to Light Trucks Efficiency Shapes New Energy Law

The House approved the bill, 314-100 on Tuesday. The Senate passed it last week by a vote of 86-8.

The bill mandates a fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon in the year 2020, and by the year 2012 the inefficient 100-watt incandescent light bulb will be history.

Signing the bill, President Bush said, “Today we make a major step with the Energy Independence and Security Act. We make a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure.”

“The bill I sign today takes a significant step because it will require fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel in 2022. This is nearly a fivefold increase over current levels,” the president said. “It will help us diversify our energy supplies and reduce our dependence on oil.”

The measure creates a 15 billion gallon Renewable Fuels Standard, RFS, for grain based fuels, which will be met primarily by corn based ethanol. It establishes a total RFS of 36 billion gallons by 2022, up from the current level of 7.5 billion gallons.

This RFS includes a one billion gallon requirement for biodiesel and requirements for cellulosic ethanol, made from non-food plant materials such as corn stalks, switchgrass, or wood waste from logging.

But a few hours before approving the energy bill, the House passed the 2008 omnibus spending bill that will direct $30 billion into subsidies for the nuclear power and coal industries.

The energy legislation is less ambitious than congressional Democrats wanted. An earlier version of the bill that faced a Bush veto included a $22 billion tax package that would have cut tax breaks for oil companies and handed financial perks instead to the renewable energy industry.

Still, Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, a Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, sees its value as “a piece of legislation that will be signed into law by the President and as such, it represents a glimmer of hope that we will be able to get beyond the gridlock that has afflicted us in far too many areas.”

“Its core is a series of requirements that will improve the energy efficiency of almost every significant product and tool and appliance that we use, from light bulbs to light trucks,” said Dingell.

“We are requiring a 40 percent increase in the fuel economy of our motor vehicles, and we are doing it in a way that gives manufacturers the flexibility they need to get the job done, while preserving American jobs,” he said.

But Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he could not support the legislation.

“I don’t oppose it out of spite, I don’t oppose it because we’re not in the majority. I oppose it because of what’s in it and what’s not in it,” Barton said.

“Let’s talk about what’s not in it. There is nothing in it for coal-to-liquids. There’s nothing in it for our domestic oil and gas industry. There is very little in it for the nuclear industry. So for all the conventional energy sources that fuel this great nation, this is basically a no-energy bill,” he said.

Barton said the measure would raise the cost of fuel, triggering a recession. “The cost of building our homes is going to go up because of all the new building code restrictions for so-called ‘green buildings’ in this bill. The cost of electricity is going to go up. The cost of manufacturing our automobiles and our trucks is going to go up.”

“The cost of appliances is going to go up because of all the new efficiency standards we’re putting in for appliances. And even the cost of light bulbs is going to go up. The light bulbs that light this chamber right now will be illegal when this bill becomes totally implemented. The incandescent light bulb that you can get for 90 cents or 50 cents at Wal-Mart is going to be outlawed,” said Barton. “That’s a cause for recession.”

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says the law does not go far enough.

“Some of the provisions we tried to include in the bill were blocked,” he said. “But advances in areas like renewable electricity and a forward-looking energy tax policy will not be blocked forever. Americans overwhelmingly favor these reforms. We will be back next year to vote on them, and we will keep up our advocacy until Congress finally catches up to the American people.”

Environmentalists too were disappointed in the bill except for the phase out of incandescent lightbulbs. “The lighting section of the energy bill is a bright light in an otherwise underachieving piece of legislation,” said Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers. “Along with the requirement that automobile fleets average 35 miles per gallon and building efficiency improvements, Congress took a very modest step in the right direction, but sold out to the oil and gas industries by approving huge subsidies to companies that are experiencing record profits.”

The bill requires that by 2012 to 2014, all light bulbs must use 25 to 30 percent less energy than they do today. Traditional incandescent light bulbs use almost 90 percent of the energy they use to produce heat, not light. The phase-in will start with 100-watt bulbs in 2012 and end with 40-watt bulbs in 2014. By 2020, bulbs must be 70 percent more efficient. Compact fluorescent bulbs already meet that efficiency standard.

Compact fluorescent pioneer Osram Sylvania, the maker of Sylvania lighting products, says the new law is expected to increase demand for energy saving lights, resulting in new products and lower prices.

“Osram Sylvania has advanced energy-efficient lighting technologies for more than 30 years,” said chief executive Charlie Jerabek. “We’re committed to money-saving, energy-saving products that help you light your space, protect your wallet and help save the planet. The new national lighting standards will encourage more innovation and more energy-efficient choices.”

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents the big automakers, expressed satisfaction with the new law. “This legislation will result in a 40 percent increase in fuel economy and 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from new automobiles, enhancing our energy security while at the same time addressing climate change,” the Alliance said today.

“This historic legislation would not have been possible without the efforts of auto workers, dealers, suppliers, user groups and industry allies in the business community – whose leaders and members participated in this process.”

Environmentalists say they will be back next year to lobby again for renewable energy.

“We handed Congress an ambitious agenda for clean energy at the beginning of this year, and this bill represents real progress in achieving cleaner cars, fuels, and appliances,” said Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We will continue to fight for the rest of our clean energy agenda when Congress returns, starting first with incentives for renewable electricity.”

“Even though Congress is making serious strides towards moving clean energy legislation, it’s clear from the omnibus bait-and-switch that we have not completely broken the hold that dirty, polluting industries have in Congress,” Wayland said.

“The reductions in global warming pollution from the energy bill could very well be wiped out by the new sources of pollution funded by the appropriations bill, such as liquid coal,” she said, “which creates twice as much carbon dioxide pollution as gasoline.”

Colorado Water District Ordered to Restore River – The Avondale Water and Sanitation District in Pueblo County, Colorado is in big trouble with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for illegally rerouting a river.

Colorado Water District Ordered to Restore River

The federal agency has ordered the Avondale district to restore the segment of the Arkansas River it re-engineered.

Avondale is located about 50 miles south of Colorado Springs and adjacent to the Pueblo Army Ordnance Depot where chemical weapons are stored.

Without the required permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the district constructed a channel 40 feet wide by 400 feet long through a sandbar in the Arkansas River and illegally discharged the dredged material on both sides of the new channel within the banks of the river.

The district also illegally constructed a berm across the existing channel of the river northwest of the Avondale Road bridge.

The Federal Clean Water Act prohibits discharges of dredged or fill material unless authorized by a Corps permit, but the district took these actions without a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, despite being informed by the Corps of the need to obtain a permit.

The EPA order requires the Avondale Water and Sanitation District to remove all unauthorized material placed into the river and to restore the river to pre-impact conditions.

Michael Risner, EPA Region 8 Legal Enforcement Director, said, “EPA is taking this action to protect Colorado rivers, wetlands and lakes and to provide deterrence against future violations of federal laws designed to protect valuable water resources.”

“The environmental impacts cited here could have been avoided if the district had followed the Corps’ guidance prior to commencing their activities,” Risner said.

The Arkansas River provides numerous functions and values, including aquatic and wildlife habitat, flood attenuation, groundwater recharge, recreation and aesthetics, the EPA said.

Placing dredged or fill material in creeks, streams, rivers, or wetlands can have adverse impacts on fish and wildlife habitat and their food sources, such as plants or insects.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit is required before performing any work that results in discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, which include lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands.

Bacteria Keep Undersea Methane Out of the Atmosphere – Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara. About half of these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but until now scientists have not known what happens to this dissolved gas.

Bacteria Keep Undersea Methane Out of the Atmosphere

Today, researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara said they have discovered that only one percent of the dissolved methane escapes into the air – a finding that is good news for the climate.

Methane heats the Earth 23 times more than the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, when averaged over a century, scientists have found.

The potency of methane and the fact that thousands of seep fields exist in the sea floor around the world makes fate of methane bubbles from seeps an important environmental question.

David Valentine, associate professor of Earth Science at UC Santa Barbara who led the study, said the one percent finding enabled the authors to conclude that most of the methane is transported below the ocean’s surface – away from the seep area.

Then it is oxidized by microbial activity. “We showed that the currents control the fate of the gas and supply it to bacteria in a way that allows them to destroy the methane,” said Valentine.

Coal Oil Point, COP, one of the world’s largest and best studied seep regions, is located along the northern margin of the Santa Barbara Channel.

The amount of methane released from COP seeps is around two million cubic feet per day, according to Valentine. About 100 barrels of oil oozes out of this area as well.

“We found that the ocean has an amazing capacity to take up methane that is released into it – even when it is released into shallow water,” said Valentine.

“Huge amounts of gas are coming up here, creating a giant gas plume. Until now, no one had measured the gas that dissolves and moves away, the plume,” he said.

Valentine hypothesized that the methane is oxidized by microbial activity in the ocean, thus relieving the ocean of the methane “burden.”

To confirm this hypothesis, Valentine and lead author Susan Mau, a postdoctoral fellow in Valentine’s lab, tracked the plume down current from the seeps at 79 surface stations in a 280 square kilometer study area. They found that the methane plume spread over 70 square kilometers.

By boat, the authors sampled the water on a monthly basis. They found variable methane concentrations that corresponded with changes in surface currents. They also found that more wind releases more methane into the atmosphere.

This research effort is the first time that the gas plume that dissolves and moves away from Coal Oil Point has been studied.

The results will soon be published as a cover story in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters.”

Winter Forecast Shows Little Drought Relief for Southeast – Some drought relief is anticipated in parched sections of the United States, but for many areas the long drought is expected to persist or intensify from January through March 2008, according to the latest U.S. Drought Outlook issued today by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Winter Forecast Shows Little Drought Relief for Southeast

Drought conditions are predicted to continue in the Southeast from Alabama to the Carolinas. Also, there is the potential for drought to develop along the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in Florida and over the western Plains from northern Texas into southwestern Nebraska.

“In spite of a number of winter storms that affected the nation during the first two weeks of December, much more rainfall is needed to bring wells, lakes, and reservoir levels back to normal in many areas of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and parts of Florida,” said Douglas LeComte, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center drought specialist.

“Over the last year or two, the precipitation deficits in these areas have been measured in feet rather than inches,” he said.

The prediction accords with what southern Florida is experiencing. For the first time in the agency’s history, the South Florida Water Management District December 13 declared an extreme district-wide water shortage, directly affecting more than five million South Florida residents and thousands of farms and businesses.

Drought sign placed by the South Florida Water Management District

The district’s nine member Governing Board adopted an unprecedented water shortage order, imposing a one-day-a-week watering schedule for residential landscape irrigation to conserve regional water supplies.

Landscape irrigation accounts for up to half of all household water consumption in Florida and totals more than seven billion gallons per day nationwide.

“Today’s order represents the most stringent landscape irrigation measures that this agency has ever had to impose, but we believe it will significantly help to protect and stretch our regional water supplies,” said Governing Board Chairman Eric Buermann. “We appreciate the public’s understanding and compliance with these necessary restrictions that will result in measurable water savings.”

In drought-stricken Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue has asked all residents to cut their water usage by 10 percent.

State officials warn that Lake Lanier, a 38,000-acre north Georgia reservoir that supplies Atlanta residents with water, could be depleted by mid-January.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Rob Hunter say they will comply with the governor’s request and announced a set of new initiatives intended to cut water use throughout the city.

The city is offering a $1 million ultra-low-flow toilet rebate program in conjunction with the Atlanta Regional Commission and Home Depot.

There will be large customer conservation workshops in cooperation with the Georgia Environmental Protection Divisions aimed at the city’s 50 largest water users. In addition, the city will help fund water conservation audits for large users.

Meteorologists continue to forecast below average precipitation for the southern tier of the nation and above average precipitation over the Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes and Tennessee Valley for January through March.

Drought conditions should improve in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as over the Pacific Northwest.

Intermittent beneficial rain and snow is expected over the next couple of weeks for California and Arizona, but improvement might be short lived since below average precipitation is expected for the rest of the season.

Overall, the country is likely to see warmer than average temperatures over the next three months. “However, there will be fluctuations of warm weather and more typical winter weather throughout the season,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Meteorological winter runs from the first of December through the end of February. The winter solstice begins on December 22. NOAA will announce the U.S. Spring Outlook in March 2008.

Off Road Vehicle Damage Closes North Carolina Trails – The U.S. Forest Service is closing an off road vehicle trail system in the Nantahala National Forest to limit damage and muddy runoff into trout streams. Intensive use has turned some of the ORV trails into ditches more than seven feet deep.

Off Road Vehicle Damage Closes North Carolina Trails

“It is our goal to maintain a viable Upper Tellico off highway vehicle system while reducing sediment, meeting water quality standards and improving brook trout fisheries,” said Forest Supervisor Marisue Hilliard. “The purpose of this January 1 to March 31 closure is to protect water quality in the Upper Tellico River and allow the Forest Service to make repairs to the trail system.”

The agency will close for a year four trail segments that are especially eroded.

The Tellico area, located in the Nantahala National Forest in the headwaters of the upper Tellico River, is one of the largest and most heavily used ORV destinations on public lands in the Southeast. The almost 40 miles of designated trails, not counting unmarked trails, are double what the Nantahala forest plan allows for the Tellico.

Conservation groups, concerned about the ongoing pollution of the Tellico watershed, expressed cautious optimism at the closure.

The conservation groups have had a series of conversations with the agency and off-road vehicle users since June when they submitted a notice of their intent to sue the Forest Service for violating multiple state and federal water quality laws, and its own regulations.

No lawsuit has been filed, although the groups’ notice is still pending.

“This action comes not a moment too soon for the health of these streams and the critical habitat they support,” said Michael “Squeak” Smith, with the North Carolina Council of Trout Unlimited. “The Forest Service is finally walking the talk, and we’ll fully expect them to follow through with their intent to do a more thorough, long-lasting plan.”

Muddy runoff in the Tellico watershed is devastating one of the last, best strongholds for brook trout, a native species in decline in North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Forest Service has estimated that over the years, more than 25,000 tons of sediment have been displaced from the entrenched sections of the trail system.

Recent trail surveys conducted by the agency documented hundreds of sites where sediment flowed directly from trails to nearby streams. Some sections of trail discharged as much as 59 tons of mud to streams each year for each mile of trail.

Generally, streams within the area receive 500 to 1,000 times more sediment than similar streams just outside the trail system. The runoff has been detected several miles downstream in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee.

“We view this as a good-faith effort by the Forest Service to immediately address the worst problems,” said D.J. Gerken, staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center which represents Trout Unlimited, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Wild South.

“We intend to work with the Forest Service on its pledge of quickly formulating and executing long-lasting solutions so we don’t wind up in court now or in the future,” said Gerken.

“We have been trying to get some action like this since this problem was brought to our attention several years ago,” said Barry Sulkin with the Tennessee chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “It is encouraging to see that the Forest Service has finally decided to take these steps, but we need to see if it is enough and if opposing parties will try and block it. These trout streams deserve extra protection and for too long they have been abused.”

Off road vehicle groups oppose the closure. The Toyota Land Cruiser Association, TLCA, has mounted a letter writing campaign to persuade the Forest Service to leave the trails open.

The TLCA sample letter says in part, “With respect to seasonal closures of the entire area, your agency did not provide and I have not seen any proof that demonstrates the time of year is directly tied to increase potential for impacts. There is no data provided by your agency to suggest that sedimentation from January 1 to March 31 occurs at a higher rate than sedimentation during other months of the year, which makes a winter-time closure unfounded.”

Hilliard said the Forest Service will be working this winter with stakeholders on long range planning for the Upper Tellico area. She said funding for the needed repairs will come from a combination of trail user fees, Forest Service appropriations and the volunteer efforts of local ORV organizations.

The Upper Tellico closure is similar to winter closures already in place at the Wayehutta, Brown Mountain and Badin Lake off road vehicle areas on other national forests in North Carolina.

Million Tons of CO2 Will Be Injected Under Illinois – Millions of tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be injected deep underground for storage expected to last for thousands of years in a series of projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in all regions of the country. Generated by burning fossil fuels, if allowed to escape into the atmosphere, the gas will intensify global warming.

Million Tons of CO2 Will Be Injected Under Illinois

The Energy Department plans to invest $197 million over 10 years for the seven projects, subject to annual appropriations from Congress. Their estimated value, including partnership cost share, is $318 million.

On Tuesday, the Energy Department awarded $66.7 million to the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium for a large-scale carbon sequestration project. The partnership, led by the Illinois State Geological Survey, will conduct tests in the Illinois Basin.

The partnership will inject one million tons of carbon dioxide, CO2, into one of the thickest portions of the Mount Simon Formation, a saline aquirfer which underlies Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and portions of Ohio.

Scientists will test how the diversity of the formation can increase the effectiveness of storage. They will attempt to demonstrate that massive seals can contain the gas for millennia.

The consortium plans to drill an injection well and then inject about 1,000 tons per day of carbon dioxide into the Mt. Simon sandstone at a point that lies about a mile below the surface of the Earth.

Crews will inject CO2 for three years before closing the injection site and monitoring and modeling the injected gas to determine the effectiveness of the storage reservoir.

The consortium will work with the Archer Daniels Midland company to demonstrate the entire CO2 injection process – pre-injection characterization, injection process monitoring, and post-injection monitoring – at large volumes to determine the ability of different geologic settings to permanently store CO2.

Archer Daniels Midland’s ethanol plant in Decatur, Ilinois will serve as the source of CO2 for the project. The Energy Department will fund the dehydration, compression, short pipeline, and related facility costs to deliver the CO2 to the injection wellhead.

Announced Tuesday, the award to the consortium is the fourth of seven awards in the current phase of the Energy Department’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships program.

In October, the first three large volume carbon sequestration projects were awarded. These partnerships will conduct large volume tests for the storage of one million or more tons of carbon dioxide in deep saline reservoirs.

The Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, will conduct geologic CO2 storage projects in the Alberta and Williston Basins. The Energy Department will pay $67 million of this $135.5 million cost.

The CO2 for this project will come from a post-combustion capture facility at a coal-fired power plant in the region.

A second test will be conducted in northwestern Alberta, Canada to demonstrate the co-sequestration of CO2 and hydrogen sulfide from a large gas-processing plant into a deep saline formation.

In the southeastern part of the country, the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, led by Southern States Energy Board, will demonstrate CO2 storage in the lower Tuscaloosa Formation Massive Sand Unit.

This geologic formation stretches from Texas to Florida and has the potential to store more than 200 years of CO2 emissions from major point sources in the region.

The partnership will inject CO2 at two locations to assess different CO2 streams. Injection of several million tons of CO2 from a natural deposit is expected to begin in late 2008.

The project will then conduct a second injection into the formation using CO2 captured from a coal-fired power plant in the region. The Energy Department will pay $64.9 million of this $93.6 million project.

In the southwestern part of the country, the Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration, coordinated by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, will inject several million tons of CO2 into the Entrada Sandstone Formation. This geologic formation stretches from Colorado to Wyoming.

The project will test the limits of injection and demonstrate the integrity of the cap rock to trap the gas.

The information will be used to evaluate locations throughout the region where future power plants are being considered. The Energy Department will pay $65.4 million of this $88.8 million project.

This 10 year carbon storage initiative, launched by DOE in 2003, forms what the agency calls “the centerpiece of national efforts to develop the infrastructure and knowledge base needed to place carbon sequestration technologies on the path to commercialization.”

The seven regional partnerships include more than 350 state agencies, universities, and private companies within 41 states, two Indian nations, and four Canadian provinces.

During the first phase of the program, seven partnerships characterized the potential for CO2 storage in deep oil, gas, coal, and saline bearing formations.

When Phase I ended in 2005, the partnerships had identified more than 3,000 billion metric tons of potential storage capacity in promising sites, the Energy Department said, adding, “This has the potential to represent more than 1,000 years of storage capacity from point sources in North America.”

In the program’s second phase, the partnerships conducted small-scale geologic and terrestrial sequestration projects.

In this, the third phase, the partnerships will attempt to validate that the capture, transportation, injection, and long term storage of over one million tons of carbon dioxide can be done safely, permanently, and economically.

Advancing carbon sequestration is a component of the Bush administration’s pursuit of clean coal technology, designed to meet President George W. Bush’s stated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity 18 percent by 2012.

Arsenic in Rice Threatens Asian Public Health – Improved irrigation practices in Asia could reduce the high levels of arsenic found in rice, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said Wednesday, warning of the increased food safety risk posed by the toxic substance.

Arsenic in Rice Threatens Asian Public Health

The agency says that arsenic enters the food chain mainly through crops absorbing contaminated irrigation water.

An odorless and tasteless semi-metal that occurs naturally in rock and soil, when igested arsenic can lead to a variety of illnesses including skin disorders, gangrene and cancer of the kidneys and bladder.

Currently, 12 Asian countries have reported high arsenic levels in their groundwater resources.

“The problem of high arsenic levels in crops, particularly rice, needs to be urgently addressed by promoting better irrigation and agricultural practices that could reduce arsenic contamination significantly,” said FAO water quality and environment officer Sasha Koo-Oshima.

“Arsenic contaminated rice could aggravate human health when consumed with arsenic laden drinking water,” she warned.

The agency’s warning is contained in a new report entitled “Remediation of Arsenic for Agriculture Sustainability, Food Security and Health in Bangladesh.”

Koo-Oshima said, “The widespread addition of arsenic to soils, for example in Bangladesh, is degrading soil quality and causing toxicity to rice. Arsenic contamination is threatening food production, food security and food quality.”

Millions of shallow tube wells have been installed throughout Asia over the last 30 years pumping water from contaminated shallow groundwater aquifers.
Contamination originates in arsenic-rich sediments of the Ganges and Brahmaputra river that filters into groundwater water pumped to the surface through the tube wells.

Bangladesh, where rice is a staple food and consumed in large amounts, has the highest percentage of contaminated shallow tube wells and an estimated 30 million people are dependent on those wells for drinking water and irrigation.

A pilot study conducted in Bangladesh by FAO and Cornell University show that planting rice in raised beds around 15 centimeters above the ground and not in conventional flooded fields reduces the exposure to contaminated irrigation water and produces higher yields.

In addition, the raised bed rice acts as a buffer against floods and drought and serves as a measure in climate adaptation.

A related Cornell University project found that between 30 and 40 percent less irrigation water is needed in the raised bed system. Fertilizers are also captured better, so farmers will need less fertilizers.

“The raised bed system represents a major shift in rice production,” said FAO, “but tests show that farmers prefer the new approach due to visibly higher yields, water savings, lower tillage and labour costs and production of a safer crop.”