Landscape aesthetic values can easily be overlooked or undervalued in the environmental impact statement (EIS) process. Public sector projects may underestimate the aesthetic damage they cause, which, if fully considered, could alter the types of projects undertaken or the form those projects take. This article seeks to more persuasively represent the aesthetic damage wrought by a public project by attaching to it a dollar figure. Cost-benefit analysis is often incorporated into the EIS, but for cost-benefit analysis to be valid, all costs and benefits must be fairly represented. To exclude aesthetic value from the analysis on the basis that beauty is intangible or priceless is to assign it a de facto value of zero in cost-benefit calculations. The monetizing of aesthetics is approached by integrating the methods of economic contingent valuation with landscape aesthetic assessment. Economic values and aesthetic values can be reconciled; a demonstration of the integration of methods is provided.

Three years ago, when I was working for a nonprofit environmental organization in Washington, DC, one of my co-workers told me about a woman named Irene Martin, an Episcopalian minister who lived across the country in the tiny Columbia River community of Cathlamet, Washington. Irene had contacted us because one of our campaign goals was to breach four Snake River dams in Washington State in order to recover salmon runs that have been listed as threatened or endangered.

Throughout the world, the growth of artisanal or small-scale mining has resulted in serious mercury pollution issues. While these problems are well studied in much of the world, little has been written about the state of affairs in the People's Republic of China. It is vital to understand how the situation has evolved in China to determine if China's methods of dealing with these environmental and health problems could be applicable to other parts of the world, or if techniques and solutions developed outside of China could be used by the Chinese. Artisanal mining employs about 6 million people in China, who often work in deadly conditions, and contributes to environmental degradation on a huge scale. Chinese artisanal mercury, coal, and gold miners emit hundreds of tonnes of mercury into the environment annually. Artisanal gold miners often use muller mills, which amalgamate whole ores and thus increase mercury contamination in the tailings; more than 14 parts mercury can be lost per part of gold recovered. Many operations do not use retorts, leading to mercury vapor contamination. In 1997, artisanal and small-scale mining emitted approximately 381 tonnes of mercury, of which 226 tonnes were due to gold mining. The implementation of simple measures, such as providing communities with accessible education regarding environmental issues, encouraging the use of retorts, and discouraging the amalgamation of whole ores, would help to mitigate these problems.

There is the potential to use continuous sampling whole effluent toxicity monitors, based on respirometry, as early warning systems for water contamination. in order to apply these monitors, however, many issues influencing system response and data analysis must be addressed. This study examines the use of a continuous flow-through toxicity monitor (Bioscan®) to (1) determine the sensitivity, accuracy, and precision of the toxicity monitor to different concentrations of a stressing agent (in this case pH), (2) establish operational and maintenance procedures, and (3) examine the consistency in the measured response to a single perturbation. The system precision was sensitive to all the pH pulse perturbations, with stable background variability (1 % to 6%); however, replicated pulse applications demonstrated that the system has lower accuracy (31 % to 38%). The response consistency was limited, with notable differences in maximum dissolved oxygen and recovery time. The initial response time (inclining slope) was relatively consistent. Although this examination should be repeated with other contaminants used to stress the toxicity monitor, it appears that continuous flow-through toxicity monitors like the Bioscan® are well suited for qualitative early alert warning systems for water contamination.

In recent issues, I had prepared two columns on the ethics surrounding how we as professionals need to hold on to our ethics when we are hired to oppose a project proposed by others [“The Ethics of Opposition,” Environmental Practice 4(4):184; “The Ethics of Opposition, Part Two,” Environmental Practice 5(2):92]. In response, I received a letter from a professional engineer who said, “I don't see the conflict with working for either side or even both sides.” He went on to tell me that he and a colleague at his firm have proposed to work for both sides simultaneously: “Both sides benefit from the professional opinion we render, so why not charge both sides and eliminate the dual sets of professionals?”

An estimated 50 tons of mercury (Hg) have been emitted by gold miners in the Bento Gomes river basin, in the municipality of Poconé, Brazil, since the 1980s. Since the mid-l990s, the state agency for environmental protection, FEMA (Fundação Estadual do Meio Ambiente de Mato Grosso), has enforced regulations to reduce Hg emissions to air and water and has also implemented an environmental assessment program. The objectives of this study were to evaluate efforts to reduce emissions of Hg to air and water from nine improved amalgamation centers, and to assess the pollution level in sediment at 25 sites around Poconé. In spite of the fact that retorts were used, results showed large emissions of Hg when burning amalgam, resulting in Hg air concentrations above the limit for occupational air (50 μg/m3) at all centers except one. Keeping washing water in closed systems and dumping residues in specially prepared sites reduced Hg emissions to watercourses. The average Hg concentration of fine sediments (<74 μm) in the Bento Gomes river basin was 104 ng Hg/g dry weight, three to four times higher than the background level; large amounts of Hg-contaminated sediments are re-suspended during the rainy season. In conclusion, present emissions to local watercourses have been efficiently reduced, but the use of retorts in improved amalgamation centers has not adequately reduced Hg emissions to air, which is why the use of Hg remains an occupational and environmental problem.

Escherichia coli is a ubiquitous bacterium that lives commensally in the guts of most mammals, including man; however, some types of E. coli are pathogenic to humans, including the enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), of which E. coli 0157:H7 is the most well-known member. Escherichia coli 0157:H7 is a natural member of the gastrointestinal microflora of domestic ruminants (e.g., cattle, goats, sheep) and has been isolated from several wildlife species (e.g., deer, rabbits), and transmission may occur from any of these reservoirs. Although E. coli 0157:H7 is primarily thought of as a foodborne pathogen, recent outbreaks have demonstrated other important routes that lead to human exposure, such as contaminated water and dust. Because E. coli 0157:H7 represents a significant and widespread environmental health hazard, much effort has been directed toward the development of intervention strategies. Because of the relationship between ruminant animals, wildlife, and E. coli 0157:H7, many of the strategies have focused on reducing levels in live animals. In this review article, we examine this virulent pathogen and explore several of the recently developed pre-harvest intervention strategies (including pro-biotic and anti-pathogen strategies, as well as environmental/management changes) and their potential to reduce zoonotic transmission of E. coli 0157:H7 and other EHEC to man.

The 2003 Brownfields Conference, “Growing a Greener America,” which convened in Portland, Oregon, was held on October 27–29. A record 4,100 people attended. Portland was chosen to host the conference, due to its role as a national leader in growth management. Portland's unique urban growth boundary is managed by Metro, the only directly elected regional government in the country. The success of the growth boundary in leading to redevelopment of brownfield sites in Portland was highlighted in sessions and mobile workshops at the conference.

San Diego County is attempting a proactive conservation planning effort to protect endangered, threatened, and other sensitive species at the landscape level. This plan is being completed under the State of California's Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program. When completed, a series of individual Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) will provide a system of interconnected reserves designed and managed for biological conservation. The NCCP program has been the center of significant controversy since its inception, yet it has been touted as a national model. This paper explores some of the key lessons that have been learned during implementation of the largest and most complex HCP approved under the NCCP—the Multiple Species Conservation Program—since its adoption five years ago. The exploration of the successes and impediments faced by the Multiple Species Conservation Program should help others developing habitat conservation programs in their future efforts to protect endangered species and their habitats.

Remediation of aviation fuel present in the subsurface as light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) occurred from 1982 to 1996 at a facility in an industrial section of a small city in eastern Asia. An undetermined amount of the aviation fuel had leaked from underground storage tanks into the unconfined aquifer for an unknown, but extended, period. The release was discovered in 1981, and 57 monitoring wells were eventually constructed, along with a non-aqueous phase liquid recovery system. The recovery system was operated into the late 1990s, when pumping was discontinued because recovery rates had declined to negligible levels. Monitoring data were collected throughout the remediation period, but because of the large and unwieldy amount of data available, the temporal and spatial distribution of the non-aqueous phase liquid was difficult to visualize and the data were never carefully analyzed. Surfer 8® software was used to generate surface models representing non-aqueous phase liquid thicknesses. The significance of using Surfer 8® for the analyses is that it is an “over-the-counter” basic software package that is relatively inexpensive, very easy to learn, requires no special computer skills, and produces a product that is useful to policy makers and others with limited technical expertise. The surface models made it possible to visualize the effects of hydrogeologic factors on the migration and recovery of the non-aqueous phase liquid as well as other features of the contamination that previously had been unrecognized.

The bioaccumulation of methylmercury in fish is a complex process affected by many site-specific environmental factors. The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) recently recommended changing the basis for expressing the ambient water quality criterion for mercury from an aqueous concentration to a measure of the methylmercury concentration in fish. This change would make the regulation of mercury in surface waters a site-specific exercise in which fish-based bioaccumulation factors (BAF; the ratio of mercury concentration in fish to the concentration of mercury in water) are used to calculate aqueous concentration limits for total mercury. These limits would then be used to allocate mercury loading among various point and nonpoint sources and guide regulatory actions. In order for this approach to succeed, it is critical that the site-specific BAFs and methylmercury:total mercury conversion factors be independent of aqueous total mercury concentration (HgT). We investigated this relationship by measuring aqueous methylmercury and HgTs and mercury in fish in ecologically similar warm-water streams in the southeastern United States. Bioaccumulation factors based on HgT in water were found to decrease with increasing HgT, primarily as a consequence of the reduction in the ratio of aqueous methylmercury to total mercury with increasing HgT. Methylmercury-based BAFs did not vary as a function of HgT. The implication of this relationship is that site-specific determination of aqueous HgT limits at contaminated sites may use BAFs that would be underestimates of the appropriate BAFs to describe mercury bioaccumulation in the system after mercury inputs have been reduced. In such cases, regulatory limits set using site-specific BAFs might not achieve their intended purpose of reducing mercury contamination in fish to acceptable concentrations.

Since 1940, Native Americans have been required to apply to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to obtain eagle carcasses or other parts. An increase in tribal populations and a revitalization of cultural practices has increased the demand for eagle parts and led to delays in filling requests. In a cooperative effort with the USFWS, the Pueblo of Zuni Indian Tribe recently revived the ancient Zuni practice of live eagle husbandry in order to both maintain this cultural practice and make eagle feathers more widely available to tribal members. This is being accomplished in a manner consistent with modern raptor husbandry techniques, but in a Zuni-based context. Environmental professionals have assisted the project greatly, especially concerning the life history and behavioral needs of the birds and the implications for eagle conservation. Although we have explored and decided against the idea of breeding captive eagles so that their young may be released into the wild (because it goes against traditional Zuni beliefs), this is certainly a feasible option for other, similar facilities and would be strongly supported by the USFWS, conservation groups, and wildlife professionals.

Overall sampling of the sediments in the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the Isonzo (Soça) River in Italy has permitted updating of the extent and level of mercury contamination. The lsonzo River transports mercury-bearing residues from the ldrija mine (Slovenia); that area is contaminated due to the mining of cinnabar (HgS). The mercury mine started operations in the 15th century and was finally shut down in the 1980s because of the decreased demand for mercury. An attempt was made to remove mercury from the contaminated sediments by thermal desorption, with the aim of ascertaining whether low temperature and short residence time could be suitable parameters for sediment cleanup if future needs should so require. To date, no studies have been done on the health of the Italian population living in the Gulf of Trieste area; hence there is no known correlation between the anomalous mercury content of the sediments and symptoms attributable to the ingestion of even small quantities of mercury. Desorption times of about 20 to 30 minutes, at temperatures ranging from 325° C to 350° C, yielded residues with a mercury content below the limit imposed by Italian regulations for contaminated soils and sediments (5 ppm). The air and the mercury vapors driven off during roasting were treated before being released to the atmosphere.

A source evaluation case study is presented for observations of algae toxicity in an intermittent stream passing through the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near Livermore, California. A five-step procedure is discussed to determine the cause of water toxicity problems and to determine appropriate environmental management practices. With this approach, an upstream electrical transfer station was identified as the probable source of herbicides causing the toxicity. In addition, an analytical solution for solute transport in overland flow was used to estimate the application level of 40 kg/ha. Finally, this source investigation demonstrates that pesticides can affect stream water quality, regardless of application within levels suggested on manufacturer labels. Environmental managers need to ensure that pesticides that could harm aquatic organisms (including algae) not be used near streams or storm drainage areas, and that application timing should be considered for environmental protection.

This article reports on a content analysis of newspaper coverage of a wildfire on the Hanford nuclear site in the summer of 2000. The risk and mass communication literatures suggest that newspaper coverage of such fires would frame the event in dread terms, with some variation in the framing depending on the community diversity of the home market. We found that newspapers did vary in their framing of the fire, and that vigilance and confidence were more common framings of the fire. Our tentative explanation is that key risk communicators and reporters adhered to their professional ethics and relied on one another to develop a frame for Hanford hazards and risks.

The extension of surfactant-based technologies for use in remediation of mercuric ion [Hg(II)]-impacted soils and ground-waters was explored. In concept, a target metal ion can be selectively sequestered and mobilized from the subsurface by a ligand solubilized in surfactant solution. The selected ligand, 1-decyl-2-thiourea (DTU), was used in this study due to its extremely high selectivity for Hg2+ and its compatibility with micellar solubilization. In batch semiequilibrium dialysis studies using a mixture of 0.3 mM DTU and 30 mM cetylpyridinium nitrate (a cationic surfactant), 99.8% of applied Hg(II) (0.1 mM) was retained, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of this ligand-surfactant system for separating the mobile contaminant from the waste stream. Isolation of the target metal ion from the complex is desirable to allow for ligand and surfactant reuse. As a function of the ligand type, this can be achieved by precipitation, pH stripping, or ligand-ligand exchange. In theory, for DTU, Hg(ll) removal can be done at an elevated pH by formation of a soluble mercury-hydroxide complex, which would pass a secondary ultrafiltration stage, allowing retention and reuse of the ligand-surfactant colloid. While only batch studies were conducted for this feasibility study, the possibility of utilizing flow-through ultrafiltration units coupled with contaminant isolation steps in pump-and-treat field applications is discussed.