Pollutant monitoring in the Olympic National Park Biosphere Reserve

Interest in global contamination has been instrumental in the establishment of over 33 Biosphere Reserves in the United States. These reserves include pristine areas that have been protected from industrial development. They serve as areas in which present and future environmental pollution can be assessed.Pollutant monitoring studies are being conducted in the Olympic National Park Biosphere Reserve by the U.S. Park Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Studies are designed to identify levels of trace element and organic contaminants in physical and biological media. Ten remote sites were selected for intensive sampling. These areas were located in the Hoh, Quinault, and Dosewallips River drainages; at Anderson and Grand Pass; near Ozette Lake and, at the northern edge of Blue Glacier. Their proximity to vehicle-traveled roads varied from 3 to 20 kilometers.Samples were taken in air, water, soil, litter and vegetation. Samples will be analyzed for organic and heavy metal contaminants. Airborne particulate size and chemical characterization is being investigated.     

The U.S. National biomonitoring specimen bank and the marine environmental specimen bank

The National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB), established in 1979 at the NIST Neutron Research Facility, Gaithersburg, Maryland, was specifically designed to store environmental specimens over long periods of time (50-100 years). This bank contains specimens (e.g., human livers, marine sediments, fish tissues, mussels, oysters, human diet samples, and marine mammal tissues) collected as part of several monitoring and research programs supported by U.S. Federal agencies. In 2002, NIST completed the construction of a second environmental specimen bank facility specifically designed for supporting monitoring and research on marine environmental health issues. This facility, the Marine Environmental Specimen Bank (Marine ESB) is located at the Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, in partnership with a U.S. Federal resource agency, two universities, and a State of South Carolina resource agency. The Marine ESB provides a resource of research specimens that are used to address questions regarding temporal and geographic trends in environmental contamination, genetic separation of populations of animals, and the health status of various types of marine animals. Specimens banked include marine mammal tissues, bird tissues, mussels, and oysters. Plans are underway to establish protocols and initiate banking procedures for other types of marine organisms and environmental materials as part of an expanded effort to support research on the health of marine biota.     

Development and implementation of coral reef biocriteria in U.S. jurisdictions

Coral reefs worldwide are declining at an alarming rate and are under continuous threat from both natural and anthropogenic environmental stressors. Warmer sea temperatures attributed to global climate change and numerous human activities at local scales place these valuable ecosystems at risk. Reefs provide numerous services, including shoreline protection, fishing, tourism and biological diversity, which are lost through physical damage, overfishing, and pollution. Pollution can be controlled under provisions of the Clean Water Act, but these options have not been fully employed to protect coral reefs. No U.S. jurisdiction has implemented coral reef biocriteria, which are narrative or quantitative water quality standards based on the condition of a biological resource or assemblage. The President’s Ocean Action Plan directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop biological assessment methods and biological criteria for evaluating and maintaining the health of coral reef ecosystems. EPA has formed the Coral Reef Biocriteria Working Group (CRBWG) to foster development of coral reef biocriteria through focused research, evaluation and communication among Agency partners and U.S. jurisdictions. Ongoing CRBWG activities include development and evaluation of a rapid bioassessment protocol for application in biocriteria programs; development of a survey design and monitoring strategy for the U.S. Virgin Islands; comprehensive reviews of biocriteria approaches proposed by states and territories; and assembly of data from a variety of monitoring programs for additional metrics. Guidance documents are being prepared to assist U.S. jurisdictions in reaching protective and defensible biocriteria.     

Metal concentrations and potential health risk in clam (Meretrix lyrata Sowerby 1851) tissues from East Java Coast,Indonesia

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment - Global environmental changes not only contribute to the modification of global pollution transport pathways but can also alter contaminant fate within the...     

Microplastic Pollution in Agricultural Soils and Abatement Measures – a Model-Based Assessment for Germany

Environmental Modeling & Assessment - Microplastic pollution in soils is a recent environmental problem and the lack of knowledge about the impacts and the extent of the problem are raising...     

Documentation of cumulative impacts in environmental impact statements

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations in the United States require federal agencies to apply an environmental impact assessment (EIA) in decision-making related to their actions. One aspect requires an examination of direct, indirect and cumulative impacts (CIs). Historically, cumulative impact assessment (CIA) has been given limited attention in EIA and resultant environmental impact statements (EISs), not because of its lack of importance, but owing to limitations in methodologies and procedures, including documentation consistency. The objectives of this study were to identify deficiencies in the documentation of CIs and CIA in EISs and to formulate appropriate recommendations (potential solutions) related to such deficiencies. The study involved the systematic review of 33 EISs (11 each from the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration). The results indicate that improvements have been made in documentation practices since 1990; however, inconsistencies and inadequacies still exist. Therefore, the following recommendations were developed: (1) CIs should be reported in a separate part of the “Environmental Consequences” section, and they should be addressed for each pertinent environmental resource; (2) a summary of CIs should be included; (3) any CIs considered not significant should be mentioned plus the reason(s) for their non-significance; (4) spatial and temporal boundaries addressed within the CIA process should be defined for pertinent environmental resources; and (5) utilized guidelines and methodologies should be described.     

Using Science to Assess Environmental Vulnerabilities

Beginning in 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Office of Research and Development has focused much of its ecological research in the Mid-Atlantic as part of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA). The goal of MAIA is to improve the assessability of scientific information in environmental decision-making. Following the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) whose goal is to guide monitoring that effectively reflects current ecosystem condition and trends, MAIA's second, current, phase of research under the Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) program is designed to target risk management activities using available data and models. The papers presented here are from a conference held in May 2003 that presented results of research in this second phase of MAIA. The conference was organized into the following topics: 1. Assessing Current Impacts and Vulnerabilities 2. Forecasting Environmental Condition and Vulnerabilities 3. Developing Management Strategies to Optimize the Future, and 4. Assessing and Responding to Environmental Vulnerability.     

广州市GSM移动电话基站发射电磁波对环境污染影响分析

依据国标《环境电磁波卫生标准》(GB91 75 -88) ,从理论上讨论了 GSM移动通信基站电磁辐射对环境的影响 ;并利用若干基站的实际测试数据 ,说明在一般情况下 ,对于基站周围的民居或其它楼宇里居住或工作的人群 ,移动通信基站的电磁辐射强度远低于国家标准 ,也远低于美国的标准     

The most important but least understood semicolon in environmental literature

This paper examines implications of the first semicolon appearing in paragraph 4321 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (PL-91-190 U.S.A.) and suggests a broader meaning for the concept of environment.     

Beyond data management: how ecoinformatics can benefit environmental monitoring programs

We review ways in which the new discipline of ecoinformatics is changing how environmental monitoring data are managed, synthesized, and analyzed. Rapid improvements in information technology and strong interest in biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems are driving a vigorous phase of development in ecological databases. Emerging data standards and protocols enable these data to be shared in ways that have previously been difficult. We use the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Coastal Assessment (NCA) as an example. The NCA has collected biological, chemical, and physical data from thousands of stations around the U.S. coasts since 1990. NCA data that were collected primarily to assess the ecological condition of the U.S. coasts can be used in innovative ways, such as biogeographical studies to analyze species invasions. NCA application of ecoinformatics tools leads to new possibilities for integrating the hundreds of thousands of NCA species records with other databases to address broad-scale and long-term questions such as environmental impacts, global climate change, and species invasions.     

Update of long-term trends analysis of ambient 8-hour ozone and precursor monitoring data in the South Central U.S.; encouraging news

In the South Central U.S., lower tropospheric ozone pollution continues to be a challenging problem. This paper provides an update on long-term trends analyses of the ambient ozone and precursor monitoring data collected over the past 25 years (1986-2010) in four South Central U.S. cities, following up on a previous published review of 20 year trends (M.E. Sather and K. Cavender, J. Environ. Monit., 2007, 9, 143-150). The results of these analyses should be useful to air quality scientists, managers, planners, and modelers in assessing the effectiveness of nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) pollution controls for ambient ozone concentration reduction programs. Large amounts of quantitative information for each South Central U.S. city are concisely synthesized into one graphic per city. Results reported in this paper show significant long-term decreases in ambient ozone and precursor concentrations in all four South Central U.S. cities, especially over the recent five-year period 2006-2010.     

Normality transformations for environmental data from compound normal-lognormal distributions

The combination of lognormally distributed quantities of interest with normally distributed random measurement error produces data that follow a compound normal-lognormal (NLN) distribution. When the measurement error is large enough, such data do not approximate normality, even after a logarithmic transformation. This paper reports the results of a search for a transformation method for NLN data that is not only technically appropriate, but easy to implement as well. Three transformation families were found to work relatively well. These families are compared in terms of success in achieving normality and robustness, using simulated NLN data and actual environmental data believed to follow a NLN distribution. The exponential family of transformations was found to give the best overall results. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, under DOE Idaho Field Office Contract DE-AC07-76ID01570.     

基于关系数据库的环境监测知识库的建立

“环境监测专家系统”可有效监控环境污染状况 ,对环境污染作分析、评价、分级、预警等 ,促进环境的管理和改善。环境监测知识库是该专家系统的核心 ,通过知识库 ,专家系统可以自我学习 ,自我诊断 ,自我发展。本文通过对知识库和数据库的分析比较 ,指出在关系数据库平台上建立环境监测知识库的可行性 ,给出了在关系数据库系统中建立环境监测知识库的方法 ,即如何在关系数据库环境中实现环境监测知识获取、表示和管理     

有机污染物水排放标准推荐值的确定

针对我国《污水综合排放标准》GB8978-1996存在的问题,根据以毒理学实验数据为基础的水环境目标值和排放目标值,参考美国EPA推荐的水质量标准、GB8978-1996《污水综合排放标准》、GB3838-2002《地面水质量标准》和实测的环境数据,提出重点控制有机污染物水排放标准推荐值。     

三峡地区工业行业环境与经济行为特征分析

通过对三峡地区工业污染物产生强度和排放强度分析表明,三峡地区的产生强度和排放强度均高于东部先进水平和全国平均水平,指出了三峡地区的污染防治需从源头控制和末端治理双管齐下进行;引入"环境协调指数EHI(行业的经济贡献率与污染贡献率的比值)"分析行业的环境与经济行为特征,指明了三峡地区COD和氨氮相对污染重、经济效益差的行业.为区域产业结构调整提供了科学依据.     

An Overview of Data Integration Methods for Regional Assessment

The U.S. Environmental Protections Agency's (U.S. EPA) Regional Vulnerability Assessment(ReVA) program has focused much of its research over the last five years on developing and evaluating integration methods for spatial data. An initial strategic priority was to use existing data from monitoring programs, model results, and other spatial data. Because most of these data were not collected with an intention of integrating into a regional assessment of conditions and vulnerabilities, issues exist that may preclude the use of some methods or require some sort of data preparation. Additionally, to support multi-criteria decision-making, methods need to be able to address a series of assessment questions that provide insights into where environmental risks are a priority. This paper provides an overview of twelve spatial integration methods that can be applied towards regional assessment, along with preliminary results as to how sensitive each method is to data issues that will likely be encountered with the use of existing data.     

Development and Applications of Microbial Ecogenomic Indicators for Monitoring Water Quality: Report of a Workshop Assessing the State of the Science, Research Needs and Future Directions

This article brings forth recommendations from a workshop sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) and Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (EMAP) Programs and by the Council of State Governments, held during May 2002 in Kansas City, Kansas. The workshop assembled microbial ecologists and environmental scientists to determine what research and science is needed to bring existing molecular biological approaches and newer technologies arising from microbial genomic research into environmental monitoring and water quality assessments. Development of genomics and proteomics technologies for environmental science is a very new area having potential to improve environmental water quality assessments. The workshop participants noted that microbial ecologists are already using molecular biological methods well suited for monitoring and water quality assessments and anticipate that genomics-enabled technologies could be made available for monitoring within a decade. Recommendations arising from the workshop include needs for (i) identification of informative microbial gene sequences, (ii) improved understandings of linkages between indicator taxa, gene expression and environmental condition, (iii) technological advancements towards field application, and (iv) development of the appropriate databases. Contribution no. 1217 from the NHEERL Gulf Ecology Division. All authors contributed equally to this publication.     

污染源监测报告有效期问题的探讨

环境监测是环境管理的基础性工作,污染源监测报告(数据)的有效性是保证环境执法严肃、公正的重要条件,也是是守法企业展示良好社会形象的基本保证。依照国家的相关规定,并结合行业技术规范的要求,探讨污染源监测报告的有效期问题,以利于相关各方严肃、科学、合理地使用污染源监测数据。     

A Procedure for NEPA Assessment of Selenium Hazards Associated With Mining

This paper gives step-by-step instructions for assessing aquatic selenium hazards associated with mining. The procedure was developed to provide the U.S. Forest Service with a proactive capability for determining the risk of selenium pollution when it reviews mine permit applications in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The procedural framework is constructed in a decision-tree format in order to guide users through the various steps, provide a logical sequence for completing individual tasks, and identify key decision points. There are five major components designed to gather information on operational parameters of the proposed mine as well as key aspects of the physical, chemical, and biological environment surrounding it — geological assessment, mine operation assessment, hydrological assessment, biological assessment, and hazard assessment. Validation tests conducted at three mines where selenium pollution has occurred confirmed that the procedure will accurately predict ecological risks. In each case, it correctly identified and quantified selenium hazard, and indicated the steps needed to reduce this hazard to an acceptable level. By utilizing the procedure, NEPA workers can be confident in their ability to understand the risk of aquatic selenium pollution and take appropriate action. Although the procedure was developed for the Forest Service it should also be useful to other federal land management agencies that conduct NEPA assessments, as well as regulatory agencies responsible for issuing coal mining permits under the authority of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) and associated Section 401 water quality certification under the Clean Water Act. Mining companies will also benefit from the application of this procedure because priority selenium sources can be identified in relation to specific mine operating parameters. The procedure will reveal the point(s) at which there is a need to modify operating conditions to meet environmental quality goals. By recognizing concerns early in the NEPA process, it may be possible for a mining company to match operational parameters with environmental requirements, thereby increasing the likelihood that the permit application will be approved.     

长江南京段重点污染源有机污染物的定性分析

参考美国EPA相关分析方法,利用气相色谱-质谱联用仪对沿江重点污染源入江废水中有机物状况进行定性分析,共检出18类82种有机物,其中13种属中国优先控制污染物,分属6类有机物;10种属美国EPA优先控制污染物,分属7类有机物。通过查明入江污染源有机污染状况,为环境风险事故防范和应急预案的建立提供了科学依据。