Laser-induced fluorescence and fast gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with subsurface thermal extraction of organics: Field analytical technologies for expediting site characterization and cleanup

This article describes new field-based technologies that support the Dynamic Workplan/Adaptive Sampling and Analysis Program employed to better characterize hazardous waste sites at lower cost. A laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) probe was designed and field-tested with a cone penetrometer (CP) for investigating petroleum contaminants present at under-ground tank farms. The LIF produced real-time quantitative data for naphthalene and semiquantitative results for total petroleum hydrocarbons and diesel range organics. Two different projects are described employing fast gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in the field. A 70-foot heated transfer line and probe were used in combination with a cone penetrometer to thermally extract (TE) subsurface soil-bound semivolatile organics. In the second project, soil samples were collected by a Geoprobe^TM and brought to the surface for analysis. The direct measurement TECP data produced semiquantitative results while the more conventional means of collecting and analyzing samples produced risk analysis quality data in the field. A new set of mass spectrometry algorithms provided the technology breakthrough for identifying and quantifying a wide range of Environmental-Protection-Agency-listed target compounds in the presence of high levels of matrix (petroleum) interferents under fast, 7 min/sample, GC conditions.     

Survival of Coronaviruses in Water and Wastewater

The advent of severe acute respiratory syndrome and its potential environmental transmission indicates the need for more information on the survival of coronavirus in water and wastewater. The survival of representative coronaviruses, feline infectious peritonitis virus, and human coronavirus 229E was determined in filtered and unfiltered tap water (4 and 23°C) and wastewater (23°C). This was compared to poliovirus 1 under the same test conditions. Inactivation of coronaviruses in the test water was highly dependent on temperature, level of organic matter, and presence of antagonistic bacteria. The time required for the virus titer to decrease 99.9% (T_99.9) shows that in tap water, coronaviruses are inactivated faster in water at 23°C (10 days) than in water at 4°C (>100 days). Coronaviruses die off rapidly in wastewater, with T_99.9 values of between 2 and 4 days. Poliovirus survived longer than coronaviruses in all test waters, except the 4°C tap water.     

Avian Mortality at Oil Pits in the United States: A Review of the Problem and Efforts for Its Solution

Oil production operations produce waste fluids that may be stored in pits, open tanks, and other sites accessible to wildlife. Birds visit these fluid-filled pits and tanks (“oil pits”), which often resemble water sources, and may become trapped and die. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has a program to reduce these impacts by locating problem pits, documenting mortality of protected wildlife species, and seeking cleanup or corrective action at problem pits with the help of state and federal agencies regulating the oil industry. Species identification and verification of protected status for birds recovered from oil pits are performed at the USFWS National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory. From 1992 to 2005, a minimum of 2060 individual birds were identified from remains recovered from oil pits, representing 172 species from 44 families. The taxonomic and ecological diversity of these birds indicates that oil pits pose a threat to virtually all species of birds that encounter them. Ninety-two percent of identified bird remains belonged to protected species. Most remains identified at the Forensics Laboratory were from passerines, particularly ground-foraging species. Based on Forensics Laboratory and USFWS field data, oil pits currently cause the deaths of 500,000–1 million birds per year. Although law enforcement and industry efforts have produced genuine progress on this issue, oil pits remain a significant source of mortality for birds in the United States.     

No-policy greenhouse gas emission scenarios: revisiting IPCC 1992

A new set of no-policy global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenarios was developed using the atmospheric stabilization framework, the same modeling tool that was used to generate the IS92 emission scenarios for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Revised assumptions about population and economic growth, combined with updated information on changes in renewable energy supply, the efficiency of energy generation and other factors resulted in changes in GHG emission profiles over the next century, which led to an increase in the estimated global average temperature change as compared to the IS92 scenarios. Model results indicate that the largest increase in emissions, which led to a temperature increase of about 3.4°C by 2100 (relative to 1990), can be expected when a rapid increase in the GNP per capita levels of the non-OECD countries is combined with a low availability of solar/wind and biomass energy resources and slow energy efficiency improvements. The smallest increase in emissions and temperature by 2100 (about 2.5°C) occurred when a relatively slow increase in the GNP per capita in the non-OECD countries was combined with a high availability of renewable energy resources and rapid energy efficiency improvements.     

Ecological correlates of social organization in a communally breeding bird,the acorn woodpecker,Melanerpes formicivorus

Summary Acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) were studied during the summers of 1976 and 1977 in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona to determine the ecological correlates of variations in unit size, storage behavior, and home range. Unit size varied from two to five adults, acorn storage capacity varied from 0 to 5,000 individual holes per unit, and home range size varied from 5.2 to 51.2 ha.There was a consistent but nonsignificant trend for units inhabiting pine-oak woodland to be larger and to maintain more food storage holes than units in oak-juniper or oak woodland. Pine-oak woodland had the highest oak species number, density, and basal area of any community in the study area, and showed the least annual variation in percent of oaks producing acorns during the study. However, pineoak woodland also had the lowest acorn productivity per hectare.More than four times as many oak trees produced acorns in 1977 than in 1976. Following the poor 1976 crop, unit home range size increased so that the mean number of oaks contained per home range size increased more than three and a half times in 1977. The number of woodpecker units containing nonbreeding adults decreased from 90% in 1976 to 20% in 1977. These data suggest that the size and reliability of acorn crops control the composition of acorn woodpecker social units.A comparison of acorn woodpecker population parameters in the Chiricahua Mountains and at the Hastings Reservation, California, was made, using data of MacRoberts and MacRoberts (1976). The California population was significantly more dense and maintained more storage trees and more individual storage holes per unit, but there was no evidence that more California units contained nonbreeding adults than did Chiricahua units.A model is presented that emphasizes the importance of acorn crop reliability as the major determinant of acorn woodpecker social organization (Fig. 2). Annual crop fluctuations affect the winter survival and dispersion of woodpecker units, and the density of the population in the following spring. Bad acorn years will result in decreased saturation of woodpecker nesting habitat by established groups. The model predicts a corresponding decrease in the frequency of units with helpers, as young adults take advantage of opportunities to breed on their own. Longer-term crop reliability determines the benefitcost ratio for establishing and maintaining food storage facilities. The observed geographic variation in storage behavior between California and Arizona populations is suggested to reflect differences in the long-term return on investment in expensive storage facilities.     

Book reviews

Making Cities Work: the role of local government in the urban environment. Richard Gilbert, Don Stevenson, Herbert Girardet &; Richard Stren, 1996, London, Earthscan, 203pp. ISBN 1 85383 354 1, £13.95 pbk

Environmental Policy in an International Context, Vols 1–3: Perspectives, Conflicts and Prospects. P. Glasbergen &; A. Blowers (Series Eds) London, Arnold

Rhetoric and Reality in Environmental Policy. M. Wintle &; R. Reeve (Eds), 1994, Aldershot, Avebury Studies in Green Research, 154 pp. ISBN 1 85628 927 3

FutureNatural: Nature, Science, Culture. G. Roberston et al. (Eds) 1996, London, Routledge, ISBN 0415 070139, £40.00 hbk

Environmental Policy with Political Integration: the European Union and the United States. New horizons in environmental economics. John B. Braden, Henk Folmer &; Thomas S. Ulen (Eds), 1996, Cheltenham, Elgar Publishing, 477 pp. ISBN 1 85898 217 0