Improving Voluntary Environmental Management Programs: Facilitating Learning and Adaptation

Environmental planners and managers face unique challenges understanding and documenting the effectiveness of programs that rely on voluntary actions by private landowners. Programs, such as those aimed at reducing nonpoint source pollution or improving habitat, intend to reach those goals by persuading landowners to adopt behaviors and management practices consistent with environmental restoration and protection. Our purpose with this paper is to identify barriers for improving voluntary environmental management programs and ways to overcome them. We first draw upon insights regarding data, learning, and adaptation from the adaptive management and performance management literatures, describing three key issues: overcoming information constraints, structural limitations, and organizational culture. Although these lessons are applicable to a variety of voluntary environmental management programs, we then present the issues in the context of on-going research for nonpoint source water quality pollution. We end the discussion by highlighting important elements for advancing voluntary program efforts.     

Immobilization and Encapsulation of Contaminants Using Silica Treatments: A Review

The immobilization and encapsulation of contaminants using silica treatments is an emerging technology for the management of contaminated land. This article reviews the potential of silica treatments for the management of metals, hydrocarbons, and acid mine drainage at contaminated sites; and evaluates the effects of environmental conditions on silica treatment performance. The review demonstrates the potential of silica treatments for managing contaminated land; however, a paucity of research offers only a limited understanding of this technology. Further development of the technology will require additional research evaluating its long‐term performance under a range of environmental conditions. Field‐based experiments and studies investigating potential adverse effects of silica treatments are also necessary to demonstrate the safety, efficacy, and reliability of silica treatments. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Estimating water content in an active landfill with the aid of GPR

Landfill gas (LFG) receives a great deal of attention due to both negative and positive environmental impacts, global warming and a green energy source, respectively. However, predicting the quantity of LFG generated at a given landfill, whether active or closed is difficult due to the heterogeneities present in waste, and the lack of accurate in situ waste parameters like water content. Accordingly, ground penetrating radar (GPR) was evaluated as a tool for estimating in situ water content. Due to the large degree of subsurface heterogeneity and the electrically conductive clay cap covering landfills, both of which affect the transmission of the electromagnetic pulses, there is much scepticism concerning the use of GPR to quantify in situ water content within a municipal landfill.Two landfills were studied. The first landfill was used to develop the measurement protocols, while the second landfill provided a means of confirming these protocols. GPR measurements were initially completed using the surface GPR approach, but the lack of success led to the use of borehole (BH) GPR. Both zero offset profiling (ZOP) and multiple offset gathers (MOG) modes were tried, with the results indicating that BH GPR using the ZOP mode is the most simple and efficient method to measure in situ water content. The best results were obtained at a separation distance of 2 m, where higher the water content, smaller the effective separation distance. However, an increase in water content did appear to increase the accuracy of the GPR measurements. For the effective separation distance of 2 m at both landfills, the difference between GPR and lab measured water contents were reasonable at 33.9% for the drier landfill and 18.1% for the wetter landfill. Infiltration experiments also showed the potential to measure small increases in water content.     

Nonseparability and the voluntary approach to externality problems

Ronald Coase asserted that voluntary two-party bargaining with zero transaction costs results in an optimal resource allocation, which is invariant with respect to the liability rule. It has been argued that nonseparabilities destroy the validity of Coase's theorem. In this paper it is shown that this criticism is based on implausible assumptions about the externality-receivers adjustment to the externality level.     

Oil-dispersant mixtures: understanding chemical composition and its relation to human toxicity

The ability for the water accommodated fraction (WAF) of oil-dispersant mixtures to become aerosolized following natural sea surface activity markedly increases the probability of inhalation exposure to this aerosolized mixture and subsequent adverse respiratory health effects. Thus, the purpose of this study was to elucidate the chemical composition of WAF of these mixtures as well as determine how this relates to lung epithelial cell cytotoxicity. WAF was prepared by mixing each dispersant (Corexit 9500/9527/9580) with crude oil. For “chemical constituent fingerprinting,” these prepared WAF were extracted prior with dichloromethane, analyzed by Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and qualitatively evaluated using the NIST08 database. Results from chemical analysis revealed an increase in structure complexity of the WAF oil-dispersant mixtures when compared to WAF of crude oil only. This complexity was characterized by high molecular weight compounds such as alkyl derivatives, esters, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Previously a concentration-dependent reduction in cultured A549 cells was noted at 2 or 24?h time points following exposure to either the WAF-oil/9500 or WAF-oil/9527. Thus, a possible correlation exists between the chemical complexity of these mixtures and the ability to induce lung epithelial cell death in potentially exposed individuals.     

How to encourage conflict in the environmental decision-making process: imparting lessons from civic environmentalism to local policy-makers

The literature on civic environmentalism suggests that the environmental decision-making process must be perceived by citizens to be inclusive, transparent, and legitimate in order to avoid conflict and encourage stakeholder collaboration. We suggest that studies of environmental decision-making must apply this framework to three key variables: agenda setting, conflicts of interest, and politicised institutions, which impact the potential for citizen collaboration at the local level. Using content analysis of newspaper articles, participant observations, and informal field interviews, we evaluate a case study of citizen opposition to a power plant air permit. We demonstrate how citizen perceptions of agenda setting by local officials, conflicts of interest, and the inability of citizens to affect final decisions after winning in multiple legal and administrative venues, creates conflict by not embodying these civic environmentalist principles. We conclude with policy suggestions for creating a less conflict-riddled process.     

The human cervical spine in tension: effects of frame and fixation compliance on structural responses

There is little data available on the responses of the human cervical spine to tensile loading. Such tests are mechanistically and technically challenging due to the variety of end conditions that need to be imposed and the difficulty of strong specimen fixation. As a result, spine specimens need to be tested using fairly complex, and potentially compliant, apparati in order to fully characterize the mechanical responses of each specimen. This, combined with the relatively high stiffness of human spine specimens, can result in errors in stiffness calculations. In this study, 18 specimen preparations were tested in tension. Tests were performed on whole cervical spines and on spine segments. On average, the linear stiffness of the segment preparations was 257 N/mm, and the stiffness of the whole cervical spine was 48 N/mm. The test frame was found to have a stiffness of 933 N/mm. Assembling a whole spine from a series combination of eight segments with a stiffness of 257 N/mm results in an estimated whole spine stiffness of 32.1 N/mm (32% error). The segment stiffnesses were corrected by assuming that the segment preparation stiffness is a series combination of the stiffnesses of the segment and the frame. This resulted in an average corrected segment stiffness of 356 N/mm. Taking the frame compliance into account, the whole spine stiffness is 51 N/mm. A series combination of eight segments using the corrected stiffnesses results in an estimated whole spine stiffness of 45.0 N/mm (12% error). We report both linear and nonlinear stiffness models for male spines and conclude that the compliance of the frame and the fixation must be quantified in all tension studies of spinal segments. Further, reported stiffness should be adjusted to account for frame and fixation compliance.