Compensation for risks: host community benefits in siting locally unwanted facilities

This article analyzes the recent negotiations connected with siting 24 solid-waste landfills in Wisconsin. We examine the association between the type and amount of compensation paid to host communities by facility developers and the size of facilities, certain facility characteristics, the timing of negotiated agreements, the size of the host community, and the socioeconomic status of the host area. Our findings suggest that the level of compensation after adjusting for landfill capacity is positively associated with the percentage of total facility capacity dedicated to host community use, positively associated with the percentage of people of the host area who are in poverty, and larger for public facilities that accept municipal wastes. Other explanatory variables we examined, whose association with levels of compensation proved statistically insignificant, were facility size, facility status (new vs expansion), facility use (countyonly vs multicounty), timing of negotiation, host community size, and the host area education level, population density, and per capita income. We discuss the policy implications of our principal findings and future research questions in light of the persistent opposition surrounding the siting of solid-waste and other waste-management facilities.     

CONSTRUCTING A PROBLEM SOLVING ENVIRONMENT TOOL FOR HYDROLOGIC ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE CHANGE1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the integration of a comprehensive hydrological model known as the Hydrological Simulation Program Fortran (HSPF) into a problem solving environment (PSE) for watershed management. The original PSE concept was a structure providing web‐based access to a suite of models, including HSPF and other models of in‐stream hydrodynamics, biological impacts and economic effects, for the watershed‐wide assessment of alternative land use scenarios. The present paper describes only the HSPF integration into the PSE program. Example applications to the 148 square kilometer (57 square mile) Back Creek subwatershed in the upper Roanoke River system (1,479 square kilometers or 571 square miles) in southwest Virginia are used to illustrate important concepts and linkages between land development and hydrological change using hypothetical' what if'scenarios. The features of HSPF and its limitations in this context are discussed. The paper as such is a proof‐of‐concept paper and not a completion report. It is intended to describe the PSE tool building process rather than analysis of the many possible simulation outcomes. However, the dominance of raw imperviousness as a contributor to hydrograph response is apparent in all the PSE simulations described in this paper.     

Methane oxidation in water-spreading and compost biofilters.

This study evaluated two biofilter designs to mitigate methane emissions from landfill vents. Water-spreading biofilters were designed to use the capillarity of coarse sand overlain by a finer sand to increase the active depth for methane oxidation. Compost biofilters consisted of 238-L barrels containing a 1:1 mixture (by volume) of compost to expanded polystyrene pellets. Two replicates of each type of biofilter were tested at an outdoor facility. Gas inflow consisted of an approximately 1:1 mixture (by volume) of CH4 and CO2. Methane output rates (J(out); g m(-2) day(-1)) were measured using the static chamber technique and the Pedersen et al. (2001) diffusion model. Methane oxidation rate (J(ox); g m(-2) day(-1)) and fraction of methane oxidized (f(ox)) were determined by mass balance. For methane inflow rates (J(in)) between 250 and 500 g m(-2) day(-1), the compost biofilter J(ox), 242 g m(-2) day(-1), was not significantly different (P = 0.0647) than the water-spreading biofilter J(ox), 203 g m(-2) day(-1); and the compost f(ox), 69%, was not significantly different (P = 0.7354) than water-spreading f(ox), 63%. The water-spreading biofilter was shown to generally perform as well as the compost biofilter, and it may be easier to implement at a landfill and require less maintenance.     

Associative learning of odor with food- or blood-meal by Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae)

The ability of many insects to learn has been documented. However, a limited number of studies examining associative learning in medically important arthropods has been published. Investigations into the associative learning capabilities of Culex quinquefasciatus Say were conducted by adapting methods commonly used in experiments involving Hymenoptera. Male and female mosquitoes were able to learn a conditioned stimulus that consisted of an odor not normally encountered in nature (synthetic strawberry or vanilla extracts) in association with an unconditioned stimulus consisting of either a sugar (males and females) or blood (females) meal. Such information could lead to a better understanding of the ability of mosquitoes to locate and select host and food resources in nature.     

Experimental variability in characterization of cyfluthrin sorption to soil

To assess the risk of a pesticide to leach to groundwater or to run off to surface water after application, it is necessary to characterize the sorption of the pesticide to soil. For pyrethroids, their hydrophobicity, strong sorption to various materials, and low solubility make it difficult to accurately characterize sorption processes. The objective of this research was to evaluate the variability in cyfluthrin ((RS)-alpha -cyano-4-fluoro-3-phenoxybenzyl (1RS,3RS;1RS,3SR)-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate) sorption to soil as affected by experiment conditions. To minimize cyfluthrin sorption on the walls of glass, silanized-glass, stainless steel, and PTFE centrifuge tubes, cyfluthrin solution was added to aqueous soil slurries or directly to soil, after which it was equilibrated with aqueous solution. Depending on the soil, variation in sorption coefficients, Koc, obtained using different experimental methodologies with one soil can be comparable to the variation in Koc values obtained for soils with different physical and chemical properties using one method. Koc values for cyfluthrin ranged from 56,000 to 300,000 L kg-1. Sorption methodology needs to be evaluated before sorption coefficients are used in predictive transport models.     

Epidemiology of alcohol and drug screening among pedestrian fatalities in the United States, 2014–2016

Objective: U.S. pedestrian fatalities increased by 25% between 2010 and 2015. Risk factors include distractions, the built environment, urbanization, economic variables, and weather conditions. Of interest is the role of alcohol and drugs in premature death among pedestrians. This study sought to explore the prevalence of substance use screenings among pedestrian fatalities in the United States between 2014 and 2016.

Methods: Data were collected from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System provided by the NHTSA. Pedestrian crash variables included demographics as well as information regarding alcohol or drug testing status. Frequency and cross-tabulation tables were constructed to assess the prevalence of screening by person, place, and time. Log-linear analyses were completed to explore age, race, and sex differences. A 3-year examination period was used to control for yearly fluctuations and to incorporate an increasing trend in cases.

Results: Pedestrian fatalities accounted for 84% of all deaths among vulnerable road users during the examination period. Those most at risk were white males between the ages of 45 and 64. Over all states, 74.7% of fatalities were tested for alcohol and 67.1% were tested for drugs; further, 66.5% of cases were tested for both alcohol and drugs and 24.8% were tested for neither substance. Cases screened for both alcohol and drugs ranged from 2.9% in North Carolina to 95.7% in Nevada and those testing for neither substance ranged from a high of 68.9% in Indiana to a low of 1.1% in Maryland. Log-linear regression revealed significant differences in alcohol screening by age and race but not by sex. Differences in drug screening were not identified for any demographic variable. Fatalities tested for alcohol were significantly more likely to be tested for drugs; only 8.2% were screened solely for alcohol and 0.05% were screened for drugs alone.

Conclusions: Preventive strategies become more important as pedestrian crashes and fatalities increase. Risk reduction in the form of policy change, alterations to the built environment, or interdisciplinary approaches to injury prevention is dependent upon best evidence supported in part by more deliberate and consistent screening.     

Examination of factors associated with use rates after transition from a universal to partial motorcycle helmet use law

Objectives: Motorcycle riders account for a disproportionately high number of traffic injuries and fatalities compared to occupants of other vehicle types. Though research has demonstrated the benefits of helmet use in preventing serious and fatal injuries in the event of a crash, helmet use has remained relatively stable in the United States, where the most recent national estimates show a 64% use rate. Use rates have been markedly lower among those states that do not have a universal helmet law for all riders. In 2012, the state of Michigan repealed its longstanding mandatory helmet use law. In order to gain insights as to the effects of this legislative change, a study was conducted to examine short-term changes in helmet use and identify factors associated with use rates.

Methods: A statewide direct observation survey was conducted 1 year after the transition from a universal helmet law to a partial helmet law. A random parameters logistic regression model was estimated to identify motorcyclist, roadway, and environmental characteristics associated with helmet use. This modeling framework accounts for both intravehicle correlation (between riders and passengers on the same motorcycle) as well as unobserved heterogeneity across riders due to important unobserved factors.

Results: Helmet use was shown to vary across demographic segments of the motorcyclist population. Use rates were higher among Caucasian riders, as well as among those age 60 and above. No significant difference was observed between male and female riders. Use was also found to vary geographically, temporally, and with respect to various environmental characteristics. Geographically, helmet use rates tended to be correlated with historical restraint use trends, which may be reflective of riding environment and general differences in the riding population. To this end, rates were also highly variable based upon the type of motorcycle and whether the motorcyclist was wearing high-visibility gear.

Conclusions: The study results demonstrate the short-term reduction in helmet use following transition from a universal to partial motorcycle helmet law. The reduction in use is somewhat less pronounced than has been experienced in other states, which may be reflective of general differences among Michigan motorcyclists because the state has also generally exhibited higher use rates of seat belts and other forms of occupant protection. The study results also highlight potential target areas for subsequent education and public awareness initiatives aimed at increasing helmet use.     

Vegetation changes in Conservation Reserve Program lands in interior Alaska

Over 14 million hectares of erosion prone cropland in the United States has been converted into grasslands through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, however, studies of the effects of CRP enrollment on plant communities and subsequent plant succession are largely lacking. In Delta Junction, Alaska plant communities in CRP fields are transitioning from grasslands to shrub dominated plant communities, which are resulting in compliance problems with program regulations that state “fields must be maintained in a condition that permits easy conversion to cropland”. To determine plant succession and how previous land management and soils might influence the transition, we measured plant populations in 20 CRP fields throughout Delta Junction using modified-Whittaker plots. These data were combined with data on current management practices, previous farming history, soils, soil properties, diversity indices, and time since land was cleared and analyzed with nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination to determine factors that influence plant succession. Time in the CRP was the only factor consistently influencing plant succession. As time in the CRP increased, the planted introduced grasses brome grass (Bromus inermis) and red fescue (Festuca rubra) and the native pteridophyte (Equisetum arvense) decreased, whereas a native grass (Calamigrostis canadensis), five native forb, two native shrub, and three native tree species increased. Plant diversity increased at a rate of more than 2 species per 1000 m² per year. Regression analyses of plant species and plant groups using time in the CRP as the dependent variable resulted in the identification of outlier CRP fields with significantly more or less than expected covers of vegetation. All fields with these outliers had reasonable explanations for the differences in cover that were unrelated to the overall rate of plant succession. Current management practices will result in incompliant fields and different management practices that result in woody vegetation control is key to maintaining CRP fields in compliance.     

Do natural disturbances or the forestry practices that follow them convert forests to early-successional communities?

Stand-replacing natural disturbances in mature forests are traditionally seen as events that cause forests to revert to early stages of succession and maintain species diversity. In some cases, however, such transitions could be an artifact of salvage logging and may increase biotic homogenization. We present initial (two-year) results of a study of the effects of tornado damage and the combined effects of tornado damage and salvage logging on environmental conditions and ground cover plant communities in mixed oak-pine forests in north central Mississippi. Plots were established in salvage-logged areas, adjacent to plots established before the storm in unlogged areas, spanning a gradient of storm damage intensity. Vegetation change directly attributable to tornado damage was driven primarily by a reduction in canopy cover but was not consistent with a transition to an early stage of succession. Although we observed post-storm increases of several disturbance indicators (ruderals), we also observed significant increases in the abundance of a few species indicative of upland forests. Increases in flowering were just as likely to occur in species indicative of forests as in species indicative of open woodlands. Few species declined as a result of the tornado, resulting in a net increase in species richness. Ruderals were very abundant in salvage-logged areas, which contained significantly higher amounts of bare ground and greater variance in soil penetrability than did damaged areas that were not logged. In contrast to unlogged areas severely damaged by the tornado, most upland forest indicators were not abundant in logged areas. Several of the forest and open-woodland indicators that showed increased flowering in damaged areas were absent or sparse in logged areas. Species richness was lower in salvage-logged areas than in adjacent damaged areas but similar to that in undamaged areas. These results suggest that salvage logging prevented positive responses of several forest and open-woodland species to tornado damage. Anthropogenic disturbances such as salvage logging appear to differ fundamentally from stand-level canopy-reducing disturbances in their effects on ground cover vegetation in the forests studied here and are perhaps more appropriately viewed as contributing to biotic homogenization than as events that maintain diversity.     

Toward Consensus-Based Actions that Balance Invasive Plant Management and Conservation of At-Risk Fauna

Limiting the spread of invasive plants has become a high priority among natural resource managers. Yet in some regions, invasive plants are providing important habitat components to native animals that are at risk of local or regional extirpation. In these situations, removing invasive plants may decrease short-term survival of the at-risk taxa. At the same time, there may be a reluctance to expand invaded habitats to benefit at-risk species because such actions may increase the distribution of invasive plants. Such a dilemma can result in “management paralysis,” where no action is taken either to reduce invasive plants or to expand habitats for at-risk species. A pragmatic solution to this dilemma may be to develop an approach that considers site-specific circumstances. We constructed a “discussion tree” as a means of initiating conversations among various stakeholders involved with managing habitats in the northeastern USA to benefit several at-risk taxa, including New England cottontails (Sylvilagus transitionalis). Major components of this approach include recognition that expanding some invaded habitats may be essential to prevent extirpation of at-risk species, and the effective control of invasive plants is dependent on knowledge of the status of invasives on managed lands and within the surrounding landscape. By acknowledging that management of invasive plants is a complex issue without a single solution, we may be successful in limiting their spread while still addressing critical habitat needs.