Property Rights Case Law and the Challenge to the Endangered Species Act

Congress is poised to initiate what could be a lengthy debate over the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In anticipation, proponents of strong Fifth Amendment private property rights guarantees have begun an aggressive campaign pitting those rights against those granted other species in the Act. Little case law exists that considers both property rights and wildlife protection, but inference can be drawn from Supreme Court opinions regarding property rights which may provide insight into likely judicial contributions to resolving tension between property rights and endangered species. We review key legislative history, provisions of the Endangered Species Act, relevant case law, and the implications of recent judicial trends that pertain to property and imperiled species. We then make recommendations that may improve implementation of this critical piece of environmental legislation.     

Lead content of plants and soils from three abandoned smelter areas in and near Socorro,New Mexico

Two primary lead smelters and one secondary lead smelter have been active in the Socorro, New Mexico (USA) area in the last 110 years: the Billing smelter from 1883 to 1894, the Cuba Road smelter from 1881 to 1900, and Cal West from 1979 to 1984. Samples of plants and surface soil under each plant from all three sites were analysed for lead. The plants consisted of sparse grasses, cacti, creosote bush, snakeweed, mesquite and fourwing saltbush. Lead levels in the plants increased (2-440 g g^–1) as the lead in the alkaline soils (25-10000 ng g^–1) increased. However, the BAC (biological absorption coefficient), which is the ratio of lead content in the plant to the lead content in the soil, a measure of relative accumulation, decreased by one to two orders of magnitude, except for grasses and snakeweed. At background lead levels, there was little difference between lead in rootsversus foliage. At high lead levels, there was higher lead in roots versus foliage at the Billing and Cuba Road sites. The reverse was noted at Cal West. Because this is a recent operation, the higher lead in foliage may be due to foliar uptake. Plant growth at all sites appeared healthy.     

Questions and Answers. From waste to improved production?

Please send me your comments and questions on TQEM. Address it to me: TQEM Questions & Answers Editor, 22 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10010. I will credit you with the question and send out an extra copy of TQEM. My thanks to James, Jack, and Sheila for sharing in the quality revolution this issue.     

Environmental training fosters bottom-line education and regional economic development

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. If Einstein was correct, the question that you should be posing to yourself right now is “how can I make the change to a different level of thinking?” This challenge was given to a group of managers from a broad range of businesses in a training program delivered at the Centre for Environmental Training (CET) in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It will be examined in this article as part of a case study about the success of a TQEM approach to improving the bottom line of business. At the heart of this story is the germination of a business vision to make improved environmental performance a key factor in regional economic renewal. In keeping with the TQEM theme, this is a never ending story; this article is just the prologue.     

A COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS FOR MULTIOBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION FOR RESERVOIR OPERATION1

ABSTRACT: Two major objectives in operating the multireservoir system of the Upper Colorado River basin are maximization of hydroelectric power production and maximization of the reliability of annual water supply. These two objectives conflict. Optimal operation of the reservoir system to achieve both is unattainable. This paper seeks the best compromise solution for an aggregated reservoir as a surrogate of the multireservoir system by using two methods: the constraint method and the method of combined stochastic and deterministic modeling. Both methods are used to derive the stationary optimal operating policy for the aggregated reservoir by using stochastic dynamic programming but with different objective functions and minimum monthly release constraints. The resulting operating policies are then used in simulated operation of the reservoir with historical inflow records to evaluate their relative effectiveness. The results show that the policy obtained from the combination method would yield more hydropower production and higher reliability of annual water supply than that from the constraint-method policy.     

Genetic counselling and ethical issues with chromosome microarray analysis in prenatal testing

Molecular karyotyping using chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) detects more pathogenic chromosomal anomalies than classical karyotyping, making CMA likely to become a first tier test for prenatal diagnosis. Detecting copy number variants of uncertain clinical significance raises ethical considerations. We consider the risk of harm to a woman or her fetus following the detection of a copy number variant of uncertain significance, whether it is ethically justifiable to withhold any test result information from a woman, what constitutes an ‘informed choice’ when women are offered CMA in pregnancy and whether clinicians are morally responsible for ‘unnecessary’ termination of pregnancy. Although we are cognisant of the distress associated with uncertain prenatal results, we argue in favour of the autonomy of women and their right to information from genome-wide CMA in order to make informed choices about their pregnancies. We propose that information material to a woman's decision-making process, including uncertain information, should not be withheld, and that it would be paternalistic for clinicians to try to take responsibility for women's decisions to terminate pregnancies. Non-directive pre-test and post-test genetic counselling is central to the delivery of these ethical objectives. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

USABILITY ASSESSMENTS FOR HYDROLOGIC FORECASTING DSS1

ABSTRACT: Usability assessments were used to obtain feedback on the development of a flood forecasting decision support system. The feedback was used to guide design of system functionality, interface, training, implementation, and operations. The usability process was user focused and was dependent upon implementation of a prototype system in an operational setting. This paper describes concepts and methods applied to collect reflective and objective data on DSS components and information outputs. The general structure of the usability assessments is discussed and results of assessments are summarized.