Measuring the success of the federal government's Brownfields Program

In 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) initiated the Brownfields Program to help local governments clean up and reuse hundreds of thousands of contaminated former factories and transportation and other commercial sites in cities and industrialized suburbs. By the end of 2002, the Brownfields Program had distributed grants of about $200,000 each to 436 local governments. Program grants have diffused through federal, state, regional, and local levels of government and private and not‐for profit organizations, and have reached into economically distressed neighborhoods. As expected, grant recipients disproportionately had a legacy of contaminated industrial sites and relatively large African American and/or Latino populations. But abandoned factories and environmental justice concerns do not completely explain the geographical distribution of recipients. Award winners tended to be larger cities with more capacity to compete for grants and were likely to be connected to sources of information about the grant opportunity and to decision makers. With a few exceptions, recipients consider the program to be highly successful at stimulating entrepreneurs to remediate and redevelop sites and, sometimes, surrounding neighborhoods. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Public Perception of Flood Hazard in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

Summary Our study had the aim of understanding how floodplain dwellers regard the risk of flooding. About 500 questionnaires were administered to landowners in the selected settlements in the study area using systematic random sampling. The results of analysis show, among other things, that the population regards most important the causes of floods as heavy, prolonged rainfall and river overflow. Nevertheless, they have little knowledge of the frequency of severe floods, and flood alleviation schemes. Most flood victims do not get compensation or relief during flood disaster, and the reason why they remain in the study area is influenced by their occupations, especially fishing, subsistence agriculture, and the presence of crude oil in the region which has attracted many migrants who cannot afford the high cost of accommodation and are therefore forced to live in vulnerable areas of the floodplain. Finally, the study concludes that flood control in the region needs the cooperation of government, community efforts and an enlightenment programmes through environmental education and mass media.     

Class: an Essential Aspect of Watershed Planning

A study of a watershed planning process in the Cache River Watershed in southern Illinois revealed that class divisions, based on property ownership, underlay key conflicts over land use and decision-making relevant to resource use. A class analysis of the region indicates that the planning process served to endorse and solidify the locally-dominant theory that landownership confers the right to govern. This obscured the class differences between large full-time farmers and small-holders whose livelihood depends on non-farm labor. These two groups generally opposed one another regarding wetland drainage. Their common identity as “property owner” consolidated the power wielded locally by large farmers. It also provided an instrument – the planning document – for state and federal government agencies to enhance their power and to bring resources to the region. The planning process simultaneously ameliorated conflicts between government agencies and the large farmers, while enhancing the agencies’ capacity to reclaim wetlands. In this contradictory manner, the plan promoted the environmental aims of many small-holders, and simultaneously disempowered them as actors in the region’s political economy. An erratum to this article is available at .     

A Comparison of Campfire Impacts and Policies in Seven Protected Areas

Using resource-monitoring data from seven protected areas, the effectiveness of three campfire policies—campfire ban, designated campfires, and unregulated campfires—were assessed based on the number of fire sites and the amount of tree damage. Results indicate that unregulated campfire policies permitted substantial numbers of fire sites and tree damage in campsites, although fire bans did not eliminate or even substantially decrease these problems. A designated campfire policy was effective in decreasing number of fire sites, but little difference was found among policies regarding tree damage. Given the importance of campfires to visitor experiences, campfire prohibitions could be viewed as unnecessarily restrictive based on their limited success in preventing resource damage. Conclusions encourage protected-area managers to consider designated campfire policies and prohibitions on axes, hatchets, and saws to better meet resource protection and visitor experience mandates.     

Human Diets and Animal Welfare: the Illogic of the Larder

Few moral arguments have been made against vegetarian diets. One exception is the “Logic of the Larder:” We do animals a favor by purchasing their meat, eggs, and milk, for if we did not purchase these products, fewer animals would exist. This argument fails because many farm animals have lives that are probably not worth living, while others prevent a significant number of wild animals from existing. Even if this were not so, the purchase of animal products uses resources that could otherwise be used to bring a much greater number of animals into existence.     

Sustainable land application: an overview

Man has land-applied societal nonhazardous wastes for centuries as a means of disposal and to improve the soil via the recycling of nutrients and the addition of organic matter. Nonhazardous wastes include a vast array of materials, including manures, biosolids, composts, wastewater effluents, food-processing wastes, industrial by-products; these are collectively referred to herein as residuals. Because of economic restraints and environmental concerns about land-filling and incineration, interest in land application continues to grow. A major lesson that has been learned, however, is that the traditional definition of land application that emphasizes applying residuals to land in a manner that protects human and animal health, safeguards soil and water resources, and maintains long-term ecosystem quality is incomplete unless the earning of public trust in the practices is included. This overview provides an introduction to a subset of papers and posters presented at the conference, "Sustainable Land Application," held in Orlando, FL, in January 2004. The USEPA, USDA, and multiple national and state organizations with interest in, and/or responsibilities for, ensuring the sustainability of the practice sponsored the conference. The overriding conference objectives were to highlight significant developments in land treatment theory and practice, and to identify future research needs to address critical gaps in the knowledge base that must be addressed to ensure sustainable land application of residuals.     

The effect of Na and Ca salts on MSWI bottom ash activation for reuse as a pozzolanic admixture

In this study the possibility of both chemical and combined chemical + thermal activation of municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash was investigated. A number of chemical activators including Na₂SiO₃·9H₂O, NaOH, Na₂SO₄ and CaCl₂·2H₂O were individually added at varying concentrations to bottom ash/Portland cement mixtures having different bottom ash contents. The effect of the selected compounds was evaluated in terms of macroscopic properties including mechanical strength and composition of cementitious materials/water slurries. The results showed that Na-based activators were not capable of improving the characteristics of the cementitious products if compared to Portland cement under both normal and accelerated curing. Conversely, the use of calcium chloride at 40 °C-curing did promote the pozzolanic properties of bottom ash, leading to UCS values of 45.5 and 60.0 MPa after 10 and 20 days, respectively, as opposed to a value of 43.6 MPa obtained after 28 days for Portland cement under normal curing conditions.     

Botswana's environmental policy on recycling

Recycling operations have become one of the primary strategies for waste management, worldwide. Especially, recycling operations are viewed as among the most effective techniques for reducing the amount of municipal solid waste disposed at landfill sites. Botswana's environmental policy on recycling stipulates, among others, that all waste management authorities should provide information on the classification and quantities of controlled waste targeted for recycling. This paper, therefore, examines the extent to which recycling operations in Botswana have either been conducted in compliance with or in violation of some major environmental requirements as enunciated on statutory guidelines. Compatibility between environmental policies on recycling and actual practice is evaluated focusing on two companies (Dumatau trading and Botswana Tissue) involved in recycling operation. Data from the two companies is complemented by one collected from the Gaborone landfill site. Finally, this study discusses on the role played by various stakeholders in policy formulation and implementation with particular emphasis being placed on a select number of non-governmental organisations (NGO).