Developing Life‐Cycle Environmental Response Costs for Leaking Underground Storage Systems at Service Station Sites

Leaking underground storage tank systems at service stations have resulted in tens of thousands of petroleum releases and associated groundwater chemical plumes often extending hundreds of feet off‐site. Technical and engineering approaches to assess and clean up releases from underground tanks, product lines, and dispensers using technologies such as soil vapor extraction, air sparging, biostimulation, and monitored natural attenuation are well understood and widely published throughout the literature. This article summarizes life‐cycle environmental response costs typically encountered using site‐specific cost estimation or metric‐based cost categories considering the overall complexity of site conditions: (1) simple sites where response actions require smaller scale assessments and/or remediation and have limited or no off‐site impacts; (2) average sites where response actions require larger scale assessments and/or remediation typical of petroleum releases; (3) complex sites where response actions require greater on‐site and/or off‐site remediation efforts; and (4) mega sites where petroleum plumes have impacted public or private water supplies or where petroleum vapors have migrated into occupied buildings. Associated cleanup cost estimates rely upon appropriate combinations of individual work elements and the duration of operation, maintenance, and monitoring activities. These cost estimates can be offset by state reimbursement funds, coverage in purchase agreements, and insurance policies. A case study involving a large service station site portfolio illustrates the range of site complexity and life‐cycle environmental response costs. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Use of Hypodermic Needles as Critical Orifices in Air Sampling

Hypodermic needles are useful as convenient low-cost critical orifices to control the flow rate in air sampling. Variations in flow rate were less than five per cent for 41 needle gauge-length combinations. To provide maximum accuracy, a simple calibration procedure is described. Needles may be reused more than six times, if protected. Types of protectors are described. Resistances of protector, collector, and prefilter combinations affect criticality at nine liters/min. Simple sampling devices using needles as orifices are described.     

Arsenic in the soils of Zimapán, Mexico

Arsenic concentrations of 73 soil samples collected in the semi-arid Zimapán Valley range from 4 to 14 700 mg As kg(-1). Soil arsenic concentrations decrease with distance from mines and tailings and slag heaps and exceed 400 mg kg(-1) only within 500 m of these arsenic sources. Soil arsenic concentrations correlate positively with Cu, Pb, and Zn concentrations, suggesting a strong association with ore minerals known to exist in the region. Some As was associated with Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides, this association is less for contaminated than for uncontaminated samples. Very little As was found in the mobile water-soluble or exchangeable fractions. The soils are not arsenic contaminated at depths greater than 100 cm below the surface. Although much of the arsenic in the soils is associated with relatively immobile solid phases, this represents a long-term source of arsenic to the environment.     

Prenatal counselling and diagnosis in progressively deforming osteogenesis imperfecta: A case of autosomal dominant transmission

A 21 -year-old woman with progressively deforming or type III osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) presented for prenatal counselling and diagnosis at 10 weeks' gestation. Family history was non-contributory. At 14.8 weeks' gestation, ultrasonographic examination revealed fetal skeletal hypomineralization, easily compressible fetal cranium, and thickened long bones, indicating that the fetus was also affected. Confirmation of the prenatal diagnosis of OI type III was made following a Caesarean section birth of a male infant with multiple skeletal deformities and blue sclerae implying, in this case, autosomal dominant inheritance.     

Western Land Managers will Need all Available Tools for Adapting to Climate Change,Including Grazing: A Critique of Beschta et al.

In a previous article, Beschta et al. (Environ Manag 51(2):474–491, 2013) argue that grazing by large ungulates (both native and domestic) should be eliminated or greatly reduced on western public lands to reduce potential climate change impacts. The authors did not present a balanced synthesis of the scientific literature, and their publication is more of an opinion article. Their conclusions do not reflect the complexities associated with herbivore grazing. Because grazing is a complex ecological process, synthesis of the scientific literature can be a challenge. Legacy effects of uncontrolled grazing during the homestead era further complicate analysis of current grazing impacts. Interactions of climate change and grazing will depend on the specific situation. For example, increasing atmospheric CO₂ and temperatures may increase accumulation of fine fuels (primarily grasses) and thus increase wildfire risk. Prescribed grazing by livestock is one of the few management tools available for reducing fine fuel accumulation. While there are certainly points on the landscape where herbivore impacts can be identified, there are also vast grazed areas where impacts are minimal. Broad scale reduction of domestic and wild herbivores to help native plant communities cope with climate change will be unnecessary because over the past 20–50 years land managers have actively sought to bring populations of native and domestic herbivores in balance with the potential of vegetation and soils. To cope with a changing climate, land managers will need access to all available vegetation management tools, including grazing.     

Population biology of White-crowned Sparrows: Residence time and local movements of juveniles

Summary A field study of the ranging behavior of post-fledging White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli) was carried out in undisturbed natural habitat in the Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin Co., California, USA. Forty-three first-brood juveniles, with tail feathers still growing, were banded at an estimated average age of 27 days and re-trapped an average of an additional 24 days for a total minimum time in residence in the immediate natal area of 51 days (Table 1).The distance from the site of first capture to subsequent recapture sites was about 60 m until age 35 days; then the distance increased to about 250 m by age 50 days (Fig. 2). These data indicate that the average juvenile White-crowned Sparrow completes at least the first 50 days of life in its natal area. Experimental work on song ontogeny has previously demonstrated that the sensitive period for song learning ends at about 50 days. Hence, young in our study population probably learn their natal dialect prior to any major dispersal movements. The correspondence between residence time and song learning would have the consequence of perpetuating song dialects as geographically structured populations.     

Prediction of Annual Streambank Erosion for Sequoia National Forest,California

Many bank erosion models have limitations that restrict their use in wildland settings. Scientists and land managers at the Sequoia National Forest would like to understand the mechanisms and rates of streambank erosion to evaluate management issues and post‐wildfire effects. This study uses bank erosion hazard index (BEHI) and near‐bank stress (NBS) methods developed in Rosgen (2006 Watershed Assessment of River Stability and Sediment Supply [WARSSS]) for predicting streambank erosion in a geographic area that is dominated by colluvium and in which streambank erosion modeling has not been previously evaluated. BEHI evaluates bank susceptibility to erosion based on bank angle, bank and bankfull height, rooting depth and density, surface protection, and stratification of material within the banks. NBS assesses energy distribution against the bank measured as a ratio of bankfull near‐bank maximum depth to mean bankfull depth. We compared BEHI classes and NBS to actual bank erosion measured from 2008 to 2012. This index predicted streambank erosion with clear separation among BEHI ratings with R² values of 0.76 for extreme, 0.37 for high/very high, 0.49 for moderate, and 0.70 for low BEHI. The relationships between measured erosion and BEHI extend the application of BEHI/NBS to a new region where they can inform management priorities, afforestation, stream/riparian restoration projects, and potentially burned area rehabilitation.     

Comparative analysis of impact of human occupancy on indoor microbiomes

• Exposure to indoor microbiomes is a public health concern in educational facilities. • Indoor microbiomes were characterized in two multifunctional university buildings. • Human occupancy had significant impact on the composition of indoor microbiomes. • The skin microbiota of occupants represented important sources of indoor microbiomes. Educational facilities serve as community hubs and consequently hotspots for exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, it is of critical importance to understand processes shaping the indoor microbiomes in educational facilities to protect public health by reducing potential exposure risks of students and the broader community. In this study, the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes were characterized in two multifunctional university buildings with contrasting levels of human occupancy, of which one was recently constructed with minimal human occupancy while the other had been in full operation for six years. Higher levels of human occupancy in the older building were shown to result in greater microbial abundance in the indoor environment and greater proportion of the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes contributed from human-associated microbiota, particularly the skin microbiota. It was further revealed that human-associated microbiota had greater influence on the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes in areas of high occupancy than areas of low occupancy. Consistent with minimal impact from human occupancy in a new construction, the indoor microbiomes in the new building exhibited significantly lower influence from human-associated microbiota than in the older building, with microbial taxa originating from soil and plants representing the dominant constituents of the indoor surface bacterial microbiomes. In contrast, microbial taxa in the older building with extensive human occupancy were represented by constituents of the human microbiota, likely from occupants. These findings provide insights into processes shaping the indoor microbiomes which will aid the development of effective strategies to control microbial exposure risks of occupants in educational facilities.     

Valuing water quality in China: purpose, approach and policy

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