Effect of process conditions on the analysis of free and conjugated estrogen hormones by solid-phase extraction–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPE–GC/MS)

Simultaneous analysis of 11 free estrogen hormones and five conjugated estrogens in water and municipal wastewater was studied. The analytical method was developed and tested for different types of solid-phase extraction adsorbents, eluents, sample containers and storage conditions, derivatization, and matrix effects. Varian Bond Elut C-18 solid-phase extraction adsorbent cartridge was selected based on its high recoveries for both free and conjugated estrogens. Sample storage conditions, as well as selection and pretreatment of sample container materials, can affect the trace level analysis of estrogens. Silanization of glassware is observed to provide low relative standard deviation (RSD) in the analysis and less percentage loss due to contacting with sample container materials. Light exposure during the test can significantly impact the results. The derivatized samples stored at −20°C for at least 6 days showed less than 10.5% average RSD in the analysis. The recovery efficiency in clean water varies from 72% to 101% for free estrogens and 78% to 82% for conjugated estrogens. The method detection limits (MDL) for most of the compounds range from 30 to 870 ng/L using a sample volume of 200 mL. With a sample volume of 3 L, the most sensitive compound produces a MDL of 0.03 ng/L. Dilute methanol is used to wash the loaded cartridge as a cleanup step in order to remove interfering species during analysis of wastewater samples. Using the optimized analytical methods, the concentration level of free estrogens in the influent and effluent municipal wastewaters is tested.     

Pilot study investigating ambient air toxics emissions near a Canadian kraft pulp and paper facility in Pictou County,Nova Scotia

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Air toxics are airborne pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, including certain volatile organic compounds...     

Accounting for risk and uncertainty in determining preferred strategies for adapting to future climate change

Individuals, businesses, and policymakers face the problem of selecting a preferred strategy for adapting a managed ecosystem to future climate change when there is risk and/or uncertainty about future climate change and its ecosystem impacts, and the conditional outcomes of adaptive strategies (i.e., performance of an adaptive strategy given a particular future climate change scenario occurs). Evaluation methods for this purpose are described for two cases; one in which the decision-maker can (climate risk case) and cannot (climate uncertainty case) assign probabilities to future climate change scenarios. Fuzzy sets are used to characterize uncertainty regarding both future climate change, and the conditional outcomes of adaptive strategies. The preferred conditional adaptive strategy for a future climate change scenario is determined by ordering the adaptive strategies for that scenario using a fuzzy set operation. Two methods are described for determining the adaptive strategy that is preferred across all climate change scenarios. The preferred overall adaptive strategy for the climate risk case is determined by maximizing a performance index for strategies. The preferred overall adaptive strategy for the climate uncertainty case is determined using the minimax regret criterion, which selects the strategy that minimizes the maximum loss in performance that can occur across all strategies and climate change scenarios. Ways for making the evaluation methods dynamic are considered.     

Strategic environmental assessment as a tool of environmental governance: Scotland's extension of the European Union SEA Directive

The coverage of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has been extended to all public sector policies, plans and programmes subject to Scottish jurisdiction. Evaluation of the arguments advanced by the Scottish Executive for using environmental assessment as a tool for environmental governance requires an exploration of some of the contested interpretations of the function of environmental assessment at a strategic level. The paper examines the implications of this extension of the European Union SEA Directive in the context of current arrangements to fit environmental assessment into the UK tradition of integrated policy appraisal. It considers the methodological implications of using SEA explicitly for improving public sector decision making at all levels and across all activities. This enables environmental effects to be taken into account at an early stage in the formulation of government policy, through a transparent system of assessment which encourages public participation.     

Calculating resource restoration for an oil discharge in Lake Barre,Louisiana, USA

Under the United States Oil Pollution Act of 1990, natural resource trustees are charged with assessing natural resource impacts due to an oil spill and determining the type and amount of natural resource restoration that will compensate the public for the impacts. Habitat equivalency analysis is a technique through which the impacts due to the spill and the benefits of restoration are quantified; both are quantified as habitat resources and associated ecological services. The goal of the analysis is to determine the amount of restoration such that the services lost are offset by services provided by restoration. In this paper, we first describe the habitat equivalency analysis framework. We then present an oil spill case from coastal Louisiana, USA, where the framework was applied to quantify resource impacts and determine the scale of restoration. In the Louisiana case, the trustees assessed impacts for oiled salt marsh and direct mortality to finfish, shellfish, and birds. The restoration project required planting salt-marsh vegetation in dredge material that was deposited on a barrier island. Using the habitat equivalency analysis framework, it was determined that 7.5 ha of the dredge platform should be planted as salt marsh. The planted hectares will benefit another 15.9 ha through vegetative spreading resulting in a total of 23.4 ha that will be enhanced or restored as compensation for the natural resource impacts.     

Microbial responses to in situ chemical oxidation,six‐phase heating,and steam injection remediation technologies in groundwater

The evaluation of microbial responses to three in situ source removal remedial technologies—permanganate‐based in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO), six‐phase heating (SPH), and steam injection (SI)—was performed at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. The investigation stemmed from concerns that treatment processes could have a variety of effects on the indigenous biological activity, including reduced biodegradation rates and a long‐term disruption of community structure with respect to the stimulation of TCE (trichloroethylene) degraders. The investigation focused on the quantity of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and its distribution to determine the immediate effect of each remedial technology on microbial abundance and community structure, and to establish how rapidly the microbial communities recovered. Comprehensive spatial and temporal PLFA screening data suggested that the technology applications did not significantly alter the site's microbial community structure. The ISCO was the only technology found to stimulate microbial abundance; however, the biomass returned to predemonstration values shortly after treatment ended. In general, no significant change in the microbial community composition was observed in the SPH or SI treatment areas, and even small changes returned to near initial conditions after the demonstrations. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Corporate environmental management study shows shift from compliance to strategy

The Abt study of forty-one mostly Fortune 200 nonservice firms forms a new picture of environmental management. We present data indicating that environmental management is becoming central to corporate strategy and is being managed as an arena of competition rather than as a compliance-driven function. We look at environmental management's new role through four lenses: its relationship to strategic planning; its evolving management structures that show environment increasingly integrated into the main functions of the business; innovation in corporate environmental investments reflecting new drivers beyond compliance; and new management systems and measures of firm-wide performance that demonstrate that environment is being seen increasingly as an arena of competitive concern. We argue that much of the change is driven by three realities. First, as customers integrate environmental values into their conceptions of product quality, they are buying more products with identifiably environmental attributes. This change translates environmental management, historically a cost center, into a potential source of sales revenue, a change which cannot be underestimated. Second, recent life-threatening damage to the global ecosystem and atmosphere reframes environmental management. This moves firms toward a systemic and global approach matched to the globalization of competitive and market concerns, and it places environmental management in the strategic sphere. And third, pollution prevention in its cross-fertilization with total quality management is driving firms to focus on managing environment as an integral part of product management, and is helping them to reassess environmental performance as a contributor to productivity and innovation.     

Which regional features of Danish agriculture favour the corn bunting in the contemporary farming landscape?

Corn buntings Miliaria calandra were abundant throughout arable agricultural landscapes in Europe, but have catastrophically declined since the mid 1970s with changes in farming practice and now give serious conservation cause for concern. Corn buntings declined in Denmark during 1976–1993, but (almost unique in Europe) have since increased (by up to 11% per annum) in some areas without specific conservation recovery actions. Based on breeding bird surveys in the mid 1990s, highest corn bunting densities occurred on mixed agriculture in west Denmark (Jylland); the species was rarer or absent in regions of highest arable land cover. Corn bunting density and extent of rotational and permanent grassland were correlated, but not with spring sown barley (all known to constitute important corn bunting winter habitat). The extent of spring barley rapidly declined in Denmark during the 1980s, but since 1990, most counties have since shown 2–3% annual increases in this crop, except in Nordjylland, where high densities of corn buntings have remained stable. Elsewhere in Jylland, corn buntings have increased in counties supporting highest densities during the mid 1990s, contrasting stable or declining trends in south and east Denmark where densities were originally lower. After dramatic decreases everywhere in Denmark, corn buntings retain highest breeding densities associated with mixed agriculture, especially where grassland and spring sown barley remained in greatest extent. Although purely based on land use correlation and bird surveillance, these results show an association between mixed farming and favourable conservation status of a species now red-listed throughout much of Europe. Further investigations of habitat use at small spatial scales and throughout the annual cycle are urgently required to better enlighten specific recommendations for wider applicability of guidelines for corn bunting recovery actions elsewhere.