Advancing the use of an innovative cleanup technology: Case study of Lasagna™

Originated from a recognized need for significantly more effective technologies for soil cleanup, the Lasagna^TM project provides an interesting case study in which industry, government, and academia successfully collaborated to rapidly advance the technology from the laboratory to the field. Called Lasagna^TM because of its layered configurations, the technology combines electrically induced contaminant transport in soils, treatment in place, and geotechnical methods to achieve completely in situ clean-up of contaminated soils. Experiences with respect to the partnership, the development of technology and its current commercialization status are described.     

Pollution,place, and premature death: evidence from a mid-sized city

ABSTRACT

Neighborhood life expectancy varies by as much as 10 years across the City of Louisville. In 2013, the Greater Louisville Project funded by local government, businesses, and foundations, argued these differences had little to do with environmental factors. The Greater Louisville Project (2013) study argued that these neighborhood differences could be attributed 40% to socio-economic factors (with a major emphasis on education), 10% to physical environment, 30% to health behaviors, and 20% to access to medical care. To test these claims, we construct our own model of neighborhood variation in years of potential life lost (YPLL) by adding two variables testing environmental degradation. We operationalise two separate measures of environmental contamination: proximity to EPA designated brownfield sites and proximity to chemical factories in an industrial park in the neighborhood known as “Rubbertown”. We conduct several regression analyses, which show a relationship between proximity to environmental contaminants and an increase in neighborhood YPLL. Our beta weights challenge the claims made by the Greater Louisville Project, which minimize the impact nearness to environmental contaminants has on reductions in life expectancy in Louisville neighborhoods.     

Tillage and manure application effects on mineral nitrogen leaching from seasonally frozen soils

Land application of manure is a common practice in the Upper Midwest of the United States. Recently, there have been concerns regarding the effect of this practice on water quality, especially when manure is applied during winter over frozen soils. A study undertaken on a Rozetta silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Hapludalfs) at Lancaster, WI, evaluated the effects of tillage and timing of manure application on surface and subsurface water quality. The daily scrape and haul liquid dairy manure was applied either in the fall (before snow) or in winter (over snow with frozen soil underneath) to be compared with no manure under two tillage systems (no-till and chisel-plowing). In this paper, we report results on the effects of the above treatments on mineral N leaching. Percolation and mineral N leaching during the nongrowing season were, respectively, 72 and 78% of the annual losses, mainly because of the absence of plant water and N uptake. Percolation was generally higher from no-till compared with chisel-plow but there was no significant effect of tillage on mineral N concentration of the leachate or mineral N losses via leaching. Mineral N leaching was statistically higher from the manure-applied vs. no-manure treatment, but there was no difference between winter-applied manure and no-manure treatments. There were significant tillage by manure interactions with fall manure application followed by chisel-plowing resulting in highest N leaching losses. Averaged over the two years, N leaching rates were 52, 38, and 28 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) from fall-applied, winter-applied, and no-manure treatments, respectively. These results show that there is substantial N leaching from these soils even when no fertilizer or manure is applied. Furthermore, fall-applied manure followed by fall tillage significantly increases N leaching due to enhanced mineralization of both soil and manure organic N.     

Ammonia emissions from swine houses in the southeastern United States

Ammonia (NH3) from confined animal feeding operations is emitted from several sources including lagoons, field applications, and houses. This paper presents studies that were conducted to evaluate NH3 emissions from swine finisher and sow animal houses in the southeastern USA. Management and climate variables including animal weight, feed consumption, housing gutter water temperature, total time fans operated per day, house air temperature, house ambient NH3 concentration, and animal numbers were measured to determine their individual and combined effect on NH3 emissions. Ammonia emissions varied on daily and seasonal bases with higher emissions during warmer periods. For finishers, the summertime housing emissions on a per-animal basis were 2.4 times higher than wintertime (7.0 vs. 3.3 g NH3 animal(-1) d(-1)) or 3.2 times higher when compared on an animal unit (AU) basis (1 AU = 500 kg) because of climate and animal size differences between measurement periods. For summertime, the emission factor for the finishing pigs was 7.8 times higher than for sows on an animal basis and 25.6 times higher on an AU basis. Simple models were developed for housing emissions based on (i) all measured factors that were independent of each other and (ii) on three commonly measured management factors. The two models explained 97 and 64%, respectively, of variations in emissions. Ammonia emissions were found to be somewhat less than other studies on the same type housing due to more representative housing concentration measurements and calibration of exhaust fans; thus, emission factors for these type houses will be less than previously thought.     

Use of Remote Sensing Techniques to Determine the Effects of Grazing on Vegetation Cover and Dune Elevation at Assateague Island National Seashore: Impact of Horses

The effects of grazing by feral horses on vegetation and dune topography at Assateague Island National Seashore were investigated using color-infrared imagery, lidar surveys, and field measurements. Five pairs of fenced and unfenced plots (300 m²) established in 1993 on sand flats and small dunes with similar elevation, topography, and vegetation cover were used for this study. Color-infrared imagery from 1998 and field measurements from 2001 indicated that there was a significant difference in vegetation cover between the fenced and unfenced plot-pairs over the study period. Fenced plots contained a higher percentage of vegetation cover that was dominated by American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata). Lidar surveys from 1997, 1999, and 2000 showed that there were significant differences in elevation and topography between fenced and unfenced plot-pairs. Fenced plots were, on average, 0.63 m higher than unfenced plots, whereas unfenced plots had generally decreased in elevation after establishment in 1993. Results demonstrate that feral horse grazing has had a significant impact on dune formation and has contributed to the erosion of dunes at Assateague Island. The findings suggest that unless the size of the feral horse population is reduced, grazing will continue to foster unnaturally high rates of dune erosion into the future. In order to maintain the natural processes that historically occurred on barrier islands, much larger fenced exclosures would be required to prevent horse grazing.     

A Quantitative Safety Assessment Model For Transgenic Protein Products Produced In Agricultural Crops

Transgenic plants are now being used to develop pharmaceutical and industrial products in addition to their use in crop improvement. Using confinement requirements, these transgenic plants are grown and processed under conditions that prevent intermixing with commodity crops. Regulatory agencies in the United States have provided guidance of zero tolerance of these new industrial crops with commodity crops. While this is a worthy goal, it is theoretically unattainable. In spite of the best containment practices, there is a potential risk using any system of production due to unforeseen incidences including natural disasters or exposure to workers. The precautionary principle has been used for numerous regulated articles in addressing the potential risks of new products and technology based on a risk assessment in similar situations. We present here a risk assessment model that could be used as a start to develop an accepted model for the industry. The model is based on current risk models used for other regulated articles, but adapted for these types of products. This could be used to determine action levels in the event of an unintended exposure or to ensure that detection or confinement methods are adequate to avoid risks. As an example, aprotinin, a therapeutic protein now being produced in maize, was evaluated for potential risk to humans using this model.     

New Zealand drivers study: developing a methodology for conducting a follow-up study of newly licensed drivers

PROBLEM: In recent years, there has been a significant reduction in traffic crash injury among young people, but they continue to be overrepresented in the traffic crash statistics. To improve this situation, sound scientific evidence is needed to develop effective policies and programs. METHOD: The aim of the proposed study is to provide this evidence by examining early driving and driving-related experiences of newly licensed drivers as they progress through the learner-, restricted-, and full-license stages of the graduated licensing system and to determine the impact of these experiences on subsequent negative traffic-related outcomes (risky driving behavior, injury traffic crashes, noninjury traffic crashes, infringements, convictions). Given the size and complexity of the proposed study, a comprehensive pilot study was undertaken to determine the feasibility of conducting a New Zealand-wide cohort study of newly licensed drivers. RESULTS: This article describes the pilot study process and the methodology that has been developed for the New Zealand-wide study.