Towards a strategic approach to sewage sludge utilization on agricultural land in Scotland

Patterns of sewage sludge disposal will undergo dramatic changes in the next decade because of recent EC legislation; land utilization is likely to increase as a result. The legislation as applied in the UK is discussed and the current situation in Scotland is outlined. A rule‐based risk assessment classification has been formulated and by applying it to the Scottish National Soils Inventory database, national and regional estimates of land availability for sludge utilization have been obtained. The relationship of these area estimates with the projected sludge volumes and the long‐term implications are discussed. In addition, the impact of potential policy changes are described. The need for incorporating objective strategic analyses of this type into the restructuring of the Scottish water industry is advocated.     

Continuous improvement at EG&G: The waste reduction pays (WARP) initiative

EG&G is a Fortune 200 company with annual sales of $2.7 billion. It designs and manufactures laboratory and field-test instruments and electronic and mechanical components for commercial customers. EG&G provides systems engineering, precision component manufacturing, and test-site operating and management services to many government agencies and laboratories. It employs 34,000 people worldwide. Recognizing the need to improve its business practices as they related to environmental excellence, EG&G initiated policies, procedures, and programs to establish itself as an environmentally responsible company. Waste reduction was designated priority number one in EGG's environmental program. Our major customers are also making waste reduction a high visibility program. For example, on August 3, 1993, the president signed Executive Order 12856 making pollution prevention at federal facilities a goal of this administration. This article describes the EG&G Waste Reduction Pays (WARP) program, developed for use by all its operating entities, and why it is a model program to implement Executive Order 12856. It also depicts how the implementation of the program at federal facilities differs, in some respects, from that at other EG&G operating units.     

Development of a Computer Workstation for Famine Early Warning and Food Security

Beginning in 1990, the University of Arizona, Arizona Remote Sensing Center (ARSC) has been involved in a collaborative effort with the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) and the Remote Sensing Center of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in designing and developing an integrated computer workstation for famine early warning. The goal of the project is to provide food security analysts with a set of computer tools to manage a very large and diverse set of data for predicting the onset of food security emergencies for every country on Earth. The initial stage of the project involved the conceptual definition of system elements and the development of overall system architecture. We are now developing an open, flexible, and portable system designed to significantly assist the work of the analysts. System architecture provides a task-specific and user-friendly graphic user interface (GUI) within a Windows environment that will link image processing, geographic information system (GIS), spreadsheet, text, and graphics software packages into a single operational environment. A relational database management system (RDBMS) is serving as the back-end of the workstation to facilitate data storage and retrieval and as a means to preserve analysis methodologies.     

Ecologically derived guidelines for managing two New Zealand lakes

Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, in Fiordland National Park, became the center of a major controversy after the New Zealand government offered their water resource to an overseas aluminum smelting consortium for electricity generation. Although the scheme proceeded, the lake levels were not raised as originally proposed. Rather, government sought guidelines to optimize hydroelectric potential while maintaining ecological stability of the vulnerable, largely forested, glaciated lakeshores. Guidelines were derived by relating the vegetation zonation to the natural lake-level fluctuations recorded daily for 37 years. Ahigh operating range in the upper third of the lakes' natural ranges, based on flood tolerances of the woody shoreline species, restricts both duration and frequency. Alow operating range (ca. lower third) safeguards stability of shoreline sediments by limiting drawn-down rates, duration, and frequency. Themain operating range (ca. middle third) has few limitations. These guidelines, which allow utilization of ca. 93% of the water resource, have now been verified by instances of flooding and draw-down rates that exceeded the natural rates recorded earlier. The guidelines were officially accepted by the government in 1977 as a basis for managing the valuable multiple resources of these two lakes and their environs, and they were formalized in legislation in 1981. The details and merits of the guideline approach are discussed.     

Impact of right-of-way construction on vegetation in the Red Lake Peatland,northern Minnesota

During the winters of 1978–79 and 1979–80, a 500-kV electrical transmission right-of-way (r-o-w) was constructed across the Red Lake Peatland in northwestern Minnesota, the largest contiguous peatland in the lower 48 states of the USA. Immediately before, and for two years following construction, vascular vegetation was monitored within the r-o-w and in undisturbed control areas. Monitoring was carried out in five vegetation types: a thicket swamp, a low shrub bog, a graminoid fen, a treed bog, and a treed fen. Evaluation of construction impacts was based on vegetation structure, irrespective of species composition, and on community composition (species data for low shrubs and herbs). Construction eliminated trees from the r-o-w. Vegetation structure, excluding trees, was markedly altered in the two bog types and the treed fen type in the first postconstruction growing season. By the second season, measurable recovery to control levels had begun. The sample plots were placed into a previously developed vegetation classification system for the Red Lake Peatland, on the basis of herbs and low shrubs. There was a shift in composition in the low shrub bog and in the treed vegetation types following construction. Results of both methods of data analysis were consistent. Major vegetation changes following construction occurred in the low shrub bog and treed types. The open, low-stature fen types showed almost no changes related to construction. Even in the affected types, all vegetation strata except trees were returning to their preconstruction status by the second growing season following construction.     

The Worldwide Availability of Phosphate Rock

The US Bureau of Mines has investigated the resource potential of 201 phosphate mines and depositee in 28 market economy countries and 17 mines and deposits in the USSR and China. The 201 mines and deposits contain an estimated 34.2 billiong tonnes (t) of recoverable phosphate rock (at the demonstrated resource level), with Morocco and Western Sahara accounting for 61% (21 billion t) and with the USA accounting for 19% (6.4 billion t). The 17 mines and deposits evaluated in the USSR and China contain approximately 1.5 billion t of potentially recoverable phosphate rock. Potential annual capacity from low-cost, high-grade producing mines in the USA is estimated to decline significantly during the latter half of the next decade, and the US phosphate fertilizer industry will have to obtain phosphate rock by developing new, higher-cost, lower-grade mines or import phosphate rock to satisfy anticipated demand in the next century. Of the world's new production capacity that are likely to be developed over the next decade, slightly over one-third could be produced at an estimated 1981 cost of $40/t or less, and about two-thirds would cost in the $40 to $50 per tonne range (including a 15% rate of return). In comparison, most of the competing phosphate rock from producing mines in Morocco could be produced for less than $40/t.     

ON THE USE OF SEEPAGE METERS TO ESTIMATE GROUNDWATER NUTRIENT LOADING TO LAKES1

Data from a study on East Lake Tohopekaliga, Florida, indicate that the seepage meter measurement method may often overestimate nutrient contributions to lakes. Nutrient loading data from this method and a method employing lakeside piezometer nutrient data and seepage meter flows were not comparable. Seepage nutrient loading from the meter and piezometer methods comprised 39 and 18 percent of the nitrogen budget and 38 and 9 percent of the phosphorus budget, respectively, for East Lake Tohopekaliga. In terms of water, groundwater seepage accounted for only 14 percent of the total input to the lake. It is felt that some of the past studies using the seepage meter method to estimate nutrient loading may be in error due to reasons related to the enclosure of lake sediments by the meter and the accompanying anaerobic conditions which quickly result.     

SIMULATION AND DECISIONMAKING: THE PLATTE RIVER BASIN IN NEBRASKA1

Substantial conflict exists over water management and allocation in the Platte River Basin of Nebraska. An interdisciplinary computer simulation model, representing the water quantity, water quality, environmental, and economic dimensions of the conflict, was developed in order to analyze the tradeoffs among allocation scenarios. Most importantly, decisionmakers and interest groups were involved in model development. Simulation results for a base case and two scenarios are presented. One scenario favors protection of instream flow for wildlife; the other favors water diversions for agriculture. Impacts of the instream flow scenario, as measured by the amount of land irrigated, groundwater levels, the amount of wildlife habitat for cranes and catfish, and net agricultural benefits did not differ greatly from those of the base case. However, impacts of the diversion scenario were substantial. On the negative side, instream flows and wildlife habitat declined an average of 39 percent; while, on the positive side, groundwater levels and net agricultural benefits each increased 6 percent. The modeling process was successful insofar as it promoted an understanding among the highly diverse interest groups of the systems nature of the Basin. One agreement on a water diversion schedule among three of the parties has been reached, partly as a result of this process. More comprehensive compromises have not yet been forged. Our experience, however, indicates that modeling success at the policymaking level depends more on the extent to which the policymakers understand the model than it does on model sophistication.