An empirical analysis of economic strategies for controlling air pollution

In evaluating current environmental protection policy, economists often note that current regulations are more costly than necessary to meet environmental quality standards. While the a priori case is strong that current regulatory approaches are resulting in higher-than-necessary costs to attain environmental standards, there is relatively little empirical evidence to support this claim. The purpose of this paper is to supply some of the missing evidence by presenting the results of one study that assesses some of the potential savings associated with implementing economic, rather than command-and-control, regulatory approaches to abate one type of air pollution in one region of the country. Specifically, the paper examines the costs of meeting a prospective short-term standard for nitrogen dioxide under a range of alternative emissions control strategies for stationary sources of nitrogen oxide emissions in the Chicago Air Quality Control Region. The alternative strategies that are considered range from those that might result under current regulatory policy to those that economic policy approaches (such as emissions charges or marketable permits) are designed to implement. The analysis shows that the most efficient program of emissions controls may be more than an order of magnitude less costly than current regulatory strategies, and that economic approaches have additional advantages over more conventional regulatory approaches.     

MANAGING THE NATION'S WATER IN A CHANGING CLIMATE1

ABSTRACT: Among the many concerns associated with global climate change, the potential effects on water resources are frequently cited as the most worrisome. In contrast, those who manage water resources do not rate climatic change among their top planning and operational concerns. The difference in these views can be associated with how water managers operate their systems and the types of stresses, and the operative time horizons, that affect the Nation's water resources infrastructure. Climate, or more precisely weather, is an important variable in the management of water resources at daily to monthly time scales because water resources systems generally are operated on a daily basis. At decadal to centennial time scales, though, climate is much less important because (1) forecasts, particularly of regional precipitation, are extremely uncertain over such time periods, and (2) the magnitude of effects due to changes in climate on water resources is small relative to changes in other variables such as population, technology, economics, and environmental regulation. Thus, water management agencies find it difficult to justify changing design features or operating rules on the basis of simulated climatic change at the present time, especially given that reservoir-design criteria incorporate considerable buffering capacity for extreme meteorological and hydro-logical events.     

Air Quality Management: Participatory Ranking of Control Measures and Conflict Analysis

The ranking of air quality control measures according to a number of evaluation criteria and with the participation of a large number of interested publics is demonstrated. A pilot study for the South Coast Air Quality Management District of California serves as the reference point. Several methodological considerations are addressed, such as: (a) the enhancement of criterion priorities to account for the variability among the performance of the control measures when incommensurable impact levels are applied: (b) the derivation of alternative rankings according to the priorities of potential coalitions; (c) the assessment of the potential acceptability of a collective ranking given the degree of solidarity among participants with similar interest affiliations; and (b) the assessment of the extent to which the performance of specific control measures may override priority differences and lead to insignificant ranking differences.     

Engineering Bulletins: Aids to the Development of Remedial Alternatives

An overview of activities of the Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Treatability Initiative are described and a summary of the information in the first ten Engineering Bulletins, which are a component of the initiative, is provided.     

Characterization of ambient fine particles in the northwestern area and Anchorage, Alaska

Ambient PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microm in aerodynamic diameter) in the northwestern United States and Alaska is dominated by carbonaceous compounds associated with wood burning and transportation sources. PM2.5 source characterization studies analyzing recent PM2.5 speciation data have not been previously reported for these areas. In this study, ambient PM2.5 speciation samples collected at two monitoring sites located in the northwestern area, Olympic Peninsula, WA, and Portland, OR, and one monitoring site located in Anchorage, AK, were characterized through source apportionments. Gasoline vehicle, secondary sulfate, and wood smoke were the largest sources of PM2.5 collected at the Anchorage, Olympic, and Portland monitoring sites, respectively. Secondary sulfates showed an April peak at Anchorage and a November peak at Portland that are likely related to the increased photochemical reaction and long-range transport in Anchorage and meteorological stagnation in Portland. Secondary nitrate at the Olympic site showed a weak summer high peak that could be caused by seasonal tourism in the national park. Backward trajectories suggested that the elevated aged sea salt concentrations at the Portland monitoring site could be regional transport of sea salt that passed through other contaminated air sheds along the coast. Oil combustion emissions that might originate from ships and ferries were observed at the Olympic monitoring site.     

Parental conflict and brood desertion by females in blue-headed vireos

We investigated sexual conflict over parental care in blue-headed vireos (Vireo solitarius) and documented the first example of unvarying unisexual brood desertion in passerines. Females at all nests (N = 24) that were monitored closely near fledgling, deserted their broods on or near the day of fledging leaving males alone to complete parental care of young. No males deserted. This observational evidence was confirmed with radiotracking of females (2004, 2007) and both pair members (2008). Radiotracked females began visiting distant males 1–4 days before young left the nest, subsequently paired with males 355–802 m away, and laid first eggs in new nests less than 5 days after deserting. In contrast, females suffering nest predation did not desert and renested with the same male. We suggest equal parental care (nest building, incubation, feeding) in the sexes, genetic monogamy, and an adult sex ratio biased towards males has led to female control of brood desertion in this species. Unisexual desertion may be more important in altricial birds than generally realized and we discuss prerequisites to predict its occurrence. One is genetic monogamy, which may be a female tactic that reduces the likelihood of males evolving counter-adaptations to female desertion.     

Condition-dependent control of paternity by female purple martins: implications for coloniality

Proposed causal links between extra-pair copulation (EPC) and colony formation in socially monogamous birds hinge on the question of which sex controls fertilizations. We examined in colonial purple martins Progne subis (1) whether EPCs were forced or accepted by females, and (2) the degree to which apparently receptive females were able to obtain EPCs against their mates’ paternity defenses. Paternity analyses of multilocus DNA fingerprinting confirmed previous findings of a marked relationship between age class and extra-pair fertilizations (EPFs), with young males losing paternity of 43% (n = 53) of their putative offspring compared to 4% (n = 85) by old males. All assignable extra-pair offspring were sired by old males, with one male obtaining most EPFs each year. Contrary to the hypothesis that EPCs are forced, EPF frequency within age class did not increase with seasonal increases in the number of males per fertile female. Whereas the male control hypothesis predicted that the male age class that mate-guarded more would be cuckolded less, the reverse was true: young males guarded significantly more intensely. The male age class difference in cuckoldry could not be explained by the possibility that young and inexperienced females (which are usually paired to young males) were more vulnerable to forced copulation because EPFs were unrelated to female age. These findings suggest that females (1) pair with old males and avoid EPCs, or (2) pursue a mixed mating strategy of pairing with young males and accepting EPCs from old males. The receptivity to EPCs by females paired to young males put them in conflict with their mates. Two factors determined the paternity achieved by young males: (1) the relative size of the male to the female, with young males achieving much higher paternity when they were larger than their mates, and (2) the intensity of mate-guarding. Both variables together explained 77% of the variance in paternity and are each aspects of male-female conflict. Given female receptivity to EPCs, mate-guarding can be viewed as male interference with female mating strategies. We conclude that EPCs are rarely or never forced, but the opportunity for females paired to young males to obtain EPCs is relative to the ability of their mates to prevent them from encountering other males. Evidence of mixed mating strategies by females, combined with other features of the martin mating system, is consistent with the female-driven “hidden lek hypothesis” of colony formation which predicts that males are drawn to colonies when females seek extra-pair copulations. Received: 23 March 1995/Accepted after revision: 14 January 1996     

Variation of the hydrological regime of Bele-Shira closed basin in Southern Siberia and its reflection in the radial growth of Larix sibirica

Regional Environmental Change - This study analyses dynamics of the hydrological regime of Bele-Shira closed basin and evaluates the potential for using radial growth of Siberian larch (Larix...     

Spectroscopic characterization of the structural and functional properties of natural organic matter fractions

Natural organic matter (NOM) is known to be complex in nature with varying structural and functional characteristics. In this study, an aquatic NOM was fractionated into the polyphenolic-rich (NOM-PP) and the carbohydrate-rich (NOM-CH) fractions in an attempt to better characterize their chemical and structural properties along with a reference soil humic acid (SHA). Various spectroscopic techniques were employed for the study, including ultraviolet-visible (UV/Vis). 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier-transform infrared, fluorescence, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopies. Results indicate that the relative abundance of aromatic C=C and methoxyl (-OCH3) functional groups are in the order of SHA > NOM-PP > NOM-CH. However, the aquatic NOM-PP and NOM-CH fractions are characterized by high contents of carboxylic and alcoholic functional groups relative to the SHA. In particular, the NOM-PP fraction appears to contain more phenolic and ketonic functional groups than the NOM-CH and SHA fractions, and it gives a strong fluorescence and high paramagnetic spin count. On the other hand, the NOM-CH fraction possesses a relatively low amount of carbon but a high amount of oxygen or oxygen-containing structural features, such as carbohydrate-OH and carboxylic groups, and shows the least fluorescence intensity and paramagnetic spin counts. Results of these spectroscopic studies confirm the heterogeneous nature of NOM, and point out the importance of isolation and improved characterization of various NOM subcomponents in order to better understand the behavior and roles of NOM in the natural environment.     

Sources of fine particulate species in ambient air over lake Champlain Basin, VT

This study is a part of an ongoing investigation of the types and locations of emission sources that contribute fine particulate air contaminants to Underhill, VT. The air quality monitoring data used for this study are from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments network for the period of 2001-2003 for the Underhill site. The main source-receptor modeling techniques used are the positive matrix factorization (PMF) and potential source contribution function (PSCF). This new study is intended as a comparison to a previous study of the 1988-1995 Underhill data that successfully revealed a total of 11 types of emission sources with significant contributions to this rural site. This new study has identified a total of nine sources: nitrate-rich secondary aerosol, wood smoke, East Coast oil combustion, automobile emission, metal working, soil/dust, sulfur-rich aerosol type I, sulfur-rich aerosol type II, and sea salt/road salt. Furthermore, the mass contributions from the PMF identified sources that correspond with sampling days with either good or poor visibility were analyzed to seek possible correlations. It has been shown that sulfur-rich aerosol type I, nitrate aerosol, and automobile emission are the most important contributors to visibility degradation. Soil/dust and sea salt/road salt also have an added effect.