Environmental Management and the New Politics of Western Water: The Animas-La Plata Project and Implementation of the Endangered Species Act

/ This paper explores the new politics of western water policy through an examination of the Animas-La Plata water project and implementation of the Endangered Species Act. It is suggested that the focus of western water programming has shifted from the source of distributed funds, the United States Congress, to the agencies originally created to deliver federal benefits because funding for new project construction has not been forthcoming. Under this new system, members of Congress continue to excite their constituents with promises of money for new project starts, while the administrative agencies perform the myriad duties needed to keep these projects alive. The result is that political objectives have replaced operational/management objectives in administrative processes. In this case, the author demonstrates how resource managers in the Bureau of Reclamation manipulated hydrological analysis to control administrative process, why their manipulation was unfair, and perhaps illegal, and why biologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service accepted the analysis. While ostensibly protecting all interests, the result is that none of the objectives of federal water programming are achieved. KEY WORDS: Environmental management; Administrative politics; Water policy; Endangered Species Act; Animas-La Plata, Bureau of Reclamation     

Regulatory context for cumulative impact research

Wetlands protection has become a topic of increased public attention and support, and regulation of wetlands loss under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act has received high priority within the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Despite this, the nation is continuing to experience serious wetlands losses. This situation reflects the contentious nature of wetlands protection; it involves fundamental conflicts between environmental and development interests. Better information is needed to support regulatory decision making, including information on cumulative impacts. Currently, consideration of cumulative impacts, although required by various federal regulations, is limited. One reason is that most regulatory decisions are made on a permit-specific, site-specific basis, whereas cumulative impacts must be assessed on a broader, regional scale. In addition, scientific information and methods necessary to support cumulative impact assessment have been lacking. An anticipatory, planning-oriented framework to complement the existing site-specific permit review program is needed to support more effective consideration of cumulative impacts; such an effort is beginning to emerge. In addition, EPA is supporting research to provide better information on cumulative effects. It is recommended that the EPA program place initial emphasis on synthesis and analysis of existing information, on maximizing its use in decision making, and on information transfer. Recommended approaches include correlation of historic wetlands losses with loss of wetlands function and values, regional case studies, and development of indices of cumulative impact for use in permit review.Formerly Director, Office of Federal Activities, US Environmental Protection Agency     

Modeling channel management impacts on river migration: a case study of Woodson bridge state recreation area,Sacramento river,California, USA

Understanding how hydraulic factors control alluvial river meander migration can help resource managers evaluate the long-term effects of floodplain management and bank stabilization measures. Using a numerical model based on the mechanics of flow and sediment transport in curved river channels, we predict 50 years of channel migration and suggest the planning and ecological implications of that migration for a 6.4-km reach (river miles 218–222) of the Sacramento River near the Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area, California, USA. Using four different channel management scenarios, our channel migration simulations suggest that: (1) channel stabilization alters the future channel planform locally and downstream from the stabilization; (2) rock revetment currently on the bank upstream from the Woodson Bridge recreation area causes more erosion of the channel bank at the recreation area than if the revetment were not present; (3) relocating the channel to the west and allowing subsequent unconstrained river migration relieves the erosion pressure in the Woodson Bridge area; (4) the subsequent migration reworks (erodes along one river bank and replaces new floodplain along the other) 26.5 ha of land; and (5) the river will rework between 8.5 and 48.5 ha of land in the study reach (over the course of 50 years), depending on the bank stabilization plan used. The reworking of floodplain lands is an important riparian ecosystem function that maintains habitat heterogeneity, an essential factor for the long-term survival of several threatened and endangered animal species in the Sacramento River area.     

基于CFD的深水钻井溢油事故定量风险评估

针对深水钻井作业过程中的井喷溢油问题,基于计算流体力学(CFD)方法,通过UDF函数给定海流流剖面、波浪入口边界条件和海水静压分布情况,结合标准k-ε方程,采用VOF模型实现对油、气、水三相自由面的追踪,建立了溢油扩散事故数值仿真模型,评估深水条件下溢油扩散危害区域,研究海流流速、溢油量对原油扩散的影响。结果表明,海流流速和溢油量是原油扩散行为和危害区域分布范围的重要影响因素。     

煤层注水降低综采工作面煤尘浓度的研究

在深入研究官地矿９＃ 煤渗透特性的基础上,提出动压预注水的煤层注水方案与参数,并在官地矿进行了工业性试验,取得了降低综采工作面煤尘浓度６０％ 以上的明显效果。它对我国煤矿有效实施煤层注水、降低工作面粉尘浓度具有实际指导意义     

京津冀地区生境质量与景观格局演变及关联性

以京津冀地区为研究区,基于InVEST生态评估模型、Fragstats景观格局指数测算平台,运用网格分析法,评估了2000～2018年京津冀地区生境质量与景观格局演变;利用空间自相关理论,分析了二者空间关联性及其时序演变特征.结果表明:京津冀地区生境质量整体呈现出“东南低、西北高”的空间分布特征;2000～2018年京...     

Fisheries management: integrating societal preference, decision analysis, and ecological risk assessment

Fisheries management is the practice of analyzing and selecting options to maintain or alter the structure, dynamics, and interaction of habitat, aquatic biota, and man to achieve human goals and objectives. The theory of fisheries management is: managers or decision makers attempt to maximize renewable `output' from an aquatic resource by choosing from among a set of decision options and applying a set of actions that generate an array of outputs. Outputs may be defined as a tangible catch, a fishing experience, an existence value, or anything else produced or supported by renewable aquatic resources. Overall output is always a mix of tangible and intangible elements. However defined, management goals and objectives are essential components of fisheries management or any other field of renewable natural resource management. Reaching consensus on management goals and objectives has never been a simple task. Beyond the broad and often conflicting goals of an agency, managers must decide who should set specific management objectives — agency personnel, the public, or a combination of the two. Historically, rhetoric aside, fisheries managers in North America nearly always have consulted with professionals in governmental roles to set management objectives. In a strongly pluralistic society, this often resulted in protracted political and legal conflict. Increasingly, there are calls for use of risk assessment to help solve such ecological policy and management problems commonly encountered in fisheries management. The basic concepts of ecological risk assessment may be simple, but the jargon and details are not. Risk assessment (and similar analytical tools) is a concept that has evoked strong reactions whenever it has been used. In spite of the difficulties of defining problems and setting management objectives for complex ecological policy questions, use of risk assessment to help solve ecological problems is widely supported. Ecological risk assessment will be most useful (and objective) in political deliberations when the policy debate revolves around largely technical concerns. To the extent that risk assessment forces policy debate and disagreement toward fundamental differences rather than superficial ones, it will be useful in decision making.     

The Water Table: The Shifting Foundation of Life on Land

Hyperarid, arid, and semi-arid lands represent over a third of the Earth’s land surface, and are home to over 38 % of the increasing world population. Freshwater is a limiting resource on these lands, and withdrawal of groundwater substantially exceeds recharge. Withdrawals of groundwater for expanding agricultural and domestic use severely limit water availability for groundwater dependent ecosystems. We examine here, with emphasis on quantitative data, case histories of groundwater withdrawals at widely differing scales, on three continents, that range from the impact of a few wells, to the outcomes of total appropriation of flow in a major river system. The case histories provide a glimpse of the immense challenge of replacing groundwater resources once they are severely depleted, and put into sharp focus the question whether the magnitude of the current and future human, economic, and environmental consequences and costs of present practices of groundwater exploitation are adequately recognized.     

我国地表水中磷酸三苯酯的多层次生态风险评估

磷酸三苯酯(triphenyl phosphate,TPP)在电缆材料、塑料制品中被大量使用,是地表水中检出频率最高的有机磷酸酯类阻燃剂之一,近年来受到广泛关注。本文通过文献检索TPP的地表水环境暴露浓度以及对水生生物的毒性效应浓度,利用风险商(hazard quotient,HQ)和概率生态风险评价法(probabilistic ecological risk assessments,PERA)对我国主要地表水中的TPP进行多层次生态风险评价。结果显示,TPP在我国地表水中的浓度为0.2～96.3 ng·L~(-1),以生存为测试终点的急性毒性数据推导出的预测无效应浓度(predicted no effect concentration,PNEC)为36.49μg·L~(-1),而以繁殖、发育和生长等为测试终点的慢性毒性数据推导出的PNEC值为1.30μg·L~(-1)。基于急、慢性毒性数据计算的风险商均小于0.1。我国地表水中TPP对0.1%到1%的水生生物造成繁殖、发育和生长等慢性毒性影响的概率分别为1.40%和0.04%,存在较低的潜在生态风险。     

固相萃取-GC/MS法测定水中持久性有机污染物

采用Envi-18固相萃取小柱富集水样,用正己烷/丙酮混合溶剂洗脱水样中42种POPs化合物,再用气质联用法测定。通过优化仪器监测条件,使目标物在0.250 mg/L~5.00 mg/L范围内线性良好。方法检出限为50.9 ng/L~11 640 ng/L,实际水样加标回收率为57.1%~129%,测定结果的RSD为0.1%~13.8%。将该方法用于测定浙江省东苕溪流域的45份水样,结果滴滴涕、六六六等有机氯农药的检出率较高,其他POPs的检出率较低。