And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
NUCLEAR FUEL SHIPMENTS TO VALLECITOS CHALLENGED
Environmental groups in the Bay Area, California towns of
Livermore,
Sunol and Pleasanton are worried about the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's approval of a shipment of ten irradiated nuclear
fuel rods
from the Limerick, Pennsylvania nuclear power plant to the
Vallecitos
Nuclear Center in their neighborhood. Vallecitos was closed
in 1997 by
General Electric after its location over an active earthquake
fault became
known. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) web page
lists the
facility as "closed down." But, since 1977, Vallecitos has
received 50
shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel rods, containing 513
kilos of solid
radioactive fuel. At least 11 shipments have come in the last
five years, all
without any public notification, the nuclear watchdog group
Tri-Valley
CARES complains.
QUICK DRINKING WATER ANALYSIS FINDS RADIUM
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has
directed nine water suppliers to take corrective action due
to results from
the most thorough and precise radiological testing to date of
the state's
public drinking water systems. The elevated levels of
naturally occurring
radiological contamination were discovered using a new
quicker testing
protocol developed by DEP to detect the presence of
radium-224, a
radioactive element with a "half-life" of 3.7 days that
decays too rapidly to
be detected by the commonly used methods. The accelerated
testing
protocol, which requires analyzing drinking water samples
within 48 hours
instead of up to a year after collection, is expected to
become the national
standard. These contaminants do not pose an immediate public
health
threat, but long-term, chronic exposure is believed to
increase the risk of
certain types of cancer.
* * *
RAINBOW TROUT SPINNING UNTIL THEY DIE
A parasite carried by a worm is wiping out rainbow trout in
Colorado,
Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The parasite causes whirling
disease,
which makes fingerling trout spin in circles until they die.
The parasite was
brought into the United States around 1950 in fish from
Europe. Now, the
disease has infected prize rainbow trout streams in the
West, including
the Madison, the Yellowstone, the South Platte and the
Blackfoot, which
was celebrated in the book and the movie "A River Runs
Through It."
German brown, cutthroat, brook and lake trout are less
susceptible to the
disease and are replacing the rainbow trout in many rivers.
Biologists
warn they have no cure. Only one drug, fumagillin, shows
promise, and it
is impossible to get enough of it into an infected river to
do any good.
Biologists say the best solution is to cleanse and modernize
hatcheries.
Fishermen can prevent the spread of the parasite by cleaning all
equipment with chlorine after fishing in diseased waters,
washing debris
from boats and not throwing fish remains into the water. "I
don't know if
we'll ever be able to eradicate it. The best we can do is
learn to control it,"
said Ken Peters, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in
Bozeman, Montana. The disease is harmless to humans.
* * *
IJC INVITES COMMENT ON NIAGARA RIVER PROJECTS
The International Joint Commission (IJC) has been asked by the
governments of Canada and the United States to address two
projects in
the Niagara River. On December 9, the IJC received an
application by the
Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority to approve the
Peace Bridge
Capacity Expansion Project. The multi-span, multiple steel
arch bridge
over the Niagara River and Black Rock Canal between Fort
Erie, Ontario
and Buffalo, New York will be constructed parallel to the
existing Peace
Bridge, which will also remain in use. On December 21, the
IJC was asked
by the U.S. and Canada to investigate and report on the
effects of a
proposed Ontario Hydro project on the remedial works
associated with its
water diversion facilities in the Niagara River and on other
transboundary
effects, including environmental effects. Public hearings on
the two
projects will take place in the U.S. January 28, 7-10pm, at the
Buffalo-Niagara Marriott, in Amherst, New York and in Canada
January
27, 7-10 pm, at the Marriott Hotel of Niagara Falls, in
Niagara Falls,
Ontario. Descriptions of the proposed projects are online at:
http://www.ijc.org
GROUNDWATER REMEDIATION: EVALUATING THE TRADE-OFFS
Michigan researchers have a new method that would give decision
makers a better tool to solve groundwater remediation
problems. Project
leader Dr. Alex Mayer of Michigan Technological University's
Department of Geological Engineering & Sciences says that when
cleanup systems were designed in the past, they were focused
on the
least expensive solution to reduce a toxic compound to the
lowest feasible
level. Mayer says researchers will now focus on developing
procedures
for producing tradeoff curves, or surfaces, consisting of
solutions that are
optimal with respect to at least one objective. Decision
makers will be able
to examine the tradeoff curves and select a solution or
solutions based on
their judgments as to what tradeoffs are acceptable. These
alternatives
will utilize a new technique called the Niched Pareto
procedure, pioneered
by Mayer's co-investigator, Dr. Jeffrey Horn of Northern
Michigan
University's Department of Math and Computer Sciences.
<<END EXCERPTS
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1998
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
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TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR:
Environmental Resource Center's Comprehensive Handbooks Now Available On
CD-ROM
CARY, N.C., Jan. 5 -/E-Wire/-- Environmental Resource Center announces
the availability of their comprehensive course handbooks on CD-ROM. Written
specifically for employees with environmental and safety responsibilities,
these handbooks cover how to comply with the regulations in an easy to read
and understand manner. Now, with the availability of these materials on CD-
ROM, compliance is even faster.
/CONTACT: Tammy Silverthorne, Environmental Resource Center,
919-469-1585 ext. 226/
/Web site: http://www.ercweb.com/
For Full Text and Graphics Visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/january/jan059902.html
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