• Army Corps to Review 150 Water Projects
  
• Clinton Calls Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump a Mistake
  
• Energy Task Force Director Subpoenaed
  
• Conservation Groups Sue Over Ballast Water Dumping
  
• Students Demand University Action on Climate Change
  
• Power Plant Emissions Could Be Cut Affordably
  
• California Groups Can Certify Organic Farmers
  
• Yellow Perch Stocked, Studied in Maryland
  

Army Corps to Review 150 Water Projects

The agency said the move comes as a result of recent questions about Corps processes.

The Corps will suspend and review projects that fall into two categories:

Those with an economic assessment older than 1999 will have a new economic analysis before they can proceed.

Those where there are "credible indications" of changes in economic conditions, or engineering, scientific or environmental information since their authorization, that may have resulted in changes in project justification or support. Documentation for these projects will be reviewed and updated, if necessary.

The announcement does not affect studies already underway, such as the Corps' major reviews of plans to dredge shipping channels in the Columbia and Delaware Rivers and expand locks on the Mississippi River.

"This action is part of a more comprehensive initiative to ensure that Corps projects are a sound investment for our nation and are proposed in an environmentally sustainable way," said Corps director of civil works Major General Robert Griffin. "It is essential that Corps projects keep up with the pace of change."

A preliminary assessment indicates that about 150 of the 1,400 or so Corps projects nationwide will be checked. The agency has a backlog of authorized projects awaiting funding that amounts to more than $50 billion.

Some projects will have a quick check to see when the last economic analysis was done and, if current, will proceed. Others may require more extensive work on the environmental, engineering or economics analyses. Projects will be allowed to proceed once any necessary updates have been made.

Conservation groups reacted with cautious approval to the news.

"What you hear from us is the sound of one hand clapping," said American Rivers president Rebecca Wodder. "Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step towards solving it, but we remain convinced that Congress will need to intervene to ensure that the Corps gets over its addiction for wasting your money."

Less than a month ago, American Rivers released a major report documenting the agency's habit of building and operating water projects that inflict environmental damage on rivers and freshwater habitats, and often prove to be bad investments for the taxpayer.

"This gesture does not change the fact that it is a fundamental conflict of interest to allow the Corps to determine for itself that its projects are a good investment and environmentally sound," Wodder added.

Clinton Calls Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump a Mistake

Clinton's message was enthusiastically received by an audience of about 6,300 last night at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

"You ought to go to senators from every one of the small states and ask them how they'd feel if it was being done to them," Clinton said. "Don't give up. Just keep making the case."

Nevada senators of both parties are now trying to persuade their fellow lawmakers to uphold the veto of Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn that would prevent the Department of Energy from sending about 77,000 tons of nuclear waste from power plants and defense facilities to Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Concerns have been raised over transportation safety and the safe containment of the waste in a permanent geological repository there. The Senate will vote on the veto this summer.

Clinton said siting the waste at Yucca Mountain is "a mistake," and said if he was president today, he would fund research into alternatives.

Demand for tickets to Clinton's talk, presented as part of the Barbara Greenspun Lecture Series, was very high. The Greenspun lectures are normally held in a 1,800 seat hall, but organizers had to move the event to the 6,500 seat Thomas and Mack Center.

The former president's fee was not disclosed and he did not grant any media interviews.

Energy Task Force Director Subpoenaed

The group wants to depose Andrew Lundquist and force the Energy Department to hand over records of who consulted with him to formulate the Bush energy policy.

"As the administration's top official on the task force, Andrew Lundquist ran the show for Vice President Cheney," said NRDC senior attorney Sharon Buccino. "The public is entitled to know what he knows."

Because Lundquist headed the energy task force as an employee of the Department of Energy (DOE), he was subject to NRDC's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. But the agency failed to include his records among the more than 12,000 court ordered documents provided to the NRDC.

Lundquist is a former top aide to Republican Senators Frank Murkowski and Ted Stevens of Alaska. He was appointed in January 2001 to serve as executive director of the National Energy Policy Development Group, the official name of the energy task force.

After the task force disbanded in September, Lundquist served as an advisor on energy policy to Vice President Cheney. He left the White House on March 28, 2002, to start his own consulting firm in Washington. He also is reportedly serving as an officer and board member at an undisclosed company.

"As the key staffer directing the work of the energy task force, Lundquist's records contain critical missing pieces to the energy puzzle. It's disconcerting, but not surprising, that the Energy Department is trying to keep the lid on his information," said Buccino. "But administration officials are not above the law. They can and will be held accountable to the citizens they serve."

NRDC requested the energy task force documents more than a year ago under FOIA, and filed a lawsuit to get the documents after being rebuffed by the administration.

Conservation Groups Sue Over Ballast Water Dumping

The groups claim that cruise ships sailing into state waters from Mexico, Canada, and other distant ports often ignore mandatory ballast water treatment in order to cut costs. Ballast water is seawater pumped into ships to ensure stability at sea, and discharged as needed while in or approaching a port.

Ballast water is the single largest source of invasive species found in California ports. It carries foreign plants and animals that can invade local ecosystems and displace native species.

Using records from the California State Lands Commission, the environmental groups' lawsuit claims that in two out of three visits, ships owned by Carnival, Holland America, Princess and Royal Caribbean that dock in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or San Diego violate a ballast water law passed in 2000.

The Environmental Law Foundation, Bluewater Network, San Diego BayKeeper, and the Surfrider Foundation are suing all four cruise lines under California's Unfair Competition Law in Los Angeles Superior Court. The groups will ask the court to order cruise ships to halt any discharges of ballast water into California waters.

"Cruise lines must stop fouling California's waters in the name of good times and big profits," said Teri Shore of the Bluewater Network in San Francisco, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

The 2000 law requires any ship sailing into California from outside the United States' 200 mile coastal zone to hold or treat any ballast water. An August 2001 letter from the State Lands Commission accused the cruise lines of failing to cooperate in finding a solution and threatened prosecutions for violating the law.

"Invasive species are a serious problem for California's coast," said Stephanie Pacey, attorney for San Diego BayKeeper. "It is time to put a stop to a practice that is so harmful to our ocean ecosystems for so long."

The groups note that cruise industry growth threatens future invasions. More ships are expected to travel West Coast waters beginning this year as cruise ships are being repositioned following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Over the next three years, 37 new ships are scheduled for worldwide delivery.

"We want to bring this suit now to prevent future harm to San Diego's coasts and bays, as well as to work to repair and restore the damage that has been done in other parts of California," concluded Marco Gonzalez, president of the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Students Demand University Action on Climate Change

The U.S. signed the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to curb the emission of greenhouse gases linked to global warming under former President Bill Clinton. But President George W. Bush withdrew U.S. support last year in favor of a voluntary climate change plan based on measurements of "greenhouse gas intensity."

Facing national inaction on climate change, some American students are calling for local action, demanding that their universities commit to the Kyoto Protocol standards of greenhouse gas reductions. These efforts are part of Kyoto Now!, a student led grassroots movement.

"Universities across the nation, including all eight Ivy League institutions and schools large and small in 24 states, from Florida, to Vermont, to Washington, are recognizing the importance of emissions reductions," said Jason Fults, a student at Berea College in Kentucky. "We are working together, sharing our ideas, problems and solutions to move our schools towards Kyoto compliance. Since Bush won't do it, we must."

Since rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, the students say the Bush administration has created energy and emissions policies that are "weak and ineffective" at addressing global warming.

"Bush is moving in the wrong direction," said Liisa Bergman, a student at Michigan State University. "His plan will actually allow for increased emissions."

The Kyoto Now! Movement, a campaign of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC.org), has already prompted some changes on university campuses. For example, in April 2001, responding to Kyoto Now! student pressure, Cornell University committed to the Kyoto Protocol.

Many other universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Colorado - Boulder, and Connecticut College, have helped reduce global warming emissions by purchasing energy from clean renewable sources such as wind.

"By implementing energy conservation measures and purchasing renewable energy, our universities are showing the Bush administration the importance, urgency, and economic feasibility of Kyoto compliance," said Julian Dautremont-Smith, a student at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Students at Lewis and Clark voted in February to increase student fees to purchase carbon dioxide offset credits, hoping to make the school one of the first to be Kyoto compliant.

"Every time a campus group works to cut carbon emissions, it is sending a strong message about climate change," said Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat Is On," a book about the implications of climate change. "By publicly addressing the issue, it is educating people and creating a constituency for large scale political action."

For more information, visit: http://www.kyoto-now.org

Power Plant Emissions Could Be Cut Affordably

The new technology, dubbed Staged Combustion with Nitrogen-Enriched Air (SCNEA), could help power plants comply with strict new requirements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for decreasing plant emissions. The technology will be showcased at the TriValley Technology Enterprise Center's TriValley Software Showcase on May 8.

SCNEA can replace or enhance current pollutant control technologies at a lower cost while further reducing pollution emissions. Existing power plants can be retrofitted to use the SCNEA combustion method without a huge cost increase, the team said.

"As EPA requirements become tighter and tighter on emissions, most solutions become more difficult and more expensive to implement," said Larry Fischer, LLNL principal investigator for SCNEA. "With our technology, consumers will see cleaner air at a miniscule increase in their utility bills."

Before concerns about oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2, termed NOx) and their relationship to smog and acid rain came to light in the late 1980s, fuel was burned in boilers and furnaces with single stage combustion using air to aid combustion.

NOx emissions are regulated under the provisions of the Clean Air Act and its 1990 amendments.

Fischer said SCNEA is expected to lower corrosion, extend the lifetime of equipment, and decrease down time and maintenance costs in power plants. He estimates that a 350 megawatt coal fired boiler plant would cost about $60 million to retrofit for SCNEA operation.

The technique could be applied to boilers, burners, turbines and internal combustion engines, and many types of fuel including coal, oil and natural gas.

LLNL is working to form a consortium of representatives from the EPA, utility companies, boiler manufacturers, emission control equipment companies and a company that produces nitrogen enriched air. The next stage is to do a small scale pilot program.

California Groups Can Certify Organic Farmers

"The accreditation by USDA confirms the important role and strong voice of CCOF in the agricultural movement here in California, in the U.S., and worldwide," says Brian Leahy, president of CCOF. "We worked very hard to achieve this goal, and we are proud to be among the first certification programs accredited."

CCOF is a nonprofit third party organic certifier that was founded in 1973. It is now the largest certifier in California with more than 1,000 members and over 120,000 acres of certified organic land.

CCOF certifies almost 75 percent of the certified organic agriculture in California, and has members in several other states throughout the nation, in Mexico and in Canada. CCOF's certified operations distribute their products to markets in North America, Europe and Asia.

"It has been 12 years from the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 in California to the new nationwide organic law released by USDA," noted Brian McElroy, CCOF's certification services manager. "CCOF was one of the main forces in the passage of the original Act and has remained influential in the shaping of organic production regulations on both the state and national level."

Even with the accreditation as an official USDA organic certifier, CCOF will remain a grassroots organization comprised of organic farmers and handlers of every size.

Besides offering a certification program, CCOF promotes and supports sustainable agriculture in California and worldwide through programs to increase awareness of and demand for certified organic product as well as advocacy for governmental policies that protect and encourage organic agriculture.

Yellow Perch Stocked, Studied in Maryland

While once abundant throughout the watershed, yellow perch populations in the two rivers have been plummeted due to poor water quality conditions. The yellow perch fishery in the Severn was closed to harvest in 1988.

The DNR is partnering with Anne Arundel County to learn more about the species and the factors that may be contributing to its decline. Other participants include the Coastal Conservation Association and the Severn River Association.

The groups hope to restore the population to the fishable levels that existed in the 1960s.

Beginning in late February this year, DNR Fisheries Service sampled the spawning stock and removed barriers to spring spawning migrations in Severn Run. Later this spring, the tidal portion of the River will be sampled for the presence of these marked juveniles to measure their contribution to the stock.

The coalition plans to stock a total of one million juvenile perch into the river this year. Later this spring, yellow perch will be collected, counted, measured and marked for assessment.

Stocking is just one component of the study, which will also describe the growth, distribution, abundance and reproduction of the yellow perch population.

Water quality, dissolved oxygen levels, land use and bay grass densities will also be measured. The Severn and South Rivers' watershed will serve as a comprehensive model for applying the DNR's fisheries ecosystem management concepts.