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Monday, October 6, 2008
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From The Environment News Service: "More intense storms will threaten water infrastructure and increase polluted stormwater runoff as climate change impacts water resources across the United States, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns in a proposed climate and water strategy issued Thursday. Shorelines will move as a result of sea level rise, and changes in ocean chemistry will alter aquatic habitat and fisheries, the agency said. Warming water temperatures are likely change contaminant concentrations in water and alter the uses of aquatic systems, the EPA strategy document projects. The document adds that new patterns of rainfall and snowfall are expected to alter water supply for drinking and other uses and lead to changes in pollution levels in aquatic systems."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Climate Change News
6:23:54 PM 
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From The Durango Herald: "La Plata County commissioners will meet this week to decide whether to wrap up more than two years of work on the county's new gas and oil regulations - or postpone a final vote until at least January. At issue is whether the county's rules, if passed, would conflict with or duplicate state rules, currently undergoing revision by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. While industry representatives have urged the commissioners to wait, local environmentalists argue that doing so is not in the community's best interests...
"[Tom Dugan, a Durango attorney representing the Colorado Petroleum Association] stressed that the county's process of revamping its regulations is not occurring in a vacuum. 'The things we're debating here are a microcosm of the larger national debate: How do we achieve energy independence? How do we keep costs down? How do we protect the environment? And what's the appropriate balance?' he said."
Category: Climate Change News
6:13:40 PM
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From The Denver Post: "The report updates the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, which overall includes 44,838 species, of which 16,928 are threatened with extinction. Of these, 3,246 are in the highest category of threat, critically endangered, 4,770 are endangered and 8,912 are vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN estimated that 76 mammal species have gone extinct since 1500. While the new report estimated that one-in-four mammals is threatened with extinction, the actual numbers listed were 1,141 out of 5,487 species. That comes out to 20.8 percent, closer to one in five. However, the researchers noted that there were several hundred species about which they don't have enough data to classify. They believe that the lack of information about those animals indicates that they exist in such small numbers that many could be endangered, raising the total to 25 percent or higher, Smith explained.
"Among the mammals particularly in danger are primates, used for bush meat in parts of Africa and facing major loss of habitat in Southeast Asia, Smith noted. The report also notes unusually high threats to tapirs, hippos, bears, pigs and hogs, while among the less threatened are moles, opossums and free-tailed bats. In general, larger mammals were found to be more threatened than smaller ones. Larger species tend to have lower population densities, grow more slowly and have larger home ranges.
"For land species, habitat loss is a major threat across the tropics, including deforestation in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Hunting is having devastating effects in Asia, but African and South American species are also affected. For marine mammals the major threat is accidental death, especially fisheries by-catch and vessel strike. Climate change is also affecting sea ice dependent species such as polar bears and harp seals."
Category: Climate Change News
6:08:24 PM
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The Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting comments on possible perchlorate standards for drinking water. Here's their press release:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted extensive review of scientific data related to the health effects of exposure to perchlorate from drinking water and other sources and found that in more than 99 percent of public drinking water systems, perchlorate was not at levels of public health concern. Therefore, based on the Safe Water Drinking Act criteria, the agency determined there is not a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction" through a national drinking water regulation.
The agency is seeking comment on its preliminary determination not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water at a national level. EPA will make a final determination for perchlorate after considering information provided in the 30-day public comment period.
While fewer than one percent of the drinking water sources have perchlorate levels above the health reference level, EPA is committed to working with states and localities to ensure public health is protected. States have the right to establish and enforce drinking water standards and EPA encourages state-specific situations to be addressed at the local level. EPA intends to issue a health advisory at the time it issues its final regulatory determination for perchlorate, to assist states with their local response.
A regulatory determination is a formal decision by EPA as to whether it should initiate development of a national primary drinking water regulation for a specific contaminant under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA has drinking water regulations for more than 90 contaminants. Every five years, EPA develops a Contaminant Candidate List of contaminants to consider for regulation and then makes regulatory determinations on some of the contaminants based on scientific information on health effects, occurrence in drinking water and the opportunity for risk reduction.
A health advisory provides technical guidance to federal, state, and other public health officials on health effects, analytical methods and treatment technologies associated with drinking water contamination. Health advisories also contain guidance values that are concentrations of a contaminant in drinking water that are likely to be without adverse health effects.
Information on Drinking Water Regulatory Determinations: epa.gov/safewater/ccl/reg_determine2.html
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
7:27:42 AM
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From The EPA: "To assist in responding to potential effects of climate change, a new strategy focuses on 40 specific actions for the national water program to take to respond to climate change. EPA's National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change (pdf) describes steps for managers to adapt their clean water, drinking water, and ocean protection programs."
Category: Climate Change News
7:19:19 AM
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Here's an update on the use of tamarisk leaf beetles to control the invasive trees, from The Colorado Springs Gazette. From the article:
On the Western Slope, the Colorado Department of Agriculture has had success in curbing the tenacious tree with Chinese beetles, which come from the same central Asian highlands as tamarisk, and have a taste for its leaves. Large stretches of the Dolores and Colorado rivers, once heavily infested with tamarisk, have been defoliated...
This summer saw the first large-scale releases of the Chinese beetles along Fountain Creek, as well as along the Arkansas near Lamar. Officials hope other successes can be replicated here. "The No. 1 benefit that immediately strikes people is cost. It's virtually free," said Dan Bean, director of the state's Palisade Insectary, where the beetles are bred. "Compared to going with bulldozers, it's way cheaper. The beetles defoliate the trees and they're extremely specific."[...]
In July , the state, working with the National Resource Conservation Service, released 8,500 beetles along Fountain Creek just north of Pueblo, in cooperation with a land owner. Another 18,000 were released a few weeks later. Late-summer checks of revealed no beetles on the tamarisk, said conservation service biologist Patty Knupp." "That's not to say they're not there. They weren't on our monitoring trees," Knupp said. That's not unusual, said Bean, with the state insectary. It takes a year before beetles are stable and numerous enough to attack a tree. Once the tamarisk is gone, the beetles die.
In 1999, after more than a decade of study, the federal government approved the use of beetles for tamarisk control. Pueblo Reservoir, where some shores are lined with tamarisk, was selected as one of six test sites, with 1,000 beetles released in 2001. Seven years later, the quarter-inch-long beetles are right at home. The tamarisk isn't dead, but a 100-acre area is defoliated, and the tamarisk has not spread, said Denise Hosler, botanist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the reservoir. "You can release the beetles and they don't actually kill everything but they do tend to hold it in a static state, so we don't see an increase in salt cedar populations," Hosler said. The project has shown the beetles can survive the area's harsh winters and they don't attack other plants or pose a nuisance to people using the reservoir, she said. Monitoring will continue...
Colorado got in the beetle business in 2005, with beetles from entomologists in China and Kazakhstan. Small releases in Mesa County were successful, and beetles from the state insectary have been released on the Western Slope every year since. With its leaves gone, a tamarisk sucks just 5 percent of its normal thirst. Along the Colorado and Dolores rivers, the beetles are migrating on their own across large swaths. Several other Western states are spreading the Chinese beetles, with mostly similar success.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
7:06:53 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
11/1/08; 7:46:44 PM.
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