- Email: [email protected]
Gulf of Mexico study
Volume 7/Number 5/May 1976
waste discharges in reversing this trend and some of the kelp forests are recovering and extending. The Californian marine environment is resilient and dramatic changes follow the control of particularly damaging industrial inputs and reductions in the volume of settlable solids that are discharged. The Coastal Water Research Project monitored the changes following the termination of discharge from one shallow water outfall in Orange County in detail. Within a year the animal communities in the neighbourhood of the outfall closely resembled those at control sites and there was a rapid decrease in the chemical contamination of the sediments. In fact it was concluded that ecological benefits and biological responses to a reduction of certain types of pollution occurred in months or a few years, not decades as had been popularly supposed. The Coastal Water Research Project has produced a number of specialist reports and general annual reports over the years, but it has recently put together its views in a general statement on the environmental effects of the disposal of municipal waste waters in open coastal waters for the National Commission on Water Quality. It says quite bluntly that " i f reasonable precautions are followed, large volumes of municipal waste waters can be discharged into some open coastal waters without undue damage to man's interests or to the ecological balance and productivity of coastal waters." Even more bluntly it adds " t h e public is misinformed about the extent of ocean pollution and the damage to marine life by municipal waste waters, generally believing the situation to be much worse than scientific studies s h o w . " A few years ago these would have been fighting words and certainly taken as indicating that the Project had sold out to the big business interests. As befits an organization which through its administrative commission is kept in touch with public opinion, the public having to pay local taxes as well as express concern about the health of the environment, the Project is suitably cost-conscious. As local residents, the extreme environmentalists have to put their money where their mouth is and it is then, when sound information is propagated, that an air of realism comes over the scene.
Oil Spill Recovery The US Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory at Port Hueneme, California, has developed a new polyurethane foam oil spill recovery system. The system uses over 3 million chips/h of polyurethane foam, which is sprayed onto the oil spill, and then collected, squeezed to remove the oil, and then reused. It is claimed that the system can pick up 50 000 gallons/h of oil, and that it can operate successfully in winds as high as 25 knots. The chips, 1/4 × 3 × 3 in in size, are said to become 90% saturated with oil in six seconds.
Another Environmental Conservation Award The 1975 Edward W. Browning Award for environmental conservation has been presented to Professor Archie F. Carr, jr. of the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida. The award, which is presented by the Smithsonian Institution on behalf of the New York Community Trust, which administers the several Browning Achievement Awards, was given for Professor Carr's endeavours to preserve the green sea turtle, and for his demonstrations of the global migration of marine turtles. They are also ominously said to show promise as experimental animals in the study of problems of navigation.
Gulf of Mexico Study The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are to jointly conduct a study of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly with regard to the many factors affecting marine life. Information will be collected over a period of 18 months on the coastal waters of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, and air and sea data will be used to check whether satellite data are a reliable source of information for the exploitation and management of the Gulf's marine life. The project will use not only ships and oil platforms, but also aircraft and satellites. Commercial fishing fleets in the area are providing some of the funds and equipment, as the results will be of great commercial importance to them. O f particular interest is the availability and distribution of menhaden and thread herrings, which fortunately swim in large schools near the sea surface, and can be monitored by satellite.
PCB Degradation Dr Dickson Liu of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters at Burlington, Ontario, has developed an effective method for biodegrading PCBs, chlorinated organic substances which have a wide variety of uses in the industrial world, and which have become an environmental hazard because of their non-degradability over long periods of time. PCBs were used in paints, inks and copying papers, and their insulating properties led to their use in the electricity industry. But the realization of the hazard they represented led to a voluntary restriction on the part of most manufacturers as to their uses. Dr Liu has developed a new and specific bacterium, a strain of the c o m m o n Pseudomonas, which is capable of breaking down even Arochlor 1254 from concentrations of 300 000 to 19 ppb in one week. Key to the process is ultrasonic treatment of the oily substance so as to achieve a hydrophobic-hydrophylic interface with a substance whose solubility is only 4 ppb. Sodium lignin sulphonate is used as an emulsifier to maintain suspension. The discovery has also led to the revelation of the basic process of aerobic digestion of PCBs. This in turn may 83
waste discharges in reversing this trend and some of the kelp forests are recovering and extending. The Californian marine environment is resilient and dramatic changes follow the control of particularly damaging industrial inputs and reductions in the volume of settlable solids that are discharged. The Coastal Water Research Project monitored the changes following the termination of discharge from one shallow water outfall in Orange County in detail. Within a year the animal communities in the neighbourhood of the outfall closely resembled those at control sites and there was a rapid decrease in the chemical contamination of the sediments. In fact it was concluded that ecological benefits and biological responses to a reduction of certain types of pollution occurred in months or a few years, not decades as had been popularly supposed. The Coastal Water Research Project has produced a number of specialist reports and general annual reports over the years, but it has recently put together its views in a general statement on the environmental effects of the disposal of municipal waste waters in open coastal waters for the National Commission on Water Quality. It says quite bluntly that " i f reasonable precautions are followed, large volumes of municipal waste waters can be discharged into some open coastal waters without undue damage to man's interests or to the ecological balance and productivity of coastal waters." Even more bluntly it adds " t h e public is misinformed about the extent of ocean pollution and the damage to marine life by municipal waste waters, generally believing the situation to be much worse than scientific studies s h o w . " A few years ago these would have been fighting words and certainly taken as indicating that the Project had sold out to the big business interests. As befits an organization which through its administrative commission is kept in touch with public opinion, the public having to pay local taxes as well as express concern about the health of the environment, the Project is suitably cost-conscious. As local residents, the extreme environmentalists have to put their money where their mouth is and it is then, when sound information is propagated, that an air of realism comes over the scene.
Oil Spill Recovery The US Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory at Port Hueneme, California, has developed a new polyurethane foam oil spill recovery system. The system uses over 3 million chips/h of polyurethane foam, which is sprayed onto the oil spill, and then collected, squeezed to remove the oil, and then reused. It is claimed that the system can pick up 50 000 gallons/h of oil, and that it can operate successfully in winds as high as 25 knots. The chips, 1/4 × 3 × 3 in in size, are said to become 90% saturated with oil in six seconds.
Another Environmental Conservation Award The 1975 Edward W. Browning Award for environmental conservation has been presented to Professor Archie F. Carr, jr. of the Department of Zoology at the University of Florida. The award, which is presented by the Smithsonian Institution on behalf of the New York Community Trust, which administers the several Browning Achievement Awards, was given for Professor Carr's endeavours to preserve the green sea turtle, and for his demonstrations of the global migration of marine turtles. They are also ominously said to show promise as experimental animals in the study of problems of navigation.
Gulf of Mexico Study The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are to jointly conduct a study of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly with regard to the many factors affecting marine life. Information will be collected over a period of 18 months on the coastal waters of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, and air and sea data will be used to check whether satellite data are a reliable source of information for the exploitation and management of the Gulf's marine life. The project will use not only ships and oil platforms, but also aircraft and satellites. Commercial fishing fleets in the area are providing some of the funds and equipment, as the results will be of great commercial importance to them. O f particular interest is the availability and distribution of menhaden and thread herrings, which fortunately swim in large schools near the sea surface, and can be monitored by satellite.
PCB Degradation Dr Dickson Liu of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters at Burlington, Ontario, has developed an effective method for biodegrading PCBs, chlorinated organic substances which have a wide variety of uses in the industrial world, and which have become an environmental hazard because of their non-degradability over long periods of time. PCBs were used in paints, inks and copying papers, and their insulating properties led to their use in the electricity industry. But the realization of the hazard they represented led to a voluntary restriction on the part of most manufacturers as to their uses. Dr Liu has developed a new and specific bacterium, a strain of the c o m m o n Pseudomonas, which is capable of breaking down even Arochlor 1254 from concentrations of 300 000 to 19 ppb in one week. Key to the process is ultrasonic treatment of the oily substance so as to achieve a hydrophobic-hydrophylic interface with a substance whose solubility is only 4 ppb. Sodium lignin sulphonate is used as an emulsifier to maintain suspension. The discovery has also led to the revelation of the basic process of aerobic digestion of PCBs. This in turn may 83