I read the article “In Search of Common Ground: Exploring Identity and Core Competencies for Interdisciplinary Environmental Programs” in Environmental Practice volume 12, number 1 (March 2010), and appreciate the efforts of the authors and the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) on this issue. As a graduate of interdisciplinary programs in Environmental Science (BS/MS) 15 years ago, I wanted to note that another parameter, not mentioned in the article, that I believe increasingly affects the ability of environmental professionals from interdisciplinary academic programs such as environmental science to succeed in their professions is occupational licensing. Certifications are nice but generally make little difference in comparison to state-issued licenses required for certain types of environmental work that are limited to individuals from specific academic backgrounds. For example, as a result of professional licensing laws, an environmental scientist can no longer submit an environmental site investigation report in Texas (and many other states); only a geologist can. This translates into professional and business opportunities for the licensed group that may ultimately affect the viability of interdisciplinary environmental programs in our universities. Hopefully the efforts of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD) and those of the NCSE discussed in the article and the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) can make an impact on this issue.

Phase 1 of Hudson River dredging fractionally reduced the amount of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated sediment remaining in the river bottom, but greatly increased its downstream transport, as “clamshell” dredge buckets leaked more material than they retained. Clamshells were especially inefficient at capturing liquid PCBs and PCBs adsorbed to silt and fine sediment. Material that was removed, therefore, was relatively coarse, and contained relatively little PCB. Volume reduction was achieved only at the expense of massive mobilization of liquid, colloidal, and adsorbed forms of PCB, spreading contamination to previously uncontaminated river areas. We estimate that Phase 1 increased the surface area of contaminated riverbed by at least 3 orders of magnitude, from about 50 dredged acres to many square miles. PCB entry into ecosystems, water, and air depends upon the surface area of contaminated sediment newly exposed to scouring from the riverbed, causing further downstream transport, especially in high-flow events over years or decades. Indeed, Phase I contravened EPA's benefit criterion by mobilizing PCB at a higher rate than would occur naturally, without dredging, over the planned seven-year project duration. If dredging is to continue, therefore, Phase 2 must assure health risk acceptability and net benefit compared with no action/no dredging. Further, EPA's benefit criterion must be revised to account for impacts of PCB mobilization to ecosystems and air, not just resuspension to water. Finally, Phase 2 must increase the scope and duration of environmental monitoring to enable more reliable warning of harm in real time, and project evaluation over decades. We recommend that EPA consider for Phase 2 such technologies as coffer damming, vacuum dredging, and dredging within enclosures to minimize sediment resuspension; mobilization of liquid, colloidal, and adsorbed forms of PCB; and PCB entry into ecosystems and air. If Phase 2 cannot assure health risk acceptability and comply with a revised benefit criterion, we recommend that EPA terminate the dredging project.

Environmental Practice 12:377–394 (2010)

Have you ever puzzled over a section of the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ's) regulations, wondering whether you are the only one who does not understand it, or cannot understand how it could be followed exactly as it is written? You are not alone.

This article is part 2 of a two-part series. Part one, which was published in the June 2008 edition of Environmental Practice,1 focused on the context for considering climate change in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses and reviewing the case law and other legal developments on the topic. The article briefly explained the phenomenon of climate change and the key climate change science findings and predictions from the most credible global and United States (US) sources. The article also briefly described some important state and local climate change policy initiatives, and provided an overview of the state of NEPA climate change case law.

Restoring, protecting, and managing Illinois's natural infrastructure—our forests, prairies, wetlands, floodplains, streams, rivers, and shorelines—is the responsibility of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). However, over the last seven years, the IDNR has faced significant budget cuts, which severely impair the department's ability to meet its mandate. This was strikingly illustrated in 2008 by the temporary closures of our state parks. This year, to bridge a significant budget deficit, IDNR employees have been laid off and services cut. At the same time, the IDNR is considering an increase in user fees for state parks and license fees for hunting and fishing. However, while periodic fee increases may provide a budgetary stopgap, they are politically unpopular and, in the long-run, not commensurate with the resource needs of the state. Most appropriately, the department should consider a strategy that could generate financial resources using its principal asset: land. We would propose that the department undertake a careful evaluation of the ecosystem services that might be produced by its floodplains and wetlands and the market by which the credits for these services might be sold. The market would be analogous to the markets that operate for atmospheric sulfur or carbon.

Most of us became aware of meth labs several years ago when local and regional law enforcement personnel began to compare notes and realized we had an epidemic in most of the United States (US). Meth labs can be found in many types of properties ranging from single-family homes to parks or automobiles. Like the fumes and chemicals that are emitted from meth labs, the impacts associated with them also permeate and contaminate a broad area. This includes home owners, neighbors, landlords, mortgage companies, law enforcement personnel, and many others. These meth labs have many negative impacts on our communities, including health impacts to the meth cooks, residents, and neighbors; social impacts on children and other family members; and impacts on government, including children and family services, law enforcement, prisons, and health care providers. “In 2004, 8,000 meth labs were seized in the US, and child welfare workers removed more than 3,000 children from the labs.”1

As voters, automobile drivers, and home owners with oil-burning furnaces, we must count ourselves among those responsible for the recent Gulf of Mexico oil blowout involving the Macondo mine and Deepwater Horizon oil rig. We may fail to realize how toxic gasoline and number 2 fuel oil are. As a toxicologist who has addressed oil industry risks to human health, I rarely if ever have had to consider quantities of released contaminants as vast as the Deepwater Horizon scale of release to the Gulf and to the planet. Deepwater may dwarf the air pollution that sickened so many volunteers after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Climatologists rarely must consider individual releases of greenhouse gases, such as methane, on the Deepwater scale; and seismologists rarely must consider impacts on deep-sea oil wells. Yet, such impacts constitute just the tip of the ecological and human health risk icebergs, especially for people living and working on the affected Gulf Coast, and for its vulnerable ecosystems.

Tapped is a well-researched, illuminating documentary exploring the relationships between the bottled water industry and its impacts on societal communities, individuals, and ecosystems. Whether you are an avid fan of bottled water or more of a skeptic of the bottled water craze, Tapped will certainly make you think twice before buying a bottle of Ice Mountain water at lunch. Tapped helps viewers understand that the seemingly simple and often mindless action of purchasing bottled water can have very far-reaching and often negative effects on people and ecosystems alike. The documentary emphasizes the often forgotten truth that water is a fundamental human right that should be cared for and shared among all people and organisms rather than something that should be extracted and sold for exorbitant profit.