Thirty-seven years after the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed, it should come as no surprise that the United States Congress, the President, federal agencies, and private industry have unleashed a major effort to streamline, update, or “reform” the NEPA process. Many of the major stakeholders, even including some environmental interests, believe that NEPA has failed to reach its objectives. Recent Congressional actions or proposals to expand exemptions from NEPA for certain projects, compress environmental review time, and even delegate NEPA compliance to the states are seen by NEPA supporters as overreactions that could eviscerate the Act's purposes and objectives. This article analyzes some of the benefits and risks of “environmental streamlining,” which apply not only to NEPA but also to investigations and reviews required by federal or state agencies responsible for compliance with other environmental laws. The focus is on recent federal legislation, Congressional proposals, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) initiatives, and actions of selected federal agencies.

Environmental Practice 9:83–95 (2007)

Native American tribes and organizations and other public interest groups, including environmental and religious ones, sometimes partner in litigation about public lands management. This study examines three such litigation alliances involving disputes over National Park Service and US Forest Service policies and management concerning public land containing sites considered sacred by Native Americans. Specifically, it explores factors such as trust, complementary resources, and compatibility that are considered in deciding whether to create a litigation alliance between indigenous and non-indigenous partners. Questions asked in this research relate to the Yin method of case study research: How did these alliances come about and why were these allies chosen? More importantly, what are the key elements in a successful alliance? Based on the proposition that “organizations collaborate (ally) because they derive mutual benefits,” this article explores, through archival research and interview format, what really happened in three landmark cases litigated on a national level.

Books & resources.

The strategic importance of the United States having an unimpeded source of energy is becoming ever more crucial. The significance of energy and the need for greater energy responsibility by the US have been identified in several State-of-the-Union Addresses. President Bush's 2006 State-of-the-Union Address stated that “America is addicted to oil” and encouraged federal agencies to lead the way in developing more reliable alternative energy programs. In July 2006, Major General Richard Zilmer, Chief of Multi-National Forces West, identified a crucial need for “a self-sustainable energy solution” available for use by US forces in Iraq. Use of renewable energy systems is one way to help decrease dependency on fossil fuels and offer Warfighters alternative sources of energy to accomplish their mission. This article explores the institutional impediments that prevent the Army from increasing its use of renewable energy systems in Contingency Operations and makes recommendations to overcome those barriers in order to enhance use of renewable energy, thereby becoming less dependent on foreign oil.The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Defense or any of its agencies.

Environmental Practice 9:157–161 (2007)

Environmental practitioners may find cooperative modeling an effective tool to address complex environmental management needs. The method involves convening a multidisciplinary team to collaboratively construct a system dynamics model. Advances in computational tools have made this technique increasingly effective because the process and the product allow individuals to better understand the complexity inherent in the system being studied. The authors describe four cooperative modeling projects and document some of the “lessons learned” from these experiences. Two of these projects were largely academic and team members were all professionals who agreed to work together to build a model. The other two teams were convened to contribute to water management processes. One of these emanated from a regional planning exercise and the team included professionals and volunteers from the public. The final project team presented includes professionals, members of the public, and government agency personnel. Like any multidisciplinary effort, the teams encountered communication challenges. The overarching lessons derived from these efforts are that teams can never pay too much attention to group dynamics and that the proximity to a “real” management decision does influence the cooperative modeling process. Recommendations to others embarking on a cooperative modeling effort include reviewing the literature regarding previous projects; establishing clear guidelines for team interaction early in the project; and remaining flexible, to allow the project to evolve.

Resource and environmental managers are increasingly facing problems characterized by high degrees of ecological and social complexity, uncertainty and indeterminacy, and conflicts over values and interests. Moreover, they are often faced with the need to generate positive change in dynamic social-ecological systems. Comprehensive, rational management approaches have often failed to respond effectively to these types of problems. In response, policy makers and managers are increasingly relying on social learning approaches, i.e., adaptive and participatory approaches that facilitate learning by the individuals and organizations involved in resource and environmental governance. In this article, we examine social learning outcomes from the participation of two community organizations in the environmental assessment (EA) of a proposal to expand the Red River Floodway, a 48-km channel that diverts floodwaters around Winnipeg, Canada. The research design was a qualitative, comparative case study involving a review of documents, semi-structured interviews, and direct observation at meetings, open houses, and public hearings. The study findings demonstrate how EA public involvement processes can provide excellent opportunities for single-loop learning in community organizations. Through their involvement, the organizations in question deepened their knowledge, honed their skills, and made substantive contributions to the assessment process. The findings also suggest that public involvement processes can result in double-loop social learning conducive to sustainability. An important catalyst for the double-loop experience in this case was the provision of intervener funding. The findings also shed light on the organizational structure variables essential to create capacity for social learning in community organizations.

The US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) baseline Hudson River health risk assessment (HRA) is evaluated and found to be biased toward keeping polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments. The HRA systematically mis-quantified parameters, underestimating PCB movement from sediments to water and from water to air. The EPA excluded from its analysis all mono- and dichlorinated PCB congeners, which EPA subsequently estimated at one-third of total PCB mass in the river, and excluded dissolved and colloidal PCB. The EPA included silt-adsorbed PCB, but overestimated the rate at which it would settle out of the water column by inappropriately basing the rate on Stokes' Law for more massive spherical particles. Flat clay particles settle more slowly with a longer path length and residence time. The EPA omitted electrostatic charges on clay particles that separate them, preventing agglomeration and maintaining clay in suspension; they also assumed that particles never “reflect” back into the water column after settling, likewise underestimating PCB concentrations in water. Also omitted was PCB codistillation, in which PCBs at low bulk concentrations preferentially distribute to the air-water interface, accelerating PCB transfer from water to air. Indeed, EPA cited empirical data showing more rapid PCB water-to-air transfer, but reduced its effect on the HRA, reducing the transfer coefficient by averaging in lower modeled PCB transfer coefficients that ignored codistillation. Finally, EPA omitted PCB release to the atmosphere from hot water in cooling towers in communities along the Hudson River. Water at cooling tower temperatures may release PCB into the air more than 10 times faster than rates determined from the surface of cold water and multiple orders of magnitude more rapidly than in EPA's models. Together, EPA's procedures reduced airborne PCB concentrations from above to below de minimis concentrations. This, in turn, eliminated the requirement for EPA's HRA to quantify inhalation risks posed by airborne PCBs; the HRA, therefore, considered airborne PCBs, but attributed zero health risk to them.

Environmental Practice 9:96–111 (2007)

Last year, the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) established a new committee, the NAEP Environmental Policy Committee, which was pioneered by NAEP Board member Eric Galamb. At some point thereafter, I assumed responsibility for chairing the committee and currently continue in that capacity.

A tiny infestation of an introduced plant (Spartina patens) has resisted extermination for 16 years in Washington State. Mature plants occupied about 654 m2 of ground when control work began in 1991; at present they occupy less than one square meter. The history of the control effort, described here, shows that field workers succeeded at discovering about half of the plants actually present during most years and suggests that a new detection technique—searches by trained dogs—may greatly improve this discovery rate. Spartina patens was probably introduced to Washington during the 1920s. The numbers of plants peaked in 1995, then declined and recovered twice before they began a steep decline after 2005. Ground cover by mature S. patens was drastically reduced by the initial control work, and then expanded twice after 1995 due to growth of undiscovered and neglected patches. The control effort was rendered less effective by two tacit assumptions: (1) the whole extent of the small infestation was known, and (2) the treatments were successfully eliminating the plants. The campaign benefited from the cooperative support of private landowners, the existence of a state Spartina Coordinator's office (focused on other invasive Spartina species as well as S. patens), the persistence and dedication of control workers, the continued attention of this researcher, and recent intensified vigilance prompted by evidence of the plant's resistance to eradication. Indications are that S. patens is now succumbing to this intensified attention.

Environmental Practice 9:251–265 (2007)

It is crucial to understand the response reproducibility of on-line continuous-flow respirometers applied as biological toxicity monitors to alert plant operators to contamination in wastewater influent. Used as upset early warning systems, on-line respirometers could identify toxic waste streams that should be diverted from activated sludge treatment systems. This study used a continuous flow-through respirometer (Bioscan™) to examine the reproducibility in the respiration response of activated sludge biomass from a local wastewater treatment plant and a commercially available seed (POLYTOX®), when each was exposed to a toxic pH 3.0 buffer solution. Respiration response is characterized in this study as a change in dissolved oxygen concentration over time in the respirometer effluent. This response was segregated into groups, including within an inoculated population of a given seed source (activated sludge biomass or POLYTOX®), between different inoculations of the same seed source, and by the two different seed sources. Reproducibility in the response of the Bioscan™ respirometer was as high as 22% within populations, 23% between populations, and 29% for the same population over time. In addition, time dependency in the respirometer response to the toxin was examined. It was demonstrated that response to the same toxic pulse varies between and within populations and that reduced sensitivity of the microorganisms can occur if repeatedly exposed to an individual toxin. A genetic DGGE analysis for one population suggests that the observed reduction in sensitivity may be caused by changes in species composition.

In June 2007, I presented some recent research of mine at the 27th annual conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), held in Seoul, South Korea. It was a great opportunity to experience an international perspective on environmental processes as well as a good chance to meet professionals from around the world with similar areas of interest.

To prevent wildfires from damaging communities in the American West, many federal wildfire hazard reduction projects in the United States target fuel reduction on federal lands. Current federal policies stress efforts in the 77 million hectares of federally owned land considered to be in need of fuel reduction treatment. There is considerable debate, however, about whether this is more effective than fuel reduction efforts focused directly on the wildland-urban interface around communities. The project reported here uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help provide spatial context and illustrate the approximate relative scales of the options involved. GIS was used to determine ownership patterns of lands in 500 meter buffers around all areas designated by the US Census as populated places in the 11 western states and to determine the amount of federal land most in need of treatment within these buffers. Within these 500 meter buffers, 68% of the lands are privately owned. Only 17.7% of the lands within the buffers are federal lands, while only 15%, or 310,771 hectares, of the buffers are both federally owned and considered to be most in need of treatment. A conclusion is drawn that targeting federal lands for fuel reduction may not sufficiently protect certain communities from wildland fire.

Environmental Practice 9:112–118 (2007)

Development and implementation of administrative programs are important steps in the process of change through public law and policy. These programs set the specific mechanisms that will be used to carry out the intent of the law or policy as best an agency can determine. Administrative personnel may involve the general public and stakeholders in program development and implementation in order to improve program design, increasingly used as part of collaborative environmental management strategies. This article examines the use of focus groups as a stakeholder participation method in collaborative program development and implementation processes in two different environmentally-oriented agency programs at the state level in Ohio—the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund of the Ohio Department of Development, and the Ohio Coastal Resources Management Training Program of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, NOAA, and the Ohio Sea Grant Program. The comparison confirms three categories of benefits in using focus groups: better program development and implementation through more in-depth and nuanced information from stakeholders, an enhanced administrative and civic capacity through development of a shared knowledge base, and an enhanced sense of legitimacy for the program among future program beneficiaries. The comparison also identified some constraints and challenges for using focus groups, including the importance of skilled facilitators with substantive knowledge of the environmental context of the program development process and the skills to resolve contentious stakeholder interactions when the processes are distributive in nature.

Environmental Practice 9:166–178 (2007)

Reported herein are the results of two surveys designed to determine the predominant social paradigm, together with opinions on and attitudes toward the environment and environmental issues, within the Slovene coastal zone. The research is a cross-sectional study of selected populations in time. Opinions of different social groups with regard to their priority values, trust in technological development, moral responsibility toward their environment, and readiness to participate in environmental protection are analyzed. The study finds that a stable economy is the primary societal goal in the Slovene coastal zone; this must be realized before people begin to concern themselves with environmental protection. Also, the coastal community is prepared to participate in environmentally protective actions such as separate waste collection, but they are not in favor of making major lifestyle changes, although they are aware of that need.

Public involvement in the planning process is a prerequisite for democratic outcomes. Environmental issues regarding impacts of sound tend to be limited to mere exercises in noise estimation and guideline values. Such information is difficult for the layman to understand, and such a lack of understanding produces shortcomings in the democratic process. In addition to decibel calculations interpretable by experts, the sonic environment also can be described in more accessible ways. This article reports on a concrete planning case, the widening of the railway through Åkarp in southern Sweden, where the usual calculations of equivalent noise and maximum noise are undergoing critical analysis. In order to complement the noise description, a new measurement has been devised, “high noise time,” which is equal to the total time per 24 hours in which trains pass through a place without stopping. The frequency and duration of the passing of trains may be a better measure of disturbance than the maximum noise peak per passage or the equivalent (average) noise level distributed over 24 hours. Film technology also has been developed as a method for recording the frequency and duration of train passage.

Environmental Practice 9:119–127 (2007)

Substantial progress has been made towards land management practices that fulfill the basic requirements of a burgeoning human population. One of them is extensive use of nitrogen-containing chemical fertilizers to boost crop production. Though their use is beneficial, overuse of these fertilizers is causing serious environmental problems associated with emission of NH3, N2, and N2O (the last being an important greenhouse gas implicated both in the greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion in the stratosphere) to the atmosphere and contamination of ground and surface water resources via nitrate leaching or runoff. Because these losses have both economic and environmental implications, it is high time to utilize a technique that contains nitrogen losses and enhances nitrogen-use efficiency of agricultural crops. To manage nitrogen losses from agricultural fields, different nitrification inhibitors are currently available, and if used along with NH4-containing fertilizers, they can effectively increase nitrogen-use efficacy and attenuate the emission of greenhouse gases by decelerating the soil nitrification processes resulting from ammonia metabolism.

Environmental Practice 9:266–279 (2007)

The Chemistry and Technology of Magnesia. M. A. Shand. 2006. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 266 pp. $89.95 cloth.

When information about specific materials, chemicals, and chemical technology is desired, those references beyond Lang's Handbook of Chemistry and the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics that are traditionally consulted are the Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Mellor's A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, and the American Chemical Society's Monograph Series. Therefore, any new text regarding a specific material and its technology is usually compared with these classics: What information is new? Have there been new advances of knowledge? How comprehensive is the discussion of the subject matter?

Biodiversity Conservation Handbook: State, Local, and Private Protection of Biological Diversity. Robert B. McKinstry, Jr., Coreen Ripp, and Emily Lisy, eds. 2006. Environmental Law Institute, Washington, DC. 651 pp. $49.95.

This book, with a subtitle describing its focus on state, local, and private protection of biological diversity, begins by discussing international protocols on biodiversity. It also contains much discussion on federal programs, but this seemingly contradictory approach is quickly explained. Indeed, the international protocols have taken into account the types of concerns often voiced at the local level and provide a useful framework for establishing programs that fit into local land use regulatory regimes. The US approach, which defers so heavily to local governments in the land use arena, is not necessarily an excuse for ignoring biodiversity considerations, as this book so ably points out. First, the various federal grant and permitting programs are often administered by the states or in partnership with the states. Second, there are ample tools in most states that concerned local governments can use to take biodiversity into account in their land use decisions. This book provides a wealth of information on the tools that state and local governments can use to discover, understand, conserve, and sustainably use biodiversity.

Specialized academic programs have developed over the last several decades to provide technical and managerial expertise to students anticipating careers as environmental health professionals. A challenge facing many of the graduates from these programs will be working with colleagues prepared in a variety of countries and cultures. A challenge facing environmental health educators is ensuring that their graduates have the necessary abilities to meet complex professional challenges, including the possession of leadership skills for addressing global-scale environmental problems. Through application of a survey, we sought to gain understanding of the preparation of environmental health students in Costa Rica and in the United States in terms of their (1) knowledge of key global environmental problems, (2) attitudes about the severity of specific environmental issues, (3) attitudes about the role of the environmental health professional, and (4) attitudes about skills needed to be successful as professionals responsible for worker health and safety. We found that these two groups of students generally shared professional identities and ideals but that neither had a high level of understanding of global environmental problems. The environmental health workforce being prepared through these structured academic programs has excellent potential for multi-national collaboration through their sharing of many professional values and skills; however, their ability to serve effectively as leaders addressing large-scale environmental issues is problematic.

Environmental Practice 9:179–194 (2007)

Water plays an integral role in most other resources, including, of course, life. The distribution of water is quite asymmetrical. Indeed, all our natural resources are distributed that way. The pattern is universal and underlies the Resource Buffer Theory (RBT), which implies that the large proportion of the asymmetrically distributed resource is a buffer on which we depend for the conditions that both have enabled life and ensure its—our—sustainability. Water's unique properties and universality mean that it is civilization's canary in the coal mine: if the water and associated environmental conditions are having problems, humans are having problems. Humans violate the universal pattern of carbon distribution by our numbers and by the conversion of insignificant proportions of the huge inorganic carbon buffer into the relatively miniscule carbon dioxide buffer with enormous impact. Like drought, which creeps up on us and has no apparent beginning, the current environmental changes are harbingers of a future wherein the most endangered species on the planet is us, the most invasive of species. We are exacerbating—and in particularly important cases, causing—those threats. A 400-year-old dictum by Sir Francis Bacon includes an urgent message for us in understanding how we adversely impact Earth's support systems. It also provides a strategy for how to deal with the challenges currently facing humanity. Two examples of how we can emulate the natural distribution of resources are presented. Hopefully, the time to act is not beyond our reach; there are some identifiable policy and management implications of these observations about the universal pattern of resource distribution, strategies, and practices, which we can and must exercise to have a chance at human sustainability.

Environmental Practice 9:128–135 (2007)