news briefs: graduate student award

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MAY 1, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 153A A new international treaty regulat- ing the estimated 3–4 billion metric tons of ballast water that annually moves across the world’s oceans in the vast underbellies of com- mercial ships offers the best hope yet of curbing the spread of alien aquatic species, say many involved with the treaty’s creation. In Feb- ruary, the United Nations’ Inter- national Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the treaty, which sets the first international ballast water treatment performance standard. For the treaty to become effec- tive, 30 countries representing 35% of the world’s shipping tonnage must approve it. According to Andreas Tveteraas, conservation director with the environmental group WWF Norway, approval could take at least a decade “unless ship- ping nations really take responsi- bility and ratify the convention rapidly.” He adds, “When it actually starts having an effect, it’ll definitely be one of the most important envi- ronmental treaties so far in this millennium.” U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) officials say the treaty will form the basis of a U.S. ballast water treatment program likely to be even more stringent than the IMO standard. Ships take up ballast water in ports of call to maintain stability during transit. When the ships reach their destinations, this water is discharged, effectively relocating organisms ranging in size and phyla from microscopic plants and ani- mals to mussels, crabs, and even schools of fish to a port that may be thousands of miles from their native range. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admini- stration has billed the subsequent risk of invasions by these species as “the greatest immediate threat to most coastal state ecosystems.” Under the new treaty, ships will be required to exchange ballast water in mid-ocean, which is cur- rently the only feasible manage- ment option widely available to shippers. Then, starting in 2009, ships will have to treat their ballast water so that discharges contain fewer than 10 viable organisms greater than or equal to 50 micro- meters in size per cubic meter. Smaller vessels will have to comply first, and other existing ships will be phased into regulation by 2016, according to ship size, type, and age. Compliance cost estimates range from $100,000 to $1 million per ship, says Steve Raaymakers, chief technical advisor for IMO’s global ballast water management program. One hitch is that the IMO stan- dard cannot be achieved with cur- rently available technologies, but shipping industry interests and environmentalists alike are not worried. “Now that we have a dis- charge standard, I’m confident that where there’s a multibillion dollar market; somebody will find a way to meet the standard,” says Kathy Metcalf, maritime affairs director UN sets treatment standard for ballast water Tyler Prize laureates Three scientists received this year’s Tyler Prize in April. Richard Doll at the University of Oxford (U.K.) was recog- nized for his extensive ongoing work associating environmental agents with cancer. Hans R. Herren, the chief executive and director general of Insect Physiology and Ecology, based in Nairobi, helped save one of Africa’s most important food crops. He introduced a natural enemy of the mealybug into cassava crops. Yoel Margalith, a professor of ento- mology and director of the Center for Biological Control at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), imple- mented critical biological controls of mosquitoes and blackflies. The Univer- sity of Southern California (USC) annu- ally awards the prestigious $200,000 prize to people whose discoveries bring worldwide attention and solu- tions to serious environmental prob- lems. Previous award winners include Werner Stumm (1986). To learn more about the laureates, go to www.usc. edu/dept/LAS/tylerprize/03tyler. Graduate student award In February, ACS’s Division of Environ- mental Chemistry awarded 19 graduate students a one-year membership in the division and a subscription to ES&T. The annual award goes to full-time graduate students who are currently enrolled in chemistry, environmental engineering, or other programs that emphasize environmental chemistry at a U.S. educational institution. Award- ees must have completed one full year of study and are judged on the basis of their course work, research produc- tivity, and faculty advisor recommen- dation. For a list of awardees and information about Division Awards, visit www.envirofacs.org/awards.htm. News Briefs A new treaty targets invasive species that get trapped onboard ships. PHOTODISC

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Page 1: News Briefs: Graduate student award

MAY 1, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 153A

A new international treaty regulat-ing the estimated 3–4 billion metrictons of ballast water that annuallymoves across the world’s oceansin the vast underbellies of com-mercial ships offers the best hopeyet of curbing the spread of alienaquatic species, say many involvedwith the treaty’s creation. In Feb-ruary, the United Nations’ Inter-national Maritime Organization(IMO) adopted the treaty, whichsets the first international ballastwater treatment performancestandard.

For the treaty to become effec-tive, 30 countries representing 35%of the world’s shipping tonnagemust approve it. According toAndreas Tveteraas, conservationdirector with the environmentalgroup WWF Norway, approval couldtake at least a decade “unless ship-ping nations really take responsi-bility and ratify the conventionrapidly.” He adds, “When it actuallystarts having an effect, it’ll definitelybe one of the most important envi-ronmental treaties so far in thismillennium.” U.S. Coast Guard(USCG) officials say the treaty willform the basis of a U.S. ballast

water treatment program likely tobe even more stringent than theIMO standard.

Ships take up ballast water inports of call to maintain stabilityduring transit. When the shipsreach their destinations, this wateris discharged, effectively relocatingorganisms ranging in size and phylafrom microscopic plants and ani-mals to mussels, crabs, and evenschools of fish to a port that maybe thousands of miles from theirnative range. The U.S. NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Admini-stration has billed the subsequentrisk of invasions by these species as“the greatest immediate threat tomost coastal state ecosystems.”

Under the new treaty, ships will be required to exchange ballastwater in mid-ocean, which is cur-rently the only feasible manage-ment option widely available toshippers. Then, starting in 2009,ships will have to treat their ballastwater so that discharges containfewer than 10 viable organismsgreater than or equal to 50 micro-meters in size per cubic meter.Smaller vessels will have to complyfirst, and other existing ships willbe phased into regulation by 2016,according to ship size, type, andage. Compliance cost estimatesrange from $100,000 to $1 millionper ship, says Steve Raaymakers,chief technical advisor for IMO’sglobal ballast water managementprogram.

One hitch is that the IMO stan-dard cannot be achieved with cur-rently available technologies, butshipping industry interests andenvironmentalists alike are notworried. “Now that we have a dis-charge standard, I’m confident thatwhere there’s a multibillion dollarmarket; somebody will find a wayto meet the standard,” says KathyMetcalf, maritime affairs director

UN sets treatment standard for ballast waterTyler Prize laureatesThree scientists received this year’sTyler Prize in April. Richard Doll at theUniversity of Oxford (U.K.) was recog-nized for his extensive ongoing workassociating environmental agentswith cancer. Hans R. Herren, thechief executive and director generalof Insect Physiology and Ecology,based in Nairobi, helped save oneof Africa’s most important foodcrops. He introduced a natural enemyof the mealybug into cassava crops.Yoel Margalith, a professor of ento-mology and director of the Center forBiological Control at Ben GurionUniversity of the Negev (Israel), imple-mented critical biological controls ofmosquitoes and blackflies. The Univer-sity of Southern California (USC) annu-ally awards the prestigious $200,000prize to people whose discoveriesbring worldwide attention and solu-tions to serious environmental prob-lems. Previous award winners includeWerner Stumm (1986). To learn moreabout the laureates, go to www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/tylerprize/03tyler.

Graduate student awardIn February, ACS’s Division of Environ-mental Chemistry awarded 19 graduatestudents a one-year membership in thedivision and a subscription to ES&T.The annual award goes to full-timegraduate students who are currentlyenrolled in chemistry, environmentalengineering, or other programs thatemphasize environmental chemistry ata U.S. educational institution. Award-ees must have completed one full yearof study and are judged on the basisof their course work, research produc-tivity, and faculty advisor recommen-dation. For a list of awardees andinformation about Division Awards,visit www.envirofacs.org/awards.htm.

News Briefs

A new treaty targets invasive speciesthat get trapped onboard ships.

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Page 2: News Briefs: Graduate student award

Warnings to the public about poorbeach water quality are inherentlyflawed, according to a series ofthree papers in this issue of ES&T(pp 2497–2504, 2626–2636, 2637–2648). An entirely new system isneeded that prevents swimmersfrom being exposed to pollutionyet avoids closing beaches whenthe water is fine, say researchersfrom the University of California,Irvine; Stanford University; theScripps Institution of Oceano-graphy, the University of California,San Diego; the Orange County Sani-tation District; and the County ofOrange Geomatics/Land Informa-tion System Division.

In California, warning signs areposted on beaches when fecal indi-cator bacteria in shoreline waterexceed state standards. This deter-mination is often based on a singlegrab sample, and the decision toact is “binary” in nature—eithera warning sign is posted or not,with no intermediate information.Similar programs exist nationwide,sponsored in part by the FederalBeaches Environmental andCoastal Health Act passed inOctober 2000.

“One question that frequentlycomes up is, Can the accuracy ofpublic reporting be improved bydecreasing the turnaround time be-tween when a sample is collectedand the results are known?” says

Stan Grant, a professor of environ-mental engineering at Irvine andthe papers’ lead author. The cur-rent microbial analysis takes almost24 hours to complete, but a com-plex web of physical and biologicalfactors—from tidal variations toseasonal rainfall patterns—meansthat measurements are often basedon water that has already come andgone (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2002,36, 368A–369A).

Some scientists advocate fasterindicators to deal with the prob-lem, but Grant’s statistical analysisquestions that solution. “Even ifthe turnaround time was reducedto every 10 minutes, the error rates

could still be quite high,” he says.“The paper identifies a more fun-damental problem; specifically,these binary advisory schemes ap-pear to be intrinsically error-prone.”

Grant recommends switchingto a continuously varying “analog”system, similar to ozone monitor-ing programs in American cities.“One approach would be to assigna letter grade to beaches, for exam-ple, ‘A’ to ‘F’,” he says. Heal the Bay,a conservation group dedicated toprotecting Santa Monica Bay, hasadopted such a strategy for report-ing bay pollution.

“Of course, the devil is in thedetails of how the letters are calcu-lated,” Grant says. He and his co-workers have developed a simpleforecasting algorithm to predictwater quality, which uses proba-bility theory and estimates of tiderange and water quality over theprevious 30 days. Such an algo-rithm could be expanded, he says,or scientists could apply more so-phisticated approaches like artifi-cial intelligence.

Implementing this kind of pro-gram would probably cost less thanthe current system, according toGrant, because it would require lessupdating. “The tough part will be indeveloping software tools that takewhat we’ve done as a theoretical ex-ercise and make it into somethingturnkey for managers,” he says.

Mark Sobsey, a microbiologistand environmental engineer atthe University of North Carolina,

154A ■ ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / MAY 1, 2004

Environmental▼Newsfor the Chamber of Shipping ofAmerica.

Several technologies have beenproposed for shipboard treatmentof ballast water, including filtra-tion, chemical disinfection, ozona-tion, ultraviolet light sterilization,hydrocyclonic separation, andsonic bombardment. The pri-mary hurdle has been the lackof a performance standard bywhich to evaluate the technolo-gies. Standardized analytical meth-ods are also not yet available, butthe USCG and the U.S. EPA aredeveloping such protocols, saysRaaymakers.

The United States, Australia, andNew Zealand have taken the tough-est stance on ballast water. Thesecountries, along with environmen-talists, had hoped for more fromthe IMO treaty. “Not enough re-search has been done to determinewhether or not the standards theIMO has issued are protectiveenough,” says Bivan Patnaik, regu-latory coordinator for the USCG’saquatic nuisance species program.“In developing its own ballastwater discharge standard, theUSCG, together with EPA, hasbegun preparing an environmentalimpact statement to determine

whether it needs “a more protectivestandard,” Patnaik adds.

However, the shipping industrywants to avoid country-by-countryregulations. “We need an interna-tional regime so every country andevery subnational entity, such asour states, don’t go their own wayand create a bunch of different re-quirements that ships may not beable to comply with from one portto another,” Metcalf says. Conse-quently, the shipping industry ispushing for quick ratification andsupports immediate mandatory bal-last water exchanges before the treatytakes effect. —KRIS CHRISTEN

New beach warning system needed

New research suggests that this signmay be the wrong approach.

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