The scientist who led a 1990s campaign against synthetic chemicals linked to reproductive disorders returned to Capitol Hill last week to lobby a new cause: forcing oil and gas drillers to change how they work in the Rocky Mountain West.

Theo Colborn told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Oct. 31 that air and water emissions from the drilling are threatening human health and the environment. There are safer ways and safer places for drilling, she said.

"They should shut those mines down and get out, or you should start capturing that gas and using it," Colborn told Land Letter in an interview after the House hearing. "The trouble is, it's such dirty gas. There's so much land in the West where they could be doing this where they are not doing it in people's backyards."

Theo Colborn, author, recently testified before Congress on health impacts of energy development and processing. Photo courtesy of Theo Colborn.

Colborn, whose 1996 book "Our Stolen Future" has earned her the title "the new Rachel Carson," was one of nine witnesses called by the committee. Others included Kendrick Neubecker of Trout Unlimited, toxicologist Daniel Teitelbaum of the University of Colorado and private citizen Steve Mobaldi of Grand Junction.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, "There is one set of environmental rules for the oil and gas industry and a different set of rules for the rest of America" (E&E Daily, Nov. 1).

In the late 1980s, Colborn -- who is a zoologist, pharmacist and University of Florida professor -- discovered that predators in the Great Lakes were developing a myriad of reproductive disorders, which she tied to consistent findings that the animals were contaminated with industrial chemicals that are similar to the hormone estrogen when processed in living tissue.

Together with her "Stolen Future" co-authors Dianne Dumanoski and Pete Myers, Colborn coined the common term "endocrine disruptor" and has been campaigning for public and medical awareness of the dangers of minute human exposures to man-made chemicals ever since. She has lived and worked in Colorado for more than 40 years, founding her nonprofit research firm the Endocrine Disruption Exchange in 2002.

The 80-year-old Colborn said that returning to Capitol Hill for the first time since the Clinton administration is something of a full circle moment for her because she views "the cracking of crude oil and the processing of natural gas" as the "source" of all endocrine disruptor chemicals. "It's their dirty byproducts that we have taken to make pesticides, pharmaceuticals and a hell of a lot of other things. The energy industry has been on my back since the very beginning," she said.

Clearing house for disorders

Colborn told the committee that she did not intend to investigate the ever-increasing natural gas development around her home near Paonia, Colo., in the Western half of the state until she was one day handed the formula for the fracturing fluid chemical 2-BE used in 17 gas wells in the Grand Mesa National Forest, which is an area she said he family considers their "backyard."

She initially wrote to the Bureau of Land Management -- which issues all the permits for new onshore energy development -- expressing concern about the potential toxicity of 2-BE. Colborn said that it has a long list of "bizarre health effects" that could develop even at "relatively low levels of exposure."

"Two years later, a woman from Silt, Garfield County, Colorado, called to tell me that she had developed a very rare adrenal tumor and had to have the tumor and her adrenal gland removed," Colborn testified. "She told me that she lived within 900 feet of a busy gas well pad where frac'ing took place frequently. This prompted me to begin to find out more about how natural gas is produced."

Since then, the Endocrine Disruption Exchange has become a clearing house for information about the products being used to ramp up domestic energy production in the West as the price of oil and natural gas increases. The firm has identified hundreds of unknown, potentially hazardous chemicals polluting the Colorado water table and Colborn has garnered local media attention in her research on the toxic gases that surface with methane, such as benzene and xylene, when it vents from a mine.

An aerial view of Colorado gas fields. Photo courtesy of Theo Colborn.

According to an October Natural Resources Defense Council report, there are 1,179 residential land parcels within 500 meters of one of Garfield County's 7,298 oil and natural gas wells and 276 residential land parcels within 500 meters of at least five wells.

"They should shut those mines down and get out. Or you should start capturing that gas and using it. The trouble is it's such dirty gas," Colborn said in an interview. "There's so much land in the West where they could be doing this where they are not doing it in people's back yards. The point is they've got the delivery systems [in Colorado] and they do it where the delivery systems are."

For example, the Bull Mountain pipeline would open up three more counties on the Western Slope for pumping gas into the main line, Colborn says. "They're producing so many [volatile organic compounds] and nitrogen oxide, we have a serious ozone problem. One molecule of ozone gets into the very deep aureola of your lungs and burns and the body has no way to replace that, and if it gets into the needles of pine trees and the stomata of the leaves of alfalfa plants it begins to cut production," she adds. "At 40 parts per billion you can begin to measure the decrease in production of alfalfa sprouts, food crops and other agricultural crops. We're well above 40 parts per billion."

David Bolin, deputy director of the Alabama State Oil and Gas Board testified before the Oversight Committee that despite the fact it is "necessary to protect the environment and public health and safety" the United States "needs its domestic production of oil and natural gas."

Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States executive director Marc Smith added that his group takes health concerns related to energy development in the West "very seriously."

"There are literally thousands of regulations addressing every aspect of our business. And despite being one of the most heavily regulated industries in America, we have the highest levels of compliance of any industry; a fact we are proud to point out," Smith said.

'Something is killing me'

Steve Mobaldi, who also appeared before the committee, is also one of Colborn's research subjects. Mobaldi said that soon after he and his wife, Chris, moved into their 10-acre ranch in Rifle, Colo., natural gas drilling began on the property 3,000 feet west of their house. Steve and Chris began to suffer from burning eyes and nosebleeds, and they later discovered that Chris had two brain tumors and was increasingly subject to an extreme case of chemical sensitivity, which Steve attributed to their drinking water that fizzed when it came out of the tap from mixing with methane and other gases underground.

Water runoff facility allegedly houses many contaminants. Photo courtesy of Theo Colborn.

"Several times Chris said, 'Something is killing me living in this house,' so we packed up and abandoned the house in 2004 after trying to sell it for years," Steve Mobaldi said. "We now believe the oil and gas industry is to blame for the unexplained illnesses."

Colborn explained that the Mobaldis' dilemma is a common tale in Garfield County now, as companies such as Kansas-based Koch Industries are moving in and buying people out of their land, shifting out one population that sought to settle in the region for years with a working class group of energy employees who go where they are needed.

"They weren't poor people," Colborn says of the locals being pushed out. "These were low-income, modest people who had no recourse. What recourse do they have if they don't know" what is affecting them, she asks. "There's no place they could send their water for analysis."

Compounding the matter even further is the lack of will on the part of local elected officials to act to protect the public from the growing energy development, says Colborn's daughter, Susan, who accompanied her mother on the trip to Washington.

The local officials "are in bed" with the energy companies, said Susan, who is a veterinarian and 45-acre ranch owner in Garfield County. "We try to elect public officials that have the ability to try and fight back, but usually it's just one out of 10 that gets in there," she adds.

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge, northeast of Denver, is temporarily closed following the discovery last week of lewisite, a chemical warfare agent originally produced in 1918 for use in World War I.

Colorado state public health officials stressed that the closure of the arsenal was a precautionary measure and that there is no evidence the chemical agent poses a threat outside of the five-acre worksite where Army contractors are cleaning up an area of the arsenal that is closed to the public.

Army contractors were digging a trench as part of the ongoing site cleanup when detection equipment indicated the presence of lewisite. Lewisite was produced at the arsenal in 1943 but never used by the United States.

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge remains closed after the discovery of a World War I-era toxic chemical. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army.

The personnel doing the trench work were wearing appropriate protective clothing and equipment, and they ceased work immediately when the monitor indicated the presence of lewisite gas. The workers completed standard decontamination procedures and reported no symptoms.

"This work was in an area of the arsenal that was known for disposal of chemical agents," said Ned Calonge, Colorado's Chief Medical Officer, in a statement. "The closure of the refuge is the appropriate precautionary measure until we are certain there is no risk to human health."

Lewisite is a colorless and odorless liquid in its pure form but is usually found as oily, brown liquid with a scent similar to geraniums. It is a blistering agent and lung irritant.

The lewisite was detected in basins located in a restricted area within the central portion of the site. Originally constructed in 1942, the Lime Basins were designed to receive wastewater from the production of lewisite. The wastewater was treated with lime, which acted as a neutralizer and also removed arsenic.

The trenching around these pits will be filled with a protective slurry to prevent migration of groundwater into and out of the pits, according to Susan Newton, Rocky Mountain project manager with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The existing groundwater will be pumped out and the pits will then be capped to prevent additional water from entering the pits.

Found in air and soil

Richard Vogt, executive director of the Tri-County Health Department, which has jurisdiction over the arsenal site, said the detection of lewisite was most troubling because it was found in the air, not just the soil. "Under those circumstances, there is a little more concern," Vogt said. "It's not to the point where individuals off the site are in immediate danger, but there is enough concern that we wanted to keep people out unless they're properly protected."

Mark Salley, communications director for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said it is unknown how long the wildlife refuge at the arsenal will remain closed. "We have asked the Army for a work plan on the cleanup, will review it when we get it and move forward from there," he said.

"We need to have a determination of how risky this is for the public, and we need to find out if in fact this chemical can continue to be emitted," Vogt added.

Cleanup at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal is about three-quarters complete. Once the remainder of the cleanup is complete, the arsenal will constitute one of the nation's largest urban wildlife refuges.

More than 12,000 acres of arsenal land have already been transferred from the Army to the Fish and Wildlife Service, creating the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. After the arsenal's remaining cleanup projects are completed, the Army will transfer about 2,500 acres to FWS to further expand the refuge. The cleanup program is expected to be finished by 2011 and the Army will retain approximately 1,100 acres to maintain its landfills and groundwater treatment plants.

The refuge provides environmental education programs, close to 10 miles of trails, wildlife viewing opportunities and site tours for the public, and a sanctuary for more than 330 species of animals, including wild bison, deer, coyotes, bald eagles and burrowing owls.

Sherry James, a supervisory park ranger with FWS, said the agency canceled two public tours and its hiking program last weekend. A wildlife tour and educational program for pre-schoolers originally scheduled for this week were also canceled, she said.

Sandra Jaquith, spokeswoman for the Site Specific Advisory Board of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, applauded officials for closing the refuge when they did, but she noted that the public should never be allowed on the refuge while cleanup crews are moving contaminated soils. "We don't think the public should be on-site during any remediation," she said, adding that the lewisite was discovered only one mile away from the refuge's visitors center.

Jaquith said her group will be writing a letter to FWS requesting that the refuge remain closed to the public until the cleanup at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal is completed.

Gable is an independent energy and environmental writer in Woodland Park, Colo.

One year after heavy rains caused an unprecedented six-month closure of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, park officials are crediting a massive volunteer effort for saving money and expediting repairs.

Still, Mount Rainier spokeswoman Alison Bullock said it could be years before restoration of all damaged roads and trails can be completed.

Over the course of a 36-hour period, Nov. 6-7, 2006, Mount Rainier was hit with 18 inches of rainfall that resulted in landslides and collapsed roadways, changes in river courses, washed-out campgrounds and other severe damage. At first, NPS estimated the damages at $36 million, but with the concerted volunteer effort and use of park personnel, that price tag has dropped to about $24 million to $27 million, Bullock said. "Our own staff was able to do things rather than contract out for labor," she said.

As many as 1,700 volunteers, from such organizations as the Student Conservation Association, National Parks Conservation Association and the Northwest Storm Recovery Coalition, contributed more than 84,000 hours to the effort -- almost doubling the 43,000 hours of volunteer work during the previous year. Bullock put a value on the volunteers' time and effort at $1.6 million (Land Letter, April 26).

Volunteers at Mount Rainier put in record numbers of hours this year, saving time and money for projects such as restoring the Wonderland Trail. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

"Our first priority was restoring public access," Bullock said. "Every major road in the park was impacted by washouts and landslides." Highway 123, the main highway through the park, washed out in four places but was reopened to traffic even as repairs continued.

Hard hit was Nisqually Road that leads up to Paradise and eroded in several places, leaving parts of the roadway unsupported above a steep drop-off. Crews rebuilt the road embankments as a first priority, managing to reopen the highway before last Christmas. That greatly helped with the ongoing construction at the Paradise Inn and new visitors center at Paradise. The inn will reopen in April, and the visitors center is set for dedication next autumn.

The overflowing Nisqually River also took out long stretches of levees and undermined the Emergency Operations Center at Longmire while knocking out power and sewer facilities.

A new flood wall was built in October, allowing staff to return to their offices. Another wall will be built next spring on the side of the river that hosts a campground and community building.

About half of the Sunshine Point campground washed away and major utility infrastructure was damaged. More than 10,000-tons of rock were relocated to reconstruct the road at Sunshine Point. Park officials still need to decide whether to rebuilt the site as a smaller campground or turn it into a day-use area.

A major ecological change occurred when Kautz Creek changed course, moving some 200 yards away from its former channel. The flood also undermined a park road, damaged underground power lines, and severely eroded the site of the search and rescue helicopter base. Park crews installed several new culverts to accommodate the new creek channel but damage remains at the helipad, and it may need to be relocated.

Work to restore the many trails of damaged trails is ongoing, but it could take years before they are brought to pre-storm status, Bullock said. With early snowfall, most of the trail work is now suspended until next June.

In all, about 12 miles of trail was severely damaged, NPS reported. Two suspension bridges, 31 foot logs, and 20 other bridges were damaged or destroyed in the floods. Among the biggest projects have been restoring the 93-miles Wonderland Trail, which was reopened in August.

This story compiles several dispatches that appeared in E&E Daily.

Shortly after U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell warned lawmakers that the agency might be forced to trim $300 million from other programs to cover fire suppression costs, the Senate offered two very different alternative funding mechanisms.

Late last week, the Senate added a provision to "America's Climate Security Act" that could mean $1.1 billion per year for Forest Service and Interior Department firefighting costs between 2012 and 2050. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) added the provision to a substitute amendment from Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) before a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee approved the underlying legislation last week.

"America's Climate Security Act" calls for mandatory limits on six different heat-trapping gases that come from more than two thirds of the U.S. economy, including electric utilities, petroleum refiners, manufacturers and natural gas users.

A line of firefighters heads toward the next hotspot during Montana's Sawmill Complex fire in September. Photo by Dave Zader. Courtesy of inciweb.org.

"It's a good place to start," said Michael Francis of the Wilderness Society. "It's a fact of life that for the next hundred years we are going to see increased fire on the landscape because of the drought that's going to be caused by global warming."

Then, on Tuesday, a House-Senate conference committee working on the $460 million Defense Appropriations bill approved $500 million for fire suppression, forest recovery and hazardous fuels reduction projects related to last month's devastating Southern California wildfires.

The Defense Appropriations measure also includes a funding extension for the continuing resolution, to keep the government operating through Dec. 14. The House and Senate must vote on the conference report before it is sent to the White House.

The $500 million for fire-related costs is half of what the leaders of the Interior Appropriations subcommittees -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) had sought.

Of that total, $215 million would reimburse the Forest Service and Interior Department for program funds they borrowed for fighting wildfires in 2007. Another $150 million would cover firefighting costs incurred last month.

The Defense bill also includes $90 million for hazardous fuels reduction to prevent future wildfires. One-third of that money will be for thinning and brush removal on state and private lands.

The bill allocates $31 million for emergency rehabilitation and restoration of federal lands, in order to reduce the risk of mudslides in burned areas, a constant threat on hillsides after Southern California fires.

The Forest Service would also receive $14 million to rebuild facilities destroyed by last month's fires.

None of the funds are earmarked specifically for California, a Feinstein aide said, but the bill directs the agencies to divert the money to areas with high population densities and excessive fuel loads.

Budget strain

Unlike hurricane responses, fire suppression is handled with appropriated dollars for Interior and USFS, and in the past the agencies have shifted funds from other programs -- including hazardous fuels reduction -- to pay for firefighting.

The Forest Service now devotes more than 45 percent of its budget to fire suppression and preparedness, compared to 13 percent in 1991 and 25 percent in 2000.

Kimbell's comments on fundshifting came at a House Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee hearing last week on the links between wildfires and climate change. Federal agencies, scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have tied global warming to longer and hotter summer wildfire seasons, as well as the spread of invasive species and diseases.

USFS already diverted $100 million this year to cover firefighting costs, she said.

After a three-year delay, national forest land outside Missoula, Mont., will be treated to reduce the risk of unnaturally intense wildfires under an unusual partnership among federal land managers, environmentalists and loggers.

Starting next week, hundreds of acres in Lolo National Forest's Sawmill Gulch will be thinned, about half using special environmentally sensitive equipment.

Overcrowded stands of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and western larch -- the legacy of more than a century of fire suppression -- pose a major fire risk, with hundreds of homes nearby.

After catastrophic, tree-top scorching wildfires burned through the area in the summer of 2003, local members of the Sierra Club and the Society of American Foresters begin to talk about what could be done to reduce fuel loads in the forest.

A forest thinning program is set to begin in the Lolo National Forest in Montana, in a region prone to repeated wildfires. In the background newer trees grow over a previously burned hillside. Photo courtesy of Bert Lindler, U.S. Forest Service.

The following year, in collaboration with the Forest Service, they came up with a plan to thin 754 acres, remove brush in the understory and keep new growth at bay with prescribed fires.

But a lawsuit over a separate but similar project prompted the Forest Service to delay implementation of the work at Sawmill Gulch, out of concern that the lawsuit could result in a legal precedent that would hamstring the project. It was also stymied by a lack of bids on the thinning contract.

Not named in suit

The lawsuit is still in the courts, but the Forest Service decided to move forward with the Sawmill Gulch project because it was not specifically named in the suit and there was support from both environmental groups and industry to proceed. Tricon Timber, a local mill that uses small-diameter wood to make tongue-and-groove flooring, signed on to take the wood and oversee thinning.

"Private citizens and companies stepped up to make this project happen," said Matt Arno, a local forester who hatched the idea with the Sierra Club's Bob Clark when Arno was president of the Montana chapter of the Society of American Foresters.

The project, which will be conducted over five years, will reduce the number of trees by up to 50 percent in the treatment area. All of the mechanical treatments will be within 1,800 feet of residential property, said Bob Clark of the Sierra Club's Bitterroot Mission chapter in Missoula.

Thinning to remove the trees -- mostly the spindly, small-diameter trees that have grown in the absence of fire -- will be done in the winter, when the ground is frozen, and summer, when the ground is dry, to minimize impacts, said Steve Clark, a Forest Service timber management staffer. Tricon Timber has agreed not to remove trees larger than 21 inches in diameter, he said.

About 98 acres of the project will be thinned using a special, low-impact logging machine that cuts a tree at its base, then shears off the limbs and crown, and hauls out the logs. Another 80 acres of the project area will be thinned using traditional "whole-tree yarding," involving heavy skidder equipment, the Forest Service's Clark said. The rest will be hand-thinned by crews on foot, due to the inaccessibility of those tracts, he added.

Bob Clark of the Sierra Club said he is happy with the project's design and hopes the process behind it can be a model for other communities facing the daunting task of clearing fuels in the wildland-urban interface, where forest meets city.

"It exemplifies common ground between nontraditional partners on natural resource issues," Clark said.

Arno agreed, adding that the project is better-designed and "less likely to be appealed" because of the collaboration among different interests.

"Maybe it's time for people to take a deep breath and start working together instead of being contrary about it," added the Forest Service's Steve Clark.

He noted that the project, with its emphasis on reducing environmental impacts using special logging equipment, would be more expensive than traditional thinning projects. Bob Clark of the Sierra Club called it "almost a community service for the contractor" but believes the added cost is worth it to reduce damage to the forest floor.

Volunteers have cleared a few acres of brush, but an access road needs to be stabilized before thinning equipment can be brought in, Clark of the Forest Service said. The initial 98-acre, low-impact portion of the project is scheduled to begin within the next few weeks.

The Bureau of Reclamation on Nov. 2 released a final environmental impact statement outlining management of the Colorado River during dry years.

The plan, which will guide the operation of lakes Powell and Mead until 2026, is based on an agreement by seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River. It is expected to be adopted by the Interior Department secretary in December and take effect in January 2008.

"These proposed operational guidelines will provide Colorado River water users and managers in the U.S. a greater degree of certainty about how the two large reservoirs on the Colorado River will be operated under low water conditions, and when -- and by how much -- water deliveries will be reduced in the Lower Basin in drought or other low reservoir conditions," said Reclamation Commissioner Robert Johnson in a statement.

Continued drought conditions on the Colorado River system have reduced water levels at Lake Mead and other reservoirs. The federal government and river compact states are finalizing a plan for sharing during shortages. Photo courtesy of National Park Service.

Development of the guidelines was spurred by the current drought in the Colorado River Basin, which began in the fall of 1999. In the eight years since, the basin has experienced the worst drought conditions in 100 years of recorded history, and storage in Colorado River reservoirs has dropped from nearly full to about 54 percent of capacity (Land Letter, April 12).

The final EIS acknowledges that the 1922 Colorado River Compact is based on estimates from unusually wet years, but it doesn't suggest any changes to the agreement, which divvies up water among the seven states.

The document also acknowledges the potential effects of climate change, including decreased mean annual flow, increased variability, more frequent and severe droughts, and decreased runoff. However, Reclamation argues that the science surrounding climate change is not yet precise enough to determine exactly what those effects will be.

Brad Udall, director of the Western Water Assessment, a joint effort by the University of Colorado and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that is a good tack for Reclamation to take. "I actually think that Reclamation did a good job of looking at the state of the science and acknowledging this is a problem, but the science at the regional level just isn't good enough to provide the answers," he said.

The final EIS presents six alternatives, including a no-action alternative and the agency's preferred alternative. The preferred alternative proposes that:

• Specific water levels in Lake Mead be used to determine when a shortage condition (the availability of less than 7.5 million acre-feet of water) would be declared in the lower Colorado River Basin, and how that shortage would be shared by the three lower basin states -- Arizona, California and Nevada.

• Specific reservoir conditions at Lakes Powell and Mead be used to determine the annual operation of these reservoirs, in a manner that would minimize shortages in the lower basin and avoid the risk of water delivery curtailments in the upper basin.

• A mechanism be implemented to encourage and account for augmentation and conservation of water supplies in Lake Mead to minimize the likelihood and severity of potential future shortages and to provide additional flexibility to meet water use needs, particularly under low reservoir conditions.

• The Interim Surplus Guidelines established in 2001 be modified and extended through 2026.

Too optimistic?

John Weisheit, conservation director for the nonprofit organization Living Rivers, said his group doesn't like the agreement at all. "We think the Bureau of Reclamation is hiding behind a model when they really haven't looked at all the parameters we think they should look at," he said.

For example, Weisheit noted Reclamation used the most optimistic estimates of annual yield on the Colorado River based on tree ring records -- 14.7 million acre-feet. Other models show yields as low as 13 million acre-feet, he said.

"There's reason for that," Weisheit said. "The model at 14.7 million acre-feet shows that the world is still rosy, but the model at 13 or 14 million acre-feet shows both reservoirs go empty for a long period. That's not what the Bureau of Reclamation wants the public to know. They're not being honest with the American public."

"There's not going to be water for anything eventually," Weisheit added. "They basically are praying for rain."

Weisheit said his group has not yet discussed whether they will challenge the bureau's plan in court. However, it appears likely that there will be some sort of legal challenge to the plan based on violations of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Gable is an independent energy and environmental writer in Woodland Park, Colo.

NiSource Inc.'s gas pipeline unit is drawing up a multi-state habitat conservation plan in a bid to obtain an incidental take permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service that would help keep the company in compliance with the Endangered Species Act should it kill or harm endangered species during the daily operation and maintenance of its pipelines.

NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage is consulting with FWS while it draws up the habitat conservation plan in time to file it with the agency by mid-2008, company officials said. The pipeline network includes 17,000 miles of pipeline spanning 17 Northeastern, Midwestern and Southeastern states, and lines are near the habitats of at least 76 endangered or threatened species.

The gas distribution company has 1,310 employees and several pipelines with total annual deliveries of about 1 trillion cubic feet. It has 36 storage facilities in four states that can hold 586 billion cubic feet of fuel.

NiSource habitat conservation plan manager John Schafer expects FWS will approve the 50-year permit by mid-to-late 2009. He said the company believes it would take one year for the "processing of the permit and public comments to roll in" in order for NiSource to implement the plan in 2010.

The plan considers potential impacts caused by leveling the pipeline area, laying trenches, welding pipes and placing them in the trenches, Schafer said.

He said FWS officials have been advising NiSource on how best to mitigate the effects of these activities. "There will be a suite of options that the company can perform," Schafer said, "The first criteria is to avoid impact. The second line will be if we can't avoid it, we'll minimize impact with best management practices. In most cases, we can avoid [taking species] and that'll be the way to go," he said.

Meanwhile, residents of states where NiSource's pipelines are located can submit comments to FWS until Nov. 30.

FWS is holding meetings this week and next in 13 states ranging from Louisiana to New Hampshire. The agency is seeking public input on what practices and regulations the NiSource habitat conservation plan should include, FWS spokeswoman Georgia Parham said.

The agency is also working on an environmental impact statement covering the company's activities, which it will review in tandem with the habitat conservation plan next year.

Parham does not expect any drastic changes in operations of the pipeline network. The conservation measures will affect the operations and structure already in place. "What they're doing is looking ahead and saying as we continue operation and maintenance of the pipeline system that is already there, we want to make sure what we're doing doesn't violate the Endangered Species Act," she said.

NiSource's activities also fall under the purview of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, especially as it expands storage and transmission facilities via a half-dozen growth projects.

NiSource expansion projects include the Millennium Pipeline, scheduled to begin service in November 2008; Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.'s $140 million Eastern Market Expansion Project; and a proposal to expand natural gas storage and pipeline facilities in Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.

NiSource goes through a permitting process via FERC, Parham said, but the habitat conservation plan allows the company to work directly with FWS to ensure it is not violating the Endangered Species Act. FWS is the only agency that can issue NiSource the incidental take permit.

Best management includes mowing

Schafer said NiSource is working with FWS on identifying species and best management practices, citing the New England cottontail as an example that is likely to be implemented through the habitat conservation plan.

Every three years, NiSource mows the right of way where the pipelines are laid and trims branches that obscure aerial views. Pilots fly over the area once a month to look for erosion or people digging in the area.

FWS suggested NiSource mow before trimming the branches in areas where the rabbit is located in order to frighten the creatures away into the brush so they would not be harmed by falling limbs.

"We're looking for those kinds of win-win opportunities," Schafer said. "That was one that came up. We're looking at others with other species."

Allen McReynolds, a member of the Sierra Club's wildlife and endangered species committee, said he could not comment directly on the NiSource plan but noted that granting an incidental take permit in exchange for an approved habitat conservation plans generally benefits the environment.

"The intent of a habitat conservation plan is to create a finite framework within which a private enterprise, in this case a pipeline company, can conduct construction and reduce the level of impact as much as possible [and] compensate for impact under a very distinct management program which has been reviewed and scrutinized by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists who are experts in the field and gone through a public review."

McReynolds said pipeline companies often hire expensive consulting firms to restore surrounding land to a better condition than it was originally. Additionally, conservation credits that companies buy can be used to bolster funding for the National Wildlife Refuge system, he said. He also noted that consulting companies' land survey results often provide FWS with an entirely new database of information about an area of the United States.

"There are a lot of success stories," he said.

A new federal plan aimed at stepping up protections for two New Mexico species that are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act would do little to reduce threats to the species, critics said this week.

The Bureau of Land Management on Nov. 2 released its final environmental impact statement for a proposal the agency said will better protect the lesser prairie chicken and sand dune lizard, both found in southeastern New Mexico, one of the state's biggest oil and gas producing regions. On Tuesday, Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians publicly denounced the plan, saying it will not stem the decline of the two species.

The "Special Status Species Resource Management Plan Amendment," issued by BLM's Roswell field office, would update the agency's approach to managing for the prairie chicken, sand dune lizard and other species on BLM land in five counties. BLM's proposed alternative in the EIS emphasizes reclamation of disturbed areas, expands a "core management area" and closes it to new oil and gas leasing. Outside the core area, oil and gas operators would have to conduct surveys for the species before proceeding with drilling. The plan also would limit ORV use to designated routes, a trend occurring across federal lands in the West.

Lesser prairie chickens find their habitats narrowed by energy development. Photo courtesy of USDA.

The objective is to "modify existing uses (e.g., federal minerals development, livestock grazing, recreation-off highway vehicles, etc.) occurring on public lands to protect special status species while sustaining the local economy," according to BLM's biological assessment of the plan.

"We think the public and the species will be better served by having the BLM act now, instead of waiting until the species are federally listed as threatened or endangered," said Doug Burger, manager of the agency's Pecos District.

Rapidly disappearing habitat

But Forest Guardians contends that those measures would do little to prevent harm to the species. Reclamation of arid lands is difficult, and BLM's enforcement of stipulations for oil and gas drilling has been lax in the past, said Lauren McCain, who directs Forest Guardians' Deserts and Grasslands Program.

"The plan allows the most significant threats to lesser prairie-chickens and sand dune lizards in major portions of these animals' rapidly disappearing habitat," McCain said.

Kara Gillon of Defenders of Wildlife in Albuquerque said her group was not familiar with the plan and could not comment on it.

The proposal would allow new oil and gas leasing on about 800,000 acres, which covers about 70 percent of existing lesser prairie chicken and sand dune lizard habitat in the area the plan covers, McCain said. And oil and gas development will be allowed on about 5,000 acres where the animals are known to exist, according to the group.

The lesser prairie chicken, which is found in parts of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado, has seen a 50 percent drop in populations in the latter two states, which are historic strongholds for the lesser prairie chicken, according to McCain. State surveys have found an increase in prairie chicken leks in some parts of the animal's range in New Mexico.

The sand dune lizard survives in one strip of dune country in southeastern New Mexico.

While off-roading and grazing are cited as threats to the species, the biggest conflict with conservation of the prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard is oil and gas development. Studies have found that the lesser prairie chicken will not use breeding grounds where wells have been drilled. But southeastern New Mexico is home to one of the state's biggest oil and gas fields, with about 25,000 active wells, and energy production -- New Mexico's third-largest industry -- is an important economic engine in the area.

BLM officials said the management plan strikes a balance between protection and development. It was developed over more than three years of collaboration with various stakeholders, according to the agency.

The new plan will "give us the flexibility to allow other uses on public lands in the area" while heading off an ESA listing, Burger said.

The plan incorporates parts of a conservation strategy crafted by a collaborative group consisting of representatives from the Nature Conservancy, the oil and gas industry, the ranching community and federal agencies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supports BLM's plan. In its comments on the proposal, FWS said it would "provide protections to the lesser prairie chicken and sand dune lizard in occupied and suitable habitats" and applauded BLM for requiring reclamation of abandoned well sites and enhancing potential habitat. "We commend the BLM for this proactive plan to improve the status of these candidate species," wrote Wally Murphy, field supervisor for FWS's ecological services field office in Albuquerque.

The lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard have been candidates for listing under the ESA since the late 1990s, when FWS concluded that listing was justified but that other species at greater risk took priority in the listing process. Those decisions were in response to listing petitions from environmental groups.

BLM is taking comment on the final EIS until Dec. 3.

Click here to read the plan.

This story first appeared in Greenwire.

Federal efforts to save the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow will not impede the restoration of historic water flows into Everglades National Park, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.

By limiting critical habitat for the sparrow to areas outside a historic river channel, Shark River Slough, FWS may help resolve one of the most contentious issues facing the government's Everglades restoration program -- getting more water into parched areas of the park.

But critics of the final critical habitat rule say the plan effectively reduces by more than half the area currently being protected for sparrows, and that reflooding portions of Shark River Slough will eliminate habitat for two key subpopulation groups.

Brad Sewell, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Tuesday's final rule suggests "we're on the brink of a major shift in whether we're going to protect the Cape Sable seaside sparrow." The critical habitat designation does not bode well for the bird's survival, he said.

"It's potentially catastrophic for one of the most endangered bird species in the country, and it's horrible for the Everglades," Sewell said.

However, other stakeholders, including the National Park Service and the Miccosukee Indians, whose tribal lands north of the park have been flooded for years in part to preserve sparrow habitat, welcomed the decision.

Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades National Park, said in a statement that FWS's final critical habitat determination "is consistent with our historic effort to restore this important ecosystem."

A spokeswoman for the Miccosukees issued a statement saying "the revised critical habitat designation appears to be a very large step toward Everglades restoration and multi-species ecosystem management." The tribe has long held that FWS's singular focus on preserving the Cape Sable seaside sparrow habitat has resulted in the degradation of habitat for other key species, such as endangered snail kites.

Restoring flow

In its final rule, FWS said critical habitat for the sparrow will cover nearly 85,000 acres of the vast wetland covering the southern tip of Florida. But it will not include portions of the historic Shark River Slough, where water would flow into the lower Everglades from reservoirs north of the park.

Such flows are essential to meeting the top priority of the $8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which has faltered in recent years due to conflicting agency agendas and budgetary shortfalls.

Government officials and leaders of nonprofit groups involved in the restoration have nonetheless have been steadfast in their view that without the restoration of normal water flows into the lower Everglades, the entire CERP process would be undermined.

The Cape Sable seaside sparrow is just one of dozens of species whose future viability could be affected by such restoration decisions, and FWS's decision to exempt Shark River Slough from the sparrow's critical habitat area may result in a loss of some areas currently occupied by the bird.

But FWS determined that the Shark River Slough, while currently dry enough to support sparrow habitat, is not part of the sparrow's historic nesting and feeding grounds.

"New information suggests at least some parts of this area may have historically resembled a sawgrass marsh, which is not the species' habitat of choice today or historically," the agency said in a release announcing the habitat designation.

"In addition," FWS said, "up-to-date modeling for Everglades restoration projects indicates this area will become wetter to some degree as Everglades restoration progresses."

The sparrow's critical habitat will consist of five parcels concentrated on the east side of Shark River Slough, and four of the five parcels are entirely within Everglades National Park. The last parcel lies primarily within the state-owned Southern Glades Wildlife and Environmental Area.

The final designation largely conforms to the sparrow's original habitat areas, set in 1977, but FWS refined some boundary lines "to more specifically identify those habitats that sparrows use."

But Sara Fain, Everglades restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, questioned FWS's rationale, saying the sparrow subpopulation currently occupying portions of Shark River Slough, and that would be excluded from critical habitat protection, "has always been considered vital to the species continued existence.

"We know that this bird has been suffering for years and years," Fain said. "Now is not the time to be dropping the level of protection. We can restore flows and protect this species at the same time. They're not incompatible."

Click here for more information on the critical habitat designation, including maps showing the habitat boundaries.

This story first appeared in Greenwire.

A coalition of environmental and mining groups has announced plans to sue U.S. EPA to ensure that bankrupt mining companies do not reneg on cleanup responsibilities.

The coalition -- which includes the Great Basin Mine Watch, Idaho Conservation League, Amigos Bravos and Sierra Club -- sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue, saying EPA failed to force companies to provide financial assurance for potential cleanup costs.

The groups say EPA has allowed companies to default on cleanup responsibilities by going bankrupt, passing costs on to the government.

"When polluters cannot pay, cleanup is exceeding slower and in some cases nonexistent," said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans during a teleconference.

The lawsuit follows House passage last week of a bill to reform the 1872 hardrock mining law. In addition to requiring companies to pay royalties for mining on public lands, the bill would require hardrock operations to post a bond to cover cleanup costs before receiving a permit to start work.

In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which among many things required that businesses handling hazardous substances prove they have the ability to pay for cleanups through bonds or other means.

But the coalition said EPA has failed to promulgate the regulations. A Government Accountability Office report in 2005 found that some hardrock mining operations on federal lands have outdated reclamation plans that do not accurately anticipate cleanup costs or provide any financial assurances.

EPA response

EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith said the agency is committed to holding polluters accountable. She added that the "Good Samaritan Clean Watershed Act," introduced last year contains provisions for cleaning up abandoned mines.

While environmentalists say it is unknown how many mines have been abandoned following bankruptcies, coalition members pointed to one example that they call the most egregious: Asarco, a century-old mining and smelting company, declared bankruptcy in 2005, leaving behind 94 Superfund sites in 21 states. The company had set up a $100 million trust, but the estimated total cost for cleaning up the mines is expected to exceed $1 billion.

"It isn't a far-fetched idea to have these very large companies disappear," said Dan Randolph, executive director of the Great Basin Mine Watch. "The public simply can't afford to cover those costs."

The representatives said requiring companies to financially support any potential cleanup costs will not only ensure the taxpayer will not pay for the cleanups but will also encourage mine operators to improve their practices to reduce their liabilities.

Click here to view the notice.

This story first appeared in Greenwire.

The Interior Department issued preliminary policies this week for governing offshore renewable energy projects in federal waters, but rules that would allow commercial-scale development face delays and are unlikely to be finished until late next year, officials said.

The rules are being written by Interior's Minerals Management Service for building and operating wave, wind and current projects in federal waters -- authority given the agency by the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

MMS has published an interim policy that allows companies to nominate tracts in federal waters for placement of equipment for testing and data collection, such as meteorological towers.

MMS Director Randall Luthi said the policy would "jumpstart" projects. "There are many companies that want to get out there now and find out what kind of information is there," he said Monday. "It will give companies a chance to find out what kind of potential resources are there."

The policy published Tuesday says coastal states, project developers and others called for fast action on allowing testing and resource assessments on the outer continental shelf. "The MMS wishes to be responsive and believes that significant benefits would accrue to both the stakeholders and the federal government if we expedite the ability to acquire resource data and technology testing results to inform future decision-making with respect to the AEAU [alternative energy/alternate use] program," it says.

At a briefing Monday, top Interior officials said the new plans are a step toward tapping offshore resources that have vast potential. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the mid-Atlantic coast, for instance, has the wind potential to supply power to 50 million homes. He also highlighted the potential for wave projects -- a much newer technology -- in the West.

Behind on lease rules

But Interior is behind schedule in proposing rules to govern commercial project leasing and development. Officials had initially planned to publish proposed rules in late summer of 2007 and complete them in early 2008, according to testimony that Interior submitted to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June.

But Luthi said Monday that a proposal is not expected for publication until next spring, and final rules are not expected until late 2008 at the earliest. "These are new industries, new technologies, a new way of thinking. It just took longer than I certainly expected it would to get through the process," Luthi said. "Above all we want to do it right."

Interior Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Stephen Allred said that as MMS was working on the rules, the major differences between offshore petroleum leasing -- MMS's forte -- and alternative energy leasing became increasingly apparent. "That has caused a delay, but the reason is to make them more comprehensive and better suited to a brand new industry and a brand new use of the leasing regulations," he said.

There are currently no commercial wind projects operating in coastal waters, but several have been proposed, including the Cape Wind project that would be located in federal waters off Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. That project, proposed well before MMS was handed authority over offshore alternative energy, is not contingent on MMS finalizing the leasing rules. It is, however, still under MMS review.

Laurie Jodziewicz, a policy specialist with the American Wind Energy Association, praised MMS for being responsive to industry concerns that a green light for data collection was needed. However, she also expressed concern about the delays in crafting rules for commercial-scale projects in federal waters.

"This is such a key piece of it that until this is done, people are going to be wary of sinking more capital into projects until they know what the rules are," she said. "We are pleased to see this development. It does get us a bit closer. But we would like to see this process get on track and get some projects out there." AWEA is a major wind power trade group.

Wave projects

Wave projects have yet to be deployed on a commercial basis in the United States.

Finavera Renewables -- a Vancouver, B.C.-based wave-energy developer -- is planning projects off Oregon and Washington. But Kevin Banister, the vice president of business development, said the company is holding off on pursuing projects in the outer continental shelf due to regulatory uncertainty, including questions about the jurisdictions of MMS and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Federal officials are still in the process of clarifying the roles of FERC and MMS for hydroenergy projects in federal waters.

A FERC official told the Senate energy panel in June that of 21 pending preliminary permit applications, three straddled the line between state and federal waters and only one would be completely in federal waters. Federal waters typically begin three miles from state shores.

Also, MMS has released a final environmental impact statement of the potential effects of offshore wind, wave, current and other offshore alternative projects. The analysis finds potential for some environmental disturbance, especially during construction of facilities, and emphasizes the need for mitigation measures.

It notes that noise from installing wind turbine foundations could affect marine mammals and fish. "Without proper mitigation to avoid uncommon or sensitive habitats, disturbance of the seafloor could result in moderate to major impacts on seafloor habitat under and adjacent to the foundations and cables," it states.

However, it notes, "In general, most impacts would be negligible to moderate for all phases of wind energy development assuming that proper siting and mitigation measures are followed."

With respect to wave energy, for instance, it notes that operations could harm threatened or endangered marine mammals if they become entangled in moorings, and also that sea turtles could be harmed by wave devices. "Entanglement and entrainment potential may be reduced through the use of sonic pingers and/or turtle exclusion devices," it states.

The analysis is "programmatic" and does not address specific projects.

A version of this story first appeared in Greenwire.

For the first time in 25 years, the National Park Service is developing a roster of sites that could named to the United Nations' World Heritage List.

Draft nominees include Hawaii's Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, so designated by President Bush last year; a collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings; and Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park.

Of the 851 World Heritage sites designated by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Committee, 20 are in the United States. Seventeen are managed by the National Park Service, including Yellowstone National Park, the Statue of Liberty and Independence Hall.

The United States has not proposed a new heritage site since 1994, partly because it was not on the UNESCO committee for six years, said Stephen Morris, chief of NPS's Office of International Affairs.

When the United States was readmitted to the committee in 2005, it pledged to issue a new "tentative list" to replace the current roster published in 1982. Sites on the tentative list -- up to two each year -- can then be nominated to be heritage sites.

NPS issued a draft tentative list last month, along with staff recommendations. Compared with the first wave of U.S. heritage locations, sites on the list may not be as well-known but are deserving of recognition. "These are lesser-known sites," Morris said. "Some of them are equally spectacular."

Although UNESCO prefers that one year elapse between the finalization of a tentative list and before a nomination is submitted, the Bush administration may nominate a couple of sites before January 2009.

"This administration would like to nominate one site, maybe two before they leave office," Morris said.

Hawaii monument nominated first

An informal vote of a U.S. National Commission for UNESCO subcommittee last month recommended the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to be the first site nominated to the World Heritage List. The panel also recommended a group of Alabama sites related to the Civil Rights Movement.

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO is a federal advisory committee under the State Department. Susanna Connaughton, wife of White House Council on Environmental Quality Director James Connaughton, is the executive director.

Even if a site from the tentative list is formally nominated, a World Heritage listing is no sure thing. Previously the United States failed in its attempts to list the Edison laboratories in Menlo Park, N.J., and the historic district in Savannah, Ga. In Savannah, for instance, the advisory board said all private property owners had to participate in the designation. NPS now requires the written agreement of all property owners to the nomination of their property and strong support from stakeholders.

Public comment on the draft tentative list is being accepted through Nov. 30, and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne must submit the final tentative list to UNESCO by Feb. 1, 2008.

Click here to view the list of nominations to the tentative list.

Click here to view the NPS staff report.

Ore. voters pass land-use compensation reforms

Oregon voters on Tuesday overwhelming approved Measure 49, a state ballot initiative to scale back one of the country's most extensive property-rights laws. Measure 49 passed with 61.5 percent of the vote. The measure changes the property-compensation law that voters passed in 2004.

That law, known as Measure 37, allows state landowners to use their property as they could have when they bought it, unless the state government can pay for lost value. The proposal of the measure spurred a flood of development applications from property owners, who filed claims on more than 750,000 acres.

Measure 49 would limit how many homes can be built on property opened to development by Measure 37 (Land Letter, Nov. 1).

Crashed ship spills fuel into San Francisco Bay

Several bay beaches were closed yesterday as cleanup crews attempted to contain the spill. By nightfall, the Coast Guard said it had cleaned up 8,000 gallons and state Department of Fish and Game's oil spill unit had begun taking steps to clean up the rest of the spill.

The spill occurred when a container ship, the Cosco Busan, bound from Oakland to South Korea, hit a barrier on a tower of the fog-shrouded bridge. It was the first recorded instance of a ship hitting the bridge, and while it did not appear to inflict any damage to the span the incident did rip a large hole in the side of the ship's hull.

As the oil spread, it began showing up at major landmarks in the water around San Francisco. "By 1 p.m., oil hit the rocks at Alcatraz," said Chris Powell, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. "By 2 p.m., the sheen was on the beach at Crissy Field. By 3 p.m., it was on the rocks at Fort Point."

Powell said the National Park Service closed six beaches Wednesday afternoon: Crissy Field, China Beach, and Baker Beach in San Francisco, along with Rodeo Beach, Kirby Cove and Black Sands Beach in Marin County.

"We certainly are concerned about wildlife," Powell said. "The concern is how widespread this is going to go along the coast."

Ga. withdraws Army Corps lawsuit, cites progress

Buoyed by pledges of federal support to end a water supply crisis, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) has withdrawn a lawsuit that sought to halt Army Corps of Engineers' discharges from an upstate reservoir.

"With the intervention by President Bush to compel our federal partners to come to the table, I am optimistic that this matter can be resolved outside of a courtroom," Perdue said in a statement.

The lawsuit suspension comes less than a week after Purdue met in Washington with top Bush administration officials and the governors of Alabama and Florida to try to reach a consensus over how to allocate water flows on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin.

As part of that negotiation, the corps agreed to temporarily reduce flows in the ACF basin by 16 percent, from 5,000 to 4,200 cubic feet per second, thus allowing more storage for drinking water and other needs.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the corps' proposal to determine how the flow changes would affect two federally protected mussels and an endangered sturgeon in the lower reaches of the basin. A decision from FWS is expected next week.

Rob Holland, an Atlanta-based spokesman for the corps, said the agency "is certainly pleased that we were able to solve some of these problems by negotiation rather than in the courts."

USDA IG probes alleged Giant Sequoia logging

The Agriculture Department's inspector general is investigating whether the Forest Service illegally cut down trees in California's Giant Sequoia National Monument.

USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong said her office is examining activities at the Trail of 100 Giants, part of the Giant Sequoia National Monument that President Clinton created in 2000. The monument contains about half of the world's remaining sequoias, which are the largest trees on Earth.

Democratic Reps. Maurice Hinchey of New York, Jim Moran of Virginia and John Olver of Massachusetts asked for the review, saying the Forest Service may have illegally chopped down more than 200 protected trees and then sold the wood to timber mills.

In 2004, the Forest Service blocked off the 1.3-mile trail and announced it planned to log trees deemed to be a hazard to the public. About 200 "hazard trees" were identified, and none were giant sequoias. During the operation, more than 300 cords of wood were made available for the public for personal firewood use, and some of the slash was burned.

But America's Forests and Sequoia ForestKeeper say at least 76 "hazard trees" were 300-year-old sugar pines, valuable as furniture-grade wood, and were reportedly sent to a local timber mill, in violation of environmental law and Clinton's proclamation.

According to the groups, the Forest Service earlier this year cut up about 20 pieces of logs left from the previous operation, violating a court order not to conduct logging in the Long Meadow Grove.

Groups sue NMFS over pesticide use

Fishing and environmental groups sued the Bush administration Monday in an effort to force greater regulation of pesticides that could affect salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest and California.

The lawsuit charges the National Marine Fisheries Service with failing to develop adequate methods to protect endangered and threatened fish from 54 pesticides found in salmon streams. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Earthjustice and Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides are co-plaintiifs.

In a previous lawsuit, a federal district judge in Washington ruled that U.S. EPA must work with NMFS to develop better methods to protect salmon from pesticides that farmers spray near streams and rivers. That ruling was upheld in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

EPA has since submitted documents to the fisheries agency on the effects of pesticides, but the plaintiffs complain that NMFS has not done enough to respond to that information and protect the fish.

"This region has devoted far too much time and money to restore imperiled salmon runs to allow NMFS to sit on its hands while pesticides continue to contaminate streams and kill struggling salmon," said Joshua Osborne-Klein, the Earthjustice attorney who represents the groups.

Mouse not endangered in Wyoming, FWS says

The Preble's meadow jumping mouse would no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act in the state of Wyoming, according to a new proposal from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service this month. The subspecies remains threatened in Colorado, however, FWS said.

Previously, the agency had tried to remove the mouse from ESA protections altogether, claiming the mouse was not a valid subspecies. The new analysis holds that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is a viable subspecies. Steve Guertin, FWS's acting director for the Mountain-Prairie Region, said that the proposal "emphasizes protecting the species where it is truly at risk of being endangered."

The decision to take the mouse off protections in Wyoming came from "a better understanding" of its habitat there, FWS said. The four Wyoming counties that support Preble's populations are agricultural and likely to remain so, posing less risk to the mouse's survival, FWS said.

However, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, claimed the FWS decisions on such species have been "hijacked by politics." Erik Molvar, the coalition's biologist, said there is no data to support any decision by FWS. "How can the Fish and Wildlife Service remove the Endangered Species Act protections when the agency has no idea of how the mouse is doing in Wyoming?" Molvar said.

Beetle, wasp larvae intercepted at Seattle port

Authorities at the Port of Seattle intercepted multiple shipping containers in recent months containing several varieties of volatile invasive insects.

Most of the discoveries were in the wood packing material for building materials from countries like China and India.

On Sept. 21, two shipping containers filled with building materials came into the port. Ten days later when customs officials opened the containers, they discovered two Chinese snails and the larvae from longhorned beetles, bark beetles and wood wasps.

The Asian longhorn beetle has caused millions of dollars in damage in Illinois, New Jersey and New York.

On Oct 22, bark beetles and pinhole bark borer weevils were found in wooden crates of a shipment from India.

Mediterranean snail discovered in Wash. peninsula

A tiny invasive snail from the Mediterranean has turned up in the Tideflats area of Tacoma, Wash. Nobody knows how the snails got there, but experts believe they came via international trade. They were first discovered in the Tideflats area nearly two years ago, and officials have counted thousands of snails since then.

Last month, the Agriculture Department told more than a dozen Tideflats property owners to cut brush and spread snail bait on nearly 170 acres, adding they would do the work and bill them for it if they did not comply within 25 days.

Zebra mussels discovered on boat in Iowa's Lake Rathbun

Iowa state biologists discovered more than 100 adult zebra mussels on a boat in Lake Rathbun last month but are unsure whether they will spread to the rest of the lake.

To date there are only two bodies of water in Iowa that biologists have confirmed the presence of zebra mussels, in Lake Delhi and Clear Lake.

Kim Bogenschutz, coordinator of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' aquatic invasive species program, said she was not sure whether the mussels spread to the lake.

Boaters are supposed to drain their ballasts after sailing through infected waters before traveling into clean waters. The unidentified owner of the boat could face a $100 fine for transporting the mussels.