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Aims: Developing a rapid method for detection of faecal pollution is among the critical goals set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency in its revision of water quality criteria. The purpose of this study is to devise and test covalently linked antibody–bead complexes for faecal indicator bacteria (FIB), specifically Escherichia coli or Enterococcus spp., in measuring water quality in freshwater and marine systems. Methods and Results: Covalently linked complexes were 58–89% more robust than antibody–bead complexes used in previous studies. Freshwater and marine water samples analysed using covalently linked immunomagnetic separation/adenosine triphosphate quantification technique (Cov-IMS/ATP) and culture-based methods yielded good correlations for E. coli ( R = 0·87) and Enterococcus spp. ( R = 0·94), with method detection limits below EPA recreational water quality health standards for single standard exceedances ( E. coli– 38 cells per 100 ml; Enterococcus spp. – 25 cells per 100 ml). Cov-IMS/ATP correctly classified 87% of E. coli and 94% of Enterococcus spp. samples based on these water quality standards. Cov-IMS/ATP was also used as a field method to rapidly distinguish differential loading of E. coli between two stream channels to their confluence. Conclusions: Cov-IMS/ATP is a robust, in-field detection method for determining water quality of both fresh and marine water systems as well as differential loading of FIB from two converging channels. Significance and Impact of the Study: To our knowledge, this is the first work to present a viable rapid, in-field assay for measuring FIB concentrations in marine water environments. Cov-IMS/ATP is a potential alternative detection method, particularly in areas with limited laboratory support and resources, because of its increased economy and portability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Applied ecology aims to translate research into policy recommendations. However, conflicts frequently develop if these recommendations propose a contentious course of action. A first step towards addressing such conflicts is to attempt to understand the values underpinning stakeholder viewpoints. 2. We develop a computer-aided Content Analysis to analyse the language surrounding environmental conflicts for insights into stakeholder values. Using the conflict arising over proposals to cull hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus on several Scottish islands, we show how different stakeholder groups frame the problem in different ways. 3. Stakeholder groups supporting different courses of action (culling vs. translocating hedgehogs) use different arguments, the former emphasizing conservation and biodiversity, the latter focusing on animal welfare. Our method results in a graphical representation of this failure to agree on a common way to frame the issue. 4. Including texts obtained from media sources illustrates how the media can exacerbate environmental conflicts through the issues they emphasize and the vocabulary they use. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our method provides a simple means to quantify levels of stakeholder disagreement concerning potentially contentious environmental issues. Our results provide a starting point for the development of a quantitative, graphical tool for managers, where repeated analysis will aid in monitoring and managing conflicts. In addition, we provide a clear example of the role of societal attitudes influencing the effective implementation of ecological advice, which should encourage ecologists to become more aware of the social environment into which policy recommendations are to be launched and to ensure that their advice does not ignore important stakeholder values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Coast Air Quality Management District v. EPA is emblematic of the EPA's failure to put in place air quality standards deemed necessary to protect public health over a decade ago. In a unanimous ruling, the D.C.. Circuit rejected the agency's 2004 rule meant to implement those standards because it largely ignored the Clean Air Act's strict regulation of ground level ozone, a pollutant that continues to exact unacceptable tolls on the environment, the economy, and public health. The result was not surprising. The D.C. Circuit had previously vacated a 1997 EPA rule that also employed a discretionary framework in place of the strict scheme called for by the Clean Air Act. On appeal, the Supreme Court disagreed that the exclusive use, of the strict regulatory approach was unambiguously mandated by the language of the statute, but affirmed that the EPA's neglect of the scheme was unreasonable. The Court remanded to the agency to produce a sensible rule. Despite the Court's emphasis on the singular importance of the strict approach, the EPA used the opportunity to craft a rule that once again attempted to largely avoid the congressional mandate. In South Coast, the D.C. Circuit predictably rejected this abuse of discretion. The language of the Clean Air Act prevailed, but only after regrettable and unnecessary delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supreme Court's split decision in Rapanos v. United States left the lower courts with the question of whether to apply the plurality's restrictive test for determining which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA), or whether to use Justice Kennedy's more flexible, policy-based test. For those courts intending to follow Kennedy's concurrence, the parameters of his "significant nexus" test were far from explicit. In Baykeeper v. Cargill Salt Division the Ninth Circuit relinquished its first opportunity to apply the significant nexus test expansively in order to keep the CWA potent as a tool for environmental protection. The best remaining approach for litigants seeking to establish CWA coverage of non-navigable-in-fact waters that are not wetlands is to proceed under the theory that such waters are tributaries with a significant nexus to navigable waterways, pressing this language into service in the broadest array of hydrological scenarios possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The citizen suit provision is a key component of the 1976 amendments to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), since it provides individuals with the means to initiate proceedings to protect themselves even when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fails to do so. Maine People's Alliance v. Mallinckrodt, Inc. involved a citizen suit against an industrial facility that dumped mercury-laden waste into the Penobscot River over a fifteen-year period. The First Circuit held in favor of Plaintiffs, despite the limited evidence of an "imminent and substantial endangerment." This is an important decision because it continued the trend set by four previous circuits of broadly interpreting RCRA's citizen suit provision. Under the existing regulatory framework for hazardous pollutants, there are two scenarios in which a citizen may wish to sue a polluter. The first is where the EPA has not initiated a lawsuit, as in Maine People's Alliance, and the second is where the EPA has initiated a lawsuit, but is inadequately protecting the interests of citizens. This Note focuses on the latter scenario and proposes that courts should further strengthen RCRA by embracing the logic of Maine People's Alliance and apply only a minimal burden test when assessing citizens' rights to intervene in an EPA-initiated RCRA enforcement action. This would only require a limited showing that the EPA inadequately represents the citizens' interests. Just as it is important for citizens to be able to bring suit where environmental harm is not being addressed, it should also be easy to intervene in ongoing RCRA suits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have documented the presence of Cryptosporidium parvum, an anthropozoonotic enteric parasite, in molluscan shellfish harvested for commercial purposes. Getting accurate estimates of Cryptosporidium contamination levels in molluscan shellfish is difficult because recovery efficiencies are dependent on the isolation method used. Such estimates are important for determining the human health risks posed by consumption of contaminated shellfish. In the present study, oocyst recovery was compared for multiple methods used to isolate Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts from oysters (Crassostrea virginica) after exposure to contaminated water for 24 h. The immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and immunofluorescent antibody procedures from Environmental Protection Agency method 1623 were adapted for these purposes. Recovery efficiencies for the different methods were also determined using oyster tissue homogenate and hemolymph spiked with oocysts. There were significant differences in recovery efficiency among the different treatment groups (P < 0.05). We observed the highest recovery efficiency (i.e., 51%) from spiked samples when hemolymph was kept separate during the homogenization of the whole oyster meat but was then added to the pellet following diethyl ether extraction of the homogenate, prior to IMS. Using this processing method, as few as 10 oocysts could be detected in a spiked homogenate sample by nested PCR. In the absence of water quality indicators that correlate with Cryptosporidium contamination levels, assessment of shellfish safety may rely on accurate quantification of oocyst loads, necessitating the use of processing methods that maximize oocyst recovery. The results from this study have important implications for regulatory agencies charged with determining the safety of molluscan shellfish for human consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging with dialogue concerning the relevance and applicability of social capital to a model of sustainable community development, we illustrate an in-depth case of a community experiencing an ideological clash with the dominant politico-societal structures. We argue that while the exclusivity of bonding social capital has been described as the 'dark side', it may be essential for progressive sustainable community development (PSCD). When faced with a development threat, such bonds are essential for building links, bridges and solidarity, enabling cultural reproduction and promoting environmental protection for sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A probability-based, sediment quality assessment was conducted during 1995 in the lower St. Louis River Area of Concern, located in western Lake Superior. A regional application of the intensified sampling grid developed for the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program was used to randomly select 90 sites for measuring the following sediment quality indicators: sediment chemistry, physical parameters, sediment toxicity, and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure. Screening methods were used to assess sediment chemistry and sediment toxicity at all sites, whereas more conventional metrics were used at a subset of sites. In addition, sediment quality data were collected from 20 a priori training sites, 10 in low impact areas and 10 in high impact areas. Mean probable effect concentration quotients were calculated for sediment chemistry variables at each site. As the range of mean probable effect concentration quotients values increased, the incidence of sediment toxicity increased. Benthic data from the training sites were used to establish standard criteria for developing two benthic integrity indices based on multimetric analysis and discriminant function analysis. Based on the training site results, the discriminant function analysis categorized the macroinvertebrate community at all random sites as 45 percent low impact and 55 percent high impact. A multimetric approach categorized 55 percent of the random sites as low impact and 36 percent as high impact. Due to the overlap of 95 percent confidence intervals, the multimetric approach also placed 9 percent of the random sites into an indeterminate category. The incidence of high impact sites appears to be primarily due to physical habitat characteristics. This finding was supported by the sediment quality triad assessment of 52 random sites that indicated alteration of the benthic community at 71 percent of sites was probably not due to chemical contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The late Victorian period witnessed a growing concern for, on the one hand, environmental protection, and on the other, the ‘human fauna’, with their vanishing folk heritage, living on the margins of a capitalist rural economy. In connection with the Ashdown Forest legal dispute (1876–1882) over the common rights in this ancient Forest area in the Weald of Sussex, the young solicitor William Augustus Raper interviewed over 100 elderly residents to collect evidence of 60 years’ gathering of litter (bracken, heather, etc.). Their depositions reveal much about the ways in which local environmental politics were a constituent part of custom and economy on the Forest, and how such contested rights underpinned the more elite conservation movement at this time. Although gathered for a specific legal case, the evidence reveals much about the interrelations between late-Victorian peasant communities and their environments, but also much about the individuals, and their social, economic and spatial relations. The material is assessed for its relationship to similar 19th- and 20th-century sources and for its use within historical geography, and there is also a discussion of the potential and problems associated with the use of transcribed oral evidence and auto/biographical material more generally. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents several environmental questions formulated by the British environmental policy makers as an exercise of role-reversing. These questions, labeled as "high policy relevance," are aimed to facilitate the process of whittling down the number of questions. Among the questions formulated are centered on the time it takes for the seabed to recover from disturbance such as dredging, wind-farm construction, and oil and gas extraction; the impacts of recreational activities on biodiversity; the effects of domestic cats on vertebrate populations in rural and urban environments; the consequences for biodiversity of changes in water quality and sedimentation in rivers; and on the reason why woodland birds declined.