UK-based WRc has launched a three-year

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) has proposed that the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and SCAQMD establish a joint project in Southern California to accelerate development of technologies to reduce particulate emission from school buses.

SCAQMD has proposed to ARB that they rapidly establish a program to test the durability of particulate traps and catalysts on diesel school buses. Once proven effective, programs could be implemented to reduce children's exposure to diesel soot by retrofitting buses now in service with the devices.

Under the proposed testing project, three types of diesel pollution control devices would be tested on two buses each at participating schools. These buses would be operated 24 hours a day for 50,000 miles over which the effectiveness and durability of the pollution control devices would be studied. The buses would operate on low sulphur diesel.

The expected cost would be $40,000 to $70,000 per bus, including fuel, drivers, operation and maintenance, and data collection and record keeping cost. ARB and SCAQMD would split these costs under the proposal.

Officials in Santa Cruz, California, have launched a $1 million plan to encourage its residents to get out of their cars and onto electric bicycles because there are too many cars on the road. Residents will be eligible for discounts, rebates and even interest-free loans on electric bikes, which can cost up to $1000. Santa Cruz decided to implement the plan because it is hilly and has very heavy traffic.

Electric bikes have a battery-powered motor that spins the back wheel, providing a boost to pedalling or replaces pedalling altogether for up to 20 miles. However, despite being a cost-effective means to replace cars for short trips, electric bikes haven't caught on in a big way.

USEPA has reinstated the "one-hour" national ambient air-quality standard (NAAQS) for ozone, citing continuing litigation over the 1997 revised "eight-hour" standard.

According to USEPA, 53 areas comprising 114 counties (both non-attainment and attainment) will have to take some action to further reduce ozone pollution or prevent future ozone increases. Of these areas, 45 previously had been designated non-attainment but did not violate the standard between 1996 and 1998; these areas can avoid returning to non-attainment status if EPA approves their re-designation request by Jan. 16.

EPA has reinstated the one-hour NAAQS because of a federal appeals court's decision to remand the eight-hour standard issued in 1997. This ruling, which now is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, left most of the country without a fully enforceable ozone NAAQS, according to the agency.

USEPA has developed a draft guidance (http://www.epa.gov/tri.) aimed at helping facilities comply with strict reporting requirements for dioxins and dioxin-like compounds.

The draft describes the requirements and discusses different methods for facilities to use to estimate their releases, including use of emission factors if there is no other way to estimate releases.

The aim of the guidance is to promote consistency in how facilities estimate releases and wastes generated and to "reduce the level of effort expended" by facilities reporting dioxins and dioxin-like substances as required by EPA.

A new algal toxin, produced by cyanobacteria not previously reported as producing toxins, has been identified following a water quality alert in South Australia in late April.

The alarm was raised when consumers in Yorke Peninsula reported taste and odour changes in their water supply. This followed testing with mice which revealed the presence of the toxin, although the South Australia Department of Human Services was unable to identify the toxin strain. The toxin appears to be chemically distinct from the known major toxin classes and can be inactivated by chlorination and boiling. The toxin caused liver damage in mice, similar to that reported for Aphanizomenon flos-aquae.

UK-based WRc has launched a three-year research project that aims to improve the protection of valuable groundwater resources from ammoniacal-nitrogen pollution.

The project, managed by WRc and Imperial College, will use data collected from Hanson Waste Management's Burntstump landfill site near Nottingham, UK to investigate the long-term fate and transport of ammoniacal nitrogen, a common component of waste degradation. The landfill site has been in operation since the late 1960s, and with data available spanning nearly 30 years, is a national research site of considerable importance.

The project aims to combine borehole drilling with laboratory and modelling work, measuring key physico-chemical indicators influencing microbial transformations and physical adsorption in the unsaturated zone, as well as representing the factors controlling ammoniacal-nitrogen degradation and transport in aquifer material using a mathematical model. It will also provide a basis for improving risk assessment strategies.