Joseph P. Skorupa

Contaminants in Drainage Water and Avian Risk Thresholds

The toxicity of selenium to avian embryos is one of the most restrictive constraints on options for managing agricultural drainage water. Although selenium in eggs strongly predicts embryotoxicity, waterborne selenium (on a total recoverable basis) often is an unreliable predictor of average realized selenium in eggs. For the San Joaquin Valley, however, the algebraically derived equation Log (Mean Egg Se) = 3.66 + 0.57 Log (Waterborne Se) is a good predictor of the maximum potential for selenium bioaccumulation in avian eggs. Using eared grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) as an indicator species for bioaccumulation potential, the average absolute difference between observed and predicted mean selenium in eggs was only 6 percent for test cases at waterborne concentrations of 2.8, 15, 126, 176 p/b (total recoverable) selenium. Various estimates of biologically important thresholds indicate that it would be prudent to consider drainage water with 3 to 20 p/b selenium as peripherally hazardous to aquatic birds (i.e., hazardous to some species under some environmental conditions) and drainage water with more than 20 p/b selenium as widely hazardous to aquatic birds (i.e., hazardous to most species under most environmental conditions). To prevent most avian toxicity, a reasonable goal for chemical or biological decontamination technologies would be concentrations of waterborne selenium < 10 p/b. Likewise, to minimize avian contamination, a reasonable goal of purity would be waterborne selenium < 2.3 p/b. When these water standards are technically or financially unattainable, actions to significantly reduce avian use of contaminated drainage water are necessary.

Understanding long-term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change.

Understanding the causes of population declines often involves comprehending a complex set of interactions linking environmental and biotic changes, which in combination overwhelm a populations ability to persist. To understand these relationships, especially for long-lived large mammals, long-term data are required, but rarely available. Here we use 26-36 years of population and habitat data to determine the potential causes of group density changes for five species of primates in Kibale National Park, Uganda, in areas that were disturbed to varying intensities in the late 1960s. We calculated group density from line transect data and quantified changes in habitat structure (cumulative diameter at breast height [dbh] and food availability [cumulative dbh of food trees]) for each primate species, and for one species, we evaluated change in food nutritional quality. We found that mangabeys and black-and-white colobus group density increased, blue monkeys declined, and redtails and red colobus were stable in all areas. For blue monkeys and mangabeys, there were no significant changes in food availability over time, yet their group density changed. For redtails, neither group density measures nor food availability changed over time. For black-and-white colobus, a decrease in food availability over time in the unlogged forest surprisingly coincided with an increase in group density. Finally, while red colobus food availability and quality increased over time in the heavily logged area, their group density was stable in all areas. We suggest that these populations are in nonequilibrium states. If such states occur frequently, it suggests that large protected areas will be required to protect species so that declines in some areas can be compensated for by increases in adjacent areas with different histories.

Wildlife and the Coal Waste Policy Debate: Proposed Rules for Coal Waste Disposal Ignore Lessons from 45 Years of Wildlife Poisoning

This analysis examines wildlife poisoning from coal combustion waste (CCW) in the context of EPAs proposed policy that would allow continued use of surface impoundments as a disposal method. Data from 21 confirmed damage sites were evaluated, ranging from locations where historic poisoning has led to corrective actions that have greatly improved environmental conditions to those where contamination has just recently been discovered and the level of ecological impacts has yet to be determined. The combined direct and indirect cost of poisoned fish and wildlife exceeds

Technical issues affecting the implementation of US environmental protection agency's proposed fish tissue-based aquatic criterion for selenium

2.3 billion, which is enough money to construct 155 landfills with state-of-the-art composite liners and leachate collection systems. This cost is projected to increase by an additional

Beware Missing Data And Undernourished Statistical Models: Comment On Fairbrother et al.'s Critical Evaluation

3.85 billion over the next 50 years, an amount that would construct 257 landfills. Evidence revealed through this study indicates the following: (1) for the past 45 years, environmental damage has been a recurring theme with surface impoundment of CCW, (2) the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System has not been effective in preventing serious environmental damage from CCW, (3) EPAs Regulatory Impact Analysis of the costs and benefits of pollution control options fails to include benefits of avoided damages to natural resources, specifically, poisoned fish and wildlife, and (4) surface impoundments pose unacceptably high ecological risks regardless of location or design. Regulators should no longer ignore rigorous science and the lessons from multiple case examples. EPA and the United States need to show leadership on this issue by prohibiting surface impoundments, particularly since the rise in coal use in developing countries is leading to the same CCW pollution problems on a global scale.

Long-term effects of logging on African primate communities : a 28-year comparison from Kibale National Park, Uganda

ABSTRACT The US Environmental Protection Agency is developing a national water quality criterion for selenium that is based on concentrations of the element in fish tissue. Although this approach offers advantages over the current water-based regulations, it also presents new challenges with respect to implementation. A comprehensive protocol that answers the “what, where, and when” is essential with the new tissue-based approach in order to ensure proper acquisition of data that apply to the criterion. Dischargers will need to understand selenium transport, cycling, and bioaccumulation in order to effectively monitor for the criterion and, if necessary, develop site-specific standards. This paper discusses 11 key issues that affect the implementation of a tissue-based criterion, ranging from the selection of fish species to the importance of hydrological units in the sampling design. It also outlines a strategy that incorporates both water column and tissue-based approaches. A national generic safety-net water criterion could be combined with a fish tissue–based criterion for site-specific implementation. For the majority of waters nationwide, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permitting and other activities associated with the Clean Water Act could continue without the increased expense of sampling and interpreting biological materials. Dischargers would do biotic sampling intermittently (not a routine monitoring burden) on fish tissue relative to the fish tissue criterion. Only when the fish tissue criterion is exceeded would a full site-specific analysis including development of intermedia translation factors be necessary.

Sublethal effects in avocet and stilt hatchlings from selenium-contaminated sites

Editors’ Note: This letter follows from prepublication circulation by the editors to interested parties of the papers in this volume. It is clear from this letter and the papers, that selenium is an extremely controversial subject. It is equally clear that the issues raised in this letter and other contentious issues will only be resolved by well-designed studies that, ideally, are endorsed by key scientists on both “sides” of the issues. We hope that publishing these papers, this letter, and any subsequent letters will assist in the resolution of outstanding issues.