PARTICIPATION DECISIONS, ANGLER WELFARE, AND THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SPORTFISHING

We link a stochastic binary choice model of individual decisions to participate in the marine sport fisheries in Cook Inlet, Alaska, with a simulation- based sample enumeration procedure for aggregating estimates of individual angler welfare and a regionally adjusted zip code-level input-output model of regional economic activity. The result is a behaviorally based model for predicting changes in angler welfare and regional economic activity occasioned by changes in the demand for sportfishing that arise from changes in trip costs or the expected number, size, or mix of species caught. The advantages of this approach are that: changes in angler participation are determined by variables that are observable, predictable, or subject to management control; participation reflects declining marginal utility, and substitution and complementary effects across trip attributes; estimates of changes in aggregate angler welfare and changes in regional economic impacts are derived from changes in individual participation probabilities.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Sprinkler Application of SO2 - Treated Groundwater at the Sandarosa Farm, Snowville, Utah

Sulfur is recognized as one of the essential elements for plant growth. It has also been used in agriculture for reclamation of saline and sodic soils. During the reclamation process there is the potential benefit of increased availability of phosphorus and certain micro-nutrients for plant uptake. There is also potential for increased infiltration thus increasing water utilization efficiency. Sulfur has been applied to soils in a flake or nodule form, by the addition of sulfuric acid and most recently by the application of sulfurous acid. The raw sulfur addition technique is accomplished by spreading raw sulfur on the soil and under the appropriate temperature, soil moisture, pH and aerobic conditions, microorganisms oxidize the sulfur to sulfate. This process is rather slow except under some very limited optimal conditions. Sulfuric acid has been used under a variety of conditions but seems to be limited due to its hazardous nature and corrosive properties. The sulfurous acid technique seems to have the most promising future as the best and most appropriate technique of sulfur addition. Raw sulfur is burned on site and administered into the irrigation water as needed according to the soil, water and crop conditions. This project was initiated to evaluate the application and beneficial effects of sulfurous acid (using an International Environmental Inc. Model 150 sulfur burner) to an alkaline soil using barley as the test crop

Field-Scale Evaluation of Biological Uranium Reduction and Reoxidation in the Near-Source Zone at the NABIR Field Research Center in Oak Ridge, TN

We have now added ethanol intermittently for over 700 days. Ethanol has been added weekly with each injection lasting for a few days. We are now observing: (1) Uranium immobilization at 700-2000 mg/kg. Baseline levels before remediation were 30-500 mg/kg. (2) Uranium concentrations in groundwater at the monitoring wells have fallen below the U.S. drinking water standard (30 ppb). This is an important milestone. (3) XANES analyses for day 535 indicate 51% U(IV) at the inner loop injection well, 35% U(IV) at MLS well 101-2, and 28% U(IV) at the extraction well. These numbers indicate that U(IV) reduction is not localized to the injection well, and is spreading through the aquifer. (4) We have had success removing trace levels of oxygen from recirculated water by addition of sulfite and related compounds. These compounds also provide the added benefit that in removing oxygen that themselves are oxidized to sulfate, an important electron acceptor needed for maintenance of our system

Field-Scale Evaluation of Biostimulation for Remediation of Uranium-Contaminated Groundwater at a Proposed NABIR Field Research Center in Oak Ridge, TN

A hydrologic, geochemical and microbial characterization of the Area 3 field site has been completed. The formation is fairly impermeable, but there is a region of adequate flow approximately 50 feet bgs. The experiment will be undertaken within that depth interval. Groundwater from that depth is highly acidic (pH 3.2), and has high levels of nitrate, aluminum, uranium, and other heavy metals, as well as volatile chlorinated solvents (VOCs). Accordingly, an aboveground treatment train has been designed to remove these contaminants. The train consists of a vacuum stripper to remove VOCs, two chemical precipitation steps to adjust pH and remove metals, and a fluidized bed bioreactor to remove nitrate. The aboveground system will be coupled to a belowground recirculation system. The belowground system will contain an outer recirculation cell and a nested inner recirculation cell: the outer cells will be continuously flushed with nitrate-free treated groundwater. The inner cell will receive periodic inputs of uranium, tracer, and electron donor. Removal of uranium will be determined by comparing loss rates of conservative tracer and uranium within the inner recirculation cell. Over the past year, a detailed workplan was developed and submitted for regulatory approval. The workplan was presented to the Field Research Advisory Panel (FRAP), and after some extensive revision, the FRAP authorized implementation. Detailed design drawings and numerical simulations of proposed experiments have been prepared. System components are being prefabricated as skid-mounted units in Michigan and will be shipped to Oak Ridge for assembly. One manuscript has been submitted to a peer reviewed journal. This paper describes a novel technique for inferring subsurface hydraulic conductivity values. Two posters on this project were presented at the March 2002 NABIR PI meeting. One poster was presented at the Annual conference of the American Society for Microbiology in Salt Lake City, UT in May 2002

Regional Distribution of Mesospheric Small‐Scale Gravity Waves During DEEPWAVE

The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment project took place in June and July 2014 in New Zealand. Its overarching goal was to study gravity waves (GWs) as they propagate from the ground up to ~100 km, with a large number of ground‐based, airborne, and satellite instruments, combined with numerical forecast models. A suite of three mesospheric airglow imagers operated onboard the NSF Gulfstream V (GV) aircraft during 25 nighttime flights, recording the GW activity at OH altitude over a large region (\u3e7,000,000 km2). Analysis of this data set reveals the distribution of the small‐scale GW mean power and direction of propagation. GW activity occurred everywhere and during every flight, even over open oceans with no neighboring tropospheric sources. Over the mountainous regions (New Zealand, Tasmania, isolated islands), mean power reached high values (more than 100 times larger than over the waters), but with a considerable variability. This variability existed from day to day over the same region, but even during the same flight, depending on forcing strength and on the middle atmosphere conditions. Results reveal a strong correlation between tropospheric sources, satellite stratospheric measurements, and mesosphere lower thermosphere airglow observations. The large‐amplitude GWs only account for a small amount of the total (~6%), even though they carry the most momentum and energy. The weaker wave activity measured over the oceans might originate from distance sources (polar vortex, weather fronts), implying that a ducted mechanism helped for their long range propagation

Addressing the Issue of Microplastics in the Wake of the Microbead-Free Waters Act - A New Standard Can Facilitate Improved Policy

The United States Microbead-Free Waters Act was signed into law in December 2015. It is a bipartisan agreement that will eliminate one preventable source of microplastic pollution in the United States. Still, the bill is criticized for being too limited in scope, and also for discouraging the development of biodegradable alternatives that ultimately are needed to solve the bigger issue of plastics in the environment. Due to a lack of an acknowledged, appropriate standard for environmentally safe microplastics, the bill banned all plastic microbeads in selected cosmetic products. Here, we review the history of the legislation and how it relates to the issue of microplastic pollution in general, and we suggest a framework for a standard (which we call “Ecocyclable”) that includes relative requirements related to toxicity, bioaccumulation, and degradation/assimilation into the natural carbon cycle. We suggest that such a standard will facilitate future regulation and legislation to reduce pollution while also encouraging innovation of sustainable technologies

An Economic Discussion of the Marine Sport Fisheries in Central and Lower Cook Inlet

This paper reports on the valuation of the marine halibut and salmon sport fishery of central and lower Cook Inlet, Alaska. The project was designed to simulate changes in economic value and regional economic impacts for environmental analysis but has also been used in fishery allocation management. This study develops a predictive model of participation rate changes for estimation of net benefits to anglers and links the resulting demand function to a regional input-output model for determining expenditure-based impacts of marine sportfishing to the Kenai Peninsula economy. The participation rate model is driven by changes in mean sport fishery attributes such as the expected catch rate and weight for various species as well as the average cost of a fishing day. The total estimated new money brought into the Kenai Peninsula as a result of 259,615 saltwater angler days in central and lower Cook Inlet was $37.4 million in 1997, and the total compensating variation,$25.4 million. Simulations involving changes to sportfishing trip attributes from a 1997 baseline trip are examined and reported in the paper.Keywords: sportfishing, halibut, participation-rate, charter, impact analysis, consumer surplus