Welcome to the special March 2006 edition of the Environmental Research Update!
This newsletter is normally published once a year in June, but since the last issue a number of research projects
have been completed and approved, and the Program issued its first Request for Proposals since 2003! In this special,
extra issue of the Environmental Research Update, we bring some exciting new project results, and the announcement
of new project grant awards.
All photos in this newsletter were submitted in the July-September Quarterly Report for the WDNR research project
"Changes in Biodiversity in Selected Natural Communities," Craig Anderson, Principal Investigator.
NEW GRANT AWARDS
During 2005, the Environmental Research Program issued a Request for Proposals in the amount of $175,000 for new
research projects. The Program received a total of five proposals, and we are pleased to announce that two were
selected for funding:
$45,000 - The
Impact of Sustainable Forest Management on Long-Term Biomass Production and Forest Health: The state of the science
Principal Investigator: Susan Tikalsky, Resource Strategies, Inc.
tikalsky@rs-inc.com, Madison, WI
$109,026 - Modeling the Effects of Forest Management Decisions on Carbon Sequestration
Principal Investigator: Dr. Stith T. Gower, UW-Madison
NEW RESEARCH REPORTS PUBLISHED
We're pleased to announce publication of the final reports for six new research projects.
Lichen Bioaccumulation and Bioindicator Study near Alliant Energy WPL Columbia Energy Center
Principal Investigator: Susan Will-Wolf, Dept of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lichens are actually algae and fungi living together to form symbiotic communities. They are known worldwide as
excellent indicators of air pollution effects. Tolerant lichens accumulate pollutants in their tissues and sensitive
lichens decline with pollution, thus changing lichen community composition. Forest lichen communities are also studied
to determine the general conditions in their ecosystem, which vary with the general environment and with the tree
species composition of the forest.
For this project, researcher Susan Will-Wolf and DNR collaborator Martha Makholm returned to sites Will-Wolf studied in
1974 and 1978 where she had surveyed forest lichen communities to assess the impact of the Alliant Columbia coal-fired
electric power generating facility built in 1975 near Portage, Wisconsin. In 2003, her team repeated the surveys to
assess the long-term impact of the facility on these lichen communities.
Objectives for the new project included mathematical modeling of modern and historical concentrations of SO2 from the
Alliant Columbia Facility pollution point source (DNR collaborator John Roth), measurement of lichen species presence
and abundance in communities, and measurement of mercury, sulfur, and heavy metals concentrations in tissue of selected
lichen species at most of those same sites. This project provided the opportunity to assess long-term impact of pollution
from Columbia on nearby lichen communities, assess long-term changes at "background" sites farther from the facility,
and evaluate biological responses in light of relative pollution levels indicated by modeling and lichen tissue element
concentrations.
The team found that the Alliant Columbia Facility did contribute to higher sulfur levels in the lichen communities.
However, the same was not true for mercury levels. This study of lichens suggests that most mercury from Columbia probably
goes into long-distance transport rather than directly impacting the local area. The study also suggests that changes
in the forests themselves have a greater contribution than Columbia's pollution to changes in the species mix of these
lichen communities from the 1970s to today.
Measuring Vertical Fluxes of Gaseous Elemental Mercury in Wisconsin
Principal Investigator: Mark Allen, Bureau of Air Management, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Increasing mercury concentrations in the environment have resulted in concern for fish- eating animals and humans. Fish
consumption advisories for mercury are now common place. Most of the mercury in lakes and rivers originates in emissions
to the air. Efforts to reduce the mercury in the environment will first require a better understanding of how mercury
moves from the point of emission to the point of impact. The better we understand this the easier it will be to create
models for predicting how mercury travels and collects. The computer models can then be used to test control strategies.
Most pollution monitoring has focused on measuring pollutants traveling horizontally with the prevailing winds, to find
the compass direction of the pollution source. This new project looks at improving our knowledge of the vertical (up and
down) movement of mercury, or mercury flux. Mercury flux is a measure of the net difference between the up and down mercury
movement at the monitoring site.
The mercury flux study confirmed previous research that found ambient mercury concentrations to be positively correlated
with both solar radiation and wind speed. The study also detected sizable mercury levels near the surface when vertical
air currents were rising. This finding suggests that other previous findings (mercury being re-emitted from the surface
soils) are sometimes evident in Wisconsin. The authors believe further monitoring is necessary to test this hypothesis.
The study also provided an initial database of measurements of both mercury concentrations and three dimensional winds
upon which to design and conduct future mercury flux studies.
Analysis of Fin Clips: Evaluation as a Non-lethal Method for Monitoring Mercury in Fish
Principal Investigators: Kristofer R. Rolfhus, Mark B. Sandheinrich and James G. Weiner, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse,
River Studies Center
Existing approaches for monitoring mercury content in sport fishes involve the dissection of sampled fish and the subsequent
analysis of axial muscle tissue or edible filets. The purpose of this new study was to determine if an alternative, non-lethal,
non-invasive sampling technique would yield accurate results. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse River
Studies Center examined whether analysis of methylmercury in a pelvic fin clip is a suitable substitute for the determination
of total mercury content in filets.
The researchers evaluated and compared fin and filet tissue from northern pike and walleye, two popular game fish. They
collected samples from 16 lakes in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota. Linear regression was used to determine the
relation between concentrations of mercury in pelvic fins and filets. The slopes of the regression equations were compared
to determine if the relations were constant among lakes and fish species, and to evaluate the utility of pelvic fins in
the determination of total mercury content in resident sport fish.
Findings indicate the fin clip technique is potentially useful for identifying lakes where fish are close to the advisory
guideline. Fin clip analysis is a promising technique, particularly for testing endangered species and for making mercury
monitoring in fish populations easier and more economical.
Mercury in Power Plant Combustion Products
Principal Investigators: Ken Ladwig, Research Manager, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California
Efforts to develop environmentally friendly practices in one media can sometimes conflict with environmental protection of
another media, seemingly reducing the positive impact of both. Federal and state initiatives to reduce mercury in power plant
emissions were designed to benefit air quality and reduce deposition of mercury to lakes and streams, but an unintended
consequence may be increased potential for environmental impacts at fly ash landfills. In addition, these controls might make
recycling of coal-combustion products (CCPs) less acceptable, sending a considerably greater amount of material back to the
landfill.
Theoretically, mercury collected by more stringent air emissions controls before it left the stack would end up accumulating
in the fly ash left from combustion of the coal for electricity generation. Would this additional mercury content make the
ash unsafe to recycle in concrete and road building materials? Would it leach out to pollute the soil and ground water? Would
the mercury interact with other pollutants in the ash making it more volatile? Clearly, it is important to understand the
fate of the mercury captured in CCPs, so that appropriate management steps can be taken to ensure that new problems are not
created by transferring the mercury from one media to another.
The goal of this project was to establish mercury concentrations in field leachates at CCP sites in Wisconsin, evaluate
mercury leaching in the presence of ammonia from NOx control technologies, and develop laboratory data on volatilization of
mercury from fly ash samples. This was accomplished by collecting solid ash samples from power plants and field leachates
from CCP landfills. The samples were analyzed for total mercury concentration, volatilization, and speciation of dissolved
mercury. The overall results suggest that mercury is stable with respect to leaching and volatilization in the fly ash
currently produced.
This study suggests that two emission control strategies (activated carbon injection or ACI and ammonia addition for NOx
control) produce flyash that has very low potential to increase mercury leaching. Thus even with anticipated additional
emission controls in Wisconsin's power plants, the combustion products will be generally chemically stable and mercury release
very low, presenting little threat of impacts to ground water.
Toxicity of Secondary Coal Combustion Emissions in Wisconsin
Principal Investigators: Dr. Annette Rohr, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); Dr. Petros Koutrakis, Harvard School
of Public Health; Dr. John Godleski, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health
An important form of pollution is particulate matter suspended in the air. "Fine particulate matter" (PM2.5) is the category
of particles smaller than 2.5 microns that is of particular concern for certain health and environmental reasons. Fine particulate
matter is a complex mixture of materials from a number of emissions sources. Some PM is "primary", emitted directly by traffic,
industrial operations, and other sources. "Secondary" particles form through complex reactions between certain gaseous pollutants
with other substances in the atmosphere.
Dr. Rohr's project expands our knowledge of particulate sources and components responsible for adverse health effects,
specifically as these relate to the type of coal burned by power plants in Wisconsin. The project involves exposing laboratory
rats via inhalation to atmospherically transformed power plant and mobile source emissions at PM concentrations well above
ambient levels, to help determine the relative toxicity of these PM sources.
This project is important because it evaluates secondary particles from coal-fired power plants. Past studies of coal
combustion-derived PM have focused on examining the toxicity of primary PM emissions. However, the installation of control
measures on power plants in the United States has resulted in a dramatic decrease in emissions of this material. This research
examines the toxicity of the secondary particles that form downwind of power plants from the oxidation of sulfur dioxide
(SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), and provides insight into the effects of atmospheric conditions on the formation and toxicity
of secondary particles by simulating different atmospheric conditions.
The research uses a novel and innovative experimental design. Project researchers needed to develop new experimental techniques
for this study in order to be certain they were recreating real-life atmospheric conditions as closely as possible. This involved
development of reaction chambers in which "aging" of emissions was carried out. Rats were exposed to these emissions, and the
effects on their heart and lung tissue and functioning was studied.
No adverse effects were observed in the rats exposed to plant emissions. This suggests that emissions from this type of plant,
burning this type of coal, may have a low impact on human health. However, we cannot generalize these findings to other plants
with different configurations and fuel types.
This project is part of a larger research effort, TERESA (Toxicological Evaluation of Realistic Emissions of Source Aerosols).
TERESA includes fieldwork and assessment of health effects at three power plants in different parts of the country that burn
different types of coal. A second component of the project will assess the toxicity of mobile source emissions (traffic emissions),
and will be funded from other sources (Harvard-EPA Particulate Matter Research Center).
Population-Based Methylmercury Exposure Assessment
Principal Investigators: Lynda Knobeloch, Research and Toxicology Supervisor; Henry Anderson, Chief Medical Officer; Wisconsin
Department of Health and Family Services, Division of Public Health, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health
Fishing is a popular pastime in Wisconsin and many people enjoy eating the fish they catch in lakes and rivers around the state.
However, eating large amounts of fish could mean ingesting high levels of mercury, a heavy metal that can affect the nervous
system. The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services works with the Department of Natural Resources to develop the
fish consumption guidelines for locally-caught fish. These Departments continue to refine their knowledge of how much fish
people eat and how often they do so. This new study was designed to evaluate fish consumption patterns and mercury body burdens
among a representative cross section of Wisconsin's adult population.
Dr. Knobeloch's study identifies subpopulations in Wisconsin that consume fish several times a week and populations that had
elevated levels of mercury in their bodies. More than 2,000 volunteers completed questionnaires and provided hair samples for
analysis. Comparison of hair mercury levels with the types and quantities of fish they consumed provides important information
on dietary exposure to methylmercury.
With the subjects studied, mercury levels exceeded the guideline value of 1 ppm in 29% of the men and 13% of the women. The
guideline is set by EPA, as a benchmark to protect the developing nervous system. While most mercury health advisories focus
on child-bearing women, this study suggests that mercury from fish consumption is a concern for men as well.
