UT to House National Center
for Environmental Research

by David Brill

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment (JIEE), a research consortium comprising Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and The University of Tennessee (UT), to direct its National Center for Environmental Decision-Making Research (NCEDR). The center will be housed at UT.

JIEE was selected from among 23 candidate institutions that submitted proposals in a highly competitive solicitation process. NCEDR will provide decision makers principally at the local, regional, and state levels with tools and information they need to address complex environmental problems.

The center, which became operational this fall, was established for an initial five-year period with an annual budget of $1 million from NSF. It will receive additional funding from TVA, UT, and ORNL. Milton Russell, JIEE director and former EPA assistant administrator, will serve as NCEDR's director.

"The rationale for the center is that state and local officials are on the 'firing line' of environmental decision making," Russell says.

"Increasingly, these men and women are being asked to render decisions on contentious environmental issues that require analysis and information not always readily available to them."

For instance, says Russell, many techniques that can help in making decisions--such as cost-benefit analyses--can consume hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to complete.

"Local governments trying to site a county landfill, for example, don't have that much money or time," he says. "Among our other tasks, we will help develop simpler, faster, and cheaper decision-making techniques that are accessible to local, state, and regional officials."

While helping facilitate sound environmental decision making nationwide, NCEDR will bring added prestige to JIEE's collaborating organizations while showcasing their research competencies.

"The NSF's decision to place the nation's premier environmental decision-making research center here illustrates the excellence of the collaborative research efforts among UT, ORNL, and TVA," says UT-Knoxville Chancellor Bill Snyder.

NCEDR's information and guidance for decision makers will derive from its four complementary tasks.

The first task involves analysis of the processes that influence environmental decisions. Many environmental decisions are made in an atmosphere of conflict, and social scientists have long explored the motivations--including stress, economic differences, and differences in political beliefs--that fuel those conflicts.

The center will attempt to synthesize and distill past research into a simple and practical form that's useful to contemporary environmental decision makers.

Bruce Tonn, leader of ORNL's Policy Analysis Systems Group, will co-direct this component with Cheryl Travis, professor and acting head of UT's department of psychology.

NCEDR's second task will examine case studies of decisions being made in response to pressing environmental problems. Initially, the center will focus on three case studies: remediation of hazardous-waste sites, regional management of unhealthy ozone levels, and balancing economic and environmental goals within a restructured electric utility industry.

"These case studies will be used as diagnostic tools," says David Feldman, a senior research associate with UT's Energy, Environment, and Resources Center. "From them, decision makers can glean lessons that are applicable to other environmental issues."

Feldman will co-direct the case-studies component with John Joslin, an environmental scientist with TVA's Atmospheric Science Department.

The third task involves developing a "toolkit," a set of techniques that decision makers can use in shaping their environmental decisions.

The toolkit will contain information on social-science techniques-- including, among other things, how to conduct focus groups and surveys--for eliciting stakeholder attitudes regarding environmental issues. It will also contain information on how decision makers can use risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the likely outcomes of their decisions.

Virginia Dale, associate director of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division, will co-direct the toolkit component with EERC Associate Director Mary English.

The fourth task will involve the creation of a national infrastructure through which environmental decision makers can gain access to data bases and other sources of information on the environment.

ORNL Senior Researcher Jerome Dobson will co-direct the information component with Jack Dongarra, a UT distinguished professor in mathematical science and a collaborating ORNL scientist.

Another of NCEDR's components, and one in line with the center's overarching mission of outreach, will involve gathering data, processing it, and feeding it back to the center's clients through workshops, publications, teleconferences, residency programs, and national conferences and symposia. Through these programs, NCEDR will remain responsive to the needs of environmental decision makers.

The outreach component will be directed by the center's deputy director, a position that has yet to be filled. NCEDR is conducting a national search for candidates to fill the post.

The center will also host twice-monthly seminars that explore new research arenas, open on-going research projects to input and discussion, and feature presentations by visiting scholars.

The center will assemble a 16- member External Advisory Board by January and will launch its first research projects shortly thereafter.

For more information, contact Patty Nugent, The University of Tennessee, JIEE, 314 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call (423) 974-3939.

UT's Clean Products Center
Earns Major New EPA Grants

by Lori Phan

The University of Tennessee's (UT's) Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies (CCPCT), an affiliate of UT's Waste Management Research and Education Institute, recently acquired over $700,000 in grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to explore cleaner products and production technologies.

Four of the five grants were awarded for research in support of EPA's Environmental Technology Initiative (ETI), a 1994 program launched by the Clinton administration to boost U.S. competitiveness in the area of environmental technology.

The recent CCPCT grants include the following:

CCPCT will use a $450,000 ETI grant--which will be matched by a $200,000 grant from carmaker Saturn Corporation--to examine designs for automobiles.

"The project will provide a tool to the automotive industry for identification of new car designs that can reduce automobiles' overall environmental impacts while meeting such other criteria as safety, cost, appearance, and performance," says Gary Davis, CCPCT director.

CCPCT will use a $100,000 ETI grant from the EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE) program to provide the flexography sector of the printing industry with information on cleaner technologies. Flexography is used to print labels and lettering on such flexible packages as potato chip bags. CCPCT researchers will examine the inks used and how they adhere to various packaging materials.

Researchers will weigh the performance and cost of current flexographic printing practices against the associated risk to human health and environment. CCPCT will also develop an Internet site to transfer information on cleaner technologies to the printing industry.

CCPCT will use an $80,000 ETI grant to develop a streamlined methodology that will allow business owners and trade associations to assess the cost, risk, performance, and environmental impacts of their products and services.

CCPCT has already developed a detailed technical manual for the EPA offering guidance on how to assess cleaner technology substitutes. Researchers will use this grant to simplify the assessment procedure so that it can be used more easily by businesses interested in reducing both the costs and environmental impacts of production.

CCPCT and partner Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will use a $47,500 ETI grant to enhance the transfer of clean technologies between Western Europe, a pioneer in the development of new technologies, and the United States.

CCPCT will also receive a $70,000 grant from EPA's Office of Solid Waste to compile case studies of industries in the United States that have voluntarily adopted the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to reduce nonhazardous solid waste.

EPR is an emerging principle that encourages companies to take greater responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products throughout the products' entire life-cycles, beginning with resource extraction and ending with disposal.

The research will culminate with a report on the case studies, a survey of EPR-based policies worldwide, and a one-day symposium exploring successful EPR-based strategies.

For more information, contact Gary Davis or Lori Kincaid, The University of Tennessee, CCPCT, 311 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call 865-974-4251.

From Waste to Kilowatts

Discarded plant stalks and rubber trees may hold the key to
increased electricity production for China's Yunnan Province.

by Lori Phan

Although most of China is powered by coal, the Yunnan Province, located along the nation's southwestern border, currently relies mainly on hydro-electric power.

During the region's six-month rainy season there is more than ample electricity. During the remaining six months, however, which are marked by long, dry periods, many of the province's residents and businesses can depend on only two hours of electricity per day.

Researchers from the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment (JIEE), a research consortium comprising Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and The University of Tennessee (UT), have joined with community leaders of the Yunnan Province to explore options for boosting its less-than-reliable power production system.

After conducting several feasibility studies, the Chinese and American team fixed on a solution that will use plant waste products known as biomass to produce energy.

Biomass, one of many fuels for electrical power production, is based on a process that burns matter from trees, grasses, or plants to boil water, which in turn creates steam to turn power-generating turbines.

This past summer, a JIEE-sponsored workshop united seven energy and policy officials from Yunnan with representatives from several U.S. companies interested in energy production--including General Motors, Westinghouse, and Bechtel. The team discussed potential investment opportunities involving construction of biomass-fired power plants in the province.

In the spring of 1996, JIEE will organize a follow-up trip to the Yunnan Province for interested U.S. investors. The group hopes to visit some of the more promising biomass energy sites, negotiate terms of the investment agreements, and sign contracts. The construction process might begin as early as winter of 1996.

According to Jack Ranney, JIEE assistant director, Yunnan boasts the right conditions for power production through use of biomass.

"Using biomass to produce electricity makes sense for this region for several reasons," he says. "There's a market for the electricity, it reduces the hazardous environmental effects of burning coal, and the cost of production is low because the materials are in abundance."

China's Yunnan Province has, or is developing, vast quantities of biomass materials. Consider, for instance, that rubber plantation owners in Yunnan cut down their trees and plant new ones once the trees' productive capacities have been exhausted after about 30 years.

The unproductive trees would normally be cut and discarded. Once the new power plants become operational, plantation owners will recycle this waste by using it as fuel for biomass energy.

Sugar cane, which is grown in abundance in Yunnan, also offers potential for energy production. Rather than discarding the cane-stalk waste (called bagasse) after the sugar has been extracted, members of the Yunnan community hope to recycle it, turning a "mass" of debris into power.

Plans are already underway to supplement this material with wood from eucalyptus tree plantations specifically cultivated to provide fuel for energy. The wood from these plantations will be cut without harming the roots, from which new eucalyptus trees will sprout.

The Yunnan Province has chosen a local sugar mill and a rubber tree plantation as two biomass sites, and they hope the biomass power plants will be operational in 1997.

Once the plants begin to operate, they may burn as many as 400 tons per day of pulverized rubber trees and cane bagasse.

Beyond extending the supply of electricity for the region's homes, project organizers expect that use of biomass will also spur development of local industries, which are currently struggling to stay afloat on two hours of electricity per day during the dry season.

"The shortage of electricity has hindered the economic, social, and cultural development of Yunnan," says Guo Huiguang, director of the Yunnan Environmental Research Institute. "This project will help our industries and economy grow, supply employment, increase local government revenue, and bring more advanced technology to Yunnan."

As well as biomass will work for Yunnan, it's unlikely that the concept will sweep across China's other regions, which are gaining access to the nation's expanding central power grid.

Though power from China's central grid is cheaper than power from biomass, some regions, like parts of Yunnan Province, are too remotely situated to tap into the main grid and must rely on other means of power production.

Biomass power is often more expensive than electricity from coal facilities in regions where coal is available and transmission lines exist, but it remains a desirable option in rural areas where coal power or hydro-electric power is too expensive or not available. And while biomass power plants do emit nitrogen oxides just as coal facilities do, net emissions of most other gases are much lower. As a consequence, biomass energy poses significantly fewer environmental impacts than coal-fired plants.

"Despite its limitations, biomass can provide an efficient and affordable source for electrical power for regions with few other options," says Ranney. "In that sense, it's well suited to Yunnan."

For more information, contact Jack Ranney, The University of Tennessee, JIEE, 314 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call 865-974-3939.

Valuing Life and Death

UT and ORNL researchers assess the worth--in terms of dollars
and cents--of one of our nation's premier public-health agencies .

by Lori Phan

Since being established in 1980, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has been assigned the task of protecting the public from hazardous wastes.

Ironically, although ATSDR has long cast its gaze outward in the interest of safeguarding the well-being of American citizens, it now finds itself involved in a process of self-assessment aimed at determining the effectiveness of its own programs.

And a team of researchers from The University of Tennessee's (UT's) Energy, Environment, and Resources Center (EERC) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is lending a hand. The team was assembled by the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment, a research consortium comprising ORNL, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and UT.

ATSDR's assessment comes in response to the agency's desire to boost its effectiveness perhaps not coincidentally at a time when more and more federal programs are facing the budget axe.

ATSDR, an affiliate of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was created by Superfund legislation, which mandates and provides funding for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites around the country.

Among other activities, ATSDR sponsors public-health education campaigns that reach out to physicians and their patients living in pollution-plagued areas. The agency also investigates the link between toxic substances and a variety of health problems, including birth defects and reproductive disorders, cancer, strokes, immune-system disorders, kidney and liver dysfunction, and lung and respiratory diseases.

These and other health problems can be caused by exposure to substances commonly found at hazardous waste sites, including lead, mercury, dioxins, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

An estimated 40 million people live within a four-mile radius of the nation's hazardous sites, and exposure to the toxins can result from eating contaminated wildlife or fish, drinking contaminated water, or playing on contaminated soil, among other things.

The seven-member research coalition, which is drawn from ORNL and UT, boasts skills in risk assessment, public health, and economics. Together, team members will assess ATSDR's potential for saving lives and preventing the adverse health effects associated with exposure to hazardous materials. Ultimately, the team will attempt to attach a dollar value to the agency's myriad services.

Placing a dollar value on life and health is a complex task, but it's one that's not without precedent.

"In the past, researchers have attached monetary value to environmental quality and human health," says Ralph Perhac, an EERC research associate and part of the research team. "But ATSDR's attempt to attach a dollar value to its services--in effect, to assess what the agency is worth--is both unique and challenging."

For the first stage of the project, which was completed this past summer, the team examined data on approximately 2 million people living within a half-mile radius of some of the nation's more hazardous sites. The team drew data from the extensive databases maintained by ATSDR and found increased incidences of strokes, diabetes, urinary-tract disorders, and birth defects.

"Collectively, these effects represent what we refer to as the increased 'health burden' potentially associated with toxic sites," says Perhac. "ATSDR's programs seek to reduce this burden."

Once they had determined the number of excess illnesses at these sites, Perhac and his colleagues estimated the medical costs and lost wages associated with these health conditions. From there, the team attached a dollar figure to the health burden at these sites, which may be attributable in part to toxic substances.

This fall, the team began the second phase of the project, which involves studying ATSDR's impact in reducing these "health burdens" by preventing diseases, deaths, and lost wages. From there, the agency will be able to gauge the monetary value of its programs.

Here's how the process might work: The team estimated that in a given year there are about 10,700 excess cases of diabetes among the 2 million people living within a half mile of sites on the Superfund National Priority List that are likely to expose the human population to VOC contamination.

The group then compiled data on the cost of having diabetes in terms of reduced life expectancy, lost wages, and cost of medical care. The group determined the cost to be about $10,000 for the average diabetes patient over a lifetime.

After the research team establishes the impact of ATSDR's programs in terms of reducing the incidence of diabetes, the agency will be able to report the effectiveness of its programs in financial terms.

For instance, let's say ATSDR programs reduced excess incidence of diabetes by 10 percent by alerting the population surrounding a toxic site to the dangers of drinking VOC-contaminated water, the main avenue of human VOC toxicity at these sites. Ten percent of the 10,700 excess cases of diabetes is 1,070.

ATSDR would then multiply 1,070 prevented diabetes cases by $10,000 (the amount saved by each case of diabetes prevented) and arrive at a figure of $10.7 million saved. In this case, ATSDR's public-health program aimed at curbing VOC contamination of the population surrounding Superfund sites would have been valued at $10.7 million in a single year for the prevention of diabetes.

Unfortunately, says Perhac, the science isn't entirely clear on the cause of these excess illnesses, mainly because of the possible influence of "confounding factors."

Confounding factors are other conditions present in the area surrounding a toxic site that might cause or contribute to the increase in diabetes cases and other illnesses. The factors can include unhealthy lifestyle habits, poor nutrition, or exposure to other hazardous compounds. According to Perhac, ruling out these factors may be next to impossible.

"We will never be able to say with absolute certainty that the increased incidence of diabetes or other diseases is entirely caused by exposure to VOCs," he says. "But even if we can't say absolutely what is causing the illness, we can still alert populations to the fact that we have a public health problem. That in itself is worthwhile."

Eventually, says Perhac, the team will extend its assessment to include not only the value of ATSDR in terms of preventing physical ailments, deaths, and lost wages, but the emotional and psychological value of its services as well. According to Perhac, these values--including happiness and peace of mind--don't show up in financial transactions.

"When this project is completed we'll be able to look at the impacts in terms of dollars and cents of what ATSDR does and needs to do to protect public health," says David Brown, an environmental health scientist with ATSDR. "It will show us which activities are working well and will help us improve those that could be conducted more effectively."

The research team's assessment comes at a time when many programs face funding cuts and possible termination by Congress. ATSDR, for example, is the offspring of Superfund, which is currently being considered for reauthorization by Congress.

Sources in Washington claim that judgement day for ATSDR might arrive sooner rather than later: Some in the Senate are pushing to transfer ATSDR's services to the Environmental Protection Agency, which deals with the creation and enforcement of environmental legislation, not with public health.

Says Perhac, "Our findings could play a big part in the preservation of ATSDR should the agency's future come into question."

For more information, contact Ralph Perhac, The University of Tennessee, EERC, 311 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call 865-974-4251.

Conference Explores Future of U.S. Scrap Pile

This past August, the nation's burgeoning stockpile of radioactive wastes served as the focal point of a four-day conference sponsored by The University of Tennessee's (UT's) Energy, Environment, and Resources Center (EERC) and the Center for Risk Management at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

The conference, titled "Beneficial Reuse '95," drew more than 170 participants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy (DOE), the state of Tennessee, environmental groups, academia, and the private sector.

For the most part, conference participants explored prospects for contending with our nation's 1-million-ton heap of radioactive scrap metal. Much of it was left behind from weapons production during the Cold War.

According to Bruce Clemens, EERC senior research associate and conference organizer, the event accomplished several goals.

First, it afforded regulators, environmental groups, and other stakeholders the chance to share information regarding the beneficial reuse--or recycling--of radioactive materials.

Second, it allowed participants to explore health and environmental impacts associated with the reuse of hazardous materials and to discuss more effective management policies.

And third, the conference sought to identify and explore market opportunities for the treating and recycling of contaminated materials.

"This conference provided a rare opportunity for economists, health experts, site managers, environmental scientists, policy experts, and engineers to share their various perspectives on the scrap-metal crisis," says Clemens. "Too often, these experts work in relative isolation."

Next year's conference, which will be partially funded by EPA, will boast an expanded focus and will explore ways industry can improve its ability to detect radioactive scrap metals and avoid the spread of contamination.r

For more information, contact Bruce Clemens, The University of Tennessee, 311 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call 865-974-4251.

Staff Citings

Appointments

Catherine Wilt was elected to serve a two-year term on the National Recycling Coalition's (NRCS) board of directors. Wilt was elected to the post at the coalition's annual congress. Over the coming year, Wilt will serve as vice-chair of the NRC's Communication and Education Committee and work with NRC's Policy Research Committee.

Rosalyn McKeown-Ice was chosen president-elect by the Tennessee Environmental Education Association (TEEA) at its annual meeting. McKeown-Ice will serve as president-elect for two years before beginning her two-year term as president. Among the tasks McKeown-Ice expects to address during her tenure in office is support for the ongoing Tennessee Environmental Education Initiative.

Presentations

Don Alvic traveled to Rostock, Germany, to present a paper titled "Sustainability in Micronesia" to the International Conference of the von Thunen Society. Alvic's paper, which explored agriculture in Micronesia, suggested that historical farming practices--rather than modern farming techniques--represent the most sustainable form of agriculture for this and other island nations.

Awards

Oak Ridge National Laboratory: The First Fifty Years, co-written by Daniel Schaffer and Leland Johnson, won first place in the Washington EdPress Awards in the category technical publications.

Publications

David L. Feldman served as editor of the book The Energy Crisis: Unresolved Issues and Enduring Legacies, which will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press early in 1996. The book is based on a 1994 symposium held at The University of Tennessee.

CEB to Host Symposium

This spring, The University of Tennessee's Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) and the Waste Management Research and Education Institute will sponsor "Biotechnology in the Sustainable Environment."

The four-day symposium, scheduled for April 14-17, will explore the expanding landscape of biotechnology and bioremediation.

"The symposium is an opportunity for diverse groups to discuss where biotechnology policy is heading," says Gary Sayler, director of CEB. "It will also allow participants to see how issues of policy and regulation will affect the way biotechnology is implemented in waste remediation and treatment."

The symposium will be held at the UT Conference Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. The registration fee is $395.

For registration information, contact Biotechnology in the Sustainable Environment, UT Conferences, P.O. Box 2648, Knoxville, TN 37901-2648, or call 865-974-0280.