InSites is a quarterly newsletter that highlights the personalities and projects of the Waste Management Research and Education Institute (WMREI) of The University of Tennessee. WMREI is an affiliate of the EERC.

WMREI was created in 1985 as a state-funded Center of Excellence. Research areas include solid-, hazardous-, and nuclear-waste management; waste minimization; and pollution prevention.

Biotechnology is the focal point of the institute's technical research, while issues involving public attitudes and federal/state policies related to waste-management issues are the primary concerns of the institute's policy research.

For additional information about InSites, or to be added to our mailing list, please write InSites, WMREI, The University of Tennessee, 311 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, call 865-974-1156, or fax 865-974-1838. Or, if you prefer, e-mail Constance Griffith

cbgriffith@utk.edu.

Earth Day Turns 25

A quarter century after the first Earth Day, UT researchers
reflect on where we've been--and where we're headed--
in our struggle to understand and protect Mother Earth.

by Linda Moist

A quarter century ago this spring, Earth Day, April 22, 1970, galvanized the U.S. commitment to environmental stewardship. Americans from all walks of life participated in boycotts, demonstrations, and parades to protest the destruction of the Earth that had resulted from decades of neglect and abuse.

In New York's Union Square 350,000 people attended a rally focusing media and public attention on the state of the environment. In Washington, D.C., thousands gathered on the Mall to hear activist and folk singer Pete Seeger decry the contamination of Mother Earth. And on campuses across the nation, students staged protests and participated in environmental teach- and sit-ins.

The sense of urgency that attended the first Earth Day was warranted. Over previous decades, little attention had been paid to the pollution that was keeping pace with rapid technological growth. Waterways were poisoned by paper-mill effluents, pesticides, and chemicals, and solid waste was increasing more rapidly than the rate of population growth. Meanwhile, automobile exhaust and soot from industrial smokestacks made the air in some cities dangerous to breathe.

Here in Tennessee many municipalities were discharging untreated waste into rivers and streams. Air quality was poor, and municipal dumps accepted all types of solid wastes--including hazardous materials. Mining was virtually unregulated, and mining companies rarely provided for reclamation of lands left scarred by their strip mines.

That was then. Today, things are different and for the most part better. But these questions persist: How far have we come since the first Earth Day 25 years ago, and how far have we yet to go?

For answers, we contacted University of Tennessee staff members whose disciplines have a clear connection with the environment. Here's what they had to say:

Jack Barkenbus, director, Energy, Environment, and Resources Center.

"Over the past 25 years, we have instilled in a new generation an environmental ethic that didn't exist before. In part, this is a consequence of economic growth and political stability. Earlier generations, which faced the Great Depression and war, were understandably more focused on day-to-day economic and political survival than on environmental problems.

Today, environmental values are being transmitted to students, grades kindergarten to high school, through environmental- education programs.

The greatest challenge remaining to be addressed involves constructing a sustainable resource future. Although we have adequate supplies of oil, gas, and coal to meet our energy needs for decades to come, we cannot afford to pay the price for their use in terms of long-term damage to the environment."

Gary Sayler, director, Center for Environmental Biotechnology.

"Our recent accumulation of environmental, microbiological, biochemical, and genetic knowledge is as significant historically as the building of the atomic bomb.

We began with an awareness that nature possessed a few microorganisms with the potential to destroy toxins, and we have advanced to the point that we can genetically engineer microorganisms to destroy many pollutants.

Our growth in knowledge has also allowed us to understand that the worldwide problem of environmental contamination is much more dire and more diverse than we ever realized."

Greg Reed, professor and department head, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

"Most advances we have made in solving environmental problems are a direct result of environmental regulations passed after Earth Day, 1970, including the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

More recently, pollution prevention has been integrated into the engineering design process. Obviously, if we don't produce pollution in the first place, we won't have to clean it up later."

David Ostermeier, professor, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries.

"In the field of forestry, we have achieved an increase in timber growth over the past few decades. In many areas of the United States we have annually added more forest stock than is harvested or lost through fire or disease. This means that, as a whole, our forests continue to expand their timber volume.

One of the more significant remaining challenges involves learning to work together in shaping policies that balance economic and environmental values and allow us to achieve sustainable development."

Carol Harden, associate professor, Department of Geography.

"In terms of environmental strides, geography-education programs are helping students better understand the relationships between environmental processes and human activities, chiefly resource exploitation. Across the globe, such activities lead to soil erosion, habitat loss, and water contamination.

And despite our best efforts to protect the environment, economic pressures frequently stand in the way of progress. Few people are willing to pay more for a recycled product or one produced in an environmentally friendlier way when a lower-cost alternative exists."

Milton Russell, director, Joint Institute for Energy and Environment.

"One of the more impressive strides we've made in the field of environmental policy is in the growing acceptance that use of economic incentives--as contrasted with command-and-control regulation--can be effective, efficient, and fair in achieving environmental goals.

The most challenging obstacle for environmental economists today rests with the problem of assessing benefits from environmental improvements, especially with respect to protection of natural resources and avoidance of long-term ecological damage."

Frederick Stoss, research associate, Energy, Environment, and Resource Center.

"Before Earth Day, 1970, gathering information about the environment was a time-consuming manual operation of scanning printed card catalogs, book indexes, abstracts, and journals.

At the time of the first Earth Day, a revolution in the identification, organization, and delivery of environmental information was taking place. Pollution Abstracts was founded in 1970, Enviroline began operations in 1971, and Environmental Bibliography was launched in 1973. What followed was nothing short of an environmental information explosion.

The ongoing proliferation of new information systems and services will play a key role in sound environmental management well into the next century."

Mriganka Ghosh, professor and Henry Goodrich Chair of Excellence, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

"Since Earth Day 1970, we have done a good job of cleaning up of the nation's waterways by controlling point-source pollution, thanks to the 1972 Water Pollution Control Act. And the signing of the Montreal Protocol in September 1987 helped address the specter of ozone depletion caused by millions of tons of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that will continue to find their way into the stratosphere well into the next century.

In facing the future, we must acknowledge a sobering bit of reality: No matter how hard we try, we will not be able to return this planet to its once-pristine condition. Subsurface contamination caused by decades of neglect will never be fully remediated."

Terry Schultz, associate director, Environmental Toxicology Program.

"One of the more significant accomplishments since 1970 is our improved ability to understand how toxins act in the environment. We have come a long way in predicting the potency of organic toxins based on their molecular structure instead of testing each one individually.

Clearly, one of the largest obstacles facing toxicologists is our inability to understand the environmental effects of complex chemical mixtures, like those found at hazardous waste sites. While we understand the way individual chemicals affect the environment, efforts to assess chemical mixtures have been unsuccessful."

Sherry Cable, associate professor, Department of Sociology.

"Within the past two decades, we've recognized that we need more than technicians and physical scientists involved in environmental remediation; we also need people who understand that environmental decisions are made in a social context.

The working class, the poor, and minorities suffer the most from environmental degradation. Harmful facilities are much more likely to be situated in poor minority communities because they are less likely to protest and are more likely to need the economic base that such facilities offer. We need to make changes in our political and economic structure that will reduce such inequities."

Daryll Ray, director, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.

"Rising public concern over soil erosion has led to the development of no-till farming, which does not rely on soil cultivation for planting or weed control. As a consequence, there is little loose soil to be exposed to wind and water erosion.

Improving off-farm water quality is the single largest environmental challenge facing agriculture into the next century. We must improve water quality by reducing the levels of fertilizer and pesticide we use as well as the way we use these chemicals.

Increasingly sophisticated alternative farming methods--including use of bacteria that prey on insect pests--will play a key role in pollution prevention without compromising farm income."

David Feldman, senior research associate, Energy, Environment, and Resources Center.

"In 1969, when I was a teenager in Cleveland, Ohio, the Cuyahoga River actually caught fire. There was so much sludge and oil on the water's surface that a spark from a welder's torch set it on fire.

Twenty-five years later, that river has been cleaned up, and the riverfront has been developed. That, in microcosm, represents the kind of significant change that has occurred over the past 25 years in this country in the area of point-source water pollution.

Equally important, 25 years after the first Earth Day, there is no longer any debate over whether we should have environmental laws. Debate now is over fine-tuning laws to make them more cost effective, efficient, and fair."

Gary Schneider, associate dean, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

"I was a professor of forestry, wildlife, and fisheries at Michigan State University in 1970, the birth year of Earth Day. Five years earlier, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring startled the world with evidence about the danger of pesticides and served as a catalyst for the establishment of Earth Day.

Now, 25 years later, we have the ability to detect and measure minute levels of potentially harmful substances in the environment.

We have also made great strides in developing technologies to genetically improve the plant and animal species upon which we depend for food and fiber. This has resulted in increased growth, improved food quality, and increased resistance of plants and animals to disease and insect pests.

Yet we still grapple with the ethical and moral issues involved in such genetic manipulations.

How do we resolve these problems? Good science and research, along with an educated citizenry, go a long way toward reaching successful resolutions. However, science and education can only take us so far. Ultimately we must rely on our ability to do what is right for the right reasons. To do anything less would be poor stewardship indeed."

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Nature's Microbial Wolf Packs

University of Tennessee researchers are following the trail of
predatory bacteria that may play a vital role in bioremediation.

by Linda Moist

For the past decade, scientists have known about nature's own remedy for decontaminating waste sites--common soil bacteria. These bacteria break down chemical contaminants and provide a natural cure for environmental hazards.

Bioremediation, as the process is called, has become an important part of cleanup strategies around the country.

The University of Tennessee's (UT) Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB), an affiliate organization of UT's Waste Management Research and Education Institute, is the source of a new study pointing to a previously unrecognized participant in the chemical process of bioremediation--myxobacteria.

Although myxobacteria are found in nearly every soil, they are quite different from other common bacteria. In fact, they may have the potential to alter bioremediation efforts in surprising ways.

Bert Lampson, an assistant professor of microbiology who heads the study, notes that myxobacteria are unique. While most bacteria live as single-celled organisms, myxobacteria group together and act like multi-cellular organisms. What's more, they prey on other bacteria, feeding voraciously in wolf-pack fashion.

"Scientists have long been fascinated by myxobacteria's unusual behavior," says Lampson, "but our study is the first to examine the effects of myxobacteria predation on bioremediation."

So far, myxobacteria have demonstrated the ability to break down certain hydrocarbons, including phenol and catechol. By-products of the fuel and plastics industries, these aromatic hydrocarbons are similar to compounds frequently targeted by environmental cleanup operations.

While Lampson and his colleague, graduate student Scott Rice, hope that myxobacteria's ravenous appetite will prove to be an important force in bioremediation, they realize that what works in the lab does not always work in the field.

"We have yet to determine whether myxobacteria demonstrate their pollution-fighting abilities outside the test tube," says Rice. "To do that, we must measure their presence in contaminated soils."

If myxobacteria are present in large numbers in these soils, says Rice, it will indicate that they may play a significant role in chemical degradation.

Their role, however, may not necessarily be a productive one. Perhaps, instead of consuming toxic chemicals, these bacteria may devour other bacteria that are at work breaking down contaminants. In effect, they may inhibit the ability of other bacteria to biodegrade waste.

"We must consider," says CEB director Gary Sayler, "whether the predatory behavior of myxobacteria contributes to the destruction of helpful bacteria, which would adversely affect some of our bioremediation efforts."

Because bacterial populations at bioremediated sites may now include genetically engineered bacteria that have been artificially introduced, understanding myxobacteria predation is of primary importance.

Genetically engineered bacteria are introduced to contaminated sites at considerable expense, and ensuring their survival is critical.

"If we determine that genetically engineered bacteria are being destroyed by myxobacteria, we may be able to further alter their genetic structure to make them more resilient," Sayler explains.

Whether Lampson and Rice find that myxobacteria contribute to bioremediation or inhibit it, their research promises to bridge gaps in existing information and provide an important contribution to environmental restoration.

For more information, contact Bert Lampson, University of Tennessee, Microbiology Department, M409 Walters Life Sciences Bldg., Knoxville, TN 37996, or call 865-974-4015.

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From Alligators to Associations

WMREI researcher Kim Davis' success in assessing and treating soil and water pollution proves that the straightest career course isn't necessarily the best one.

by Kelly Harper

Eleven years ago, when Kim Davis exited the doors of Clemson University with a degree in chemical engineering, no bubbling beakers or lab coats awaited her or other graduates with similar training.

Intent on finding interesting and gainful work in a difficult job market, Davis, who now serves as assistant director of The University of Tennessee's Waste Management Research and Education Institute, remained in Clemson over the summer and even entertained the notion of going back to school to earn a degree in German.

"I had completed five semesters in German, and I had thought about combining a degree in German with my engineering degree so I could find a job overseas," says Davis.

Her fate changed--as did her career course--after she attended a party at Clemson in spring of 1984. There, Davis met several students in the emerging field of environmental engineering. Davis was intrigued by descriptions of their work and its impact on improving the environment.

"It struck me as an interesting way to make a living," she says. "I especially liked the variety of ways an environmental engineering degree could be applied in addressing environmental problems."

Within four months, Davis was enrolled in Clemson's graduate environmental engineering program and setting out on a career path that would ultimately usher her through alligator-infested waters in Georgia and pools of mercury in the Slovak Republic before leading her to the University of Tennessee (UT).

After completing the master's program in 1986, Davis moved to Oak Ridge to work as an environmental engineering consultant on projects involving Department of Energy (DOE) compliance with environmental regulations. While Davis found the regulatory world somewhat routine, her ever-evolving job description kept things interesting.

For instance, in 1987, Davis was assigned the task of renewing National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems permits for DOE's Savannah River site. The job required Davis to write a 20-page report on each of the plant's 212 outfalls carrying nonradioactive discharges into the Savannah River.

One steamy afternoon, while en route to one of the plant's drainage pipes, the motor on Davis' boat died, leaving her floating in Parr Pond, a small lake that feeds into the Savannah River. Within minutes, Davis found herself stranded in the company of several alligators, where she remained until help arrived.

Having learned to stick with less-risky tasks in an office setting, Davis continued at Savannah River until 1988. Afterwards, she became involved with the assessment of large-scale pollution problems plaguing U.S. Air Force bases around the nation. She also helped develop remedies for the cleanup of leaking underground storage tanks containing petroleum.

In 1990, while Davis was home for Christmas, a chance encounter with George Hyfantis, a senior fellow at UT's Energy, Environment, and Resources Center (EERC), at a holiday gathering paved the way for her next career move. The EERC is an affiliate organization of the Waste Management Research and Education Institute.

Hyfantis hired Davis to work fulltime for the EERC on the Hazardous Waste Remediation Project, which was being sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE, General Electric, and AT&T.

For the next year, Davis analyzed pollution records of Superfund sites and assessed the costs of cleanup technologies in the context of future-use scenarios.

In some cases, Davis concludes, the government could do the most good by pursuing the least-aggressive cleanup strategy.

"If a site is in a location where the risk of exposure to the contamination is very low, then it makes sense to isolate the problem with low-cost remedies such as capping off the site," she says. "The fact is we can't clean up every site today--we simply don't have the resources."

Upon completion of the Superfund project, Davis had an experience that helped her put U.S. pollution problems into perspective.

At an environmental conference in the Czech Republic in 1991, Davis delivered a presentation on the cost-effectiveness of various hazardous waste-remediation techniques.

"At the time, other countries--those in Central and Eastern Europe in particular--were trying to set forth environmental regulations that were tied to reducing health risks without hampering economic growth," says Davis. "So cost and effectiveness were two prime considerations."

While at the conference, Davis got a first-hand--or, rather, first-foot-- glimpse at the pollution problems plaguing Eastern Europe. On a tour of a chemical factory in the Slovak Republic, for instance, Davis noted few if any pollution controls and at one point peered down to discover she was standing in a puddle of mercury.

Since her trip to Eastern Europe, Davis has settled into her role with UT, where she now divides her time between the EERC and the Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB).

While Davis continues to conduct cost analyses on cleanup strategies for the state of Tennessee, she is also helping CEB Director Gary Sayler nurture alliances with such private-sector companies as International Technologies Corporation. Through such collaboration Sayler hopes to attract federal research monies to explore the use of bioremediation techniques for cleanup and monitoring of contamination at DOE and other federal sites.

Davis is also working with Sayler to develop an industry consortium. The Industrial Associates Program (see "UT-Industry Consortium Poses Win-Win Situation") would help fund CEB research projects aimed at helping private-sector participants contend with pollution problems.

If there's any thread that runs through Davis' varied accomplishments, it's her ability to focus on the smallest components in the war on pollution--contaminant-eating microbes--while keeping an eye on the big picture shaped by policy and the world of regulation.

Currently, in fact, Davis is collaborating with Sayler and several other researchers on an EPA-sponsored book that will explore the full range of bioremediation techniques--both those now being used and those being developed for use in the future.

The book, says Davis, promises to shed light on the issue of risk as it applies to bioremediation and to explore the critical policy issues involved with safe use of genetically engineered microorganisms.

"This kind of policy research will establish the essential groundwork for use of biotechnology as a cleanup tool," says Davis. "The chance to demonstrate the reliability and safety of this innovative technology hinges on cultivating greater public awareness and understanding of the process."

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UT-Industry Consortium Poses Win-Win Situation

by Kelly Harper

The University of Tennessee's (UT) Waste Management Research and Education Institute (WMREI) is forming a consortium that will link industries seeking bioremediation solutions to their pollution problems with researchers from UT's Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB).

Kim Davis, WMREI assistant director, introduced the notion of an Industrial Associates program to WMREI's advisory board at its annual meeting this past September.

Davis and CEB Director Gary Sayler have approached such companies as General Motors, International Technologies Corporation, and Eastman Chemical Company.

Davis explains that under terms of the consortium, companies interested in collaborating with CEB would pay the center an annual fee in exchange for research that would focus on the company's specific needs in the area of pollution control.

"For instance, an industry representative might approach CEB and say, 'We have solvent contamination on our site. Can you help us develop a biological approach to cleaning it up?'"

The industry would then supply CEB with a sample of contaminated soil. From there, CEB researchers, including doctorate and master's- degree candidates, would work to isolate--or even create--a bacterium that would destroy the contaminant.

"In the process," says Davis, "industry benefits through research targeted for its specific needs, and graduate students gain by having the chance to work on real-world environmental challenges."

What's more, says Davis, the consortium might provide CEB researchers the opportunity to take bench-scale technologies that have languished in the laboratory and apply them in the field.

According to Davis, the basic fee for membership in the consortium would be $15,000 per year, which would afford the industry partner access to CEB technologies.

Companies interested in bankrolling research specifically tailored for their needs would contribute $20,000 or more to engage CEB in sponsored research.

Industry partners participating in the latter program would be permitted to send a company researcher to work side-by-side with CEB scientists.

As an additional service to its industry participants, CEB will host an annual Industrial Associates meeting, where all participants will be provided information on the consortium's various projects.

Though the Industrial Associates program poses a win-win situation for all involved, two key provisions must be negotiated before the consortium can begin its work.

The first centers on licensing and property rights pertaining to development of new technologies, particularly ground-breaking technologies that might prove profitable on the open market.

It's likely, says Davis, that the industry partner and CEB researcher who develop such technologies will share licensing and property rights.

And second, developing stronger ties with industry partners will present the challenge of striking a healthy balance between "pragmatic" research geared toward short-term industrial problem-solving and "visionary" research aimed at developing innovative technologies that may pose longer-term contributions.

"Everyone involved has to keep in mind that a university is a learning institution with an emphasis on broad-based research," says Davis. "If industry dictates the center's research emphasis, the center risks becoming an industry contractor with very little time to invest in open-ended, basic research."

For more information, contact Kim Davis, WMREI, University of Tennessee, 311 Conference Building, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, or call 865-974-4251.

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Staff Citings

Publications

David Feldman, "The Impact of Nuclear Plant Life Extension on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management," The Environmental Professional (September 1994).

Presentations

Ralph Perhac, "Conservatism in Risk Assessment: A Case of Conceptual Confusion," Society for Risk Analysis Conference, Baltimore (December 1994).

The Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies, a unit within the Energy, Environment, and Resources Center, sponsored a two-day workshop on Extended Producer Responsibility at the U.S. Capitol in November.

Daniel Schaffer spoke at the Southern Festival of Books, October 1994, about his recently published book, Oak Ridge National Laboratory: The First 50 Years, co-authored with Leland Johnson (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994).

Catherine Wilt, "Good Business Sense and the Solid-Waste Hierarchy: Waste Reduction and Recycling Initiatives in Three Companies," 13th Annual Congress of the National Recycling Coalition, Portland (September 1994).

Honors

Milton Russell, director of the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment, was recently elected a Fellow of the Society of Risk Analysis based on his academic contributions to the field as well as his record while serving as assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between 1983-87.

Gary Sayler, director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, received the 1994 Procter and Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, the premier award of the Society for Microbiology, for his pioneering research in the use of microorganisms to degrade hazardous chemicals.

InSites won a 1994 bronze Mercury award for newsletter editorial excellence from MerComm, Inc., and the International Association of the Communications Arts and Sciences.

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