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Nitrate in the News

Nitrate News -- March, 2000

Sea grass threat raises specter of marine deserts (Environmental News Network, Wednesday, March 29, 2000, By Michael Byrnes) The world's sea grass is shrinking because of urban and industrial pollution, raising the specter of underwater prairies turning into marine deserts of shifting sands that could decimate some fishing industries. Shrimp would be one of the first marine species threatened if sea grasses disappear and lobsters are also near the top of the endangered list, scientists say. Open-ocean fish such as tuna would escape at first but eventually the effects of sea grass loss would spread throughout the marine system. When sea grass dies sand becomes more mobile, creating sediment erosion and gradually ending other forms of life. "People would quite happily use terms like 'marine desert,"' said Alan Butler, a scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. "People don't find the place so attractive for swimming or fishing and holiday-making," said Butler, who has completed a national review of Australia's sea grass resources. Australia's estimated 20,000 square miles of sea grass contain half the world's estimated 70 species — more than anywhere else in the world. But scientists estimate that in the past 15 years 173 square miles of its sea grass has been lost. Pollution killing sea grass CSIRO's report contains the sobering news that Australia's urban sprawl was responsible for major sea grass losses off the coast of the southern Australian state of Victoria, Western Australia and north of Sydney. "We're certainly having big areas of losses in certain places, most associated with major population centers or major industrial centers," Butler said. The injection of nutrients and toxins into marine systems from agricultural runoff and sewage plants, siltation due to land erosion and industrial pollution all contribute to the loss of sea grass, the report says. A total of about 110,000 acres of lost sea grass in Australia compares with documented losses of around 220,000 acres in the United States by 1996. Scientists say losses are believed to be comparable throughout the industrialized world, with the Gulf of Mexico, areas off Florida and Southeast Asia perhaps hardest hit. "It's all pretty much the same, it's all due to too much pressure from humans. We're (Australia) probably no worse than anywhere else," said CSIRO marine ecologist Marnie Campbell. "If we don't stop putrefaction the sea grasses will disappear and the algae won't grow." Chain reaction Shallow meadows of sea grass — not seaweed or kelp but flowering green plants related to land plants — are a direct food source for green turtles and other marine life, a host for microscopic food and a nursery for some fish. The biggest commercial impact from lost sea grass would be felt by shrimping industries, say scientists. Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria tiger prawns, which provided $136 million worth of exports in 1998-99, would be hit first by sea grass areas turning into desert. Lobsters, Australia's most valuable seafood export at around $275 million last year, would also be affected by any loss of sea grass and seaweed areas off the north coast of Western Australia. Tuna, another major catch in Australian waters, particularly for Japan's sushi and sashimi markets, would not be immediately affected as they swim in the open ocean, away from sea grass meadows, but eventually they too would suffer. "If sea grass beds disappear fisheries are going to suffer," Butler said. "You'd see big changes in marine systems." Copyright 2000, Reuters

Plant may help wastewater treatment (Environmental News Network, Monday, March 27, 2000 By Associated Press) Paul Skillicorn spreads the root and tiny green leaves of one of the world's smallest flowering plants, which he thinks may be the answer to problem hog lagoons and aging wastewater treatment systems. "This duckweed is a living mat for organisms," Skillicorn said as an inchworm wiggled in his hand through fronds the size of a needle's eye. Skillicorn, who spent nearly a decade teaching Third World communities how to harvest duckweed for a profit, says the plants absorb pollution-causing nutrients from waste. The plants then can be harvested, dried and made into pellets for animal feed. The swine industry has shown lukewarm interest so far in Skillicorn's ideas, although he has a makeshift duckweed system at one hog farm in Greene County, about 60 miles east of Raleigh. But the Greene County town of Hookerton, faced with a $2 million price tag to pipe its waste 10 miles to Snow Hill, wants to test it. While obstacles remain, a $790,000 state grant is waiting for Hookerton to become the first municipality in North Carolina — and only a few dozen nationwide — to become reliant on a duckweed system. Skillicorn says the future of small towns can hinge on wastewater capacity. Without room for expansion, development won't happen. "Everybody treats it as nothing," Skillicorn said. "But they don't think it through of just how profound wastewater capacity is." Laurel, Delaware, a town of 3,800, added a duckweed finishing pond to its three-lagoon system because of a high algae concentration. Pollution levels are down, and the duckweed is harvested and made available to all residents as compost. "It's done a pretty good job, although it's been a little more work than what we thought at times," said Al Adkins, Laurel's public works supervisor. Hookerton's three-lagoon system, similar to Laurel's, becomes less efficient in killing algae and bacteria when lagoons grow warmer in the summer, and it has paid the price. The town was fined $3,689 by the state for violating pollution limits at Contentnea Creek in the early 1990s and $3,000 last year, according to state regulators. Since January 1999, it has been operating under a special monitoring pact with the state. "The system is outdated, so it's been a worry," Hookerton board member Ken Garris said. Then Hookerton officials heard about Skillicorn, who moved here in 1998 after setting up duckweed-based wastewater treatment systems in Bangladesh and Peru for a decade through a nonprofit organization. He hopes to make a living with his firm, The Duckweed Co. "I was looking for a place with intensive animal operations, so I thought, 'Why not come to North Carolina?"' said Skillicorn, an Australia native who is now an American citizen. Skillicorn recommended that Hookerton install 26 greenhouses, each 100 feet by 15 feet. Untreated waste from the first lagoon would enter the greenhouses, where duckweed would feed off nutrients in the waste, growing rapidly. Nutrients dumped into rivers and streams generate algae blooms that rob waters of oxygen, hurting plant and animal life. But under Skillicorn's plan, duckweed would break down the nutrients while removing those pollutants from the water. Workers would harvest duckweed daily and take it to a farm to dry out, in the process killing any pathogens that remain. The resulting olive-green material would be sold to feed operators for livestock. "What we've got is the same kind of protein levels as the soybean has," Skillicorn said as he handled some dried duckweed on a 2,000-head hog farm in Snow Hill, where he set up a greenhouse to treat hog waste. He said the duckweed system would reduce nitrogen levels in the raw waste Hookerton discharges into Contentnea Creek — from 3.6 pounds per day to 1 pound. The amount of fecal coliform would be cut by 75 percent. Eventually, the town's two other lagoons would be eliminated, because expanding a duckweed system's capacity is easy: Add more greenhouses. Skillicorn said Hookerton could expand from its current discharge limit of 60,000 gallons per day to 200,000 gallons with the duckweed system. Administrative costs would be about $30,000 a year, and the capital cost would be a third the cost of piping Hookerton's waste to Snow Hill, Skillicorn said. "We're making more promises than any other plan in the state and in the world," he said. Skillicorn said duckweed could become an option for dozens of North Carolina towns with aging treatment systems that violate state pollution controls. Many face tough financial times should they hook up to a larger system. Encouraged by state environmental secretary Bill Holman, the state Clean Water Management Trust Fund agreed in November to give Hookerton and its 515 residents a $790,000 grant for the duckweed system. Some red tape must be negotiated before Hookerton gets the money, but amid concern there is hope. "There was very favorable reception to the project," said David McNaught, the outgoing executive director of the trust fund. Some state regulators are skeptical of duckweed's effectiveness. A state Division of Water Quality official who reviewed the project for the trust fund said duckweed would "offer little, if any, improvement" over simply installing additional filters. However, Holman said duckweed might be Hookerton's best option, given the high cost of tying into a regional system. Water quality spokesman Ernie Seneca said the division prefers regional systems because they are easier to monitor, and with duckweed, "you're talking about an innovative technology system." Hookerton leaders said piping waste to a regional system would limit Hookerton's wastewater capacity, stifling any growth it might realize from the Global TransPark, a projected air and industrial park in nearby Kinston. Mayor Kim Purser says if the town cannot offer new industry sewer and water, it has nothing to offer. "If I'm a developer and I want to put in 100 homes, do I go mess around with Hookerton?" Skillicorn said. "No. Instead ... I go to Raleigh." Some might consider Skillicorn an environmental crusader, but he said his ideas make financial sense. "A tree-hugger is not useful unless what he's doing is making money," he said. "And what he's doing must make more money than what's being done right now." Duckweed refers to species of free-floating, stemless aquatic plants touted for their uses in waste treatment, animal feed and pharmaceuticals. Known by botanists under the family of Lemnaceae, duckweed is believed to be both the world's smallest-flowering and fastest-growing plant. It grows 20 times faster than corn, doubling in size within a few days through a natural cloning method. It can tangle the lines of recreational fishermen casting near duckweed along still, freshwater areas where the plants thrive. North Carolina is a common habitat for duckweed, whose fronds range in size from a pin head (genus Wolffia) to under a centimeter in length (Lemna and Spirodela). Wolffia species do not have roots, while Lemna and Spirodela have one or a few roots that dangle in the water. Duckweed can be used to cleanse wastewater, reducing nitrogen and phosphorous in human waste. Paul Skillicorn, who is attempting to set up a wastewater treatment system in the town of Hookerton, N.C., and other researchers also believe it could clean up hog waste, making lagoons unnecessary. Duckweed produces more protein on average than soybeans. It can also be used to feed exotic fish being raised for aquaculture. North Carolina State University researcher Anne-Marie Stomp has been working to genetically engineer duckweed to produce proteins such as insulin more cheaply and in greater quantities than through traditional methods. Stomp applied for a patent for her procedure and began Biolex Inc., a plant biotechnology company. As patents on the oldest protein drugs expire, duckweed could become "the premier protein production system of the 21st century," Stomp said. She said duckweed clones itself naturally, creating an identical copy of its parent, and its high protein content and rapid growth could be used in a controlled environment. Copyright 2000, Associated Press All Rights Reserved

Yet Another Role for the Versatile NO (Science 2000 January 21; 287: 419-421) SOCIETY FOR INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY: Integrating the Many Aspects of Biology Elizabeth Pennisi ATLANTA--At the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, held here from 4 to 8 January, researchers studying a wide range of organisms described new insights into old topics, such as why dolphins have blubber and why leafy greens are good for you. Yet Another Role for the Versatile NO Add this to the long list of reasons why you should eat your vegetables: They are rich in nitrates. Nigel Benjamin, a pharmacologist at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, reported at the meeting that harmless bacteria living on our tongues convert nitrates to nitrites, which in the acid environment of the stomach produce the potent pathogen-fighting chemical nitric oxide (NO). This, he proposes, helps protect the body against harmful microbes taken in with our food. Moreover, by harnessing this natural antimicrobial strategy, Benjamin's team has cured long-standing fungal infections on human skin, prompting him and his colleagues to begin developing a new line of disinfectants and antimicrobial treatments. Benjamin was alerted to the antiseptic power of vegetables by his studies of NO in the body. Over the past 20 years, biomedical researchers have discovered that this ubiquitous gas has many critical roles. It is a neurotransmitter, for example, and certain white blood cells churn it out to destroy invading bacteria, fungi, and viruses. But about 5 years ago, Benjamin began to piece together another way in which the body uses NO--one that could explain how early humans were able to survive the continual onslaught of food-borne pathogens in the raw meat they ate. The first clue came about 7 years ago, when Benjamin was trying to quantify the amount of NO in the body by measuring nitrate excretion, which was at first thought to result primarily from NO. He realized he first needed to know how much nitrate enters the body as part of the diet and how that nitrate is used. Several years of experiments, both in the test tube and with people, revealed that the digestive tract is quite adept at absorbing nitrate and that at least some of it winds up as nitrite, concentrated up to 10-fold, in saliva. Nitrates and nitrites came under fire in the 1970s as food additives because they can be converted to nitroso compounds, which can be potent carcinogens. But Benjamin reasoned that the body wouldn't concentrate nitrite in saliva to the degree that it does if it didn't also play a beneficial role. His group subsequently showed that in the rat mouth, an enzyme called nitrate reductase converts nitrates to nitrites. Curiously, the rats themselves weren't producing the enzyme: The researchers could only find a bacterial form, and germ-free rats, it turned out, had no trace of the enzyme at all. Two years later, the team demonstrated that most of the nitrite is churned out by benign species of Staphylococcus bacteria, primarily from hideaways in the deep clefts at the back of the tongue, where oxygen is relatively scarce. The bacteria use the nitrate as an electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration, then release the resulting nitrite into the saliva. There, Benjamin says, it is swallowed, in "up to a liter of saliva per day" for a person. At the meeting, he described the fate of this nitrite once it hits the stomach's acids: By sticking tubes down the throats of volunteers fed a helping of lettuce (a high-nitrate vegetable), the researchers detected a rise in NO concentration from 15 parts per million to 400--a concentration high enough to "kill any bacteria that we have swallowed," says Henry Trapido-Rosenthal, a molecular biologist at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. Having a sterile stomach explains "why we and other vertebrates didn't die out from diarrheal disease," he notes. "There are very important implications for medicine." Indeed, Benjamin and his colleagues are already exploring some of those implications. He and Tony Ormerod of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary showed that a combination of acidic and nitrite creams can clear up persistent skin infections, such as athlete's foot, which is caused by a fungus. It also combats viral infections, such as molluscum contagiosum, which causes lots of bumps on the skin. The results make nitrite products "an intriguing possibility for [treating] fungal infections," says Esther Leise, who studies NO function at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Benjamin and his colleagues are hoping that acidified nitrite will find its way into the market, both as a treatment for fungal infections and, in another form, as a new type of disinfectant. "[These products] will be ecologically safe," much more so than chlorine-based disinfectants, he predicts. As for dietary advice: Benjamin can't recommend adding bacon to meals, as smoking produces a range of nitrogen-based compounds, some of which may be toxic to the body. But he does have this word of advice for lovers: "Eat salad before you kiss."

Water Conference to Tackle Growing Global Crisis (REUTERS Breaking News on NY Times,March 17, 2000) THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) - The world in 2025 -- a world where there is clean, safe water for everyone, more than enough for drinking, bathing and growing crops. That is the vision experts, politicians and interest groups plan to unveil at an international conference in The Hague that opens Friday, focusing minds on the worsening humanitarian crisis that today denies billions access to safe water. The six-day Second World Water Forum will outline a Plan of Action for the next quarter century to prevent millions dying every year as a direct result of unsanitary water. ``This special conference aims to mobilize political support with an eye to countering our global water predicaments with concrete action,'' the organizers said. ``The vision will project a scenario of how the world could look 25 years from now -- if we take action today.'' Since the first World Water Forum in Morocco in 1997, when governments pledged a ``new water ethic'' to combat water scarcity around the globe, the Paris-based World Commission on Water for the 21st Century has been established to put ideas into action. This week, the Commission, a U.N.-backed body, urged a doubling of investments in global water supplies to $180 billion a year and said the private sector should provide the lion's share of the money needed. AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST PROBLEMS HIGHLIGHTED On Saturday, the conference will focus on water supplies and distribution in the Middle East and Africa, regions where acute droughts as well as floods cause huge loss of life. ``Africa is plagued with extreme variations in weather. In places like the Congo, water (supply) is increasing, while in other areas it is decreasing -- places like Angola, Mozambique, Namibia,'' Albert Wright, a civil engineering and sanitation specialist, said this week. Wright, who helped draft Africa's presentation at the forum, said the main goal was to raise awareness of the problem and stress the need for help. Middle East experts forecast a worsening crisis as high population growth is compounded by a neglect of water resources. According to a study last year from the Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain, the per capita share of water in the Arab world has halved in the past two decades to 38,850 cubic feet a year, perilously close to the accepted 35,310-cubic-feet benchmark, below which human health is harmed.

Africa deluge masks water shortage threat (Environmental News Network, Thursday, March 16, 2000, By Alistair Thomson) Torrential rain and floods have devastated parts of Africa, but the main worry for most of the continent's inhabitants is not too much water but too little. Nearly two out of three Africans in rural areas lack an adequate water supply and nearly three-fourths lack sufficient sanitation, the African Development Bank says. And things are getting worse. More Africans lack adequate water than in 1990 and Africa is the only continent where poverty is expected to increase over the next 100 years, according to United Nations Development Program projections. "It's a vicious circle," said Albert Wright, a Ghanaian civil engineering and sanitation specialist who has played a key role in drafting Africa's presentation to the World Water Forum, which opens in The Hague on March 17. "Because of the lack of water there are socioeconomic problems, which mean there are not the resources to develop the water resources," Wright told Reuters. Lack of water is literally sapping the strength of African people. Apart from the millions malnourished because of crop failure, waterborne disease is rife. "People are laden with worms and diseases which make them weak. People say that half the work of a sick peasant goes to producing food to feed the worms that make him sick," Wright said. Almost half of all Africans suffer from one of six main water-related diseases, with cholera and infant diarrhea the most pervasive, the African Development Bank says. Of the 46 countries worldwide where infection by the bilharzia worm is endemic, 40 are in Africa. DISTRIBUTION IS BIGGEST PROBLEM With 3 percent population growth a year, the highest of any continent, demand for water can only increase. But Africa's real problem is not how much rain falls but where it falls. "Africa is plagued with extreme variations in weather," Wright said. "In places like the Congo, water (supply) is increasing, while in other areas it is decreasing — places like Angola, Mozambique, Namibia." This makes the floods in Mozambique and surrounding countries that have killed hundreds and made hundreds of thousands homeless all the more cruelly ironic. Wright said a key problem was compiling information on rainfall and other water sources to help plan supply strategy. Poor information means water extraction projects are at risk of exacerbating the very problems they are meant to solve, and projects such as Libya's, which pumps ground water from beneath the Sahara desert, can become politically charged. "We don't know very much about the extent of the ground water resources in Africa. There is a lack of information," Wright said. Experts say climatic factors such as global warming are also making it increasingly difficult to forecast rainfall on the basis of historical weather patterns. As water becomes ever more crucial, experts fear it could cause more conflict in an already war-torn continent. "Current approaches to water resources management are unsustainable and are most likely to lead us to crisis and disastrous consequences," Wright said. "One of the major concerns is that water becomes an instrument of war, not of development." Major problems occur when catchment basins or water sources such as lakes and rivers are shared by several countries that compete for the available water. One such flash point is the Okavango river, which crosses Namibia on its way from Angola's highlands to empty itself into the Okavango Delta in Botswana. In Namibia's capital Windhoek fresh water is so scarce that around one sixth of the supply comes from recycled sewage. There are proposals to build a 155-mile pipeline from the Okavango, which Botswana fears may harm the delta and its lucrative tourist industry. Another area of potential conflict is the rapidly disappearing Lake Chad. The lake, bordered by Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad itself, has shrunk from 9,600 square miles in the early 1960s to just 770 square miles) today. Fishermen still eking out a living there have had to narrow the mesh of their nets in order to catch ever smaller fish. DESERTS EXPANDING Lake Chad is a victim of the relentless southern advance of the Sahara Desert toward the humid and fertile southern tract of West Africa. Politicians and experts from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean who gathered in the Malian capital Bamako on March 6 to discuss desertification heard that two thirds of Africa's surface was desert. "Desertification poses a serious threat on every continent, affecting 70 percent of the world's dry farmland," Hama Arba Diallo, executive secretary for the United Nations convention on the struggle against desertification, told delegates. Whatever the complex causes of spreading deserts, it is clear that deforestation, overgrazing and unsustainable agricultural practices all play a part. Africa, the economic laggard in global terms and still highly dependent on agriculture and related industries such as logging, is the continent the least well equipped to mend its ways. At least part of the answer lies in improving basic education and teaching "water wisdom," Wright said. Improved technology, both in more efficient use of water for sanitation and agriculture and cheaper methods of purifying sea water for coastal regions, is also vital. As water specialists prepare to put Africa's case to the Hague summit, Wright said pushing water up on the international agenda is essential if the continent's water problems are to be resolved. "At this stage what we want to do is to raise awareness of the problem we face and the need for help." Copyright 2000, Reuters All Rights Reserved

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