NRC finds science, cooperation needed to support watershed

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in combined heat and power (CHP) installations, according to COGEN Europe, an association created in 1993 with support from the European Commission's Energy Directorate. The recovered thermal energy typically is used for heating and cooling. Conventional power plants are typically only about 33% efficient, with most of the waste heat being blown off into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming and atmospheric pollution. But CHP production varies greatly between the 15 EU member states, according to COGEN Europe. For instance, Denmark, Finland, and The Netherlands produce at least 30% of their power through cogeneration, whereas France receives only about 2% of its energy from CHP production. Reasons for the disparity are many, said Mercedes Marin of COGEN Europe. Strong governmental support through tax incentives and subsidies in Denmark and The Netherlands have helped to push CHP development in those countries. And the natural economic advantages of cogeneration in cold climates have driven CHP development in Finland. Countries with high nuclear and/or hydro capacity, such as France and Sweden on the other hand have not been able to realize high cogeneration capacities Sweden however is expected to phase out its nuclear capacity which represents almost half of the country's electricity production, according to COGEN Europe. To double the amount of CHP production in the EU, barriers to the technology will have to come down. According to a study financed by the European Commission and two CHP associations in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, environmental controls used to limit air pollution discriminate against CHP installations by basing limits in terms that do not recognize the efficiency of CHP's energy conversion process. In addition payments for sales of surplus capacity to the grid generally are low and charges for stand-by power particularly backup power supplies are high reducing the in-

centives to cogenerate. Likewise, the environmental costs of energy production are not properly integrated into fuel prices, making natural gas, the most common fuel for CHP systems, more expensive than others such as coal, the study found.

The key to raising CHP production in the EU will be the liberalization of electricity and gas markets, Marin said, expected as a result of electric utility sector deregulation that is slated to begin in February 1999. —KRIS CHRISTEN

NRC finds science, cooperation needed to support watershed management policy Watershed management is the only way to successfully address our nation's water quality problems, but the approach faces significant barriers, according to a report released in October by the National Research Council. The cornerstone of President Clinton's Clean Water Action Plan, watershed management has been difficult to implement because of a lack of effective scientific tools and poor cooperation among federal state and local governments as well as private organizations the report said New Strategies for America's Watersheds acknowledges that while control of point sources of pollution have been enormously improved, problems related to polluted runoff from farms and urban areas continue to grow. The solution, said William Graf, chair of the report committee and geography professor at Arizona State University, is "a watershed approach, which integrates biological, geological, and hydrologic factors with humans as part of the ecosystem" As an example of this kind of watershed-based approach, the report cited the Flathead River Basin in Montana. It is a site where a coalition of citizens, tribal leaders, and agency heads curtailed nutrient pollution by taking a multipronged approach, including sewage treatment with nutrient removal technologies; a basin-wide ban on phosphorus detergents; and implementation of best management practices for forestry and agriculture. One of the report's most significant findings, said Graf, "is that science is in the embryonic stages for supporting policy." Models are needed to link dis-

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parate fields into an interdisciplinary approach that is useful to managers, he said. The report paints a gloomy picture of poorly developed technology and lack of appropriate data, despite a half century of government attempts at instituting watershed management. Dave Chestnut, senior scientist with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, agreed, and said "we need better data and an ability to quantify what pollutants are moving off the surface and how they're delivered to water bodies." But, according to Graf, even the best data and science are of little use if no organizational structures use and implement them. The report highlights disjointed policies and a lack of coordination between the 22 federal agencies that address water issues. For instance, Chestnut said, the monitoring activities of state, local, and federal agencies often cannot be coordinated because they have different objectives. "The U S Geological Service measures dissolved metals, which cannot be compared with the state data, which measures total metals," he explained. The report recommends that when Congress reauthorizes the Clean Water Act, it should allow "bottom-up" development of watershed agencies that respond to local problems. In addition, the National Science Foundation should pursue partnerships with federal agencies to focus and increase research investments in watershed science. Finally, the report calls for a stable funding source and reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. —JANET PELLEY