ENVIRONMENT - $20 Million to Expand Seafloor Observatory

The research capacity of the University of Victoria-led NEPTUNE Canada, the world’s first regional cabled ocean observatory, received a significant boost today with the announcement of an additional $20 million in funding.

The $8 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), $8 million from the BC Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) and $4 million of in-kind support from private partners including Alcatel will allow scientists to significantly expand the scope and scientific impact of the NEPTUNE Canada observatory.

Beginning in fall 2007, Alcatel will lay an 800-km network of powered fibre optic cable across the seafloor in the deep ocean off the B.C. coast. A series of laboratories, or "nodes," along the cable will allow land-based scientists to remotely control and monitor instruments, video cameras and underwater vehicles as they collect data from the ocean surface to beneath the seafloor.

The observatory will revolutionize ocean research by transmitting images and data instantly to shore where they will be relayed to researchers, educational institutions, science centres and the public via the Internet.

The additional funding will be used to increase the number of nodes from two to as many as six and the number of scientific instruments from 70 to more than 200. This will allow more coverage of the northern Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, permitting broader studies on such key topics as seismic and tsunami activity, ocean-climate interactions and influence on fisheries, gas hydrate deposits, and seafloor ecology.

"I want to express my appreciation to CFI, BCKDF and Alcatel for recognizing the importance and significance of NEPTUNE Canada’s potential through this support," says UVic President David Turpin. "Thanks to the combined efforts of the partners in this initiative, Canada and UVic will be at the forefront of undersea research, leading the world in the use of regional cabled ocean observatories and driving the industrial discovery and advancements that will accompany it."

"In addition to securing Canada’s reputation as a world leader in the field of ocean research, the potential benefits of the NEPTUNE project to Canada are numerous," says Eliot Phillipson, president and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. "From a wealth of new knowledge about our oceans to the development of new technologies, this world-class initiative is sure to have a real and positive impact on the lives of Canadians."

"NEPTUNE will position B.C. as a world leader in the multidisciplinary study of the ocean and its processes," says Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell. "High-tech will continue to be a critical part of B.C.’s economic future, and that’s why we need to invest in the people and the projects that will help ensure the best opportunities for British Columbia. I fully expect to see B.C. produce more world-class researchers as a result of their involvement with NEPTUNE."

Alcatel, which operates in more than 130 countries, has played a key role in the development and implementation of the most important submarine cable networks in operation today.

"We’re pleased to continue our cooperation with UVic in this exciting technological adventure that is NEPTUNE Canada," states Jean Godeluck, President of Alcatel's submarine network activity. "This new project confirms the momentum of submarine network deployments for scientific applications enabling investigations into a wide range of phenomena, from astrophysical to oceanographic subjects."

"With this funding, NEPTUNE Canada will move ahead with a much expanded scope, on schedule, and realize significant cost savings by installing additional instrumented nodes in 2007 and 2008," says Dr. Chris Barnes, NEPTUNE Canada’s project director. "With these additional nodes, we’ll more than triple our scientific data collection and achieve a profoundly better overview of earth and ocean processes."

Initial funding for NEPTUNE Canada was announced in October 2003 and totalled $62.4 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the BC Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF). Contributions from the U.S. and UVic bring total funding for the NEPTUNE project to CDN $112 million. Another USD $120 million is expected from the U.S. as its main contribution to this bi-national project.

Water Technology That Makes A Splash

FOR an island race, the British seem unusually pre-occupied with the possibility of running out of water. But as United Kingdom scientists add their weight to concerns about climate change and dwindling global water supplies, water companies are under scrutiny and under pressure to deliver technologies and strategies that will impress a demanding and increasingly environmentally-aware domestic market.

The UK government has stressed the need for a united approach. As former Environment Minister Elliott Morley (now responsible for implementing policies on climate change agreed at the G8 summit 2005) said: “There is no one solution to this complex challenge, and in a changing environment we need a joined-up approach if we are to protect the long-term sustainability of supply … working on a number of levels together to reduce leakage, improve technology, minimise waste.”

How is this political will and public desire translating itself into practice? In 2003, the Water Technology List was published as part of a government drive to support business investment in environmental technologies under the Green Technology Challenge. This allowed for the introduction of tax incentives to companies investing in green products.

The list is regularly updated to include the best in water saving and water-quality improving products that the UK has to offer.

These include:
* efficient toilets with low-rate and dual-flushing equipment;
* “cleaning-in-place” equipment - such as the i-pipe by Manchester-based company Kaiko - that works by measuring electrical flow in liquids that occur as their formulation changes, and therefore constantly monitors water quality;
* efficient showers such as low-flow showerheads as produced by companies such as Mira;
* efficient taps (faucets) such as electromagnetically operated and self-closing taps as produced by Doncaster company Pegler;
* flow controllers and leakage-detection equipment such as the PC-based meter and leak alarm system produced by Somerset company Elimileak;
* meters and monitoring equipment, rainwater harvesting equipment such as the disinfection unit offered by Nottingham-based company Stormsaver;
* efficient membrane filtration systems such as micro-filters that offer high-level purification allowing wastewater to be recovered and reused.

Many groups exist to promote efficient water use, such as Waterwise (www.waterwise.org.uk), an independent organisation set up in 2005 in the UK. The group receives some funding from the industry and which it aims to match through joint partnerships with other non-governmental organisations, business and government.

Waterwise director Jacob Tompkins, said: “The UK has an impressive record of driving and responding to market demand, and droughts in the UK in recent years have led to innovations in water-efficient technologies for home and business. The UK’s water-efficient technologies would transfer usefully to markets where water is already scarce or threatens to be in the future.”

British Water (www.britishwater.co.uk) was formed from the merger of two trade organisations in 1993 and today it is the voice of the UK water industry. Its technical director, Dr Ian Pallett, said that a research and innovation working group is being set up specifically to provide a route for member companies to highlight innovative technologies in the sector.

And he was keen to point out the work being done by groups such as Water Innovate, a spin-out company of Cranfield University, southern England. A range of exciting technologies being developed by Water Innovate include ZR-Coag, a high-performance chemical additive for water and wastewater treatment. Using zirconium compounds, ZR-Coag enables high-efficiency coagulation of drinkable supplies and waste-treatment effluents.

Other developments include N-Tox, a toxicity monitoring system that provides early warning of sludge treatment failure. The product detects nitrous oxide, a harmful greenhouse gas with global warming potential almost 300 times that of carbon dioxide.

Water Innovate has also produced ODOURsim, a powerful and revolutionary Windows-based software package specifically developed for the modelling and simulation of odours generated in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants. The software provides an essential tool to help develop
odour-management strategies.

On the domestic front, companies such as Elemental Solutions
(www.elementalsolutions.co.uk) are busy developing products that have grown directly from their independent research into sustainable water management. Such products include the Airflush urinal that is waterless; the ES4 WC that uses 4.5 litres to flush as opposed to an average nine litres for traditional toilets; and the Compus dry toilet that composts human waste.

Meanwhile, many supply companies are actively investigating ways of making new homes use less water. For example, Essex & Suffolk Water, in partnership with other interested parties, has funded a project to trial water-efficiency measures and grey water recycling in 37 new homes in Heybridge, Essex.

Twelve test homes were fitted with six-litre flush toilets, low-volume flow showers, spray taps and low-capacity baths and then compared for efficiency against 12 control houses using standard appliances. The average amount used per person per day was 97 litres in the water-efficient homes compared with 102 litres in the control homes – a saving of five per cent.

Desalination plants are under investigation by two UK companies, South East Water and Thames Water that between them meet the needs of the most densely packed and water-needy parts of the country.

Desalination has its critics who say the process requires too much energy but Thames Water claims that it is the only way to provide London with the extra water the capital needs, quickly enough and at an acceptable cost. Its environment director, Richard Aylard, said: “It takes the same energy to produce only two litres of bottled water as the desalination plant would need to supply a family of four for a day. The use of the plant would be regulated by the Environment Agency and we would only turn to it when we need to.”

The Thames Water proposal would supply Londoners with 140 litres a day, drawing supplies from the tidal stretch of the River Thames where water is about one third as salty as the sea. It would be stored in a buffer tank before entering the treatment process where large, small and finer particles would be removed.

The water would be pushed under high pressure through very fine membranes that hold back salt and impurities. Minerals would then be added, the water would be disinfected and then begin its journey to customers’ homes.

Thames Water is also investing in addressing water lost through leakage and has already replaced 400km (250 miles) of London’s water mains since 2002 in the first systematic programme of pipe renewal in the capital since Victorian times. It plans to renew a further 1,370km (850 miles) of pipework by 2010 at a cost of 540 million pounds, and an additional 60 million pounds a year is being spent on locating and fixing leaks.

At Newhaven harbour in Sussex, South East Water has built a pilot desalination plant measuring 12 metres by 2.5m by 2.5m (the size of a cargo container) to conduct a trial into the technology. If approved, a full-scale plant would be contained in a building the size of a small warehouse and would be capable of producing up to 9.5 million litres a day. South East Water supplies 400 million litres a day, therefore the plant, if built, would supply just a small proportion of the area’s needs.

But South East Water intends the plant to run at full capacity only during long periods of dry weather when it would be blended with water from other sources and fed into the distribution system to reach those areas with shortages.

Transferring resources from an area of plenty to one of need is another approach being used by some collaborating companies. For example, construction is also well under way on a 25 million pounds project run jointly by Southern Water and South East Water that will transfer water from Kent to East Sussex where resources are already stretched.

A pipeline has been built to link Bewl reservoir, Kent, to Darwell reservoir, Sussex. A second pipe then runs from Darwell to South East Water’s treatment works at Ninfield, also Sussex. The scheme is designed to help secure supplies for customers in Sussex, especially during long, dry times.

Meanwhile, Southern Water has recently completed a micro-filtration plant that will improve water quality to the city of Southampton in southern England. The plant took two years to build at a cost of nine million pounds and includes latest mechanical and electrical equipment including millions of hollow micro-filters resembling fine porous straws to offer added protection to the quality of water.

Jon Crooke, its water operations manager, explained: “Water from underground at our treatment works in Otterbourne near Winchester is sucked from the outside to the inside of the fibres. This is designed to remove particles larger than one thousandth of a millimetre in diameter which cannot pass through the membrane.”

The same company is also helping to bring cleaner seas to the coastline at one of south-east England’s most popular stretches of beach at Margate and Broadstairs in Kent. Southern Water is spending 80 million pounds on a scheme to transfer wastewater from Margate and Broadstairs along one of a new 11km system of pipelines to a new treatment works that is being built as part of the project.

Up to 20 million litres of wastewater will be treated every day at the works where it will undergo a series of processes including disinfection by ultraviolet light. The treated wastewater will then be sent back to Margate via a parallel part of the pipeline system for release far out to sea.

Along with the engineering approach, the UK government and the water industry are also looking at simpler technologies such as water metering and water-awareness campaigns to do, perhaps, the hardest job of all: change consumer behaviour.

Investing In A Capital Future

SUSTAINABLE development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come – and in the United Kingdom’s capital huge efforts are being made to ensure that vision.

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs is one of the main aims of the Greater London Authority. In pursuance of these goals the London Development Agency was set up by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

London is a city of contrasts - it has the UK’s highest productivity rate, the world’s fourth largest economy and a gross value added of more than 160 billion pounds sterling a year. Its global transport links are second to none, the skills and diversity of its people are world class, and the educational institutions in the city have global reputations.

The capital also faces challenges: population expansion, rising costs, housing shortages, insufficient and outdated transport infrastructure, and the highest child poverty rate in the UK.

These are the challenges that the London Development Agency (LDA) must tackle head-on. Being the mayor’s agency responsible for driving London’s sustainable economic growth, its job is to ensure that the capital remains a global success story - in the next year, the next decade and in the next century. It works to deliver the mayor’s vision for London to be a sustainable world city with strong, long-term economic growth, social inclusion and active environmental improvement.

To help do this, it produces the mayor’s economic development strategy for London that sets out Livingstone’s vision in detail and also sets the context for the work. The strategy is based on four basic themes that all connect. They are:

:: Investment in places and infrastructure to deliver more effective infrastructure for future growth and create healthy, sustainable, high-quality communities. It is investing in the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as part of efforts to regenerate the Lower Lea Valley and the wider Thames Gateway.

:: Investment in people to tackle the barriers to employment that still affects too many Londoners. On 10 March the LDA rolled out the diversity works campaign to tackle discrimination in all its forms - against disabled people, older people, women, and people from minority communities.

:: Investment in enterprise will tackle the barriers to enterprise start-up, growth and competitiveness. The LDA wants to maintain London’s position as a key enterprise and trading location; to support new business start-ups and medium-size business growth.

:: Investment in marketing and promotion is about harmonising the way the LDA promotes the capital to the rest of the UK and the outside world. It aims to maintain and develop London as a top international destination and the principal UK gateway for tourism, education and investment.

Recently Mr Livingstone said: “I am conscious of the GLA’s own impact on London’s sustainability and have made sustainable development a key part of everything we do.”

He went on: “People struggle with the concept of sustainable development which is about improving quality of life for all of us, now and in the future. If it is to continue to prosper as a world city, London needs to address social inequality, improve the environment, create more jobs, improve housing standards and enable people to live healthy lives.”

Only last year (2005) British Waterways became the 400th company to sign up to the mayor’s Green Procurement Code run by London Remade. British Waterways has pledged to work with London Remade to increase its recycling rate and to build sustainability into their procurement procedures.

The green code was launched by the mayor in 2001 to ensure that companies based in the capital had help in identifying best practice for the recycling of waste and buying products made from recycled materials.

Since then, it has gained international recognition and audited a 33 million pounds spend on recycled products by its signatories. British Waterways joins all of the London boroughs plus organisations from the private sector including high-street names in retail, construction, banking, the information technology/telecoms industry and the community sector as signatories of the code.

London Remade is an innovative recycling programme aimed at increasing markets for recycled products and driving the development of an entrepreneurial recycling supply chain. It is a unique partnership between the business, community, public and not-for-profit sectors,

London Remade uses recycling as a vehicle to drive economic and social regeneration and is principally funded by the LDA to deliver green procurement and business-support programmes. London Remade is sponsored by Office Depot, Bywaters Recycling and Waste Management, Valpak, M-Real and Brother.

Mayor Ken Livingstone said: “The Green Procurement Code has begun to change the way many companies think about the environment. London Remade has worked really hard so that the 400 signatories are now looking at sustainability as the way forward. Reaching the 400 mark is a real achievement and the basic message is if you are not buying recycled goods you are not recycling.”

As well as buying more recycled products, British Waterways is looking at ways to recycle more of the waste it removes from its waterways. For example, it is researching the potential to turn duckweed collected from the River Lee into compost. It is also working with Transport for London and other partners on plans to transport recyclable materials by barge, in a bid to reduce traffic congestion and pollution on London’s roads.

British Waterways cares for and manages 160 kilometres (100 miles) of canals and rivers and 44 hectares (110 acres) of docks in London. As a not-for-dividend public corporation it works with a broad range of public, private and voluntary sector partners to unlock the potential of the inland waterways for the benefit of the millions who visit and care for them.

Mike Lewis, British Waterways London’s procurement manager, said: “By signing up to the code, we want to play our part in developing the market for recycled products, saving money and the environment at the same time. We aim to become increasingly sustainable with the ultimate goal of buying - where possible - recycled products from companies who have taken in our waste materials.”

Sewage That Is Full Of Green Energy

GREEN energy - power produced and harnessed during the treatment process in some sewage works in the United Kingdom - is helping to run operations within them.

Southern Water’s project is proving such a success that the utility company has just announced that it is enlarging the programme to start powering more plants.

Six works in Kent and Sussex in south-east England are already using this renewable energy and now another three systems are to be created in works that recycle cleaned wastewater into the environment via rivers and watercourses.

The biogas produced during the treatment works process is made up of 62 per cent methane, 35 per cent carbon dioxide and some trace elements and is recycled into both electricity and heat.

The six sewage works already using this energy are producing 12 million kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity a year - enough energy for lighting, cooking and domestic appliances in about 1,700 homes.

If any power is produced above the needs of the treatment works it is now being exported to the national grid to enable more people to take advantage of this green energy.

And in another bonus, the recovered heat from the power plant’s engine is treating solid waste removed from the wastewater to be safely recycled as agricultural fertiliser.

Southern Water is hoping to harness more green power in the future and is exploring other ways of using green energy, including hydropower water turbines.

Recognition of its work with green energy is the recent approval by the National Energy Foundation to become part of the Carbon Trust’s Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme, one of just a handful of utilities so far to be recognised.

This is just one example of the growth in use of modern environmental technology in the UK. It is a sector that is gathering momentum and the figures prove it.

At present the UK environmental market is estimated to be worth more than 14 billion pounds sterling per year. It has grown by 15 per cent since 1997 and is expected to reach more than 21 billion pounds in value by 2010.

Environmental laws and policies plus an increasing awareness of the savings that good environmental practices can deliver for well-run businesses are coming together with the mood of a nation concerned about issues such as climate change and that wants to take more responsibility to secure the future of the planet.

Turning The Tide Towards Cleaner Seas

BRITONS are proud of the seas around their island nation and the important marine life that it sustains. With 16,700 kilometres (about 10,500 miles) of outstandingly beautiful coastline, the prevention of pollution and keeping seas clean has become increasingly important.

Official bodies such as the Environment Agency, and the Maritime & Coastguard Agency are on watch, responsible throughout the United Kingdom for implementing the government’s policy for clean, healthy and productive seas as well as maritime safety.

They work in partnership with central government, businesses, local authorities and communities to fulfil these duties, making sure that marine ecosystems are healthy and protected.

And many others are joining them with a drive towards a better environment. One example, using modern environmental technology and working to bring cleaner seas to the Kent coastline of southern England, is the major utility company Southern Water.

As part of a major cleaner seas project costing 80 million pounds, the company is laying an 11-kilometre pipeline in which wastewater from the Margate and Broadstairs area on the coast of south-east England will be transferred to a new treatment works.

Up to 20 million litres of wastewater will be treated every day at the works where it will undergo a series of advanced processes including disinfection by ultraviolet light. The treated wastewater will be returned by a second parallel pipeline for release about two kilometres out to sea at Foreness Point.

Part of the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2007, involves laying a 700-metre section of pipeline across the end of the runway at Kent International Airport at Manston.

Keith Jeffery, Southern Water’s project manager, said: “The work at the airport is being carefully coordinated with the airport authority and the team is in constant contact with the control tower to ensure there are no safety issues.”

Coasts and seas are a national asset but the growing pressures from human activities, climate change and coastal erosion have lately threatened the quality of the environment and the people and businesses that depend on it.

The sea has shaped the history and culture of the UK and is vital for the future of many people, in businesses, fisheries, tourism, recreation as well as wildlife - all needing cleaner seas. One in three people in the UK lives near the sea, and the coast is a favourite destination for holidaymakers.

Some 97 per cent of the UK’s trade by weight is by sea and remains vital to the economy. The challenge being faced is to find the right balance between managing human activities today and protecting the marine environment for the future.

The UK government has recently made a commitment to tackle this challenge with marine law that will embrace all uses of the sea, protect marine resources and simplify regulation.

“We want our coasts and seas to continue to provide food for people, homes for local communities, a destination for tourists, a place for business, and habitats for wildlife,” said an Environment Agency spokesman.

Ozone recovery is going slowly

Although the Earth’s ozone layer is on the mend, the recovery is going more slowly than expected. Scientists have developed a new computer model that takes existing atmospheric data and correctly reproduces the size and shape of the ozone hole above Antarctica for the past 27 years. The model then predicts into the future, forecasting that the ozone hole will stick around until 2068, and not 2050 as scientists originally believed.

The Antarctic ozone hole’s recovery is running late. According to a new NASA study, the full return of the protective ozone over the South Pole will take nearly 20 years longer than scientists previously expected.

Scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., have developed a new tool, a math-based computer model, to better predict when the ozone hole will recover.

The Antarctic ozone hole is a massive loss of ozone high in the atmosphere (the stratosphere) that occurs each spring in the Southern Hemisphere. The ozone hole is caused by chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere that destroy ozone. These gases come from human-produced chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons, otherwise called CFCs.

The ozone layer blocks 90-99 percent of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation from making contact with Earth. That harmful radiation can cause skin cancer, genetic damage, and eye damage, and harm marine life.

For the first time, a model combines estimates of future Antarctic chlorine and bromine levels based on current amounts as captured from NASA satellite observations, NOAA ground-level observations, NCAR airplane-based observations, with likely future emissions, the time it takes for the transport of those emissions into the Antarctic stratosphere, and assessments of future weather patterns over Antarctica.

The model accurately reproduces the ozone hole area in the Antarctic stratosphere over the past 27 years. Using the model, the researchers predict that the ozone hole will recover in 2068, not in 2050 as currently believed.

“The Antarctic ozone hole is the poster child of ozone loss in our atmosphere,” said author Paul Newman, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. And lead author of the study. “Over areas that are farther from the poles like Africa or the U.S., the levels of ozone are only three to six percent below natural levels. Over Antarctica, ozone levels are 70 percent lower in the spring. This new method allows us to more accurately estimate ozone-depleting gases over Antarctica, and how they will decrease over time, reducing the ozone hole area.”

International agreements like the Montreal Protocol have banned the production of most chemicals that destroy ozone. But the researchers show that the ozone hole has not started to shrink a lot as a result. The scientists predict the ozone hole will not start shrinking a lot until 2018. By that year, the ozone hole’s recovery will make better time.