In his second annual report tabled May 26 in the House of Commons, Canada's Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Brian Emmett, indicates that he is deeply troubled by the federal government's performance to date on the environment.

"Vision and leadership are the two essential ingredients for tackling environmental challenges that face a government," said the Commissioner. "While Canada has demonstrated vision, it is failing in implementing it. What really concerns me is that far too often, the government is not keeping the promises it makes both to Canadians and to the world."

Canada will not meet its international commitment to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000. Emissions will have increased by at least 11% at the turn of the century.

Canada's biological diversity is increasingly threatened by pollution and the loss of wildlife habitat. Canada has been slow to meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Environmental assessment is crucial for making better decisions. Yet Canada's environmental assessment process is not working as well as it should.

The report, for the first time, also assesses sustainable development strategies of 28 federal departments and agencies. In addition, the Commissioner reports the results of four studies in areas such as Canada's international environmental agreements, accounting for sustainable development, performance measurement and the experience of leading private sector organizations worldwide in sustainable development planning.

Brian Emmett is the first federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. He is independent and non-partisan, and reports to Parliament annually.

The Report is available on the Office of the Auditor General website: www.oag-bvg.gc.ca. For more information, contact: Johanne McDuff, Office of the Auditor General of Canada, Tel: (613) 952-0213, ext. 6292.

The Kunming plant.

The world's largest SBR type wastewater treatment plant, located in Kunming, People's Republic of China, began successful operation in November 1997. The ABJ^TM ICEAS® process is designed to process 300,000 m³/d (80 mgd) of domestic and light industrial wastewater at the Kunming No. 3 plant.

The project utilizes the Intermittent Cycle Extended Aeration System (ICEAS®) ­ a sequential batch reactor system in which aeration, anoxic/anaerobic mixing, settling and decanting are accomplished in a time sequenced operation within a single basin. The process enables high treatment rates to be achieved in a physically smaller and economic design. With each basin operating independently, simply adding more plants in parallel can easily expand total capacity of the installation.

In the Kunming No. 3 project, a total of 14 basins, each 44m long by 32m wide were installed and a total of 44,000 Sanitaire® fine bubble membrane diffusers were utilized providing enhanced oxygen transfer efficiency and lower operating costs.

A water meter will be installed in most new City of Calgary homes under construction as part of a program launched recently to encourage water conservation. The program enables customers to try a water meter for one year at no financial risk. Residents can still choose a flat rate billing but, "95% of customers who have participated in the water meter incentive program have saved money," says a city water efficiency specialist.

City water plants are almost at full capacity now as population growth continues in Calgary.

Many US power plants are planning to switch coals to reduce SO₂ emissions, but fuel switching is likely to result in substantial increases in air toxins such as mercury if utilities are not careful in fuel selection.

According to The McIlvaine Company, the potential consequences of fuel switching are much greater than previously thought. For example, mercury content in coal varies as much as twenty-eight to one. If just 10 percent of coal-fired plants switched to a coal with five times the mercury level of present coals, mercury emissions would rise by 51,000 lbs./yr. By comparison, mercury emissions from all the US municipal and medical waste incinerators are being reduced from 72,000 to 12,000 lbs./yr. due to recent regulations. Therefore, fuel switching by power plants could offset the mercury reductions made by other industries.

Previous analysis has failed to take into account the opportunistic fuel purchasing policies that will result from deregulation. Dirtier fuels are lower in cost and, therefore, will be in greater demand.

If just one percent of coal-fired plants switched from a high sulphur low chlorine coal to a low sulphur 0.1 percent chlorine coal, hydrochloric acid emissions would rise by 13,000,000 lbs./yr. This far exceeds the new limits of 8,000,000 lbs./yr. for all the nation's municipal and medical waste incinerators.

Fine particulate emissions will rise when low sulphur coals are substituted for high sulphur coals unless additional investments are made in air pollution control equipment.

Coal contains a number of toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium, beryllium, manganese, nickel, and chromium. There is a large variation in quantity not only from one coal type to another, but even between coals from different locations in the same seam.

The McIlvaine Company in its report, Air Pollution Management, suggests the following:

1. Common sense and communications are needed ­ not new regulations. Title V and other Titles of the CAA already provide the means to prevent these toxic and particulate increases.

2. Utilities should make compliance decisions by taking into account all pollution consequences of each option.

3. To make assessments easier for utilities, a pollution index which compares the relative harm of different pollutants should be constructed (e.g. SO₂ = 1, fine particulates = 40, mercury = 40,000).

4. Utilities should choose options which do not increase total pollution. Scrubbing or cofiring gas are also viable options for SO₂ reduction. These can be compared to the acceptable alternate fuels.

5. EPA should make clear that if mercury or air toxin caps are later promulgated, they will be based on a 1998 baseline and that increases over that baseline for the years 1999 and beyond will be deducted from future allowances.

Source: The McIlvaine Company, (847) 272-0010.

D.G. Karamanev and R. Samson used a novel immobilized soil biofilm reactor to effect high rate biodegradation of pentachlorophenol (PCP). As described in Environmental Science and Technology, essentially all the PCP is degraded within the biofilm with negligible liquid-phase biodegradation. The optimal temperature range was between 20 and 35°C at pH values below 7.7. These École Polytechnique scientists conclude that aerobic biodegradation of PCP is much less affected by variations in different physicochemical factors when carried out in a biofilm as compared to a free suspended culture.

As described in Environmental Science and Technology, Institute of Ocean Sciences researchers used a sediment core collected from Kamloops Lake to assess historical inputs of polychlorinated dioxin and furans (PCDD/Fs) from a pulp mill in order to assess the effects of recent environmental controls. R.W. MacDonald, M.G. Ikonomou and D.W. Paton found that, between 1930 and 1960, the sediments showed only minor contamination by PCBs and higher chlorinated dioxins and furans. With the construction of the mill in 1965, large quantities of HxCDD and the tetra-chlorinated PCDD/Fs were released. Technological changes at the pulp mill have effected a drastic reduction in pulp mill PCDD/Fs in the 1990s.

Endogenous decay of biomass results in oxidation and resynthesis as well as release of suspended organic debris that is refractory in the biological process. R.L. Droste made a thermodynamic analysis of endogenous resynthesis to determine the endogenous yield factor and verify concepts in the more recent mechanistic IAWQ models. The endogenous yield factor is not, in general, the same as the yield factor from exogenous substrate as assumed in the IAWQ model. A new model, described in Water Research, is proposed by this University of Ottawa scientist based on the revised energetics model. The continuous decay of biodegradable mass and production of refractory suspended solids is described in the model.

University of Manitoba scientists K.B. McIntosh and J.A. Oleszkiewicz studied the efficacy of volatile fatty acid production in a thermophilic aerobic digester process using primary sludge under two oxygenation states and detention times ranging from 12 to 24 hours. Under anaerobic conditions, as described in Water Science and Technology, acetic acid constituted the largest fraction of short chain volatile fatty acids at an average of 60.4% while propionic acid trailed at 19.3%. The fractions of butyric and valeric acids were 12.2% and 8.1%, respectively.

In a paper published in Environmental Science and Technology, H.A. Morrison and colleagues from the University of Windsor, Simon Fraser University, and the Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, describe a model that estimates bioaccumulation of chemicals in a benthic/pelagic food web. Concentration data for 31 PCB congeners in 14 different fish species, five benthic invertebrate species, water, and sediment collected from western Lake Erie, and corresponding feeding preference data, were used to verify the model. The ability of this model to predict contaminant transfer in a complex food web and its potential applicability to other food webs indicate that it could be an important tool for managing contaminants on an ecosystem level.

As described in a paper published in Water Research, T.L. Ho and J.R. Bolton photolysed pentachlorophenol (PCP) using both direct UV photolysis and photolysis in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. These University of Western Ontario scientists studied the correlation between photodegradation and toxicity using a bacterial toxicity test and a 96h flathead minnow toxicity test. In both cases, the toxicity decreased as the concentration of PCP or the total organic chlorine concentration fell. These results indicate that the treatments either failed to generate significant levels of acutely toxic intermediates, or any toxic intermediates are rapidly degraded under the specific conditions used in these studies.

An important environmental issue for Canadian agriculture is groundwater nitrogen pollution. Addressing this issue requires understanding the impact of farm management practices on nitrate leaching, but empirical studies are limited by resource and time constraints. University of Guelph scientists E.K. Yiridoe, R.P. Voroney and A. Weersink adapted the CENTURY model to southwestern Ontario agricultural conditions and then used it to predict short- to medium-term effects of crop choice and crop rotation pattern, fertilizer management, and tillage practice on nitrogen leaching. The results, published in the Journal of Environmental Quality, suggest that grain yield and predicted nitrogen provide good representation of results from field measured data.

Cultures of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, widely used in various bioleaching processes, are usually maintained by time-consuming serial transfers in a liquid medium at regular short intervals. K.S. Narasiah and colleagues from the University of Sherbrooke and INRS-Eau tested methods of preservation for acclimatized acidophilic microflora composed of iron oxidizing bacteria and acidophilic bacteria using various cryoprotective agents. As reported in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, it was found that storage in soil suspension at 4°C was the best method of preservation for the three iron-oxidizing bacterial communities tested. Following revival after an eight-month storage period, the activity of the three acclimatized microflora was intact and their bioleaching ability was fully retained

J-P.F.P. Palmentier and colleagues describe the analysis of geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol in a paper published in Water Research. The compounds are extracted from water by adsorption, desorbed into dichloromethane, and analysed by gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry using isotope dilution quantitation technique. Compared with standard analytical methods, the isotope dilution technique provided increased productivity, faster turnaround times, and better between-run precision and accuracy. These Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy scientists achieved detection limits of 2ng/L for both compounds. The method was successfully applied to 152 samples from Lake Ontario water supplies.

Permeable-reactive redox walls, placed below the ground surface in the path of flowing groundwater, provide an alternative remediation approach for removing electroactive chemicals from contaminated groundwater. D.W. Blowes, C.J. Ptacek and J.L. Jambor assessed various iron-bearing solids for their ability to remove dissolved Cr⁶⁺ from solution at flow rates typical of those encountered at sites of remediation. The results, published in Environmental Science and Technology by these University of Waterloo scientists, showed a partial removal of Cr⁶⁺ by pyrite and coarse-grained elemental iron, and quantitative removal by fine-grained elemental iron, at rapid groundwater flow velocities.

D.F. Malley (Freshwater Institute) and P.C. Williams (Canadian Grain Commission) have published a paper in Environmental Science and Technology describing the use of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) for the prediction of heavy metal concentrations in freshwater sediments by their association with organic matter. Sediments were sandy and highly organic littoral samples from a Precambrian Shield lake in northwestern Ontario. The correlation coefficients between NIR-predicted and chemically analysed metal concentrations ranged between 0.81 and 0.93 for copper, zinc, lead, nickel, manganese and iron. The study demonstrates that the prediction of heavy metal concentrations in freshwater sediment by NIRS is feasible.

Sludge volume index (SVI) type activated sludge settleability measures are used in the design and control of secondary settling tanks. Considerable confusion exists as to the best parameter and experimental technique to use. McMaster University scientists C.M. Bye and P.L. Dold used a simple mechanistic model to evaluate the effects of solids characteristics and test parameters on SVI-type indices. Solids settleability and compactability, settling column height, and solids concentration have an interactive effect on the measured SVI. As described in Water Environment Research, the applied model explains many of the artifacts associated with SVI and questions the validity of correlations for zone settling parameters based on SVI-type measurements.

Freshwater Institute scientists E. Scherer and R.E. McNicol tested the preference-avoidance response of lake whitefish to copper, zinc, and lead ions. Under uniform illumination, Cu was avoided at concentrations of 1µg/L and higher, Zn and Pb at and above 10µg/L. The results, published in Water Research, indicated that the fish preferred the shade when presented with a choice between shaded and illuminated areas. When metals were injected into the shaded, previously preferred area, avoidance of these ions (especially in the case of Pb) was strongly suppressed except for the highest concentrations.

The low concentrations (ppm to ppb) typical of organic pollutants dissolved in groundwater have been a major factor limiting the application of stable isotope tracing techniques at contaminated field sites. A study undertaken by scientists at the University of Toronto and Applied Groundwater Research Limited, used pentane to extract benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and the xylene isomers from water. H.S. Demster, B.S. Lollar and S. Feenstra report in Environmental Science and Technology that this technique is an excellent means of resolving the problem and preparing low concentration samples for carbon isotope analysis using high sensitivity gas chromatograph-combustion-ratio isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

A methodology is described in Water Research to estimate some process parameters for an intermittently aerated completely mixed (IACM) system used for carbon oxidation, nitrification and denitrification. The approach described by J.Z. Yang and K.C. Lin is able to distinguish between heterotrophic and autotrophic microorganisms, and can account for the variation of kinetic parameters under aerobic and anoxic conditions. Parameters determined by these University of New Brunswick researchers include heterotrophic biomass yield and decay rates for aerobic and anoxic periods, autotrophic biomass yield and decay rate, nitrification rate, cell nitrogen to carbon consumption ratio, and fraction of autotrophic biomass.

To determine the frequency and level of aquifer contamination by herbicides in the Canadian prairie, a study of natural springs draining small surficial aquifers in Saskatchewan was carried out by Environment Canada scientists J.A. Wood and D.H.J. Anthony. All but one of the aquifers received herbicide applications for agricultural purposes or brush control. The results, published in the Journal of Environmental Quality, indicated that herbicides were detected in 23% of the samples collected. The most frequently detected were atrazine, picloram, and 2,4-D at concentrations in the ng/L range. None of the herbicide concentrations exceeded any guidelines for drinking water, livestock, irrigation, or aquatic life.

A. Ndabigengesere and K.S. Narasiah treated a model turbid water by coagulation-flocculation and sedimentation using Moringa oleifera seed extract as coagulant. These University of Sherbrooke scientists analysed the quality of the treated water and compared it with that of water treated with alum. As described in Water Research, experiments were conducted at various dosages of the crude 5% water extract of both dry, shelled and non-shelled Moringa oleifera seeds. The coagulation did not significantly affect pH, conductivity, alkalinity, or cation and anion concentrations. However, the concentration of organic matter in the treated water increased significantly with the dosage of the Moringa solution.

Few data exist for the surface area of snow despite its importance for modelling wet deposition and migration of reversibly deposited contaminants in snow. In a paper published in Environmental Science and Technology, University of Waterloo scientist J.T. Hoff and colleagues from MDA Consulting, Trent University, WECC Wania Environmental Chemists Corp., and the University of Toronto describe a method for determining the surface area of snow that uses a commercial nitrogen adsorption instrument. The method uses a sample vial containing snow and a reference vial containing an equal amount of snow that has been melted and refrozen to minimize its surface area. Comparison with literature data suggests that the results obtained are comparable to the surface area measured by microscopy techniques.

Institute of Ocean Sciences researchers measured the vertical distributions of tributyltin and its degradation products in sediment cores collected in harbours and marinas of southern British Columbia. Despite restrictions on the use of organotin-based marine antifouling paints imposed in Canada in 1989, C. Stewart and J.A.J. Thompson found that the concentrations of butyltin compounds in coastal marine sediments remain high. As described in Environmental Technology, similar high levels were also recorded in a core collected in inner Vancouver harbour indicating that commercial shipping continues to be a significant source of butyltin contaminants.

D.K. McNicol and colleagues from the Canadian Wildlife Service, INRS-Eau, and STATEX monitored 23 chemical parameters in 161 lakes northeast of Sudbury over a 12-year period to determine whether lake chemistries were responding to reduced local SO₂ emissions. As described in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 40% of the lakes declined significantly in SO₂, base cations, and aluminum levels from 1983 to 1995. Although some recovery continues to occur, many small Sudbury lakes remain very degraded and unsuitable for acid-sensitive biota. Further emission reductions, including long-range sources, may be necessary to restore chemical conditions to levels that can support further biological recovery.

For more information on R&D News, contact Dr. H.R. Eisenhauer, Canadian Association on Water Quality, Environmental Technology Centre, Environment Canada, 3439 River Road South, Gloucester, ON K1A 0H3, Tel: (613) 990-9849, Fax: (613) 990-2855.