Science is finally making headway on what is causing the die off of complete hives of bees.
Penn State researchers worked with the National Science Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agricultural Marketing Service that already tests commodities such as milk and fruits and vegetables.
Honey has not regularly been analyzed, and bee pollen was not a commodity and so was not analyzed at all. The researchers decided to use types of screening the lab uses for milk and apples, which looks at over 170 pesticides. What they found is quite astounding to me... because of what it says about our agricultural practices.
Honeycomb may contain pesticides applied years ago.
Scientists do not know that these chemicals have anything to do with colony collapse disorder, but scientists have concluded that these pesticides are definitely stressors. Penn State's Dr. Maryann Frazier say, "Pesticides alone have not shown they are the cause of CCD. We believe that it is a combination of a variety of factors, possibly including mites, viruses and pesticides."
While beekeepers will have a difficult time controlling pesticide exposure outside the hive, the Penn State researchers tested a method using gamma radiation for reducing the chemical load in beeswax and they found that irradiation broke down about 50% of the acaricides, pesticides that kill mites.
Read all the details at the Environment News Service.
West coast microclimates are interesting. From rain soaked areas like San Anselmo, to rain starved areas like Bakersfield, each zone presents it own challenges for water issues. With each water challenge comes difficulties that municipalities, developers, and home-owners have to adapt to, and manage.
LID offers workable solutions that developers and home-owners can implement to manage water issues whatever their situation -- dearth or deluge. Whether the issue is drought conditions or excessive runoff, sustainable water management is important to California.
Permeable Pavement allows water to rapidly pass through the pavement into a cistern or natural underground water supplies. |
Modular Pavers Used in Hardscape Applications
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Different from traditional concrete pavers, Permapave NW pavers have an actual flow-through rate of over 1 gallon of water per second. The pavers are manufactured from natural rock, with an acrylic polymer binder similar to the clear coat on your automobile. The finished product is a completely inert paver which returns water directly to the soil, or underground storage, without adding alkalinity, zinc or hydrocarbons to the runoff.
Residential Applications
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Commercial / Industrial Applications
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Modular Pavers Used in Landscape Applications
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The surface not only performs well for sidewalks, biking paths, parking lots, and driveways but also handles water efficiently in both drought and flood conditions.
The EPA has long noted the benefits of pervious pavers, highlighting them in their Best Management Practices: "depending on the design, pervious pavements (pavers), when used in combination with other techniques such as vegetated swales, or vegetated filter strips, may eliminate or reduce the need for land intensive BMPs, such as dry extended detention or wet retention ponds." (EPA Best Management Practices- porous pavements)
Both residential and commercial developers may find that the use of pervious pavers, which can range up to $8 per square foot, can actually make money for them, by eliminating detention ponds and increasing the amount of land that can be developed.
Home-owners can install the easy-to-use permeable pavers themselves, providing drainage areas for driveway or patios that may be puddling, or as a pervious cover for an underground water storage cistern.
The pavers can also be used as stepping stones, in pet areas, in gardens, along walkways, as parking areas for RVs -- the landscaping possibilities are endless.
Some municipalities are offering rebates for the purchase of LID products like Permapave. Check with your local city or county city and county governments, as well as water providers (ie: Metropolitan Water District) to find incentives and rebates to improve water quality, reduce runoff, or retain stormwater.
Sample permeable pavers by Permapave Northwest |
In 1992, this theory was put into practice by USGS scientists. Nutrients
were delivered to contaminated soils through infiltration galleries,
contaminated ground water was removed by a series of extraction wells, and
the arduous task of monitoring contamination levels began. By the end of
1993, contamination in the residential area had been reduced by 75
percent. Nearer to the infiltration galleries (the source of the
nutrients), the results were even better.
Ground water that once had contained more than 5,000 parts per billion toluene now contained no detectable contamination.
Bioremediation had worked!
Through the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program, of the US Geological Survey (USGS) the most
important categories of wastes have been systematically investigated at sites
throughout the United States.
One of the principal findings of this
program was that microorganisms in shallow aquifers affect the fate and
transport of virtually all kinds of toxic substances.
Reducing environmental stress---Because bioremediation methods minimize site disturbance compared with conventional cleanup technologies, post-cleanup costs can be substantially reduced.
