The Statkraft power plant used to be a paper mill. Photo courtesy of Statkraft.com

In 1974 a researcher at the University of Connecticut submitted a paper to the journal Science. He claimed that large amounts of energy could be extracted from the natural mixing of fresh water and salty sea water that occurs at river mouths around the world.

The author, Richard Norman, was surprised when the manuscript was positively reviewed. He had submitted it partly tongue-in-cheek in response to the journal’s apparent affinity for publishing what he described as “outlandish claims”.

However, on looking closely at the numbers, he realized that this really could be a viable source of sustainable energy.

As a biologist with an interest in biophysics, he was aware of the “enormous amount of energy” involved in the mixing of salt water with fresh water, but also of a way in which this energy could be extracted via the process of osmosis.  During osmosis, water is transported through a wall while salt and other molecules are not.

Things have come a long way since then.  On Nov. 24 2009, the world’s first power plant aimed at harnessing this energy came online.

Statkraft, Norway’s national energy producer, is behind the project. After 10 years of research and $20 million USD invested, they will be looking to this experimental plant to show that this technology is commercially viable.

Free energy?

In the 10 minutes it takes you to read this story, 82 million mega joules of energy will have been dissipated by the natural mixing of fresh water and salty water at river mouths and estuaries all over the world. That’s enough energy to power more than 2,000 BC homes for a year.

To see where the energy comes from, imagine a tank with a partition down the middle: sea water on one side, salt water on the other. Remove this partition and the two liquids will spontaneously mix. At this point a physicist might tell you that there has been a dissipation of free energy as the liquids mixed.

Free energy is a lot like the proverbial free lunch in the sense that it’s not really free. Rather, it is the energy that can be extracted from the system during a reversible process.

The mixing as described above is not reversible, but if a reversible method of allowing salt water and fresh water to mix could be found, the ‘free energy’ could be extracted.

In theory, 2.2 kilo-joules of energy could be extracted for every liter of fresh water dispersed into the sea, equivalent to what you would get from burning one gram of coal.

Extracting the energy

The first ideas on how to go about extracting this energy came soon after the publication of Norman’s paper, from a researcher who was working on desalination – the process of making fresh, potable water from sea water.

Sidney Loeb was developing semi-permeable membranes that could act as salt filters. By pressurizing sea water, which requires energy, water would pass through the membrane, leaving the salt behind. They realized that this process should run equally well in reverse, with fresh water passing through the membrane producing pressurized salt water, which produces energy. This is the process at the heart of the new Statkraft power plant.

To get a better idea of just how this power plant will work, imagine again that same tank of water, now split into two by a semipermeable membrane.

Fresh water from the river fills one side, while sea water fills the other. Fresh river water passes through the membrane on its own, thanks to osmosis, which is driven by the difference in salinity.

The fresh water dilutes the salt water, but it also increases the pressure in the salt water chamber. The pressurized water can then be released through a turbine, producing energy in the same way as a hydropower station.

The pressure buildup is the manifestation of the free energy in the system. By introducing a semipermeable membrane, this energy can be extracted from the mixing process.

The technology at the center of osmotic power is the membrane. The speed with which it can pass water through will determine how much energy is produced, and whether the process is commercially viable.

Membrane technology

Karen Gerstandt is one of the researchers who worked in collaboration with Statkraft to develop new membranes. She explains that the membranes used for desalination that had been in development since the 70s were poorly suited to the application of power generation.

New membrane technology needed to be developed from scratch, and it was not until the late 90s that this research began in earnest.

The membranes produced and tested in the lab by Gerstandt and the group at the Institute for Polymer Research in Hamburg, Germany, are right on the borderline of what is required to run a commercially viable power plant. The the energy produced by the membranes depends on how quickly they allow water to pass through, and is measured in terms of the power produced by a square meter of membrane.

Stein Erik Skilhagen, head of osmotic power at Statkraft said that five watts per square meter is the magic power density that is needed. This has been proven possible in lab trials, and one of the objectives of the Statkraft plant is to see if it’s also possible in a full commercial power station.

Both Statkraft and the scientists working on the membranes admit that the large scale, real world efficiency of the membranes could well be less than what was observed in the lab. This does not worry Skilhagen, however.

He believes better membranes are not far off, saying “it’s just a matter of finding the right material. I just hope we can do it faster than has been the case with other renewables.”

Researchers too are optimistic about improvements in membrane technology.

Gerstandt is currently looking to nature for inspiration.

“Osmosis is a natural process, and there are membranes in nature 50,000 times better than what we can make in the lab,” said Gerstandt. She points to the kidneys and cell walls as examples where hugely efficient membranes play an important role.

This optimism suggests that even if the Statkraft plant fails to meet the five watt per square meter efficiency in this first installation, the problem could be easily resolved with the next generation of membrane technology.

Potential of osmotic power

The energy produced by mixing of salt and fresh water is huge. It is the ability of power producers to harness it that leaves some uncertainty as to how significant this resource really is.

According to Statkraft, in Norway alone they could generate 12 terra-watt hours annually, equivalent to 10% of national power consumption. Europe could harness 200 tWhs, while globally there is potential to produce 1200 tWhs, enough to satisfy the entire energy consumption of China.

Government and industry will need to get involved, Skilhagen says, for this renewable energy source to really take off.

“Although there has been a lot of interest from other power generators, the interest needs to be visible. Governments need to send clear signals to power producers that they support sustainable energy,” said Skilhagen.

A Suncor bitumen processing plant complete with tailings ponds. (Courtesy of David Dodge and the Pembina Institute. www.oilsandswatch.org)

Northern Alberta is home to some of the fastest-growing bodies of water in the world. Every day roughly two billion litres of water – enough to fill 800 Olympic swimming pools – are added to these lakes, which are already over 11.5 trillion litres in volume.

The largest one, located near Mildred Lake just north of Fort MacMurray, is big enough to meet the water needs of a town of 70,000 people for 50 years.

But none of the artificial lakes are fit for human consumption – they’re filled with water that’s been diverted from the Athabasca River and used to extract bitumen, a viscous, tar-like form of petroleum found in the Athabasca oil sands.

As a result, the water is toxic to humans, fish, birds, and even bacteria. Covering an area of more than 130 square kilometres, these tailings ponds are far from scenic – but they’re the easiest, most efficient way to deal with the toxified water.

“In bitumen processing water is a big, big problem,” said Greg Dechaine, a researcher at the Centre for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta. Scientists are trying to find better ways to clean up the water and avoid using so much in the first place.

Heavy, viscous fluid

Their advances so far have been modest — water will probably remain a key environmental issue for the oil sands for the foreseeable future, along with the greenhouse gases produced by the energy-intensive extraction process. But their work holds promise for a cleaner future for an industrial project the size of England.

Alberta’s oil sands are made of bitumen — a heavy, viscous fluid that is eventually refined into fossil fuels, mixed up with sand, clay, and water in the ground.

About 20 per cent of the bitumen in the oil sands is close enough to the surface that companies such as Syncrude and Suncor get at it using giant shovels and dump trucks in open pit mines. The remainder is so far underground that it has to be pumped to the surface using steam and suction.

Once the sand is out of the ground, companies use a bitumen extraction process developed by Karl Clark at the University of Alberta in the first half of the 20th century.

Actually, calling it a process might give the wrong impression – essentially, the sand is simply blasted with hot, pressurized water. Dechaine described it as “like taking a plate and running it under the tap and you just basically blast all the bits and pieces off.”

The amount of water required to do this varies based on the origin of the sand. If it comes from an open pit, it takes between two and 4.5 barrels of water to obtain one barrel of bitumen. But if the sand is extracted from deep underground, about one barrel of water total is required.

Once separated from the sand, water, and clay, the bitumen goes on to be processed into usable fossil fuels. The water is recycled until it is saturated with so much hydrocarbons and metals from the sand that it cannot be used anymore. After that, it goes into one of the ever-growing tailings ponds.

A dirty problem

The tailings ponds’ water use “is the equivalent of the use of a city the size of Calgary,” said David Schindler, a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta and a leading water scientist. “Right now, it’s just sitting there indefinitely.”

Schindler sees the oil sands as a threat to the long-term health of the Athabasca River. Taking water from the river when it freezes over in the winter lowers oxygen levels in the water, making it more difficult for fish to respire.

He also said that the tailings ponds may leak into the river and cause health problems for communities downstream, though no reliable statistics are available. He has called for a moratorium on the development of new oil sands extraction plants until more research is done into reducing their environmental impact.

Terra Simieritsch, an oil sands policy analyst at the Pembina Institute, a non-partisan think-tank in Alberta, agrees. Simieritsch said she would like to see a halt on new project approvals “so we allow some time to figure things out a little bit better and have better environmental management in place.”

While the mining continues, some scientists have dedicated their efforts to cleaning up the contaminated waters.

Richard Johnson, a biologist at the University of Essex, has discovered a way of using microbes to breakdown some of the toxic hydrocarbons found in the end-process water — specifically napthenic acids. Johnson treated a naphthenic acid solution with a cocktail of naturally-occurring bacteria, and found that the bacteria will totally metabolize some of the acids into water and carbon dioxide. However, the more complex, branched acid molecules did not breakdown completely.

Strangely, the acids Johnson’s bacteria ate are toxic to the microbes themselves.

“We’ve found in many of our experiments that the acids are toxic to the bacteria as well,” said Johnson. “So, if we add too much of the acid, the bacteria will just all die, and then not eat any of them. So you need to kind of strike the right balance.”

Finding that balance might be a bit of a problem. The microbes exhibited symptoms of toxicity at acid concentrations as low as five milligrams per litre, and naphthenic acid concentrations in tailings ponds can be up to 24 times that. Still, Johnson remains optimistic that microbes will be used to cleanup tailings ponds eventually, though he concedes it might be decades away.

Another approach to making the oil sands more water-friendly is to develop an extraction process that doesn’t require water. Researchers all over the world are exploring different ways of doing this.

Going dry

In a paper published in 2008 in the journal Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, four chemists at the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry in Moscow describe using ultrasound on oil sand to extract bitumen from oil sand.

By subjecting a sample of oil sand to sonic waves above 20,000 hertz – a sort of industrial version of the scanners used to determine the sex of a foetus – the Russians were able to shake the bitumen apart from the sand, clay and water in less than an hour.

However, the experiments were on samples of sand less than a half litre in volume, and extracted about 2.5 grams of bitumen from each sampled tested. According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the oil sands produce over 1.3 million barrels of bitumen every day, and production is expected to nearly triple by 2025. No tests at that kind of scale have been done.

Non-aqueous extraction methods are also being explored at the University of Alberta. One is the the brainchild of environmental engineer Selma Guigard. Guigard’s method involves “supercritical” carbon dioxide – a heated, pressurized solvent that behaves somewhat like a liquid and somewhat like a gas.

Guigard’s method mixes supercritical carbon dioxide with oil sand and then de-pressurizes the slurry, forcing the bitumen to separate from the rest of the mixture. The carbon dioxide can be recycled indefinitely, and the only water involved in the process is that already naturally mixed with the bitumen, sand and clay.

Once again, though, the technique has yet to be tested at the sort of scale that would let it replace the Clark process in northern Alberta. Guigard has had difficulty obtaining the funding necessary to build a small pilot plant.

Murray Gray, the director of the University of Alberta’s Centre for Oil Sands Innovation, predicts that Guigard’s method won’t be used in industry any time soon because carbon dioxide simply doesn’t mix well enough with bitumen to be viable.

“Nothing that’s been published shows that you can get good dissolution of the bitumen in carbon dioxide,” he said. “Unless someone can lick the solubility problem, it won’t be used.”

Gray’s Centre is doing its own research into non-aqueous extraction using organic solvents like paint thinner. Currently, the Centre is trying to understand the fundamentals of how that might work.

“What we didn’t do was run into the lab with a bunch of pots and pans and start playing around with different solvents and additives,” said Gray. Instead, the Centre is focused on the basic research required to design a practical non-aqueous extraction process. Gray estimates that their method is six years away from being used by industry.

In the meantime, the tailings ponds continue to present a serious hazard to wildlife in northern Alberta. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers encourages mine operators to use “cannons, scarecrows, decoy predators and radar/laser deterrent systems,” but they don’t always work.

In April 2008 about 500 migrating ducks died when they landed on a Syncrude tailings pond, and according to the Pembina Institute about 100 wading birds mistake the ponds for mudflats every year and become covered in oil as a result.

As the tailings ponds continue to grow, environmentalists like Simieritsch and Schindler are pessimistic about the future of the Athabasca River. Schindler said he saw no new methods on the horizon that could operate at the needed scale.

“If they can go ahead with these non-aqueous bitumen extractions and they’re found to be safe, then that’s great,” said Simieritsch. “But, you know, we still see that current [mining] projects are going ahead with large volumes of water use.”

Stormwater reached knee-level at TRIUMF on Sept. 29. Photo courtesy of Jim Hanlon.

Curtis Ballard rushed to fasten plywood between parking curbs as rain cascaded down Wesbrook Mall. The water runoff streamed toward TRIUMF, the laboratory for particle and nuclear physics at UBC.

“The water outside eventually rose to our knees,” said Ballard, TRIUMF’s operations manager, who worked with personnel from the lab and the physical plant to clear catch basins and set up dewatering pumps.

Although the water from the flash flood seeped into offices and damaged flooring, the group’s work spared a nearby laser lab filled with high precision equipment. They now refer to it as the great flood of 2009.

Such temperamental tales become lore at the University of British Columbia, which sits on the outskirts of rainy Vancouver.

The project team behind Campus and Community Planning know the challenges of managing stormwater, but are also creating policy that may channel it into opportunity.

The planners are entering the final phase of drafting the UBC Vancouver Campus plan, the guiding document for the next 20 years of development on the University’s academic lands. Taping the copious amount of rainwater as a renewable resource is finally on the agenda.

Planning up a storm

The current plan commits the administration to following 12 general policies found in section 4.6.4 of the draft, which deal with stormwater management and water waste on campus.

“We think we could take a more integrated approach and think of water as a resource rather than as a waste,” said David Grigg, associate director of infrastructure and services planning. “Water is not being seen from a natural systems point of view.”

Instead, the free-flowing resource is often seen as a nuisance, evidenced by the Facebook group UBC Drainage Sucks!, where students gather to gripe and discuss specific trouble spots, such as the west entrance to the chemistry building.

“There is a patch of dryish grass to the right of the stairs,” said Nicholas Steinberg, a member of the group. “Hop there, then hop onto the railing of the stairs. From there, you can climb to safety.”

Another member, Emily Lai, called UBC “a swamp with rare dry spots”.

Effective rainwater management could help reduce the number of puddles on pathways, though the plan is more focused on managing runoff systematically.

Community members examine the campus plan on display boards in the Student Union Building

As water travels through campus and inconveniences community members, it also becomes more polluted, eventually contaminating the base of the Fraser River estuary or flowing into a system of pipes that lead to the ocean.

Grigg said UBC must move beyond approaches that simply aim to drain the water, get rid of the bottlenecks, and get it out of the way as quickly as possible.

The natural systems alternative is to see stormwater as part of an ecological cycle that the community can come to appreciate. New designs will make it possible to capture some of that water and find uses for it, like irrigating lawns and plant life on campus.

The planners also want to improve the quality of the water that returns to the ocean.

Students weigh in

Kristen Van Esch, a graduate student studying geological engineering, said she is impressed by the ideas thus far.

“When I think of stormwater management, I imagine sewers and flood mitigation,” said Van Esch. “I’ve never heard of this natural systems approach.”

Other students think the plan may be overly ambitious.

“There seem to be a lot of different goals, and I’m not sure if it’s all feasible,” said Owen Marmorek, a first-year undergraduate arts student, as he examined other priorities on the open house display boards.

Besides feasibility, other students wonder about funding.

“They’ve done investigations to see if these sorts of things are possible,” said Andrew Carne, a fifth-year undergraduate engineering student, “but at the same time, it is a wish list.”

Carne, who has attended three feedback sessions for the campus plan, said the planners seem well-intentioned. Still, he said the difficulty with long-term visioning is that planners often create comprehensive designs that do not come to fruition without funding.

But the cost of inaction may be considerable. In 1995 alone, campus-wide flooding cost the university upwards of $300,000 in damages, said Grigg.

“Could we learn to think of [water] as being a scarce commodity that deserves due respect?” he asked.

Women dressed in colourful salwar kameez in a Sikh prayer, called the Ardaas.

Vancouver Sikhs have a long history as activists.

Rallies and events have been held at the Ross Street Temple in South Vancouver for years. Violence against women, gangs, refugee and immigration issues and political rallies are regular events.

“We have to wake the people up,” said Kashmir Dhaliwal, who is active at the temple.

Until now there has never been an event that focused on the environment.

The green message was localized within the Sikh community because of the visit of a Bollywood star.

Rahul Bose was just in Vancouver. He works with an organization called 350.

The significance of 350 is that NASA has said that any concentration of carbon in the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million is not compatible with the planet. The levels are currently at 390ppm.

The rally was organized for the International Day of Climate Action on October 24. The aim was to have 350 people gather at the Gurudawara Sahib Khalsa Diwan Society temple at 3:50pm to be educated about the effects of climate change.

Drought, famine and floods

“I think global warming is pretty important because it is a fact of our everyday life,” student Rubin Minhas said.

“Whether we embrace it or reject it it’s still there. If we put it off it’s still going to be there.”

“And that’s why I think it is important that we embrace it.”

The event focused on the situation that is unfolding in the Punjab region of India, where most temple members have family.

Because of global warming the farmers there are being hit hard by drought, famine and floods.

There has been a significant rise in farmer suicide in the region and this is being attributed to the affects of climate change.

From global to local

The Vermas pass out pamphlets at the environmental rally.

Organizer Dr. Pradeep Kumar Verma stood in the foyer of the Ross Street temple wearing a bright green vest with the numbers 350 hand-stitched in white felt numbers.

His mother, Tripta Verma stood across from him.  “I am worried. Why isn’t every person thinking about that?” she said.

As people bowed before entering the worship hall the Vermas’ handed-out pamphlets on climate change.

In the hall, most people had their heads bowed down. Not all of them were in prayer – many were reading the pamphlets.

The Vermas’ are working through the small organization Cuddlendance.

Dr. Verma tweets as one way for getting his message across. His Twitter bio reads “As a retired physician (MD) I feel it a high moral obligation to insure I keep working to help people become healthier, happier and always smiling.”

His mother is worried about the influence that climate change will have on women, especially for those from developing nations.

“It has more effect on the ladies than men,” Tripta Verma said. “If there is no food for the child, the mother will be more upset in respect to the father. The father is going out and the mother is staying home with no water, no light, no food. So it is very hard for her. Due to the kids the mother is more and more upset.”

Prayers for climate change

Mrs. Verma sits in on the prayers.

Here at the temple, the scientific reality of climate change has been melded with spiritual practice.

Worshippers chanted a prayer, known as Ardaas. It pleas to God to support and help the devotee with whatever he or she is about to undertake.

The prayers were guided by a Sikh elder. He spoke through a microphone in Punjabi. As he spoke a baby, just learning to walk, kept toddling and staring up at him.

The attendees replied to his prayers together. They stood up and bowed down, with the woman on one side and the men on the other.

The numbers at the temple were much lower than expected. Fifty people attended. Most were there to attend regular Gurudawara.

“In the end the few who did attend did feel that it laid a founding stone for the movement,” Dr. Verma said.

“With our intended monthly meetings and weekly reminders through brief prayers we would build upon it fairly quickly. So I remain optimistic despite dismal attendance.”

This is where global meets local. People here know the impact that global warming had on their families in India.

“They’re Indians, we’re Indians,” Minhas said, “I mean it is one country, and more than that it is the human race. I mean we are all in this together, it’s not like I’m on my own, or you’re on your own – it is everyone in one bucket.”

Concerned residents gather at public forum over proposed changes to their rural community.

Plans to develop a historic parcel of Tsawwassen farmland into a mix of high-density housing, agriculture and recreational space are being met with resistance from local residents.

More than 400 people packed a public forum Oct 24 at the South Delta Recreation Centre to hear about a proposal from locally owned Century Group. It wants to build 1,900 homes on the property known as the Southlands, which is located between 56 Street and Boundary Bay Road and currently zoned agricultural.

“I don’t think these quality soils should be growing houses,” said Wendy Holm, an expert consultant on agriculture, who was a guest speaker at the forum.

“We’re losing land in the good part of the province,” she said, citing reports by agriculture scientists that confirm the area is capable of growing a large variety of crops such as potatoes, grains and beans.

Two decades of controversy

Residents and community groups have contested development of the Southlands for the past 20 years. It was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve in 1989 and has been vulnerable to rezoning and subdivision since.

The Southlands is now the Lower Mainland’s largest block of non-reserve farmland.

Century Group president and Tsawwassen resident Sean Hodgins owns the land. He is proposing to divide the 530-acre property into three parts – residential, agricultural and recreational.  Tsawwassen stands to lose over 300 acres of farmable land if his proposal is accepted.

The meeting was held as part of the public process involved in the first review of Tsawwassen’s current area plan since it was adopted in 1992.

Hodgins acknowledged residents’ resistance at the forum, saying “many of you are here because you fought very hard against any development 20 years ago.”  He added that his proposal for the Southlands is the best solution because it is based on the concept of new urbanism, a movement that replaces urban sprawl with denser, mixed-use communities.

Hodgins said that homes built close to streets, live-work spaces and urban agriculture are components of his development plan.  He used communities in Metro Portland, Ore. as examples of recent urban and suburban development during his planning process.

“All I’ve worked on is to try and come up with something that will work for the community,” said Hodgins.

Delta resident Donna Higenbottam doesn’t see his plan this way.  She views the development as a loss for the community.  “[There is] no benefit to the group,” she said.

Higenbottam’s husband, John, agrees.  He said Tsawwassen residents’ “quality of life would be seriously degraded.”

Voices converge

Development threatens rich farmland in Tsawwassen.

Ron Plowright, a community developer with the Fraser Health Authority, said that food security in Delta and Tsawwassen for the next 100 years would be threatened by developments in the Southlands.

Guest speaker Kristi Tatebe, a research scientist from the Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning at the University of British Columbia, spoke of small-scale initiatives as a way of supporting a resilient urban agriculture. Examples include permanent farmers’ market spaces and backyard gardens

“We’re blessed with agricultural land in the community but we can’t take it for granted that it’ll always be there,” said Tatebe.

The meeting was intended to bring together voices from all sides of the issue.

However representatives from the anti-development group Save the Southlands declined an invitation, said Delta Councillor Bruce McDonald. In an email, the group wrote, “since our members had decided early on that we would not be drawn into a divisive and polarized us/them debate on the Southlands issue, we declined this opportunity.”

This was the final of five forums. Feedback from all will be used to create an ideas document to be presented early next year.

Tsawwassen’s updated area plan is scheduled for May 2010 although Council has directed that Century Group’s proposal be considered after that time.

The Tsawwassen Area Plan Committee meets again on Nov 5 now that the public consultation process has concluded.

(Photo of Tsawwassen farmland courtesy of Flickr user pkdon50.)

British Columbia’s economy could suffer another multi-million dollar loss this winter, but if it does, the global financial crisis won’t be to blame.

Honeybees, which have an annual impact of approximately $250 million on BC’s economy, experienced a significant drop in winter survival rates over the past few years, declining 38 per cent in 2008. That’s on top of an estimated 35 per-cent loss during 2007. Beekeepers and farmers alike are hoping the trend doesn’t continue this winter.

“Such losses are economically unsustainable,” said Leonard Foster, an assistant professor with the University of British Columbia’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Foster was addressing a Genome British Columbia lecture at the Telus World of Science on January 20th.

“Bees are vital to pollination of BC’s apple, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and cranberry crops,” he said, adding that although there are other ways for farmers to pollinate these crops, bee pollination tends to produce the largest yields, of the highest quality.

According to the Canadian Honey Council, honeybees increase national fruit and vegetable production between $1.3 and $1.7 billion a year. But those estimates assume that there is a stable, healthy honeybee population at work, and that isn’t the case in BC. Foster noted that the average annual loss in British Columbia is usually around 15%.

Lab buzzing with new research

Foster leads a research team that has partnered with two beekeepers – one in Kootenay, British Columbia and the other in Beaverlodge, Alberta – to identify genes that may indicate resistance to diseases like the American Foulbrood virus, which can ravage a bee colony.

Once disease resistant genes have been identified, bees with these genes can be bred with a queen that has similar genes. This type of selective breeding increases the likelihood that offspring will possess specific traits, including disease resistance.

“If we have those molecular markers that allow us to predict disease resistance, we won’t have to wait a whole year to see if the bees actually died throughout the winter,” Foster said.

“We’re not trying to create genetically modified bees,” he said. “The public wouldn’t accept that, and the technology is not there to do it.”

Work to identify resistant genes within bee populations is already well under way. Foster’s team hopes to have the first batch of selectively bred bees ready for colonization within the next two years.

Selective breeding offers imperfect solution

Critics have expressed concern about Foster’s work and the effect that disease resistant bee colonies might have on the ecosystem. Although Foster acknowledges that these concerns have merit, he doesn’t anticipate any problems.

“Population size is regulated by the economy,” he said. “Bees don’t survive very well in the wild in Canada. It’s the keepers who make decisions about the size and number of colonies that they keep who exercise control over the size of the bee population.”

Foster noted that even if his team succeeds in breeding disease resistance into the Kootenay and Beaverlodge bee populations, the research will not yield a blanket solution for all bee colonies. A variety of traits would be required for bees to survive in different regions, and the traits bred into various bee populations would depend on what crops they would be expected to pollinate.

Mass honeybee death isn’t just a concern in Canada. In recent years, there have been noticeable decreases in the size of bee populations worldwide. Since late 2006, one-quarter of the US’s honeybee population has died, while the United Kingdom has lost more than one-third of its bee population.

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New research shows that fish play an important role in the fight against climate change.

Research published in the January 16, 2009 issue of Science, co-authored by Villy Christensen, professor at the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia, will change our understanding of the factors that mitigate climate change.

A school of fish near Koh Racha Yai, Thailand

“We had not recognised the role of fishes for climate change before. The fishes serve a role…they perform an ecosystem service,” said Christensen.

The researchers found that fish act as a buffer against carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans because they secrete calcium carbonate, a chalk-like substance that dissolves easily in water and lowers acidity. They also estimated that the number of fish in the world’s oceans is higher than previously thought—almost two billion—which significantly increases their combined buffering power.

“Right now what’s happening is that carbon dioxide is shooting up into the atmosphere, but the oceans are buffering it…what the fishes do has importance as part of this buffering mechanism,” said Christensen.

All fish species secrete calcium carbonate, or limestone. It’s how they metabolise the calcium in the salt water they drink. If they didn’t get ride of excess calcium, they’d develop renal stones, just like humans. It was previously unknown that fish make these ‘gut rocks’ that make up from 15%-45% of the ocean’s calcium carbonate.

Fish are just one part of the carbon cycle, a key factor in our understanding of climate change. It’s been long known that carbon dioxide has had an impact on climate change.

Carbon dioxide in the air can dissolve in water, and by doing so, it makes the water more acidic. As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, more of it will dissolve into the ocean and this process results in the ocean becoming more acidic.

There will reach a point where the buffer provided by fish just won’t be enough to stall the negative effects of ocean acidification, said Christensen.

“Climate models have been saying…that ocean acidification’s going to be a really big problem. It’s something that will affect us within decades.”

The big problem is that coral reefs and plankton, tiny organisms that form the bottom of the marine food chain, are very sensitive to changes in acidity.

The health of a marine ecosystem is intricately tied to, amongst other things, the health of its coral reefs and plankton. The acidification of the oceans would have a devastating effect on both, disrupting the food chain and contributing to climate change in the oceans, says Christensen.

A marine ecosystem will always be affected by the sheer number of fish in the sea. Although two billion sounds like a lot of fish, there’s still a need to responsibly manage fisheries, particularly in provinces like British Columbia. Finding the balance between young and old fish is the key to successful fisheries management, said Christensen.

He adds that for the ocean to maintain its optimal pH, it needs to have lots of healthy, young fish. Old fish, Christensen’s research revealed, are not as good at producing calcium carbonate. They’re less active and drink less water. The ocean needs a constant supply of young fish that produce more calcium carbonate, and sustainable fisheries is one way to go about it.

“Sustainable fisheries is a good thing. You need to keep production high. Just leaving everything to itself is not necessarily going to help us. What we have to avoid in [fisheries management] is what corresponds to forest clear-cutting,” said Christensen.

Now that it’s known that fish play an important role as a buffer against climate change, Christensen added a cautionary note on how humans affect their delicate environment.

“We really have to be careful of how we intervene in the ecosystem. We should be very careful to go out and cut down the forests, fish up all the fish…because we might not understand what role they play [in climate change].”

Photo curtesy of Vilhelm Sjostrom, Flickr Creative Commons

It may seem like an invisible issue but it is one that cannot be flushed away. Sewage treatment is the million-dollar question for Vancouver’s municipal politicians and environmentalists are not about to let it slide after Saturday’s elections.

The NPA's Peter Ladner presents plans for Lion's Gate sewage treatment facility

On Tuesday, Lara Tessaro, a sewage savvy lawyer representing Ecojustice, will hear from the provincial Court of Appeal whether she has a case against the city. “The time has come for Vancouver to begin treating its sewage to modern standards,” said Tessaro.

The Iona and Lion’s Gate sewage treatment facilities dump the equivalent of 780 million litres (or 312 Olympic size swimming pools) of sewage effluent into the Strait of Georgia every day.

Collecting 54% of Greater Vancouver’s sewage, both facilities provide primary treatment – a mainly mechanical process that removes 50% of total suspended solids. Secondary treatment removes solids as well but also reduces the amount of heavy metals and organic pollutants found in liquid waste by 90%. It is also the federally recognized minimum standard for sewage treatment.

In 2001, the federal government warned Vancouver that it was at risk of criminal prosecution under  violation of the federal Fisheries Act after both Iona and Lion’s Gate failed numerous toxicity tests. No further action was taken. Ecojustice took up the case. “If they are not going to prosecute I guess that means we have to,” Tessaro said.

Related: Map of Metro Vancouver sewage plants

Ecojustice is urging Metro Vancouver to upgrade both Lion’s Gate and Iona to secondary treatment by 2016.

“At present, [Vancouver] refuses to remove from its sewage the same toxic substances which have turned Greater Victoria’s sewage outfalls into confirmed contaminated sites,” said Christianne Wilhelmson, Program Coordinator for the Georgia Strait Alliance. Earlier this year, Ecojustice pressured the city of Victoria into upgrading from no treatment at all to secondary by 2016.

“Metro Vancouver has always operated its liquid waste management practices based on the environment,” said Bill Morrell, spokesperson for Metro Vancouver. “Clearly we are not of the opinion that our waste water treatment is negatively impacting the environment.”

Peter Ladner, mayoral candidate for the Non Partisan Association (NPA), is the vice-chair of the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVS&DD). According to Ladner Metro Vancouver has purchased land on the North Shore for the construction of a new secondary treatment facility that will replace Lion’s Gate. “It’s going to be a big hit on everyone’s tax bill, but we have to do it,” he said. “It’s absolutely important to [upgrade]. Iona is next.”

The Liquid Waste Management Plan by Metro Vancouver schedules Iona to be replaced by 2020; Lions Gate is set for 2030.

Gregor Robertson, Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate expresses "disappointment" with Metro Vancouver's approach to sewage treatment upgrades

At a recent debate Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson expressed “disappointment and disillusionment” with Metro Vancouver’s “old school” approach toward upgrading. “Certainly there are cost issues but we can’t continue to rationalize dumping sewage and not doing the best we can just to save some money in the sort term,” Robertson said.

“There’s going to be a big challenge for the next mayor,” said Tessaro. “The engineers of Metro Vancouver are really pushing against upgrades.”

“Cost is a big issue,” Wilhelmson said. The estimate for upgrading both plants is about $1.4 billion. Historically, that cost is shared by all three levels of government, each paying 33%. “That commitment hasn’t come for Metro Vancouver and until it does the region will be very nervous about moving forward,” she said.

“It’s disappointing to see neither candidate talking about sewage treatment as an opportunity to recover resources like energy and heat from liquid waste,” said Tessaro.

Integrated Resource Recovery is a major advance in sewage treatment technology that captures resources from liquid waste. The Neighbourhood Energy Unit found in the South-East False Creek development project will use this technology. Heat captured from liquid waste will heat air and water for 60% of the houses in the new community.

Related: Q&A: Making more out of sewage

“As we upgrade our systems we need to do it in the most innovative and sustainable ways possible,” Wilhelmson said. “We’re going to need our leadership to be really innovative in their approach to this problem.”

The University of British Columbia has dropped its electronic waste recycler, saying it is concerned about whether it was ethically disposing of computers and other technology.

Electronic waste collected by UBC awaits shipment to a recycler

Genesis Recycling Ltd. had been UBC’s e-waste recycler for three years. But the university is unconvinced by its assurances that material isn’t being shipped and dumped abroad hazardously.

Christian Beaudrie, outreach co-ordinator for UBC Waste Management, said the company does not have a strong auditing process and lacks transparency around its dumping protocol. “We’re absolutely not comfortable with staying with the [program]…for that reason,” said Beaudrie.

Genesis has denied UBC’s assertions and insisted it is meeting the guidelines for ethical recycling. “We’re pretty proud of how we handle e-waste here,” said Doug Surtees, the company’s general manager.

“We’re under a lot of scrutiny, we’ve passed all our audits and inspections with flying colours,” he said.

Genesis is a provincially approved recycler with the Western Canada Computer Industry Association (WCCIA), a non-profit society that oversees a voluntary industry certification program to safely dispose of electronics.

But the university sought written assurances of safe disposal and an impartial audit of Genesis’ practices, said Beaudrie. When Genesis would not cooperate, UBC looked elsewhere.

“We’ve given them an adequate chance to prove that they’re handing these things the right way and they’ve failed to do that,” said Beaudrie.

Related: How Canada tackles e-waste

Concerns have arisen in recent years that some Canadian companies are illegally shipping used electronics to such countries as China, India, Nigeria and Ghana, where they are broken down in unsafe conditions for their raw components, many of them toxic. The process poses a severe health risk and environmental damage.

“It’s just terrible to even imagine feeding that process and putting that many people in harm’s way,” said Beaudrie.

Computer waste piled high on the streets of Guiyu, China

Free Geek Vancouver, a non-profit e-waste recycler, estimates that Canada produces 140,000 tons of electronic waste per year, the equivalent of 5.6 million computers. Eighty per cent of this waste is making it overseas. Canada is a signatory to a 1992 United Nations treaty that made it illegal to ship e-waste overseas.

E-waste problems exposed

CBC News recently exposed that shipments of Canadian e-waste was being sent to China from two British Columbia companies that tout safe disposal, Technotrash and Electronics-recycling.com. Technotrash, like Genesis, is a member of the WCCIA.

Surtees said Genesis is in the midst of undergoing the auditing process to become a member of another industry recycling certification program in BC – one of two in the province – the Electronic Stewardship Program of BC (ESABC).

“We knew we would have to make some changes, we didn’t want to give them document that would be out of date in a month. We haven’t gotten anything back from the auditor yet,” said Surtees, who expects the audit back soon.

UBC is looking at Free Geek Vancouver, Simon Fraser University’s e-waste recycler, and Encorp Pacific as possible e-waste recycling companies.

(Photo of Guiyu, China courtesy of Bert van Dijk , CC license)

Two e-waste recyclers from British Columbia were busted for illegally shipping waste to China this fall. One of these recyclers is a part of the same provincially approved certification program as UBC’s e-waste recycling company. UBC is now searching for a new recycler.

A man amongst electronic waste illegaly exported to Guiyu, China

1989: The Basel Convention, created by United Nations Environmental Program, is adopted. It was developed in response to environmental concerns arising from the shipping of hazardous waste to developing countries and Eastern Europe. Canada signed it that day.

1992: The Basel Convention goes into force making it illegal for all countries who have signed and ratified the treaty to ship hazardous waste, including electronic waste, to countries not part of the convention, without special consent. Canada ratifies the Basel Convention four months later and fulfills its obligation to introduce federal regulations with the Export and Import of Hazardous Waste Regulations.

1995: The Basel Ban Amendment is adopted and added to the Basel Convention treaty after pressure from developing countries, some European countries and Greenpeace. It makes it illegal to ship hazardous materials from OECD countries to non-OECD countries, even for recycling purposes. It must be ratified by three quarters of the parties who accept it. Canada does not ratify the Basel Ban.

2005: The Export and Import of Hazardous Waste Regulations is replaced by the Export and Import of Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Recyclable Material Regulations

2006: Environment Canada releases a report saying that as of Nov. 1, 2005, 500,000 kg of waste containing hazardous materials, which was to be illegally shipped from the Port of Vancouver and sent to China, had been seized.

2007: British Columbia implements stewardship program where an Environmental Handling Fee is added to the sale of new electronics. Members of the stewardship programs, WCCIA and ESABC, receive a portion of this fee for recycling the e-waste properly.

2008: CBC National airs documentary revealing that a WCCIA recycler is illegally shipping e-waste to China.

(Photo courtesy of Bert van Dijk, CC license)