The number of U.S. honeybees, a critical component to agricultural production, rose in 2017 from a year earlier, and deaths of the insects attributed to a mysterious malady that’s affected hives in North America and Europe declined, according a U.S. Department of Agriculture honeybee health survey released Tuesday.
http://www.deltafarmpress.com/usda/us-honeybee-colonies-rise-2017 Press Releases
EPA Continues to Work With States on 2015 Ozone Designations
EPA continues to work with states on technical issues, disputed designations and insufficient information
08/02/2017
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press@epa.gov)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with 2015 ozone designations, working with states to help areas with underlying technical issues, disputed designations, and/or insufficient information. This will help ensure that more Americans are living and working in areas that meet national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS).
“We believe in dialogue with, and being responsive to, our state partners. Today’s action reinforces our commitment to working with the states through the complex designation process,” said
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. The Clean Air Act gives EPA the flexibility to allow one additional year for sufficient information to support ozone designations. EPA may take future action to use its delay authority and all other authority legally available to the Agency to ensure that its designations are founded on sound policy and the best available information.
Earlier this summer, it was evident that the Agency would not meet the October 1 deadline to designate all areas, due to underlying complexities, methodological, and informational questions with regard to this new ozone NAAQS standard. For example, the question of whether or not this ozone NAAQS was set so low as to implicate natural "background” ozone levels in some parts of the country has repeatedly been raised.
In June, EPA issued a Federal Register notice announcing that it was delaying its deadline for designations by one year, from October 1, 2017 to October 1, 2018. Previous EPA administrations had repeatedly invoked this statutory power to delay designations for part or all of the country. Today’s announcement replaces our earlier action that delayed the Agency's designation deadline on a nationwide basis and clarifies our path forward, so that the Agency can be more responsive to local needs.
“Under previous Administrations, EPA would often fail to meet designation deadlines, and then wait to be sued by activist groups and others, agreeing in a settlement to set schedules for designation,” said
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “We do not believe in regulation through litigation, and we take deadlines seriously. We also take the statute and the authority it gives us seriously.”
Air Quality Continues to Improve, While U.S. Economy Continues to Grow
08/02/2017
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press@epa.gov)
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its annual report on air quality, showing the significant progress the United States has made to improve air quality across the country. “Our Nation’s Air: Status and Trends Through 2016” documents the steady and significant progress made in improving air quality across America, over more than 45 years under the Clean Air Act.
This progress is often overlooked; the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies has called it “The Greatest Story Seldom Told,” explaining that “Through the Clean Air Act’s framework of cooperative federalism, hard-working state and local air agencies have been responsible for tremendous progress in virtually every measure of air quality.”
EPA’s most recent report highlights that, between 1970 and 2016, the combined emissions of six key pollutants dropped by 73 percent, while the U.S. economy grew more than three times. A closer look at more recent progress shows that between 1990 and 2016, national concentration averages of harmful air pollutants decreased considerably:
• Lead (3-month average) ↓99 percent
• Carbon monoxide (8-hour) ↓ 77 percent
• Sulfur dioxide (1-hour) ↓ 85 percent
• Nitrogen dioxide (annual) ↓ 56 percent
• Ground-level ozone (8-hour) ↓ 22 percent
• Coarse Particulate Matter (24-hour) ↓ 39 percent and Fine Particulate Matter (24-hour) ↓ 44 percent
“Despite this success, there is more work to be done,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Nearly 40 percent of Americans are still living in areas classified as ‘non-attainment’ for failing to achieve national standards. EPA will continue to work with states, tribes, and local air agencies to help more areas of the country come into compliance.”
This year’s update to the report includes new, interactive graphics that enable citizens, policymakers, and stakeholders to view and download detailed information by pollutant, geographic location, and time period.
Explore the interactive report and download graphics and data here:
https://gispub.epa.gov/air/trendsreport/2017/ Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ is the largest ever measured
June outlook foretold New Jersey-sized area of low oxygen
NOAA
Scientists have determined this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone,” an area of low oxygen that can kill fish and marine life, is 8,776 square miles, an area about the size of New Jersey. It is the largest measured since dead zone mapping began there in 1985.
The measured size is close to the 8,185 square miles
forecast by NOAA in June.
The annual forecast, generated from a suite of NOAA-sponsored models, is based on nutrient runoff data from the
U.S. Geological Survey. Both NOAA’s June forecast and the actual size show the role of Mississippi River nutrient runoff in determining the size of the dead zone.
This large dead zone size shows that nutrient pollution, primarily from agriculture and developed land runoff in the Mississippi River watershed is continuing to affect the nation’s coastal resources and habitats in the Gulf.
These nutrients stimulate massive algal growth that eventually decomposes, which uses up the oxygen needed to support life in the Gulf. This loss of oxygen can cause the loss of fish habitat or force them to move to other areas to survive, decreased reproductive capabilities in
fish species and a reduction in the average size of shrimp caught.
The Gulf dead zone may slow shrimp growth, leading to fewer large shrimp, according to a NOAA-funded
study led by Duke University. The study also found the price of small shrimp went down and the price of large shrimp increased, which led to short-term economic ripples in the Gulf brown shrimp fishery.
A team of scientists led by Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium collected data to determine the size of the dead zone during a survey mission from July 24 to 31 aboard the R/V Pelican.
“We expected one of the largest zones ever recorded because the Mississippi River discharge levels, and the May data indicated a high delivery of nutrients during this critical month which stimulates the mid-summer dead zone,” said Nancy Rabalais, Ph.D., research professor at
LSU offsite linkand
LUMCONoffsite link, who led the survey mission.
“Having a long-term record of the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone is vital in forecasting its size, trends and effects each year,” said Steven Thur, Ph.D., acting director of NOAA’s
National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. “These measurements ultimately inform the best strategies for managers to reduce both its size and its impacts on the sustainability and productivity of our coastal living resources and economy.”
Previously the largest Gulf of Mexico dead zone was measured in 2002, encompassing 8,497 square miles. The average size of the dead zone over the past five years has been about 5,806 square miles, three times larger than the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force target of 1,900 square miles.
NOAA funds monitoring and research efforts to understand the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico through its Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems & Hypoxia Assessment program, known as
NGOMEX. The annual dead zone measurement is used by the
Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Forceto determine whether efforts to reduce nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River basin are working. New initiatives such as the
Runoff Risk Advisory Forecast are designed to help farmers apply fertilizer at optimum times to limit nutrient runoff to the Gulf.
LUMCON’s Gulf Hypoxia
websiteoffsite link has additional graphics and information about this summer’s research mission as well as missions in previous years.
http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-is-largest-ever-measured 
