Toxic levels in Calif. harbor increasing
RICHMOND, Calif., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Toxic pollution in a Richmond, Calif., harbor is increasing more than a decade after a Superfund cleanup at the site, officials say.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency review found that despite cleanup dredging in 1996, levels of two pesticides not used in the United States since the early 1970s -- DDT and dieldrin -- are rising in fish in the Lauritzen Channel and Parr Canal, two waterways in Richmond's Inner Harbor.
Some fish tested at the site are now more contaminated than those tested before the cleanup, local officials said.
"I'm disappointed in the EPA for not doing a better job of cleaning it up," Richmond Councilman Tom Butt told the Contra Costa Times. "When you have concentrations of toxic chemicals at the level they're reporting, it's got to have an effect."
Sharon Lin of the EPA oversaw the initial cleanup in 1996.
"We thought the system would come back and the concentration levels would be safe," she said.
Instead, after dropping at first, toxicity increasing year by year and is now at levels where they were before the intervention.
"We're no longer using DDT and dieldrin, so it's sitting somewhere, contributing to contamination," Lin said.
In the 1940s, a chemical plant near the waterways processed DDT, which was banned in the United States in 1972.
The 1996 cleanup saw 107,000 tons of sediment dredged, put on rail cars and sent to a hazardous waste dump.
But the cleanup didn't capture all the chemical-laced sludge, Penny Reddy, who now manages the cleanup for the EPA, said.
"What happens over time is that with the tides coming in and out and ships coming in, it redistributes all the contaminated sediment," she said.
Parasite may be behind beehive losses
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. biologists say they've discovered a parasite that can turn bees into zombies and may be responsible for a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.
A study at San Francisco State University shows the parasite, a tiny fly, can cause infected bees to go mad and abandon the hive in an erratic suicidal flight toward bright light.
"It's the flight of the living dead," lead investigator and biology Professor John Hafernik told the San Jose Mercury News.
The parasite has been found in bees from three-quarters of the 31 surveyed beehives in the San Francisco Bay Area, researchers said.
The parasite's eggs, deposited into the bee's abdomen, take over and cause the infected bee to wander in circles or even be unable to stand on its legs.
"They kept stretching them out and then falling over," Hafernik said. "It really painted a picture of something like a zombie."
Researchers said the parasites may be contributing to what's known as colony collapse disorder that has seen failing honeybee hives around the United States causing considerable concern in the agricultural community, which depends on bees in their role as pollinators.
Rescued turtle doing well in Virginia
NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A cold-stunned sea turtle dubbed Makahiki, which means new year in Hawaiian, was rescued on a Virginia beach New Year's Day, wildlife officials said.
The green sea turtle found on the beach in Sandbridge is responding well to treatment, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center said.
Being cold-stunned can be fatal, and Makahiki's internal body temperature was 39 degrees when it was found, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported.
By Tuesday, the animal's temperature had increased to 70 degrees and it was eating squid on its own, the newspaper reported.
The center's staff expressed optimism the turtle, which weighed 9 pounds when found, will recover and will eventually be returned to the ocean.
Changes in Arctic Ocean waters detected
SEATTLE, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A hemisphere-wide weather phenomenon is causing record-breaking amounts of freshwater to accumulate in the arctic's Beaufort Sea, U.S. researchers say.
A decades-long shift in atmospheric pressure associated with a phenomenon called the Arctic Oscillation is causing frigid freshwater flowing into the Arctic Ocean from three of Russia's great rivers to be diverted hundreds of miles to a completely different part of the ocean, a study published in the journal Nature reported.
A low pressure pattern created by the oscillation from 2005 to 2008 drew Russian river water from the Lena, Yenisey and Ob rivers away from the Eurasian Basin, between Russia and Greenland, and into the Beaufort Sea, a part of the Canada Basin bordered by the United States and Canada, researchers at the University of Washington said.
"Knowing the pathways of freshwater in the upper ocean is important to understanding global climate because of freshwater's role in protecting sea ice -- it can help create a barrier between the ice and warmer ocean water below -- and its role in global ocean circulation," researcher Jamie Morrison said in a UW release Wednesday.
"Too much freshwater exiting the arctic would inhibit the interplay of cold water from the poles and warm water from the tropics" and affect world climate, he said.
In the Beaufort Sea, the water is the freshest it's been in 50 years of record keeping, he said.
