What`s in a Word?

This figure shows how frequently the word "Science" turns up in publications between the year 1500 and 2008. It is expressed as a frequency so it isn't an increase in the total number of books published that causes a change in the trendline.

Google has come up with either the best time waster ever, or a fantastic tool to follow trends historically. Google calls it the Ngram, it is an online tool that allows you to search for the use of single or multiple words or phrases, published in everything scanned by Google Books. The site can be found at:

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/

It is very interesting to see how certain words or phrases compete for dominance over time. Consider the use of the terms Greenhouse Effect (red), Global Warming (blue) and Climate Change (green) between the years 1960 and 2008. Clearly the term Climate Change has won the battle, a reflection of the political effort to neuter the impact of this huge issue.

I think this tool offers an incredible number of opportunities for research regardless of your field of interest. Consider for example the changes in the frequency with which the word "Poverty" turns up in publications (1500-2008). What might be behind these changes?

Borneo 14: Hong Kong

Hong Kong makes Vancouver seem rural. Central Hong Kong, on Hong Kong Island is an incredibly busy place. The video above was taken early in the morning before things really started to get busy.

Still, Hong Kong is a mix of the new and the old.

What surprised me, in a city renowned for selling the latest in electronics, was the widespread use of bamboo, even as scaffolding material. Alfred Wallace noted the myriad of applications for bamboo when travelling through the Malay Archipelago back in the 1850s. He wrote of it frequently. I doubt he would be surprised to find it still in use over 150 years later in a much more technologically advanced world.

The scaffolding running twenty or so stories up, shown above, is entirely bamboo.

Bamboo stacked for additional scaffolding.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 13: The islands of KK

Just offshore from Kota Kinabalu (KK), Borneo, are a number of small islands you can reach by about a 10-20 minute boat ride. I headed out to Palau Mamutik after returning to KK from Danum this week.

Depending on the conditions on the South China Sea when you leave KK the ride itself can be an adventure. The only speed is full throttle (twin 100 HP engines), regardless of the wave conditions. When I left KK, the sea was running with a pretty heavy cross-sea. I thought the boat was going to shatter into pieces from the incredible and endless pounding. It was the wildest ride I`ve ever taken.

Once you are on the islands the pace changes. The islands are great for snorkeling for just lounging around. I wouldn`t call the snorkeling fantastic, but it is worth the day. Moorish Idols, Pufferfish, Sargent Majors, Parrotfish are common. The coral, however, isn`t in great shape. On some islands just to the northeast, dynamite fishing has completely destroyed the reefs and ended any hope of drawing tourists to the area.

When taking the boat back to KK we came across a mid-sized ship that I thought was sinking. The stern was completely underwater and the bow was at sea level with every wave washing over the deck. Seaman stood on crates to stay out of the sea, and the only thing out of the water was the pilot house. I was thinking we would be rescuing the crew, but I came to understand, from the limited English of our boat captain that all was okay. This ship was taking fresh water out to the islands. It does this once a week and they fill it completely with fresh water, hence the the complete lack of freeboard. Insane.

Borneo 12: Danum

A few random shots from the Danum Conservation Area.

Afternoon rain. As the heat builds up in the morning, the dense humidity is pumped up into the air and often falls as a torrential downpour in the afternoon. This is the dry season.

A giant cicada. This arrived at our night light trap on the first evening. A perfectly healthy and incredibly loud cicada. It sounds like a honking Canada Goose, and is just as loud.

A King Cobra. Interestingly this particular cobra was found in the women's showers awhile ago. Both King and Black Cobras are found at Danum, although both are uncommon. One local field worker noted that he was chased by a Black Cobra last year while working in the same location that we were collecting. These cobras are spitters. They spit into your eyes and as you stagger from being blinded they bite. It is generally considered fatal, although I see in the local papers today that someone is recovering after a King Cobra bite. He was only in a coma for two months.

A Red Leaf Monkey leaps from branch to branch. Watching these monkeys make huge leaps, often falling a fair distance before catching a branch on the next tree, was endlessly fascinating. These monkeys and gibbons were regulars at the field station.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 11: Oil Palm

Look at the list of ingredients on pretty much any processed food product in your home. Usually, close to the beginning is palm oil. There is an enormous global demand for palm oil, leading to the replacement of tropical forests by a single crop, Oil Palm. Flying into any city in Southeast Asia you will see vast areas of Oil Palm. The view above was taken flying into Lahad Datu, but the view is identical coming into Kuala Lumpur.

Huge areas in Borneo have already been cleared for Oil Palm plantations and the greatest threat to maintaining unlogged tropical forest is their continuing expansion. New areas around the Danum Conservation Area are already slated for conversion to Oil Palm. The economics of Oil Palm are so lucrative that it is fast becoming the only product in Southeast Asia. In Borneo, even cocoa (chocolate) is disappearing to Oil Palm.

If the global demand for palm oil crashes, although this is hard to imagine, or a pest runs rampant through these monocultures, the economy of Southeast Asia would be devastated. Still, for those of us from the west, we have little moral high ground. The replacement of huge areas in Canadian forests by Lodgepole Pine is little different, except that in British Columbia we have already seen what happens when a pest (mountain pine beetle) hits a monoculture. While this has devastated the economy of interior logging communities in British Columbia, we at least are part of a much more diversified economy at the national level. This isn't true for Southeast Asia.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 10: Fruit in the Forest

When Alfred Russell Wallace wrote about the jungles of Borneo in The Malay Archipelago, a journal of his travels in the area in the 1850s, he specifically mused on the absence of flowers. He noted that one of the most common misconceptions, by those who have not visited the jungle, was the belief that jungles are a tangle of flowers. This belief probably arises from seeing cultivated tropical plants in greenhouses.

Flowering usually occurs in mass events once every several years (and it is possible Wallace never witnessed this), probably as an adaptation to overwhelm seed predators. The last in Borneo (lowland dipterocarp rainforest) was in 1996, that is, until this year. It is still a mystery as to what triggers the event. One hypothesis is that it is related to the formation of huge bees nests on the trunks of the dipterocarp trees.

As a consequence of this years mass flowering, the jungle is filled with an abundance of fruit. One negative consequence is that many animals do not need to travel much to find food. Negative, I suppose, in the context of someone hoping to see Orang-utans. I didn't.

The fruit stands of Borneo are filled. One of the best is Rambutan (as seen above (tree) and below, the actual fruit).

You can split open the outer case of Rambutan with your thumbs. Inside is a white soft pulp that is incredibly sweet. The seed in the center (brighter white mass in the center above) you spit out. Rambutan is a fantastic treat and is selling right now for 2 Ringets (0.65 $CAN) a kilo.

Another and more enigmatic fruit is Durian. This fruit was noted by the earliest Europeans exploring the area hundreds of years ago.

Durian is most noted for the awful stench given off by the fruit (hotels and taxis will absolutely bar you from bringing this fruit inside). It is truly nauseating, especially in the heat. Inside the case, you also find a white pulp that many consider delicious, despite the odour. Having said that, not everyone is a fan. We tried fresh Durian at the field station and about half of the myrmecologists (ant biologists) loved it, and the other half hated it. I fell into the latter category. To me, it tastes like it smells.

It was clearly a favorite in the forest with the various primates. Below you can see opened Durian in the forest floor. Probably opened by Red Leaf Monkeys or Orang-utans.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 9: A work day at Danum

The work day always begins at 8 am, whether it is a lab day or a field day. When working in the field we usually headed out to the same area and then all scatter off the trails and into the jungle proper. Typically we could collect until noon then head back to the Field Centre for lunch. Within 30 minutes of work most of us are completely soaked through with sweat.

It took awhile to get the right search image for ants in a tropical rainforest. While some are huge (e.g., Camponotus gigas (see below)), most are tiny, and are especially common in the leaf litter. Using litter extractors (mini-Winklers) yields an endless variety of ants. Interestingly, many of these ants are trap-jaw ants. For a picture of one common trapjaw ant (genus Strumigenys) in the leaf litter, click here. Still, ants could be found on the vines, leaves, tree trunks, and in woody debris. In the latter case you had to watch for scorpions when pulling apart the wood. No one was an expert on scorpions, but one of the first we encountered was recognized by a student from India as definitely something you did not want to touch.

The largest ant, possibly the largest in the world if you settle on one definition of 'large' was Camponotus gigas.

Shown above is a minor of Camponotus gigas which differs from the majors in two ways. First, the ant above is much smaller than a major, second, the minors are docile and not inclined to bite. The majors are aggressive and live to charge and bite. If your first encounter with this species is a minor, you have a surprise coming when you meet your first major. One student had a major clamped onto the skin between his thumb and forefinger which easily sliced through the skin.

After a morning of collecting it was back to the lab for the afternoon. We would begin to sort, pin and identify what we had collected. A morning in the field was easily 1-2 days of work in the lab.

Five 0'clock marked Happy Hour, which was mandatory for everyone. If you have been told you can't buy booze in Malaysia, you have been misinformed. This was followed by a lecture at 6 pm (always a fantastic presentation by some of the best biologists in the world). Supper was at 7 and then it was back to the lab for the rest of the night. I usually packed it in around 9:30- 10 pm but some students worked till the power was cut off at midnight.

Photo Credits: Me, except for the photo of me, taken by Phil Barden (American Museum of Natural History)

Borneo 8: Danum Field Centre

Every morning at the Danum Field Centre looks like this. A heavy humid mist hangs over the forest. The morning temperature may only be in the low twenties but a 10 minute walk to the lab or kitchen will quickly leave you with a soaking sweat if you even slightly exceed a slow walk. Watching people walk here is a little like watching someone summit Mt. Everest, there is that slow plodding pace that no one exceeds.

One fact that many people may find interesting is the near complete absence of mosquitoes. In the 10 days that I spent at the field centre, I saw 3, really! Even when you are off trail in the jungle, sweating buckets in the mid-day heat and humidity, you will not be bothered by mosquitoes. This is great because there is the risk of malaria in the area (or dengue, or Japanese encephalitis, or....). Unfortunately, the lack of mosquitoes is balanced by the abundance of leeches.

There are two types of leeches here. The large ones, as seen above that quickly get under you clothes (5 minutes into the forest and you are pulling one of these out of someones armpit), and some tiny ones that can push through the eyelets for your boot laces, and latch onto your feet. For these, you wear leech socks, something generally not available at Mountain Equipment Coop. Fortunately, leeches do not vector any diseases so they are really just an annoyance. Having said that, they get absolutely everywhere. One day at lunch I watched a leech fall out of one woman's sleeve while she was scooping rice onto her plate.

Borneo 7: Danum

When our van blew out a tire on the way into Danum, one of the first things I noticed, after the amazing rainforest scenery was the abundance of Mimosa plants along the roadside. I've seen Mimosa plants before, but to see them growing in the wild is quite different. When touched, the plant quickly droops the leaflets and the stem to pull the plant away from whatever is bothering it.

The Mimosa plant is just the beginning though. Here are a couple of photos taken this past week.

A Scarabid Beetle
Lantern Bugs (Probably genus Pyrops)

A Curved Spiny Backed Spider (probably Gasteracatha arcuata). Yes, it could be sharper but taking pictures in the jungle is a real challenge. There is very little light. When hunting ants in the leaf litter or in a rotten log, you need a headlamp, even at noon.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 6: Travel to Danum

I've been offline for awhile in the Danum Conservation Area. Reports of broadband access at Danum are somewhat overstated. Most days you can get slow access to e-mail (for awhile) but actually blogging is somewhat more difficult and, if even possible, would tie up computer access for others. Here I'll try to provide a bit of a catch-up on the last two weeks.

We left Kota Kinabalu on August 16th, flying across Borneo into Lahad Datu, a flight mercifully short, at a bit less than an hour (I say this in the context of a 13 hr flight to Hong Kong). Lahad Datu is the launching point for anyone going into the Danum Conservation Area. The Lonely Planet Guide has pretty much only one thing to say about Lahad Datu, and that is, don't linger.

I'm not sure if this is fair, but we spent very little time here. There has been some trouble with the Abu Sayyaf Islamic separatist group on some of the islands just offshore from Lahad (foreigners kidnapped with a much less than satisfactory outcome), and last year they robbed the bank in Lahad itself (I'm told the walls are still pock marked with bullet holes but we did not pass by the bank ourselves). I did speak with a young French tourist later who had spent a couple of days in Lahad. His thoughts certainly wouldn't help the Lonely Planet to change there thoughts here. Still, if you knew someone who really knew their way around the town, you'd probably find a lot to appreciate.

Lahad Datu, however, really is the jumping off point for one of the last great areas on our planet. A 2.5 hr bone jarring van ride will take you from Lahad Datu to the Danum Conservation Area. About an hour out of Danum we blew a tire on our van (no surprise), and when we got out of the van, I was able to get my first photo of genuine lowland tropical rainforest (jungle). A spectacular experience.

Photo Credits: Me

Borneo 5: Kota Kinabalu

I arrived in Borneo about noon yesterday. The hub for access to Malaysian Borneo is Kota Kinabalu (KK), situated on the north coast. Last night I finally got a chance to meet many of the other specialists in ant biology and ecology around town and in the hotel. I'm not sure how many countries are represented in total but they are from everywhere (US, China, Kirghistan, Finland, Australia, France, Iran etc.). In a couple of hours we will all fly out for Lahad Datu and then drive in trucks into the Danum Conservation Area.

If I had written this post earlier yesterday I would have been pretty negative about KK. It is much more rural and economically disadvantaged as compared to Kuala Lumpur. Granted, the city was bombed out of existence twice during the second world war, but still, most buildings are in poor condition. It is extremely humid and hot here(I pulled out my camera a few minutes ago and the lens immediately fogged over, I wiped it off and it fogged over again before I could take a picture) and a walk past the markets, which are everywhere, brings the smell of fish and meat that are sitting out in the sun. Occasionally you also get the extremely nauseating smell of Durian, a fruit found in Borneo that is reported to have an incredibly great taste (I tried some in Kuala Lumpur but it wasn't fresh and the taste pretty much went with the smell). You are not allowed to take it into taxis or into hotels.

Last night I had a better look at KK (despite a driving tropical rain), travelling through the city with some biologists that were familiar with what the city had to offer. At a restaurant we ate in last night, we were able to watch the cooks making noodles. From a square block of dough, they can make perhaps 50 or so meter long noodles with about 6 flicks of their hands. Quite a skill. Granted, I have no idea what half of the things I've been eating actually are, but so far it has been great. You simply don't eat anything not cooked or that you cannot peel.

The photo above is looking north into the South China Sea. There are some islands just offshore that are obvious in the picture, but what you probably cannot see is that along the shore is a massive floating city of boats. In the photo below you see a typical market.

Borneo 4: Ramadan

Ramadan began this week. Ramadan begins when the first crescent moon of the 9th month of the Islamic calendar is seen. Being seen is critical and the general location to determine if the crescent moon is seen is Egypt. However, last week smog was so heavy in Egypt (and I doubt it was much better in Kuala Lumpur) that the moon actually could not be seen, at least by Islamic astronomers. Well, they declared Ramadan anyway.

I happened to come across the Malaysian National Islamic Mosque this afternoon, while walking through the city after a visit to the city Bird Park. Non-Muslims were allowed in after 5:30 and since it was 5:35 that sounded like an invitation.

The Mosque official that I spoke to was certainly friendly and happy to talk about Ramadan and the Mosque. During Ramadan, Muslims do not eat between sunrise and sunset (this has already caused a change in the restaurant hours in my hotel), and food is laid out for sunset (7:20 pm here) as seen above. By tradition here this starts with dates and a dessert and is then followed by a full meal. All can join, non-Muslims included, so during Ramadan, I suppose one could eat quite well for nothing. I was invited to join the feast but wasn't planning on being in the area that late.

Photo Credit: Me. Photos taken in the Malaysian National Mosque

Borneo 3: Kuala Lumpur and the Batu Caves

The Batu Caves are a Hindu shrine (to Lord Muragan, worshiped by the Tamil Hindus) just north of Kuala Lumpur (or given that you don't leave any sense of the city at all, they are basically in Kuala Lumpur). It is probably the most popular tourist attraction in the city and is certainly worth the effort. A very long series of stairs leads up to the main cavern where a series of smaller shrines are scattered everywhere.

Sharing the climb with you are many many crab-eating Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) (see below) that have learned to live off of tourists. They are pretty harmless but do 'get in your face' and I did see one hiss and bare its teeth for some unknown indiscretion on the part of one visitor. I also saw one quickly raid a souvenir bag that another tourist had placed BEHIND his feet. They aren't stupid.

One thing that surprised me was the lack of any literature on the significance of the shrine. There were plenty of touristy shops selling all sorts of kitsch (Hindus may have invented bling) but no information.

Photo Credit: me.

Borneo 2: Travel

I passed through the airport in Hong Kong, a common hub for travel through SouthEast Asia, yesterday. I only had a two hour layover but will spend a day here at the end of the month on my trip back.

Basically 100% humidity with temps of 30 C. The clouds look like completely soaked cotton, and passing through them on the plane gives the plane a pretty good kick. Pretty though, as they form huge towers in the rising heat.

Another 3.5 hours of flying past Hong Kong gets you to Kuala Lumpur (assuming you survive the choking insecticide spray they completely douse the airplane cabin with prior to landing), where I will be spending the day. Kuala Lumpur is a modern city in almost all respects, although the reason I haven't posted anything until now was because the hotel internet was down.

The first thing one notices about Kuala Lumpur are the endless oil palm plantations. The airport is about 60-70 km out of Kuala Lumpur so a taxi ride from the airport takes about an hour. That will set you back about $20 CAN and you get the great experience of driving at 140 km/hr in a taxi weaving in and out of traffic. Driving is a pretty aggressive game here (making Vancouver look pretty tame), and while cars mostly use the lanes (my taxi driver decided to straddle a couple for about 10 minutes), countless small motorcycles run along the dotted lane markers somehow avoiding collisions with cars that change lanes without using signals.

Picture Credit: Me. Hong Kong airport. Victoria Peak is in the background.

Borneo 1: The Ant Course

Tonight I'm catching the very red eye flight out of Vancouver to Hong Kong at 2:45 am to begin my connections for The Ant Course in Borneo.

The Ant Course is run by Brian Fisher with the California Academy of Sciences. Each year Brian brings together those involved in ant research across the globe. The main goal is to make sure everyone is completely up-to-date in ant identification skills and also to make connections within the research community. For anyone working on ants, The Ant Course is the World Cup of all things ant.

This year the course is in Borneo at the Danum Conservation Area (west of Lahad Datu) combining this fantastic meeting with the most biodiverse area on the planet. Over 60 people applied this year, from 25 countries. I was one of the lucky 30 to be accepted.

The Danum Conservation Area holds the largest continuous lowland rainforest (jungle) left in Southeast Asia. While it is technically possible to an individual traveler to obtain permits to enter the area, this is generally considered impossible, and is open only to researchers. It is one of the last areas on Earth to still have wild orang utans (Mias), as well as 9 other primates and an incredible number of other plants (World's largest flower, 270+ species of tree in a single hectare (100 metres by 100 metres)) and animals (Pygmy Elephant, Sumatran Rhino, Clouded Leopard, Sun Bear etc.). A great many species have not been described, and just recently, a new species of bird was discovered. I expect a large number of the ant species we encounter will be new to science.

Tonight I'll be bouncing through Hong Kong and on to a one and a half day layover in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). As I travel into Borneo (the northern Malaysian portion) I will try to blog as much as possible, although once in the Danum Conservation Area, internet access is limited.

Cumulonimbus over Williams Lake

This cumulonnimbus cloud formed over Williams Lake, BC, on the afternoon of June 19th, 2010. It was an interesting formation because of the wedge shape to the lower portion of the cloud, a shape that may be called tuba (a formation sometimes associated with tornadoes). Fortunately it did not appear to be rotating. Further, the cloud quickly lost stability, as just five minutes later (see below), you can see the cloud beginning to fall apart. Five minutes after, this the cloud had completely disappeared.

Cumulonimbus clouds are usually associated with thunderstorms. I'm guessing that flying into a cloud with such a precise shape would not be a good idea, as the edges probably represent serious wind flow.

Photo Credit: Me

BP and Basic Research

Of the countless number of lessons one might learn from the BP blowout in the Gulf, the lack of basic research is one lesson I have not heard anyone mention.

Industry, whether it is oil, food, forestry, or finance has been completely focused in the past few decades upon increasing production and revenue flow. I'm not sure if there is either an assumption that science has already done the basic research to support extending current technologies, or that there is just a belief that engineering and product design can circumvent any complication encountered. Well, it hasn't and it can't.

The BP blowout is a classic example of extending technology beyond what is known about the environment in which that technology is being applied. The fact that no one understood that gas hydrates would form within their first effort at containment was a certain indicator that this crisis was not going to be resolved quickly.

I'm guessing, that if the oil industry is like any other, they have been approached by scientists interested in establishing that basic understanding. I'm also guessing that industry wasn't interested in supporting that research because it did not directly translate into production and revenue flow. Government, heavily influenced by industry in directing their research funding, probably didn't see a need, or more specifically, an 'application,' either.

BP is just one example and I am left to wonder how many other examples we will see over the next few years. Funding for basic research is down everywhere.

In British Columbia, the provincial government has drastically reduced forestry research in the Ministry of Forests and Range. I'm thinking that they do not understand how basic research was aiding 'growth and yield.' As just one example, an entirely new bioenergy industry is emerging in British Columbia, but we know almost nothing about the ecology of the woody debris that they wish to remove for burning. The failures in these areas won't be as acutely dramatic as what is currently unfolding in the Gulf, but they could be just as damaging and even longer lasting.

YouTube Video Credit: UCBcomedy.com

Robotics

Robots can already do amazing things but dealing with visually complex structures of varying texture is extremely challenging. For example, it is very easy for a human to reach into a pile of nuts and bolts and specifically select just the bolts. This seems simple, but teaching a computer how to distinguish a bolt that may be positioned at any angle, while surrounded by a visually cluttered environment of other nuts and bolts, is quite complex.

Here a robot is demonstrating its mastery of a truly complex visual and tactile task. Consider combining this ability with other robots, such as the one that can be seen at this link.

What is even more interesting is that the programming is actually not that complex. The research paper can be found by clicking here. It is based on a fairly simple flowchart, as seen below:

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 4: The Law

First, let me state immediately that I am not an expert on Environmental Law (and precious few other things).

In gathering basic information about the issue of rail-tie chipping and storage, however, I've also gathered just a bit of information about provincial pollution laws that are legislated within the BC Environmental Management Act.

First, only an "industry, trade or business" that is defined as "Prescribed" requires a permit to discharge waste before they begin operation. Rail-tie chipping and storage is not defined as "Prescribed," a legal loophole that should be closed as soon as possible.

Despite this, at first glance, the BC Environmental Management Act (EMA) seems to offer hope. According to the EMA, Part 2, Sub-section 6:

"A person must not introduce waste into the environment in such a manner or quantity as to cause pollution."

The EMA defines pollution as:

"the presence in the environment of substances or contaminants that substantially alters or impairs the usefulness of the environment."

That the processing of rail-ties behind the Station House gallery is causing pollution, would seem to be, to use an Americanism, a "self evident truth." Further, the basic laws of chemistry and physics would have to be violated for this not to be true. Unfortunately this appears to be legally inadequate. The legislation is designed to require a complainant to establish that the usefulness of the environment has been altered or impaired. That would require someone, or some organization to collect and pay for expensive soil and water sampling.

But.....before anyone runs off to collect money to accomplish this (and I don't think that aspect would be hard), the results, regardless of what they revealed, would be mostly meaningless. This is because the prior use of the site would not allow one to distinguish between current and prior contamination.

As far as I can tell, this allows for the discharge of almost any form or quantity of oil, oil product, or toxin, into the soil with near complete impunity.

From a pollution perspective, the Station House Gallery site appears to be a legal toxic-waste black-hole.

One wonders how many others exist in the province.

Still, there is one angle to make the legislation work that people may consider. If pollution causes an odour, you can use the chemical receptors built into your nose, to document how the "usefulness" of the environment has been altered. If residents or business owners in an area affected by odours keep records (standardized and consistent) of odour events AND local weather records (i.e., wind speed, direction, temperature) over a long period of time, it may be possible to prove that the environment has been altered or made unusable. This was done successfully in the instance of odours from Moneys Mushrooms in the Fraser Valley.

But, back to the issue of rail-ties behind the Station House Gallery. Now it may be evident why the City of Williams Lake approached the issue from the angle of the BC Fire Code. Attempting to resolve the issue using pollution laws would have been almost impossible.

Let your MLA know that any processing of wood treated with creosote or other pesticide/preservative, should be considered a "Prescribed Industry, Trade or Business."

Photo: Screen capture of the header on the Ministry of the Environment webpage introducing the Environmental Management Act. Available from: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/main/ema.htm

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Update 1

Although many people may have already seen the press release from the City of Williams Lake yesterday (March 22nd), I thought I would note it here to keep the information on this blog up-to-date.

In short, the City has determined that the rail-ties are in "non-compliance" with the BC Fire Code. Hopefully this matter will not be in dispute between CN Rail and the City, allowing for rapid removal of this material from downtown Williams Lake.

Given that CN Rail is a company that specializes in moving large quantities of material, I'm sure they can demonstrate this expertise by getting the chipped and unchipped ties out of this site quickly. I hope that this material will be transported to a location specializing in the storage of toxic waste.

Tomorrow (March 24) I will post some information about provincial pollution legislation (what was intended to be Part 4 of the blog series), as it relates directly to issues at the Station House Gallery. It may explain why the removal of this material required referencing the Fire Code as opposed to provincial pollution legislation that one might suppose is intended to protect our health. I'll also try to note one way that residents can use that legislation when industrial activities affect air quality.

Capital Power (EPCOR) Decides to Stop Burning Rail-ties!

I've just learned that Capital Power (formerly EPCOR) has decided to stop burning rail-ties at its bioenergy facility in Williams Lake.

I want to thank Capital Power for making that decision. It was the right decision for Williams Lake and Capital Power.

Given this, my blogs on this issue will end for awhile as the facts on the ground begin to rearrange. I will repost once direction is set for dealing with the chips stored at the Station House Gallery.

The work of many people over the past several months has raised awareness of the rail-tie issue behind the scenes. These concerns have been heard. This is a victory for those who raised this issue in community sustainability committees, and those who wrote and spoke to city councilors, the Mayor, our MLA, and Ministry of Environment officials.

Thumbs Up to the Community!

Photo: The left extended lateral most digit of a lesser Higgins

Photo credit: R. Higgins

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 3: Rail ties and Fire

AN EXTREME FIRE HAZARD

Creosote burns hot and fast but that is only part of the problem. Uncontrolled fire in creosote results in a great quantity of incompletely combusted compounds. Consider the dioxins, PAHs, and chlorophenols noted in my previous blog. The black smoke coming from such a fire would be full of those. No one would recommend that anyone be exposed to any of this.

A fire in this material could be a major problem depending upon which way the wind is blowing. People in the way of the smoke should either stay indoors and seal off all doors and windows, or leave town as quickly and safely as possible. Of those I have spoken to about this, the minimum noted was 'partial evacuation of the downtown.' I know that sounds dramatic, but this would not be a typical fire. If the city had the further misfortune of a fire occurring during an air inversion (see here for information about inversions in Williams Lake), the smoke would be trapped in the city.

I've asked the City of Williams Lake if the Fire Chief believes that a fire in these chips could be put out. Apparently the Chief believes it could be. I hope he is correct, but consider the short video available below, or at this link if you have a problem with the video below playing.

In the case documented by the video:

1) the wind was blowing the smoke away and because the fire was surrounded by grassland, fire fighters had access. The chip storage area in Williams Lake has very limited access as three sides are valley cliffs;

2) Although the fire was 'contained' the option of actually putting it out did not seem to be on the table. They had to let it burn out by itself;

3) This was a fire in a portion of 1,000 unchipped rail-ties. Chipped wood will burn faster and the quantity on site in Williams Lake is certainly greater than 1,000 ties;

4) The fire documented in the video was clearly not immediately adjacent to the downtown district of a city.

What are the odds of a fire in these chips? Frankly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already but the fact that the site has access only from one side probably keeps most people out. The site, however, is directly across the street from a pub. There is no fence. It only takes one person, waiting for a ride late at night, who heads across the street to empty their bladder, who flicks a cigarette....

I'm all for trying to find win-win solutions to problems, but in this case, the chipping and storage of rail-ties in Williams Lake needs to stop.

Header Photo: Chipped and unchipped rail-ties behind the Station House Gallery

Photo Credit: R. Higgins

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 2: Rail tie chipping

NAME THIS PARK

Did you know that the area immediately behind the rail cars shown here, piled high with chipped rail-ties, is zoned by the City of Williams Lake as Park? Does anyone want to suggest a name the city might adopt for this park?

Exactly how long this area has been used for the storage and chipping of creosote treated rail-ties is unclear. Even city managers do not seem certain. It is believed that the storage of chipped rail-ties began in 1995 (the same year it was zoned as Park) and that the on-site chipping began in the early 2000s. This is concerning.

These rail-ties are being chipped for the purpose of supplying fuel to Capital Power (formerly EPCOR) in Williams Lake. In a study performed in 2001, Lanfranco and Associates reported the following pollutant concentrations in the rail-ties used in Williams Lake (warning- tedious numbers immediately ahead):

1) Dioxins/furans 4,040 pg TEQ /gr (compare to 1 pg TEQ /gr for normal wood waste);

2 )Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) 7,361,000 ng/gr (compare to 12,353 ng/gr for normal wood waste)

3) Chlorophenols 72,093 ng/gr (compare to 30.0 ng/gr for normal wood waste).

The area being used for chipping and storage is at the end of what most people in Williams Lake consider the city's main street, Oliver. It is immediately above the river valley, literally piled to the edge, where rain runoff can rapidly transport pollutants downhill. No one I asked seemed to know just what volume of chipped rail-ties are being stored here but all of the available land appears to be filled with chips stacked higher than the top of the semi-trailer truck seen in this photo.

Unchipped creosote treated wood has been shown to leach dioxins into nearby water (Wan 1995). Chipped ties are more concerning because:

1) The surface area of the chipped ties is vastly greater than that of the unchipped ties and rain water or melting snow running across this area would be expected to carry away much more of the pollutants of concern;

2) The chipping produces dust which:

a) has an even greater surface area to leach pollutants into the soil;

b) can be transported by wind, spreading pollutants into a larger area and increasing risk of human exposure by inhalation and contact;

3) The large surface area increases the amount that will evaporate into the air on hot days, creating odour problems in the commercial core of the city.

This activity is being carried out downtown. It is true that this area has been used as a railroad service yard since around 1919, and it is likely the soil is already contaminated. The current use, however, would reasonably be expected to leach quantities of toxic materials into the surrounding landscape at a scale that has not occurred previously. These toxins are considered some of the most serious with respect to human health.

This is because....

Dioxins. Dioxins were the contaminant in Agent Orange that led to serious health impacts during the Vietnam War. They are both cancer causing and acutely toxic to almost every human organ system (e.g., immune, skin, liver, muscular etc.). Exposure to 70 micrograms per kilogram body weight is enough to cause a Rhesus monkey to rapidly lose weight and its hair and fingernails (IARC 1997). The amount of time it takes the body to naturally rid itself of dioxins, assuming no additional exposures, is measured in many years and they last even longer in the environment. People should not be exposed to dioxin sources. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act desires that they be 'virtually' eliminated (CCME 2001) but large quantities are currently being processed in downtown Williams Lake.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). My Masters degree was focused on the toxicity and metabolism of a particular PAH known as benzo(a)pyrene. It, as with dioxins, is listed as a Group 1 Carcinogen, is known to bioaccumulate (i.e., exposures accumulate in the body and in the food web over time) and is very persistent in the environment. For a sense of how long, consider my story relating to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The creosote in rail-ties, as it is a coal tar, is mostly PAH in content.

Chlorophenols. These are suspected carcinogens (Group 2A) but more significant as acute toxins. Exposure has been shown to cause skin and liver damage, as well as low birth weight. For general information on chlorophenols, follow this link to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

This material should not be produced or stored within an urban area. If some of the information above sounds concerning, consider what would happen if the stored chips caught fire. That will be the focus of my posting tomorrow.

References

[CCME] Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. 2001. Canada Wide Standards for Dioxins and Furans. 12p. Available from: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/gp/A7appendix.pdf

[IARC] 1997. See Part 1 for full reference.

Lanfranco and Associates Inc. 2001. TransCanada Power Emissions Survey Report: Regular Woodwaste and Railtie Woodwaste. Prepared for TransCanada Power. Available from the BC Ministry of Environment.

Wan MT. 1995. Treated wood as a source of dioxin/furan releases. Organohalogen Compounds. 24: 109-114.

Hat Tip: Marten Lettinga, Chemistry, Thompson Rivers University, for locating some of the references

Photo: view of the rail-tie chipping area immediately behind the Station House gallery.

Photo Credit: R. Higgins

Your Health and Rail-tie Processing in Williams Lake. Part 1: The Issues

Creosote treated rail-ties contain large quantities of dioxins, PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and chlorophenols that cause serious human illness. Dioxins and PAHs are known to include compounds that are listed as Group 1 Carcinogens (cancer causing compounds) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) while chlorophenols are listed as Group 2B Carcinogens (i.e., they are suspected carcinogens). In addition dioxins and chlorophenols are also known to cause serious adverse affects to many human organ systems at low concentrations, and in the case of dioxins, are very persistent in the environment (IARC 1997).

This is the first of a seven-part blog series looking at what is known regarding the chipping, burning, and disposal of creosote treated rail-ties within the city of Williams Lake. The intent is to provide an overview of how these rail-ties are being processed and burned within the city as well as how the residual ash is being discarded. In addition, I will attempt to provide a small amount of information about the legislation governing pollution and note some options for citizens concerned about the situation. I will attempt to post new parts of this series each day beginning Monday March 15th.

The series will include:

Part 1: The Issues

Part 2: Rail-tie chipping and the health risks of dioxins, chlorophenols, and PAHs.

Part 3: Rail-tie chipping and the risk of a fire within the city.

Part 4: Provincial pollution legislation.

Part 5: Rail-tie burning at Epcor (now Capital Power).

Part 6: Uncontrolled burning of stored wood at Epcor (now Capital Power).

Part 7: The disposal of rail-tie ash in Williams Lake

References

[IARC] International Agency for Reseach on Cancer. 1997. Polychlorinated Dibenzo-para-dioxins and Polychlorinated dibenzofurans. IARC Monograph Volume 69. 666p. Available from: http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/allmonos90.php

Photo: A view of the rail-tie chipping work area behind the Station House Gallery.

Photo Credit: R. Higgins

Going it Alone

Myrmica crassirugis is an interesting medium sized ant that is not too uncommon in the grasslands (Becher's Prairie) just west of Williams Lake. It was a fairly common capture in some work I did a few years ago and, following some additional collecting, seems to reside in Canada only in a few locations in British Columbia. The specimens I collected became one of just a few samples used to officially describe this species by Andre Francoeur at the University of Quebec a couple of years ago.

About the time that I was collecting this ant, I met a PhD student, Gunther Jansen, at a conference in Washington DC, who was working at the University of Helsinki. Gunther was working on the evolutionary history of the genus to which this ant belongs. Just this week, he has published his work, examining over 60 species, including some of my samples from Becher's Prairie. Of interest is the finding that Myrmica crassirugis is a bit of an oddball.

Whereas most other species within the genus cluster into what are known as species groups (aggregations of closely related species), Myrmica crassirugis is one of the few that seems to stand out on its own. In fact, from its DNA it can be estimated that this species evolved around 18 million years ago. For some reason this species has been an evolutionary loner and one is left to wonder why. It almost certainly evolved first in Asia although it isn't known there now so a tendency not to travel into new habitat isn't the answer.

The answer probably lies in the ecology of this species. The problem is, like most ants in temperate climates, we know almost nothing about this.

Photo credit: Me