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could not be determined.

“Exposure to bacteria, viruses and parasites in contaminated beach water can cause a wide range of diseases, including ear, nose and eye infections; gastroenteritis; hepatitis; encephalitis; skin rashes; and respiratory illnesses,”

Most at risk are small children, pregnant women, cancer patients and others whose immune systems are weak or compromised.

“Children under the age of 9 had more reports of diarrhea and vomiting from exposure to waterborne parasites than any other age group,”

“found that more than 10 percent of swimmers report contracting gastroenteritis or respiratory infections after swimming. Based on those results and beach attendance numbers, nearly 300 people could expect to contract a respiratory illness after swimming in Lake Michigan in Chicago on a summer weekend.

“The study found skin rash and diarrhea to be consistently significantly elevated in swimmers compared to non-swimmers.

For diarrhea, this risk was strongest among children 5 to 12 years old,

an estimated 27 cases per 1,000 among children with any water contact, 32 cases among those with facial contact with the water, and 59 cases among those who swallowed water,

92 beaches in 19 states as being “high risk”

25 percent of tests.

“Aging and poorly-designed sewage and storm water systems hold much of the blame for beach water pollution. The problem was compounded by record rainfall, which added to the strain on already overloaded infrastructure.

Without an accurate assessment of the extent of the remaining oil, subsistence food-gatherers, consumers of commercial fish products from the area, and tourists have used mostly anecdotal evidence as the basis for economic decisions regarding resource utilization in the affected area.

Consequently, the Auke Bay Laboratory (ABL) with funding from the EVOS Trustee Council, took on the task of assessing the remaining oil along the shorelines of Prince William Sound during the summer of 2001

The primary objective of the project was to measure the amount of oil remaining in the intertidal zone of Prince William Sound.  Secondary objectives include determining the rate of decline of oil on these beaches, estimating the persistence of the remaining oil, and correlating the remaining oil with geomorphological features.

heavily and moderately oiled

The 2001 survey adopted a stratified random/adaptive sampling (SRAS) design. Two random pits were excavated to a depth of 0.5 m (1.6 feet) in every stratified block (0.5-m verticle drop in tide height) within a grid system established at each site. If subsurface oil was discovered in any of the randomly stratified origin pits, then additional adaptive pits were excavated above, below, to the right, and to the left of the origin pit until the extent of the oil patch was determined.

Buried or subsurface oil is of greater concern than surface oil.

Subsurface oil can remain dormant for many years before being dispersed and is more liquid, still toxic, and may become biologically available.

A disturbance event such as burrowing animals or a severe storm reworks the beach and can reintroduce unweathered oil into the water.

The toxic components of this type of surface oil are not as readily available to biota, although some softer forms do cause sheens in tide pools.

1) Surface oil was determined to be not a good indicator of subsurface oil. 2) Twenty subsurface pits were classified as heavily oiled.  Oil saturated all of the interstitial spaces and was extremely repugnant. These “worst case” pits exhibited an oil mixture that resembled oil encountered in 1989 a few weeks after the spill - highly odiferous, lightly weathered, and very fluid. 3) Subsurface oil was also found at a lower tide height than expected (between 0 and 6 feet), in contrast to the surface oil, which was found mostly at the highest levels of the beach (Table 3).  This is significant, because the pits with the most oil were found low in the intertidal zone, closest to the zone of biological production, and indicate that our estimates are conservative at best.

The possibility of continuing low level chronic effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill seem very real now, although measurable population effects would be very difficult to detect in wild populations.

 Sea otters and harlequin ducks fall into this category

such as sea otters, harlequin ducks, and their intertidal prey.

The last beach assessment was completed in September 2001. Supporting chemical analyses will be completed in fall 2002, and a final report with statistical analyses and conclusions will be completed by April 2002.

Post-cleanup analyses in 1998 showed that while the cleanup method was largely effective in removing visible surface oil, it had little effect on the large deposits of oil beneath rocks and overburden.

The vessel was carrying about 1.26 million barrels, or about 53 million US gallons (200 million liters), of oil at the time it ran aground.

On August 27, 2008, Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the $507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.

Alfa Romeo Bertone BAT 11 Concept heads for limited production

Ronn Motors' $150K Scorpion would do Captain Planet proud

Lightening GT All-electric sports car comes with a pricey tag

Pimped-Put Bentley Gold for Bling-Lovers

Pimp My Ride!

DC Designs' Ambierod - Most expensive designed car ever shown at Auto Expo

Top ten luxury cars gearing to burn the road

Big cars, big bills - Luxury doesn't come cheap

The New Ford Mondeo Deemed Allergy Free

Toyota Launches World's Most Expensive Hybrid for $104,750

2008 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible All-Set to Debut

The Mercedes luxury cars epitomize several years of design that have made Mercedes Benz become one of the most illustrious luxury brands in the world

The Iconic GTR Roadster is being introduced at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Car Show. For the uninitiated, only the most beautiful and luxuriously designed cars are showcased at Concours d’Elegance

Some people buy them for the comfort or features, and some just to make a statement

Texas-based Ronn Motors are out to spoil their customers and that too in some style

If you had been worrying about all the fuel your luxury sedan or the sports car you bought recently consume, then you are not alone

If you think Bentley is a bit less classy to justify your blingy lifestyle then you are in for a surprise with this pimped-out Bentley’s Gold version from ASI, the Japanese tuner specialized in Bentleys

Beau Boeckmann of Galpin Auto Sports whose pimped rides have been featured earlier in MTV's "Pimp My Ride."

Dilip Chhabria of DC Designs will officially unveil his super luxury concept car dubbed Ambierod on January 10, 2008 at the Auto Expo

Super luxury cars have been here after Karl Benz got that first patent for a motorwagen in Germany in January 1886

"hot spots" of contaminated sediment.

Pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, which are often presentin urban runoff, can pose public health problems.

Drains Versus 400 or More Yards Away Found On Hard Copy-Storm Drain Runoff," Epidemiology, July 1999, Vol. 10, No. 4.Metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in urban runoffcan present a threat to aquatic life.

proved to betoxic to sea urchin fertilization in the Santa Monica Bay, anddissolved zinc and copper were determined to be contributors tothis toxicity. -Brown bullheads (a bottom-dwelling catfish) inthe Anacostia River developed tumors that were believed to becaused by PAHs associated in part with urban runoff. High PAHand heavy metal concentrations were found in crayfish tissuesamples from several urban streams in Milwaukee. The studyassociated these contaminants with storm water runoff.

The three primaryactivities used in these programs include efforts to characterizestorm water runoff; BMPs aimed at reducing pollutants in stormwater runoff to the maximum extent practicable; and reportingprogram activities, monitoring results, and costs of implementingthe program. Some BMPs are structural-meaning that they aredesigned to trap and detain runoff until constituents settle orare filtered out.

-good housekeeping" practices by the local government, such asoil collection and recycling, spill response, household andhazardous waste collection, pesticide controls, flood controlmanagement, and street sweeping; -public education programs, suchas storm-drain stenciling, to remind the public that trash, motoroil, and other pollutants thrown into storm drains end up innearby receiving waters;' -new ordinances to control pollutionsources, such as prohibiting the disposal of lawn clippings instorm drains and requiring pet owners to clean up after theirpets;" requirements that developers comply with storm waterregulations and incorporate erosion and sediment controls at allnew development sites; -requirements that runoff from propertiesowned or activities sponsored by the municipality be properlycontrolled; and -efforts to identify and eliminate illicitconnections and illegal discharges to the storm sewer systems,such as those from pipes carrying sewage.

Several officials in the cities we visited said that their annualcosts are likely to increase. A number of factors could affectthe costs. For example, a Baltimore City official explained thatthe anticipated, future program costs depend on several factors,including (1) requirements in watershed- management planscurrently being developed, (2) pollution-reduction goals the citywill be required to achieve, (3) requirements of the stateregulatory agency in future permits, and (4) requirements thecity may have to meet if TMDLs or numeric effluent limits areincorporated into NPDES storm water permits. Other city officialsalso expressed concern about the extent to which TMDLs couldaffect their future costs. These city officials are concernedthat when and if TMDLs are established, their future storm waterpermits may require that storm water runoff meet specific waterquality standards. For example, Los Angeles County's trash TMDLcould potentially drive the county's storm water management costsupward, and the county expects additional TMDLs to be imposed. Onthe other hand, Worcester officials estimated that their futurestorm water costs would be about the same as they were at thetime of our review-about $4.5 million per year.

six to twelve eggs in termite mounds where the activity of the insects provides constant warmth.