A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Underground storage tanks that leak hazardous substances can contaminate nearby groundwater and soil. Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), tank owners and operators are primarily responsible for paying to clean up releases from their tanks. They can demonstrate their financial responsibility by using, among other options, publicly funded state financial assurance funds. Such funds function like insurance and are intended to ensure timely cleanup. These funds also pay to clean up releases from tanks without a viable owner, as does the federal Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund. GAO was asked to report on (1) states' estimates of the public costs to clean up known releases, (2) states' primary sources of cleanups funding and their viability, and (3) federal sources to address these releases. GAO surveyed all states and discussed key issues with EPA and selected state officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has mobilized more than 500,000 reservists. As reservists demobilize, concerns exist about difficulties with their civilian employment. Public Law 109-163 required GAO to report on reservists' civilian employer data and employment matters. GAO assessed (1) the status of DOD's efforts to capture reservists' employer data; (2) DOD, Labor, Justice, and Office of Special Counsel processes to track and address reservists' Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) complaints; and (3) the four federal agencies' efforts to track reservists' USERRA complaints related to disabilities incurred while on active duty. GAO reviewed policies and procedures for reporting and tracking complaints; DOD's civilian employer database for reservists and reservists' USERRA complaints; and data reliability and quality checks."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. insular area of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a self-governing commonwealth of the United States that comprises 14 islands in the North Pacific. In a December 2006 report--U.S. Insular Areas: Economic, Fiscal, and Financial Accountability Challenges (GAO-07-119)--regarding four insular areas including CNMI, GAO identified and reported the following: (1) economic challenges, including the effect of changing tax and trade laws on their economies; (2) fiscal condition; and (3) financial accountability, including compliance with the Single Audit Act. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which requested the December 2006 report, asked GAO to present and discuss the results as they pertain to CNMI. Our summary and conclusions are based on our work performed for our December 2006 report on U.S. insular areas. For this testimony we also had available CNMI's fiscal year 2005 audited financial statements, which we have included in our review, along with some recent developments in fiscal year 2006."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, about 76 million people contract a foodborne illness in the United States; about 325,000 require hospitalization; and about 5,000 die. While the recent E. coli outbreaks highlighted the risks posed by accidental contamination, the attacks of September 11, 2001, heightened awareness that the food supply could also be vulnerable to deliberate contamination. This testimony focuses on the (1) role that GAO's high-risk series can play in raising the priority and visibility of the need to transform federal oversight of food safety, (2) fragmented nature of federal oversight of food safety, and (3) need to address federal oversight of food safety as a 21st century challenge. This work is based on previously issued reports."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In January 2003, GAO designated the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) implementation and transformation as high risk because of the size and complexity of the effort and the existing challenges faced by the components being merged into the department. The success of the effort to integrate numerous agencies and organizations into one cabinet-level department rests in large part on DHS's ability to effectively acquire the wide range of goods and services it needs to achieve its mission of protecting the nation from terrorism. DHS is undertaking a number of large, complex investments as the federal government increasingly relies on contractors for roles and missions previously performed by government employees. One of the department's largest investments--the Deepwater program, now estimated to cost $24 billion--is the Coast Guard's major effort to replace or modernize its aircraft and vessels. Rather than using a traditional acquisition approach, the Coast Guard is using a system integrator to design, construct, deploy, support, and integrate the Deepwater assets. In this testimony, the Comptroller General discussed (1) the overarching challenges DHS faces in establishing an effective acquisition organization, (2) GAO's prior work on Coast Guard and …

An understanding of the hydrologic interactions amongatmosphere, land surface, and subsurface is one of the keys tounderstanding the water cycling system that supports our life system onearth. Properly modeling such interactionsis a difficult task because oftheinherent coupled processes and complex feedback structures amongsubsystems. In this paper, we present a model that simulates thelandsurface and subsurface hydrologic response to meteorological forcing.This model combines a state of the art landsurface model, the NCARCommunity Land Model version 3 (CLM3), with a variablysaturatedgroundwater model, the TOUGH2, through an internal interfacethat includes flux and state variables shared by the two submodels.Specifically, TOUGH2, in its simulation, uses infiltration, evaporation,and rootuptake rates, calculated by CLM3, as source/sink terms? CLM3, inits simulation, uses saturation and capillary pressure profiles,calculated by TOUGH2, as state variables. This new model, CLMT2,preserves the best aspects of both submodels: the state of the artmodeling capability of surface energy and hydrologic processes from CLM3and the more realistic physical process based modeling capability ofsubsurface hydrologic processes from TOUGH2. The preliminary simulationresults show that the coupled model greatly improves the predictions ofthe water table, evapotranspiration, surface temperature, and moisture inthe top 20 cm of soil at a real watershed, as evaluated from 18 years ofobserved data. The …

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Wednesday, January 31, 2007, and ending on Monday, February 5, 2007.

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This report discusses the largest Older Americans Act program, funded at $714.6 million in FY2006, accounting for 40% of the Act’s total funding.

Weekly newspaper from Port Aransas, Texas on Mustang Island that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Albany, Texas that includes local, county, and state news along with extensive advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The nitrate ion (NO{sub 3}{sup -}) is an inhibitor for crevice corrosion of Alloy 22 (N06022) in chloride (Cl{sup -}) aqueous solutions. Naturally formed electrolytes may contain both chloride and nitrate ions. The higher the ratio R = [NO{sub 3}{sup -}]/[Cl{sup -}] in the solution the stronger the inhibition of crevice corrosion. Atmospheric desert dust contains both chloride and nitrate salts, generally based on sodium (Na{sup +}) and potassium (K{sup +}). Some of these salts may deliquescence at relatively low humidity at temperatures on the order of 150 C and higher. The resulting deliquescent brines are highly concentrated and especially rich in nitrate. Electrochemical tests have been performed to explore the anodic behavior of Alloy 22 in high chloride high nitrate electrolytes at temperatures as high as 150 C at ambient atmospheres. Naturally formed brines at temperatures higher than 120 C do not induce crevice corrosion in Alloy 22 because they contain high levels of nitrate. The inhibitive effect of nitrate on crevice corrosion is still active for temperatures higher than 100 C.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has collaborated with the various international institutes (e.g. Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency--Rosatom and Ukraine government's Chornobyl Center-International Radioecology Laboratory (CC-IRL)) for many years on radioactive waste management challenges of mutual concern. Currently, EM is cooperating with Rosatom and the Ukraine's CC-IRL to explore issues related to high-level waste and to investigate experience and technologies that could support EM site cleanup needs. EM is currently implementing five collaborative projects with other international institutes on nuclear waste issues: (1) Application of the Cold Crucible Induction Heated Melter to DOE Wastes; SIA Radon, Moscow. (2) Design Improvements to the Cold Crucible Induction Heated Melter; Electrotechnical University, St. Petersburg. (3) Improve Retention of Radionuclides in Cement Type Waste Forms; Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg. (4) Improved Solubility and Retention of Troublesome Components in SRS and Hanford HLW Glasses; Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg. (5) Long-term Impacts from Radiation/Contamination within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Chornobyl Center, International Radioecology Laboratory, Ukraine The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of EM's objectives for participating in cooperative activities with various international institutes. Additionally, this paper presents programmatic and technical information on these activities, …

The Hanford mission to retrieve and immobilize 53 million gallons of radioactive waste from 177 underground storage tanks will be accomplished using a combination of processing by the waste treatment plant currently under construction, and a supplemental treatment that would process low-activity waste. Under consideration for this treatment is bulk vitrification, a versatile joule-heated melter technology which could be deployed in the tank farms. The Department proposes to demonstrate this technology under a Research, Development and Demonstration (RD and D) permit issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology using both non-radioactive simulant and blends of actual tank waste. From the demonstration program, data would be obtained on cost and technical performance to enable a decision on the potential use of bulk vitrification as the supplemental treatment technology for Hanford. An independent review by sixteen subject matter experts was conducted to assure that the technical basis of the demonstration facility design would be adequate to meet the objectives of the Demonstration Bulk Vitrification System (DBVS) program. This review explored all aspects of the program, including flowsheet chemistry, project risk, vitrification, equipment design and nuclear safety, and was carried out at a time when issues can be identified and corrected. This …

This report summarizes NOAA performance during the 2006 fiscal year as well as budget and program change highlights.

Weekly newspaper from Archer City, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Lexington, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Whitewright, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Livingston, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.