The treatment of hazardous sites in Baden-Wuerttemberg is based on three legal documents: the state waste disposal act (LAbfG, 1990), the assessment committee directive (Kommissions VO, 1990), and the guide values directive (UM and SM B-W, 1993). The guide values directive was commonly issued by the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg (UM and SM B-W, 1993) and contains a three-level hierarchy of numerical criteria and rules which serve as both screening levels during the investigation and as remediation objectives. The decision for the appropriate level of remediation is based on feasibility and environmental balance considerations. The levels are ordered as follows: - 1. (Background-Values) On principle, all remediations have to be based first on background levels. In the case of lack of feasibility or negative environmental balance for level-1 objectives use-specific requirements are considered next. - 2. (Assessment-Values for Worst Case Exposure Conditions) The generic requirements underlying level 2 afford appropriate protection for humans regarding the most sensitive uses of the environment. At least four resources are considered on this level: Groundwater as such and its use, the health of humans on contaminated sites, and soil with respect to growth and quality of plants. Barriers against migration of the contaminants, the effect of dilution, and abandonment of certain uses, etc., are not taken into consideration on level 2. - 3. (Site-Specific Requirements) Lack of feasibility or a negative environmental balance of level-2 objectives lead to consideration of site-specific circumstances which may alleviate the requirements.

The ocean plays a central role in the global carbon cycle being by far the largest active reservoir. Atmospheric CO2 level depends on the CO2 concentration in the ocean surface layer, which is relatively low compared to mean oceanic values due to biological and physical carbon pumps. Although the ocean may take up much of the carbon released by the increased burning of fossil fuels, this capacity is limited because of the chemical buffering and a mismatch in time scales (oceanic mixing is much slower than anthropogenic perturbations).

Although polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are no longer manufactured, they are still entering the environment. In some compartments of the environment, PCB concentrations are a serious concern. This is especially true in compartments which accumulate PCBs, and in food items consumed by humans and wildlife. Also, there are situations in which management decisions require rapid, sensitive, accurate measurements, which can be made in real time under field conditions. Methods to use an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for PCBs were developed and applied to sediments and fish muscle homogenates collected from the Great Lakes. The extraction methods developed can be applied in the field with non-hazardous solvents, in the absence of sophisticated laboratory equipment. The method detection limit for PCBs in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) extracts of sediment was 0.9 mg/kg. For PCBs in isopropanol extracts of fish tissue, the method detection limit was 0.6 mg/kg. The resolution of the ELISA was 0.83 mg/kg at 1.1 mg/kg and 1.6 mg/kg at 1.7 mg/kg, for sediment and fish tissue, respectively.