Sludge Watch ==> Ontario- Picton Enviro-Guy Bruce Cattle Fights Sludge - finds contamination

[Maureen Reilly]

Toxic pharmaceuticals in St. Lawrence 
New pollution findings are no surprise to Picton sludge activist Bruce Cattle
 
By John Barker
Wellington Times
July 12, 2006
 
While he takes no great pleasure in the findings, it comes as no surprise at all to Picton environmental activist Bruce Cattle that Environment Canada researchers have found a dozen different types of toxic pharmaceutical drugs and caffeine in water samples taken from the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Although the amounts were minuscule, the study published earlier this year in the journal "Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety", raises numerous questions about the long-term effects of pharmacological pollution in Canada's waterways. 
The study found drugs ranging from caffeine and over-the-counter ibuprofen to the prescription antibiotic oxytetracycline and carbamazepine, prescribed to treat epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. The drugs were found in concentrations less than 10micrograms per litre after sewage treatment - "trace amounts," said researchers. Isabelle Saulnier, supervisor of the State of the St. Lawrence Monitoring Program for Environment Canada at Montreal's St. Lawrence Centre, described the drug findings as "unsettling," but said to put matters into perspective the condition of the river has improved greatly over the last 30 years with decreases in mercury, PCB and metal contamination from arsenic, copper, nickel, lead and zinc, as well as pesticides such as atrazine and metolchlor and polycyclicaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene. 
Improved technology means researchers can now distinguish between the different types of pollution in the river, she says. The State of the St. Lawrence Monitoring Program was launched in February 2003. The hydrographic system of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence is one of the largest in the world. Approximately 15 million Canadians and 30 million Americans make their homes within the basin. "At this point we have detected toxic substances but we don't know what the real toxic effects are," Andre Lajeunesse, one of several researchers involved in the study from Environment Canada in Montreal, said last week. 
The human body disposes of excess medication through urine but current sewage treatment methods were not built to deal with those kind of contaminants, Lajeunesse said. Cattle, who is active with the Safe Water Group of Prince Edward, points out a sample of sewage sludge from Picton analyzed last year by Chris Metcalfe, a professor in the Environmental and Resource Studies Program at Trent University's Worsfold Water Quality Centre in Peterborough, revealed the presence of caffeine; carbamazepine, an anticonvulsant; fluoxetine hydrochloride, better known by its trade name as the anti-depressant Prozac; cotinine, a nicotine metabolite; the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain-killer ibuprofen; acetaminophen; gemfibrozil, a lipid-cholesterol regulating agent; beta-blockers atenolol, metoprolol and propranolol hydrochloride; and the sulfonamide antibiotics sulfamethoxazole and sulfapyridine. 
Metcalfe has focused his research over the past 18 years on the environmental distribution and toxic effects of organic contaminants. His past research focused on the fate and effects of persistent, non-polar contaminants, but his recent work has shifted to an emphasis on contaminants in industrial and municipal wastewaters, with his current research on the fate and distribution of pharmaceutical and personal care products. Testing has begun on fish, sediment and micro-organisms in the St. Lawrence to try and determine the effects of the pollution. 
Cattle, who has also fought against the use of biosolids on County fields, says "the conundrum is that sewage sludge contains a complex matrix of contaminant ingredients that is far from just the "nutrients" needed for "soil conditioning." But Prince Edward County is pressing ahead with plans to spread sewage sludge on about 200 acres of farmland in the heart of wine country near Hillier. Proposed sites in the County will be reviewed for suitability to meet Ministry of the Environment requirements. 
Opponents are concerned not only with the pharmaceutical waste but also the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (flame-retardant Penta-like PBDEs), which was found last fall in high amounts in the Picton sludge in an analysis by Robert Hale, a professor of marine science at The College of William and Mary's graduate school Virginia Institute of Marine Science Institute at Gloucester Point, Virginia
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