Sludge Watch ==> Study: Sewage Treatment releases antibiotic resistant bacteria into environment

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This study was conducted at the St Paul's Wastewater Treatment plant.  Kinda 
makes you glad they have a biomass sludge gassifier to disinfect all the 
sludge pathogens instead of land application at St Pauls.
Cheaper than land application, too.

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Municipal Wastewater Treatment: A Novel. Opportunity to Slow the 
Proliferation of. Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria? by Timothy M. Lapara et al.

http://www.cura.umn.edu/reporter/06-Fall/LaPara_et_al.pdf


In this article, we report on a research project that investigated the role 
of municipal wastewater treat-ment facilities in the spread or control of 
antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The project was supported by a grant from 
CURA’s Faculty Interactive Research Program, as well as grants from the 
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at the University of Minnesota. 
We hypothesized that the disinfection processes most treatment facilities 
use would adequately inactivate antibi-otic-resistant bacteria in 
wastewater. However, our research suggests that treatment facilities, which 
are primarily designed to protect water quality, do not adequately prevent 
resistant bacteria from being released into the environment.