Sludge Watch ==> Sewage Effluent - Cat Poop and Dead Otters

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Read this alert on how sewage effluent (and the diseases in it) are killing 
sea otters. Poses a risk to people, too.

http://www.seaotterresearch.org/resources.shtml

Below is the popularly written piece:

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Steve Wiegand: You can't pooh-pooh this issue
By Steve Wiegand - Bee Columnist
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, January 20, 2007
Fresno



Let us speak today of parasites and cat poop, of otters and entrepreneurs.

First, the parasites. More specifically, Toxoplasma gondii, a tough and 
crafty one-celled critter that forms cysts within its host, usually in the 
brain and muscles.

Humans can pick up the bug from contaminated meat or water, or by handling 
material that cats have used as latrines. In most humans, T. gondii is 
generally no big deal, but it can be a major health threat to pregnant women 
and people with weakened immune systems.

The parasite is carried by rodents and birds, but it's in a reproductive 
mood only when it gets into cats. (A 2000 British study found that the 
parasite apparently coaxes rats' brains into losing their instinctive fear 
of cats. That cleverly gets the rat -- and the parasite -- into the feline.)

Now, here's where the cat poop hits the fan. In its egg-like stage, T. 
gondii is incredibly tough.

Pat Conrad, a professor of parasitology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary 
Medicine, says you can soak 'em in pure bleach for hours and hours and they 
come out fit and ready to move on to other things.

That means when people flush their cats' feces, the parasite can survive the 
ride through a sewage treatment plant and arrive alive and well in the 
ocean.

And that might be a dire consequence for sea otters, which in recent years 
have not been doing well as a species. A team led by Conrad examined 305 
dead otters and 257 live ones between 1998 and 2004.

Of the dead ones, 52 percent were infected with Toxoplasma, and 38 percent 
of the live ones.

Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, found all this out after he took his 
family to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As a consequence of his visit (and his 
young son's tearful pleas to do something about it), Jones and Assemblyman 
John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, co-authored a bill last year to help out the 
otter.

The bill was approved by lawmakers, signed by the governor and went into 
effect Jan. 1. It establishes a voluntary checkoff on state income tax 
returns to raise money for otter protection and research, but not until some 
other tax checkoff is dropped from the form.

It also requires that cat litter sold in California carry a label suggesting 
that cat poop be put in the trash rather than down the toilet.

For most cat litter brands, that's no problem. Flushing their product can 
cause plumbing problems and they don't recommend it anyway.

But Gerald Marantz fears he may be out of business come April, when the 
labeling regulation will start being enforced.

Marantz is a 54-year-old Chatsworth resident. For the past 20 years, he has 
marketed a brand of cat litter that is specifically designed to be flushed. 
Hence its name: Scoop 'n Flush.

Marantz says it's a niche product, designed for shut-ins, the elderly and 
the disabled, who own cats but can't make regular trips to the trash can 
after cleaning the litter box.

"I have a big-time problem," he said. "They are telling me I have to put a 
label on a product called Scoop 'n Flush that says, 'Please don't flush.' 
Who's going to buy that?"

Marantz complains that the only cat litter manufacturers consulted when the 
bill was being drafted don't make flushable products. He argues that poop 
from feral felines is far more of a threat to the ocean, and putting 
domestic cats' output into landfills carries its own problems.

But he also knows who's going to win a political fight when it's a small 
businessman vs. a tearful kid and a cuddly sea mammal. And he's got a 
tongue-in-cheek, fall-back business in mind.

"I'm thinking of manufacturing bumper stickers," he said, "that read, 'Kill 
A Cat, Save A Sea Otter.' "