Sludge Watch ==> Why Sewage Treatment Plants Just Aren't Good Enough

[Maureen Reilly]

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/117927.asp



The dirty side of antibacterial soaps, or, why sewage treatment plants just 
aren't good enough any more
There's *what* in my sewage? And we're spreading it on the vegetable garden?



Metro Poster from 1958. King County cleaned up the water once -- can it do 
so again with a new generation of contaminants that can screw up 
reproduction in mammals?
On a day when King County is bragging about an award for its two main 
sewage-treatment plants, we feel compelled to point out that the above two 
statements would be a natural reaction to two news stories this week.

Yesterday the Denver Post spotlighted a new federal report that showed 
traces of drugs, steroids and fragrances can be found in recycled sewage 
being sold as a fertlizer to, among others, home gardeners. Jeremy P. 
Meyer's story says 55 contaminants were found in fertilizers sold by nine 
sewage-treatment plans. Keep in kind that about half the nation's sewage 
biosolids -- "sludge," to those of us who talk plain -- is spread on crops 
(including home gardens), forestland and the like, so this is no small 
matter.

The story quotes the lead author of the federal study -- Chad Kinney of 
Eastern Washington University, near Spokane -- as saying of the 
contaminants:

Do we need to be concerned now that we know they are present? That's the 
next step.



Well, if we're not allowed to be concerned yet, color us as, uh, very 
interested.

If you had any doubt about where that stuff is coming from, today Jane Kay 
put an end to the wondering in a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kay traced the results of a study by the East Bay Municipal Utility District 
that intercepted and tested wastewater leaving homes, a nail salon, 
laundries, a pet wash, medical centers, and industrial facilities. 
Hormone-disrupting chemicals turned up in various combinations in 19 of the 
20 places checked.

One is triclosan, which comes from antibacterial soaps that are marketed 
heavily to consumers but that screw up the biological processes that do what 
work can be done to clean water at sewage treatment plans. The utility is 
asking consumers to stop using the antibacterial soaps.

The story is based on a study by the Environmental Working Group, in 
conjunction with the utility district, called "Down the Drain."

Turns out King County recently finished its own study of endocrine 
disrupters in local waters. Guess we'll have to figure out what that says. 
People around here still talk about how people around here formed Metro back 
in the 1950s to clean up Lake Washington and Puget Sound by building sewage 
treatment plants. Now, though, it looks like we might have to launch a whole 
new generation of sewage cleanup work.

............................................................................................

Posted by Robert McClure at July 11, 2007 3:55 p.m.
Comments
#40845Posted by unregistered user at 7/13/07 9:07 a.m.

Victoria BC has been forced into buying a billion dollars of sewage 
treatment, and looks like the ONLY
way to really avoid such toxics getting into the marine environment is 
through what we've been doing (and doing
more of): SOURCE CONTROLS. Victoria has banned lawn pesticides and has a 
very active source control program that has had notable successes reducing 
mercury emissions. Now, we have to get better at it, and rather than 
spending a billion on ineffective and unnecessary sewage treatment, do much 
more on source controls. Looks like Seattle should do the same?