They’re out there. Ten years ago we couldn’t detect them, but now, advances in technology allow scientists to identify and measure them. The problem is that no one knows exactly where each of them comes from, how they are transported, or what impact they may have on human health or the environment.
No, they’re not something from outer space. They are called “emerging contaminants,” or ECs, and they are in Colorado’s lakes and streams – and possibly in our drinking water. Some occur naturally, but others come from man-made chemicals like detergents, fire retardants, pesticides, fertilizer and even anti-bacterial soaps.
Steve Frank, public information officer for the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, says, “If you put DEET on before you go fly-fishing, some of it will probably end up in the stream.” Todd Harris, water quality officer with Metro, laughs that some of the coffee he drinks will “end up in the wastewater stream and be an emerging contaminant.”
Drugs, both legal and illegal, are also contaminants. Hospitals and nursing homes, which are required by law to dispose of expired medications, usually just flush them down the toilet. In addition, anything that the body can’t absorb is passed through, so the residue of aspirin, birth-control pills, antibiotics and hormones all end up in wastewater.
Dennis Stowe, manager of the Littleton/Englewood Wastewater Treatment Plant, says the problem with medications has grown worse. A few years ago, “there was an industrywide change to make drugs cheaper and better,” he says. “The old way, when the chemicals in the drugs broke down, they were pretty safe. Now they interfere with the hormone systems of fish.”
Indeed, concern about ECs increased several years ago when a University of Colorado study found that white suckers in Boulder Creek were predominantly females, a change in balance that some speculate may be caused by ECs. “So far, no studies have shown a direct cause-and-effect relationship between ECs and changes in aquatic biology,” says Bret Bruce, supervisory hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The concern is that changes in fish “may be like the canary in the mine,” providing an early warning of a problem.
Heeding that warning, scientists have come together to study ECs and their possible effects on humans, animals, fish and plants. Six months ago, the Consortium for Research and Education on Emerging Contaminants (CREEC) was founded. Members include representatives of private industry, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Water and wastewater treatment plants. Researchers from the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, the University of Wyoming and the Colorado School of Mines are all involved.
Co-chairs Bruce and Harris say CREEC’s goal is to ensure that research is carefully coordinated and that findings are placed in a context that doesn’t cause undue public alarm. “ECs have probably been around for a long time,” Bruce says. “We just haven’t been able to measure them.”
“You can be sure the 30 million buffalo that used to wander Colorado added their own ECs,” Harris quips.
Colorado is a “perfect laboratory” to study ECs, according to Bruce, because scientists can study pristine water high in the mountains and follow it as it passes through wastewater-treatment plants in the metro area, then is reused for agricultural irrigation. Understanding what levels and combinations of concentrations may be hazardous will be increasingly important in the future, he says, as Colorado’s growing population will force more water reuse.
So should we all start drinking bottled water? Not according to Harris. “Most bottled water is just tap water that is put through a carbon filter or reverse osmosis process,” he says. In addition, some ingredients in plastics are emerging contaminants, so bottled water may add to the EC problem.
“The good news,” Harris adds, “is that 90 percent of contaminants” are removed by wastewater-treatment plants. As far as scientists know today, Colorado’s drinking water is safe.
On Oct. 27, CREEC is sponsoring a workshop in Longmont where state and national experts will discuss what is known about ECs. The workshop is open to the public (www.SouthPlatteForum.org). You might just want to drop in and learn more.
