water: down the drain

Tales of my grandmother swimming across the Delaware River near Philadelphia were incredible, not only because of the distance but also because, well, who would want to set foot in that river?

 

Over the course of the 1960s, authors such as Rachel Carson and Donald E. Carr warned of the dangers of environmental pollution, and many local groups, such as the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater,[1] sprang up to raise awareness about fragile ecosystems. But industry was able to retain its grip on the American imagination until the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland in 1969, which replaced the image of industrial progress with an image of danger and destruction. The first Earth Day took place in San Francisco the following March. Dispersed voices grew loud enough to impel the US government to take action against water pollution in Ohio and nationwide; the Environmental Protection Agency was founded in 1970 and a federal Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972.[2] The state of US waterways started to improve.

 

Many places around the globe still lack access to clean water or even adequate distribution systems, but those of us in the US and Europe can pretty much take it for granted (with some noteworthy exceptions[3]) that clean water will come out of our taps. We think very little of what happens after our water goes down the drain, and even less about what we add to it before it does. It is easy to assume that there are authorities in place to worry about such things. There are a growing number of reasons, however, why we should be thinking more about the wastewater we produce. Our disregard is causing unseen harm. It turns out that the next big water pollution problem is not being pumped into our waterways by industry, but is the result of contemporary health and hygiene. It is driving water treatment professionals to distraction and generating silent long-term environmental damage.

 

As part of a course on sustainability, I attended a lecture a few years ago on wastewater treatment that provided an insightful overview of current treatment technology, as well as a history of how we got here. Until the 1950s, most wastewater went through basic filtering systems before being returned to waterways and lakes. Since then, each decade has seen the introduction of an additional water treatment step as water use and pollution levels have risen. In the 60s, clarification basins were added after filtering, and in the 70s wastewater was put through “secondary” nitrification and aeration processes to aid in the elimination of bacteria before clarification. Increasing nitrogen levels, mostly due to agriculture, gave rise to denitrification in the 80s, and in the 90s steps to remove increasing amounts of phosphates were added.

 

These processes, however, have proved inadequate for removing the growing amount of chemicals and microplastics that stem from our love of manmade fibers, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Although these pollutants are manufactured by industry, we consumers spread them through our washing machines, shower drains, and toilets. The use of polyethylene “microbeads” in the cosmetic industry exploded over the past 15 years despite early warnings from biologists[4]. Even more disturbing has been the discovery of pharmaceutical compounds such as hormones, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories in our waters. These compounds work their way up the aquatic food chain, from algae and plankton, shellfish and larger fish, ultimately into our own diets. Microplastics have been found even in deep-sea fish and on deep-sea beds, and we don’t really know what this means. A diet of microplastics will of course starve small organisms, and even trace amounts of hormones and other chemicals can be dangerous to reproduction cycles in fish.

 

Public awareness campaigns over the past ten years, some run by the organizations founded in the 1970s, have done much to prompt communities and governments to ban the use of microbeads. The Netherlands was the first country to ban their use and in 2017 they will be banned in Canada, the UK, and the US as well.

 

Unfortunately, sources for plastic fibers in our wastewater continue to grow; recent studies have found that a major source of plastic microfibers is the synthetic materials we wear every day. The development of fleece clothing made from recycled plastics has allowed us to feel good about all those plastic water bottles we buy, but it turns out that every time we wash synthetic fabrics, hundreds of thousands of microfibers go down the drain.[5] High-end clothing manufacturers such as Patagonia are taking the lead in researching and modifying synthetic fibers, but it might just be easier to reconsider the value of good old natural fibers[6] 

 

More progress still needs to be made on the issue of pharmaceuticals. Although the US recently banned the general use of antibacterial soaps, there is much yet to be done. Proposed EPA regulations[7] on pharmaceutical waste might help some, but it is unclear how we will stop the real culprits—ourselves. We take tablets, which our body processes, and flush the rest out into our sewer systems.

Even state-of-the-art treatment plants are struggling to come up with solutions to remove these substances. Fine-gauged microfilters can remove some microscopic particles, and activated carbon filters absorb many of the contaminants, but these processes are expensive and often take years of planning to incorporate into existing facilities. Moreover, they still do not remove all the microparticles and dangerous chemicals.

 

Of course we shouldn’t abandon modern medicine or good hygiene. That being said, the next time you go to a pharmacy or buy warm clothes for winter, spare a thought for your local water treatment plant managers, who know all too well what you are sending down the drain. They know your purchases affect their ability to do their job. The long-term quality of our water and marine life is just as important as our own health. The solution to keeping our water clean is in our hands.

 

[1] http://www.clearwater.org/

[2] http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/58

[3] "For These Americans Clean Water is a Luxury", by George McGraw, New York Times, October 20th, 2016

[4]https://www.beatthemicrobead.org/en/science

[5] http://www.patagonia.com/blog/2016/06/what-do-we-know-about-tiny-plastic-fibers-in-the-ocean/

[6] http://empoweredsustenance.com/natural-fiber-clothing/

[7] https://www.epa.gov/hwgenerators/proposed-rule-management-standards-hazardous-waste-pharmaceuticals