Drug Wastes Pollute Waterways

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17092-2002Mar12.html

Drug Wastes Pollute Waterways

80% of Streams Checked by USGS Contain Trace Amounts

By Pianin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 13, 2002; Page A08

The first nationwide study of pharmaceutical pollution of rivers and streams

offers an unsettling picture of waterways contaminated with antibiotics,

steroids, synthetic hormones and other commonly used drugs.

Of the 139 streams analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey in 30 states --

including land and Virginia -- about 80 percent contained trace amounts

of contaminants that are routinely discharged into the water in human and

livestock waste and chemical plant refuse.

Seven or more chemical compounds were found in half the streams sampled and

10 or more compounds were found in a third of the streams; a single water

sample contained as many as 38 chemicals.

The USGS study, which will be published in today's issue of the journal

Environmental Science and Technology, stresses that in many cases the

measured concentration of contaminants such as painkillers, insect

repellent, caffeine and fire retardants was low -- less than 1 part per

billion -- and rarely exceeded federal standards for drinking water.

But many of the chemical compounds detected are not covered by

drinking-water standards or government health advisories, and little is

known about how the interaction of those chemicals can affect humans,

animals and the environment.

" Protecting the integrity of our water resources is one of the most

essential environmental issues of the 21st Century, " the report states.

" Little is known about the potential interactive effects . . . that may

occur from complex mixtures of [waste contaminants] in the environment. "

In many ways, water quality mirrors societal behavior and medical practices:

Antibiotics and other prescription and nonprescription drugs and personal

care products used widely by Americans inevitably turn up in wastewater;

manufacturers and chemical plants legally dump thousands of tons of

compounds into streams and rivers, and the waste of livestock treated with

veterinary pharmaceuticals flows into streams.

The study, conducted in 1999 and 2000, surveyed the occurrence of 95

pharmaceuticals, hormones and other organic waste in streams across the

country. The authors said the compounds were selected because they enter the

environment through common wastewater pathways in large quantities and may

have human or environmental health implications.

The sampling technique focused on streams most susceptible to contamination,

downstream from large urban areas -- including New York, Boston, Chicago and

Denver -- or industrial plants or livestock yards. In the Washington, D.C.,

region, scientists sampled water from the Pocomoke River and Nassawango

Creek near Snow Hill, both on land's Eastern Shore, and Christians Creek

near Jolivue, Va.

" We're not talking about rampant dumping, " said a U.S. Geological Survey

official. " We're looking at the effect of normal existing usage for these

different chemicals. "

The study was not designed to compare the water quality of different

streams, but to create a baseline for future study by scientists of the

persistence and migration patterns of the compounds and their potential

impact on humans and the environment, according to USGS officials.

Environmentalists say that while water quality has vastly improved since

passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the government fell far short of the

congressional goal of creating " fishable and swimmable " waters nationwide by

1983. Moreover, they said, there are scores of potentially harmful chemical

compounds in the water that can accumulate in humans and animals, compounds

that are not governed by the law, which was last reauthorized in 1987.

" On the one hand, we have eliminated the smelly, rotting sewage floating in

the Potomac River and other streams that [former first lady] Lady Bird

talked about, " said Rick Hind, the legislative director of

Greenpeace USA's toxics campaign. " But the poisons unseen continue to fester

in the water, animal life and sediments of all of our rivers and lakes. "

© 2002 The Washington Post Company