Milwaukee admits POTWs don't remove pharmaceuticals from sewage - some pass in effluent - the rest is
concentrated in the sludge
- and EPA, et al, say sewage sludge biosolids is source of pharmaceuticals applied to land . . . . and pharmaceuticals
spread on land may be eaten by grazing wildlife or livestock, or can run off to surface waters or leach into groundwater
. . . . . and does this whole mishmash of drugs and pharmaceuticals contribute to the problem of multi drug resistant
bacteria ?
"Despite several layers of sewage treatment before, some of that water makes its way back to our taps. Most water
treatment facilities can't get rid of all of the drug residue"
"MMSD [Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District] said that it (was) aware then that research was showing that drugs
were making their way through the filtration, which MMSD said was never designed to remove pharmaceuticals. "
http://www.wisn.com:80/health/15554754/detail.html
City: Milwaukee's Drinking Water Safe
POSTED: 12:21 pm CDT March 10, 2008
MILWAUKEE -- A new report puts Milwaukee on a list of cities whose drinking water is contaminated with
pharmaceuticals.
The report said the amounts are tiny, but their impact is largely unknown.
Milwaukee boosted confidence in its drinking water with a huge investment in water treatment following the 1993
cryptosporidium outbreak.
But an Associated Press report still found a trace amount of the chemical cotinine, a byproduct of smoking cigarettes.
But the city maintains that was in treated water before it became drinking water, not after.
In Philadelphia, 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in their drinking water, including medicines for pain,
infection and mental illness.
In San Francisco, sex hormones were detected.
How are the drugs getting there? Scientists said when people take pills, their bodies don't absorb all of the medication
and it passes through.
"Despite several layers of sewage treatment before, some of that water makes its way back to our taps. Most water
treatment facilities can't get rid of all of the drug residue. Besides that, for years, the standing wisdom for disposing of
unwanted prescriptions, has been to flush them down the toilet. That has now changed," WISN 12 News reporter Nick
Bohr said.
"Now people are really able to see what happens with the system and how they can help," Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District Executive Director Kevin Shafer said.
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) started an annual medicine collection day two years ago.
MMSD said that it aware then that research was showing that drugs were making their way through the filtration, which
MMSD said was never designed to remove pharmaceuticals.
"More and more it's going to become an issue as we see more trace amounts appearing, and it is something that a lot
of the research around the United States is looking at -- trying to find ways to remove these medicines or
pharmaceuticals as we go through the treatment process," Shafer said.
While the report is prompting calls for new testing and analysis of the effects of low doses of pharmaceuticals, water
utilities nationwide -- and in Milwaukee -- insist their water is safe.
"We're not required to test for them, but the reason that we do is we want to make sure Milwaukee's water is safe and
healthy at all times. We want to know as much as we can about the quality of that water," said Carrie Lewis of
Milwaukee Water Works.
Most major cities don't test for pharmaceuticals at all. Those that do test usually for just one or two. Milwaukee tests for
73 pharmaceuticals. And it said none of them was found in the city's most recent tests of tap water.
For information about a medicine collection day in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine and Washington counties, click here.
**********************************************************************************************
Basic Information | Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products ...
This drawing shows some of the contributions of sewage, biosolids and farms ... and into aquatic environments via
sewage, treated sewage sludge (biosolids), ...
www.epa.gov/ppcp/basic2.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Pharmwaste] EPA SURVEY TO GIVE OVERVIEW OF PHARMACEUTICALS IN ...
EPA SURVEY TO GIVE OVERVIEW OF PHARMACEUTICALS IN SEWAGE SLUDGE ... Biosolids and sludge are the
solid residuals that result from the wastewater treatment ...
lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/2007-April/001062.html - 11k -
http://jeq.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/34/1/91
Each year, large quantities of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are used worldwide. Once
conveyed to wastewater treatment plants, PPCPs can remain unchanged or undergo partial or complete transformation
during wastewater treatment processes before discharge into the environment via effluent and biosolids for land
application. Biosolids can be a major sink for some PPCPs.
********************************************************
EPA
http://www.clu-in.org/download/misc/Daughton_Abstract.pdf
Pharmaceuticals in the Environment:
Overview of Sources, Concerns, and Solutions
Christian G. Daughton, Ph.D.
Chief, Environmental Chemistry Branch, Environmental Sciences Division,
National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119
daughton.christian@epa.gov
Pharmaceuticals comprise a large, diverse array of contaminants that can enter the environment from the
combined activities, actions, and behaviors of multitudes of individuals as well as from veterinary and
agricultural use (http://epa.gov/nerlesd1/chemistry/pharma/images/drawing.pdf). Excretion, bathing, and disposal of
leftover medications are the three primary routes of release from human activities. As trace environmental
contaminants in waters, sediments, and sewage sludge, they are largely unregulated in the U.S. The
concentrations of individual active ingredients in environmental samples such as surface waters often
range from parts-per-billion to parts-per-trillion — micrograms to nanograms per liter. Multiple active
ingredients, however, frequently occur together. The total, combined levels of these substances in a given
environmental sample can be 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than their individual levels in waters, or up to
the mg/kg level in treated sewage sludge ("biosolids," which is often disposed via application to land).