[Pharmwaste] Boulder's wastewater treatment upgrades cut chemicals that feminize fish (article)

[Tenace, Laurie]

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_15346938


CU: Boulder's wastewater treatment upgrades cut chemicals that feminize fish

New treatment process slows gender-bending effects in minnows
By Laura Snider Camera Staff Writer
Recent upgrades to Boulder's wastewater treatment plant may have dramatically reduced the amount of chemicals in Boulder Creek that cause male fish to develop female characteristics, according to scientists at the University of Colorado.

Researchers first discovered a problem in the fish living below the wastewater treatment plant's outflow pipe in Boulder almost a decade ago.

David Norris, a professor of integrative physiology at CU, found that half of white suckers living above the pipe were male. But only one in six fish living below the pipe -- where effluent from the plant containing estrogen-related chemicals is dumped into the stream -- were male. The others were female or "intersex," with both male and female organs.

Norris followed up on his discovery with a study in 2006 that used a mobile fish exposure lab. The research trailer, which was set up near the wastewater treatment plant on 75th Street, allowed him to expose fathead minnows to various mixtures of water from upstream of the plant and effluent collected directly from the plant's pipe.

Norris and his colleagues, including CU researcher Alan Vajda, found that minnows exposed to a mixture of 50 percent upstream water and 50 percent effluent became "feminized" in only a week.

"When we set up the experiment, we set it up to run for 28 days because we had no idea how long it would take us to see an effect," Norris said. "Initially, we were quite surprised at the effect we had within seven days."

Now Norris has again tested the effects of the effluent on fathead minnows, but in the years between the 2006 research and the new study, the city of Boulder upgraded its treatment plant.

"Basically, the city set up an experiment for us," Norris said. "They upgraded their processing system. We had earlier data, and now we had a before-and-after to make a comparison."

In the new study, Norris found that fathead minnows exposed to 100 percent effluent took 28 days to show signs of feminization.

"It appears so far -- we have a lot of data yet to analyze -- that the levels of chemicals are down quite a bit," Norris said.

Even before Norris' 2006 experiment, the city had plans to update its wastewater treatment plant to use an "activated sludge" process in order to meet a state requirement to reduce the amount of nitrates and ammonia in the effluent.

The apparent reduction in estrogen-related chemicals -- which are found in a wide range of products from shampoo to birth-control pills -- is a "pleasant side effect," according to Ned Williams, Boulder's director of public works for utilities.

Fish feminization is a global issue, according to Norris, and though the results of the study are encouraging for Boulder Creek, they do not address the widespread problem of estrogen-related chemicals ending up in waterways.

"It's a lot less of a problem to not put them in than to try and get them out after they're in," Norris said. "This is a fairly recent phenomenon -- a combination of too many people concentrated in too small an area and dumping all of their waste in one spot."

Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-2400
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us

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