Researchers found that wild European perch exposed to the anxiety-moderating drug oxazepam in an experimental pond in Sweden were less fearful and are more aggressive feeders.

Ecologists worry that such changes in fish behavior could lead to unexpected ecological consequences, including changing the composition of species in waterways and increasing the risk of potentially toxic algal blooms.

“This is only one of hundreds of kinds of [pharmaceutical drugs] that are passed through wastewater plants, and we don’t know what their environmental effects will be,” said study coauthor Micael Jonsson, an ecologist at Sweden’s Umea University. 

The new study, detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Science, also found that water downstream from sewage treatment plants in Sweden contain concentrations of Oxazepam that experiments have shown are capable of changing fish behavior. 

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that pharmaceutical drugs can do more than just poison fish or change their physical characteristics. An earlier study conducted by scientists in Minnesota at St. Cloud State University showed that fathead minnows exposed to various antidepressants in the laboratory were slower at avoiding predators.

This latest study expands the list of mood altering chemicals to a different class of drugs – those used to treat anxiety disorders.

“Before this, people had talked at [scientific] meetings about how you would expect this kind of drug to affect fish behavior, but what these researchers have done is show, very elegantly, how fish behavior has changed, and not just one aspect either, but several aspects,” said Patrick Phillips, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Troy, N.Y., who was not involved in the study. 

Perch are normally shy and hunt in schools. But Jonsson and his team found that those exposed to Oxazepam were bolder, less interested in hanging out with the group, and more likely to strike out on their own to explore novel, potentially dangerous areas.

“We were actually a bit surprised because [Oxazepam] is supposed have a soothing effect. Humans usually become calmer. But we saw the opposite in fish,” Jonsson said.

Normally, perch are constantly on the lookout for larger predator fish. The researchers speculate that the medicated perch are bolder because they are calmer.

“When they get exposed to this drug, they lose that inhibition, so they don’t care anymore,” Jonsson said.

Not only were the medicated perch braver, they also ate faster. In the long term, this combination of fearlessness and a larger appetite could lead to ecological disturbances that are hard to predict, scientists warn. Perch feed on tiny microorganisms called zooplankton, which in turn feed on algae.

“If the zooplankton decrease in number, the algae might increase, and you could have a situation where you have more algal blooms,” Jonsson said.

Alternatively, the perch population might actually decrease because drugs have made them foolhardy towards predators. But then again, “we don’t know how larger fish will react to this kind of medication,” Jonsson said.

There is also worry that some drug effects on wildlife won’t be apparent for years or decades.

“We’re just beginning to understand what the ultimate consequences may be from these kinds of exposures,” said research hydrologist Dana Kolpin, of the USGS Toxics Substances Hydrology Program, who also did not participate in the study.

According to scientists, it’s also likely that the ecological changes they worry about are already happening.

“It’s not all of a sudden that [medicines] are in the environment,” Kolpin said. “There are papers going back to the 1970s that say pharmaceuticals are potential environmental contaminants. We just didn’t have the analytical tools until more recently [to prove it].”

Most studies have shown that humans are unlikely to be affected by trace amounts of drugs in drinking water, but Kolpin suggests more research is needed.

“We just do not know enough about aspects such as sensitive populations” – including infants and pregnant women – “or effects from chronic exposures to complex chemical mixtures,” Kolpin said.

Jonsson and his team stressed that the solution to the problem is not to stop medicating ill people, but to develop ways for sewage treatment plants to capture environmentally hazardous drugs.

Experts say technology exists that can reduce, if not fully purge, drugs from waste water, but upgrading every waste treatment plant would be prohibitively expensive.

A more sensible, and realistic, approach would be to identify those classes of medicines that are most harmful to wildlife.

“We are realizing that some compounds are worse actors than others, and if we can identify those, then we can be more targeted in our approach for preventing their release into the environment,” Kolpin said.

Source: Inside Science.

 Gazette Fair Use Statement

Freshwater Volume Equivalent to the Dead Sea Has Been Lost

A NASA study found that an amount of freshwater almost the size of the Dead Sea has been lost in parts of the Middle East due to poor management, increased demands for groundwater and the effects of a 2007 drought.

The study, to be published Friday in Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, examined data over seven years from 2003 from a pair of gravity-measuring satellites. Researchers found freshwater reserves in parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins had lost 117 million acre feet of its total stored freshwater.

About 60 percent of the loss resulted from pumping underground reservoirs for ground water and another fifth due to impacts of the drought including declining snow packs.

The study is the latest evidence of a worsening water crisis in the Middle East, where demands from growing populations, war and the worsening effects ofclimate change are raising the prospect that some countries could face sever water shortages in the decades to come. Some like impoverished Yemen blame their water woes on the semi-arid conditions and the grinding poverty while the oil-rich Gulf faces water shortages mostly due to the economic boom that has created glistening cities out of the desert.

Beer Is Mainly Water, So Brewers Are Very Worried About Fracking

Brewers are becoming vocal in their opposition to fracking.  Since the quality of beer depends greatly on the quality of the water it is made with, and most good brewers have built their businesses around a reliable source of excellent water, it is only natural that brewery owners get nervous when their is talk of fracking in their area.  As a leading brewer in Cooperstown, NY  put it, “Accidents are happening. Places are getting polluted.”

The owner of the Ommegang brewery in Cooperstown discussed the issue with The Washington Post  recently.  He says that brewers have equipment that  can filter sediment from water and adjust pH levels, but they do not have the equipment to filter out some of the potential toxic chemicals that could enter the water supply via fracking, including benzene, methane and even diesel fuel. If the water becomes polluted, the company may need to truck in water, move or shut down the brewery altogether — a last-ditch effort that would cost the region about many jobs.

Other brewers have voiced similar concerns.  Much of the issue hinges on the who should be permitted to make decisions to allow fracking.  In the Cooperstown area some local farmers are opting to allow fracking. This is not a popular decision among brewers and others, like dairy farmers, who rely on the purity of local water to sustain their businesses.

A Zen Buddhist, a Muslim, a Christian and an attorney of undetermined religious affiliation walk into a bar. . .

Introductory Note:  The spiritual aspects of water are not a new topic.  The Gazette looked at the spiritual side of water at some length in “The Gazette’s Great Water Article,” some years ago.

Thales of Miletus. known as the Father of Greek Philosophy, founded his school of thought over 2,500 years ago on the premise that “All things are water.” On the other side of the globe, Taoists like Lao-tzu and his disciple Chuang-tzu were teaching that water is the model for human behavior, the tangible expression of the flowing, organic pattern of nature. “Man is water,” Chuang-tzu said. “It congeals to form man, and his nine openings and five viscera appear. . . . What is it, then, that has complete faculties? It is water. There is not one of the various things that is not produced through it. It is only he who knows how to rely on its principles who can act correctly. . . .”

Although water may indeed be the measure of all things, our society has done its best to trivialize it.  It is, therefore, refreshing to see that a group of spiritually minded individuals got together recently to discuss something more serious than channel dredging or the evils of fracking. — Hardly Waite, Gazette Senior Editor.

Holy Water

by Tom Gacoyne

New construction, whether of dams, reservoirs, canals or two giant tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, will not solve the state’s water problems. That seemed to be the message issued at a forum on the Chico State campus Tuesday (Jan. 5) that featured five speakers, including a Zen Buddhist, a Muslim, a Christian and an attorney of undetermined religious affiliation.

The forum, according to a press release, was a “focus on the spiritual and stewardship issues that surround water, including water as an element to all life, as a human right, and as a contentious public policy in Californian and beyond.”

It is time, speakers suggested, to change our collective mindset and respect the Earth and our neighbors.

“All we need is the will and commitment,” said Bruce Grelle, professor of religious studies at Chico State. “This is not just an environmental crisis,” he said. “It’s a moral crisis.”

The forum was a joint production by the Butte Environmental Council and Chico’s State’s Book in Common Group, which this year has chosen Robert Glennon’s Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It.

Bill Loker, the university’s dean of undergraduate education, introduced the speakers and credited Grace Marvin, a local environmental activist, with the idea of having different faiths represented in a discussion on water. Loker organizes the Book in Common program.

“How many have read the book?” he asked the 50 or so in attendance. Only a few raised their hands. “Raise your hands if you are interested in water issues.” Not surprisingly, almost everyone did so.

Before the speakers started, BEC’s Nani Teves mentioned Gov. Jerry Brown’s push to build two “peripheral tunnels” under the Delta to help transfer North State water south, a project greatly criticized by local environmental groups like BEC and AquAlliance, who fear it will drain the Tuscan aquifer that supplies water to the region.

“We don’t know what he’s thinking, but we want him to know how the North State feels about exporting more water down south,” she said, asking those present to sign a petition protesting Brown’s project.

“This is important because we’re a small vote up here compared to the rest of the state,” she said.

Grelle, the first speaker, said the panelists had been asked to focus on spiritual and stewardship issues when it comes to water.

“When thinking about spiritual issues surrounding water, I’m reminded of water’s rich symbolic significance in many of the world’s religions. For example, its role in purification rights in Judaism and Hinduism and Islam or the significance in the rites of baptism for Christians and Sikhs.”

He quoted an ancient Taoist take on water as “the way of the cosmos.”

He mentioned Glennon’s book. “I’ve pretty much read the whole thing,” he admitted to laughter from the audience. “I skipped around a few parts.”

The book is filled with ways we use and misuse water, he said, and how “we fight over water even when we take it for granted.”

The problems we face with water, he said, “require a change of character, not a technological fix.”

He mentioned writer Wendell Berry and essays he’s written on the matter of water and the ethics of stewardship. He offered this from one of Berry’s books: “We as humans have that limitless capacity to ignore reality and an arrogant refusal to accept that we are human and not God.”

The next speaker was Lin Jensen, author of six books, former farmer and college professor and current Zen Buddhist teacher.

“We all wear shoes,” he said. “Not all the time, but we’ve lost contact with the dirt under our feet as a result.”

The living Earth, he said, may be underfoot or under pavement, “but the Earth is still there.”

What is sacred in Zen, he said, is “not just the vegetables, the human beings, the birds, the animals, the fish. It’s also the mineral. It’s the earth, the air, the water that is sacred. And that is a concept that Zen has in common with deep ecology.”

Buddhism, he said, is an atheistic tradition, which throws responsibility back on humans. “Everything you touch, including the soil under your feet, is sacred. So is what’s below, in the Tuscan aquifer, which is equally sacred.”

We need to treat the earth as if it were our own body, he said. “It is our body. What are we made up of? Mostly water, but a lot of other little minerals and bits and a good deal of air.”

Marty Dunlop is a lawyer and founder of Citizens Waterwatch, a watchdog group. She said she went to law school “to help provide a service and a voice for the environment, Mother Earth.

“I know it’s hard to believe that a lawyer has ethics,” she joked. “But laws are enacted to make humans behave in a responsible way.”

She listed the state’s environmental laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act, passed in 1970 to make sure local agencies “put protecting the environment in every decision that is made” and requiring the public be part of the process.

She also mentioned the Public Trust Doctrine, which came out of a court case concerning Mono Lake and basically ruled that all resources belong to the public, and the state constitution, which says “water is a resource that belongs to the people of California.”

“Water,” she said, “is a finite resource, a closed system. We don’t make new water.”

Ali Sarsour, a Chico State graduate, former candidate for Chico City Council, longtime local resident and a Muslim, spoke next. He lightened the mood.

“Are there any Muslims here?” he began. Seeing no response, he said “Good. Anybody who is an expert in Islamic theology?” That was met with laughter. “Good, then there will be no contradictions and I can say anything I want to.

“All living things are originated from water. Since our lives and the lives of every living thing are sacred, water is the most sacred element of the universe.”

Shirley Adams is founder of Bridging the Gap by Giving, a local foundation that raises money for clean water in developing countries. She puts on “Walk for Water” event each year.

“We have a big thirsty world, “she began.

She said while visiting overseas she realized how blessed her life is. “I was more blessed than probably 80 percent of the people in the world,” she said. “God spoke to me—I heard it in my heart and head: ‘I want you to start bridging the gap.’”

She said she sent out a form letter to about 100 people to get her foundation started, and among the responses was a check for $1,000, which got the program underway. Since then, she said, Bridging the Gap has brought clean water to 15,000 Africans.

Adams showed a PowerPoint presentation with photos of smiling young people in Africa who have received the water. “These people are thriving, not just surviving,” she said. “That is the difference water makes.”

Reprinted from Chico News and Review.

 Gazette Fair Use Statement

The Garden Hose Filter: A Versatile and Very Useful Tool

 

The garden hose filter above, mounted on a stand designed by its owner, is used to soften water used for rinsing roof-mounted solar panels.  Softening the water prevents streaking and scale build-up on the panels and allows the user to avoid the dangerous and difficult task of climbing onto the roof to hand-clean the panels.

This is only one of many uses of the very versatile garden hose filter.  Other common uses are providing clean, good-tasting drinking water for work crews via a garden hose, removing chlorine or chloramine from water used to irrigate organic gardens, providing chemical-free water for fish ponds and aquariums, removing sediment that can stop up irrigation emitters, providing soft water for washing cars, boats, motorcycles, patios, driveways, and, as stated, roof-mounted solar panels.

Cartridge-style  garden hose filters come in many sizes.  The filter above uses the largest–the 4.5″ X 20″.  Other popular sizes accommodate 2.5″ X 9.75″, 2.5″ x 20″, and 4.5″ X 9.75″ cartridges.  They can be wall mounted, mounted on a custom-made stand, like the filter above, or simply tossed on the ground.  They are durable: dirt and water don’t hurt them.

 

Speaking of variety, here’s a unique application that was featured in the Pure Water Occasional at the time of last year’s National Garden Hose Day celebration.

Go here for everything you ever wanted to know about garden hose filters.

The Centers for Disease Control Provides Easy Access to Information About Your Local Water’s Fluoride Content 

Fluoride is one of the more controversial issues in water treatment.  A part of the issue that is frequently overlooked is that the amount of fluoride added or maintained by the water supplier should be  an important part of the discussion, as should also the nature and origin of the fluoride that is added.

Certainly there is a difference between naturally occurring fluoride and the industrial waste product that usually serves as a tap water additive, but there is probably a more significant difference between 4 ppm fluoride (currently the EPA upper allowable) and 0.7 ppm, which is what is now being recommended for cities with warm climate.  (There is an assumption that in warm weather areas, people drink more water and therefore should have less fluoride in their tap water.)

We should note that many of the recent studies that show the brain-killing effects of fluoride were done in areas whose water has very high fluoride levels.  Does this mean that if a lot of fluoride damages children’s brains a lot, a little fluoride will damage children’s brains a little?  Perhaps, but not necessarily.  Everything, including water and tomato juice and vitamin C, is toxic if the dose is high enough.  It doesn’t take much fluoride to be too much, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that a small amount is toxic.

US water suppliers add fluoride at different levels.  Optimal fluoride levels recommended by the U.S. Public Health Service and CDC for drinking water range from 0.7 ppm for warmer climates to 1.2 ppm for cooler climates to account for the tendency for people to drink more water in warmer climates.

To illustrate, two major US cities, fluoridate as follows:

New York City, a northern city — 1 ppm.

Denton, TX, a southern city — 0.7 ppm.

The Centers for Disease Control maintains a website where you can check the current fluoridation practices of your local water supplier.

One final comment.  An infrequently mentioned fact about fluoridation of municipal water supplies is that it is not as exact a science as the public often believes.  Fluoride levels can vary considerably from one part of a city to another and from one day to the next.  This is especially true of small water supplies where a lot is being entrusted to personnel whose training is not always up to the job.  The very realistic concern that what is intended to be 1 ppm may well arrive at your home as 4 or 5 ppm should make you consider a protective drinking water treatment for your home.

 

 Pure Water Annie Explains Sediment Filters

 

Water filters have many purposes. Some are designed to remove chemicals from water. Others remove metallic contaminants or “dissolved solids” or charged particles.

This article is about filters that remove suspended solids, variously referred to as turbidity, sediment or particulate.

In general terms, filters of this type are sieving devices. They are like nets that catch and hold particles that are too large to pass through the holes in their surface.

There are large backwashing filters that perform this function. They use beds of natural media like sand, garnet, and anthracite to filter out unwanted particles like dirt or iron rust. The newer versions usually rely on specifically designed and manufactured media with brand names like Filter Ag, ChemSorb, or Micro Z to catch particles. When particles are trapped in the bed, the filter “backwashes” by running water backward through the media bed to wash the unwanted particles down the drain.

This article, however, is about cartridge-style filters rather than backwashing filters. Cartridges are for the most part disposable items. Except in rare cases, they are not backwashed. They are used until they stop up, then they are discarded. Certain cartridges can be cleaned and reused, but most are discarded when dirty.

Here is a picture of a sediment filter cartridge that has done its job and has been replaced:

 

Sediment cartridges are usually made of would string, like those above,  of “melt blown” polypropylene,  or of thin sheets of polypropylene arranged into accordion-like folds.

They are classified by the size of particles, measured in microns, that they will allow to pass.  Common sizes are 1 micron, 5 micron, 20 micron, etc., with the smaller the micron number, the tighter the filter and the smaller the particles it will trap.

There is no “best” material or size when it comes to sediment cartridges.  They must often be chosen by trial and error.  The tighter the filter, the more it restricts water flow, so small micron sizes aren’t necessarily best.

A look at a closeup of the dirty filter above will demonstrate how hard it is for even tiny particles to pass through.

 

For more details about sediment filters, see How Sediment Filters Work and Sediment Filters on the Pure Water Occasional’s website.

 

 Lolong, The World’s Largest Saltwater Crocodile in Captivity, Dies in the Philippines

In its September 2011 issue, the Pure Water Occasional reported the spectacular capture of Lolong, the world’s largest saltwater crocodile in captivity, near a small southern town in the Philippines.

Now we must report that Lolong has died of unknown causes.

Although the giant crocodile was hunted and captured as a safety measure after he had been blamed for the deaths of several villagers, after his capture he become a local celebrity and a formidable tourist attraction that brought fame and dollars to the town of Bunawan.

Bunawan  plans to preserve the remains of the 1-ton crocodile in a museum to keep tourists coming and stop the community from slipping back into obscurity,

Lolong was declared dead after he was  found floating on his back with a bloated stomach in a pond in an ecotourism park which had begun to draw tourists.  The fame of the immense reptile was spreading rapidly, and the town was planning a new road to accommodate tourists.

The cause of death is unknown, and an autopsy will be performed by wildlife experts.

Lolong was estimated to be over 50 years old.  He measured 20 feet 3 inches in length and was proclaimed the world’s largest saltwater crocodile in captivity by Guinness World Records.

According to Yahoo News:

Even though Lolong was blamed for the deaths of several villagers over the years, Bunawan villagers grew to love the giant reptile because it came to symbolize the rich biodiversity of the marsh where it was captured. The vast complex of swamp forests, shallow lakes, lily-covered ponds and wetlands is home to many animals, including threatened species such as the Philippine hawk eagle.

Various religious groups offered prayers Monday and spiritual leaders also planned to perform a tribal funeral rite, which involves butchering chickens and pigs to thank forest spirits for the fame and other blessings the crocodile has brought, Elordie said.

The rite is to be held at the ecotourism park, where the reptile was a star attraction, drawing foreign tourists, scientists and wildlife journalists to Bunawan, a town of 37,000 people about 515 miles (830 kilometers) southeast of Manila.

 

More from Yahoo News.

Other Texas Cities Are Already Planning to Harvest Drinking Water from Their Sewage Plants

The idea of turning treated sewage into drinking water has not been a popular idea, but many Texas cities, Wichita Falls most recently, are turning in that direction.

Lake levels in the Wichita Falls area are at only 40% of capacity and people are beginning to feel that recycling waste water is an idea whose time has arrived.  Wichita Falls hopes to produce 5,000,000 gallons of drinking water per day from recycled wastewater.

Wichita Falls  is one of several cities in Texas pursuing reuse projects. This spring, a $14 million plant in the West Texas town of Big Spring will begin turning treated wastewater into drinking water and distribute about 2 million gallons of it daily to the Midland-Odessa area. Brownwood recently received approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to build a reuse plant. Abilene and Lubbock are in the early stages of examining the technology.

The Big Spring plant will be the first of its kind in the nation.  El Paso, TX  and Orange County, Calif., also have reuse projects, but their treated wastewater gets sent through an aquifer before being pumped up for further cleaning. At Big Spring, there is no aquifer step. The wastewater will be used directly.

In the direct potable reuse process used in Big Spring, regularly treated wastewater goes through additional chemical and biological treatment processes plus extensive filtration.  Then it is mixed into the regular drinking water stream and goes through normal drinking water treatment.

The potable reuse system has generally gained approval of health experts, but there are still many critics who like to refer to the process as “toilet to tap.” The general complaint is that the process “needs more study.”

Wichita Falls is already processing brackish water from a nearby lake to supplement its drinking water supply.

More information from the Texas Tribune.

 

 

 

 Photos Taken at Don Juan Pond Reveal Secrets about the Pond and Possibly Water on Mars As Well 

Antarctica’s strange Don Juan Pond is the saltiest natural body of water on Earth, a fact that keeps the little body of water from freezing in an otherwise frozen continent.

There has been speculation but no real understanding of how the pond gets enough salt to avoid freezing and also how it gets its water.

A Brown University researcher took more than 15,000 pictures over a period of two months in attempt to answer these questions  (see photo below).  Evidence gathered from the pictures may also give clues to how liquid water might also flow on Mars.

 

The photos revealed that the pond’s water level rises slight with the temperature (indicating that there might be a bit of melting snow that adds to the pond’s water) and also dark streaks that could indicate that calcium chloride is being washed into the pond by the tiny water flow from melted snow.

Please read more details of the Don Juan Pond photo studies and their significance at the Science at NBC News website.