Caffeine and a drug used to regulate blood sugar levels for people with Type 2 diabetes wash down the drain every day to become some of the most common unregulated contaminants in Iowa’s public drinking water, an IowaWatch investigation revealed. The presence of these contaminants is so minuscule that what a water-drinking consumer takes in is fairly minimal. But federal government officials are concerned about the contaminants because the risks of chronic ingestion of them are unclear, as the result of a lack of research to determine potential health risks for humans. Prescription drugs and caffeine contaminate rivers and streams treated to become drinking water. Many of these contaminants affect the human endocrine system, which produces hormones that regulate metabolism, growth and development, among other functions. Chemicals that affect the endocrine system exist in nature, but show up prominently in man-made products such as pharmaceuticals, plastics, detergents and cosmetics that people dump down a drain. These compounds commonly are referred to as emerging contaminants. Brittany Robb/IowaWatch The East River Station in Davenport, Iowa, pushes water back into the Mississippi River after being treated. Water in the pool on the right is to be mixed with treated water before going back into the river, while water in the pool on the left is to continue through the final stages of treatment. “Iowa is in a water quality crisis,” Des Moines Water Works communication coordinator Laura Sarcone said. She cited that facility’s increased use of an expensive nitrogen removal process and a record number of impaired waters as determined by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as well as a growing concern about the impact of emerging contaminants. Some of the cities in Iowa most likely to be exposed to emerging contaminants include Des Moines, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Iowa City and Keokuk. All use a high proportion of surface water, making them more susceptible to pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals than cities that rely more on underground aquifers for drinking water. A new national study conducted by the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health analyzed data from the third round of unregulated contaminant monitoring and concluded that millions of Americans may be drinking water with unsafe levels of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances. The contaminants come from industrial sites, wastewater treatment plants and military bases that conduct firefighting training. A little less than half of Iowa’s residents get drinking water from systems that use surface water or a combination of surface and groundwater. They are among the nine of 10 Iowans who use public water systems, with the remainder using private well services. Eight percent of Iowa’s public water systems use surface water, which is sometimes mixed with water from other sources, but they are in the most heavily populated areas. “Everything we use has the potential to become an environmental contaminant,” Dana Kolpin, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said. “We use it. We excrete it. We wash it down the drain.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency graphic; Guide: CEC — Contaminants of Emerging Concern Caffeine ends up in water from a number of sources, which are not limited to coffee and soft drinks. Soap, shampoo and even pantyhose can be caffeinated, and it’s this level of dependence on caffeine that makes it such a prevalent contaminant. Although water from our drains and toilets goes through a wastewater treatment plant, emerging contaminants can survive wastewater treatment and end up in surface water, which then can become source drinking water for communities downstream. There are so many potential contaminants to monitor from such an array of sources that trying to understand each one can be overwhelming for researchers and treatment facilities. It is hard to narrow down what to focus on, considering the low priority level that most facilities give to emerging contaminants. Tim Wilkey, superintendent of the Iowa City wastewater treatment plant, said pharmaceuticals and caffeine can pass through the treatment process but only at minute levels. Treated water from Iowa City’s plant washes into the Iowa River, which feeds into the Mississippi River and continues downstream. Brittany Robb/IowaWatch; Tim Wilkey, superintendent of the Iowa City Wastewater Treatment plant, describes that plant’s treatment process to IowaWatch on June 24, 2016. Some wastewater and drinking water treatment plants use a treatment process called activated carbon, which is effective in preventing emerging contaminants from permeating drinking water supplies. This treatment process uses carbon to attract unwanted organic compounds such as caffeine through adsorption, leaching those compounds out of the finished water. Activated carbon also is used in air filtration and other purification applications. Read more at: Iowa watch
Taxonomy
- Treatment
- Research
- Pharmaceutical Chemicals