River to Tap: Drugs, beauty products showing up in water supply in Alberta

In Alberta, executives with both Alberta Environment and city-run utility Epcor, which provides drinking water to more than 60 communities in and around Edmonton, say they are participating in research and keeping tabs on any new findings

Albertans use thousands of pharmaceutical drugs, beauty products and personal care items every day. Many of them are eventually passed through, or washed off, the body, making their way down the drain and into the waste water system.

From there, at least some of these substances wind up in our lakes and rivers, and into the drinking water that comes out of our taps. It has been happening for decades, but it is only in recent years that researchers have begun focusing on how much of these “chemicals of emerging concern” we might be ingesting, and whether testing and treatment practices need to change to protect human health and the environment.

“It’s not like anyone is getting anything close to a therapeutic dose of this stuff. However, because we all collectively use a bunch of different products, there gets to be a mixture of things,” says Peter Huck, an industrial research chair at the University of Waterloo. “The thing that really hasn’t been investigated and what would be very difficult to investigate is, are there synergistic effects of all of this?”

While stressing there is no evidence of any imminent health threat, Huck is among a group of experts that would like provinces and water treatment operators to do more testing for drugs and chemicals.

In Alberta, executives with both Alberta Environment and city-run utility Epcor, which provides drinking water to more than 60 communities in and around Edmonton, say they are participating in research and keeping tabs on any new findings.

A study commissioned by the province last year analyzed samples from across Alberta to look for signs of emerging contaminants, including common drugs used to treat cholesterol, seizures, bacteria and inflammation.

While the presence of pharmaceuticals was detected across the study area — particularly ibuprofen and triclosan — all were at very low concentrations.

That being said, the drugs are having an impact.

In 2011, University of Alberta biologist Greg Goss used minnows and mussels to test the levels of pharmaceuticals, personal care products and estrogen in the effluent flowing out of the Gold Bar waste water treatment plant, one of two such plants on the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton. The study was requested by Epcor, which also runs Edmonton’s waste water treatment plants, and the Canadian Water Network.

For four weeks in the fall of 2011, Goss, a specialist in aquatic toxicology, looked for signs of change in the tiny fish caged downstream of the plant.

He found it.

His study, which was published this spring in the journal Science of the Total Environment, found that minnows caged one kilometre downstream from the treatment plant showed signs of feminization after only four weeks in the river. (Female fish make protein for fish eggs; the male minnows in this study were found to also be making that protein, a sign of feminization.)

But fish just two kilometres downstream from the plant, where the contaminant was more diluted, did not show change in the four weeks.

Goss’s study also found traces of pharmaceuticals in the water as far as nine kilometres downstream from the Gold Bar plant. Conversely, none of the 10 chemicals he tested were found in water upstream from the plant.

Goss says the chemicals were found in trace amounts, and at levels comparable to those found in the waste water of other cities.

“At this point I would say there is not a cause for big concern,” he says, but adds: “While the levels of these chemicals are low, it’s good to know where we are at this time.”

However, he points out that our aging — and growing — population will likely mean more drugs being sent in to our waste water in the future, which will certainly increase the impact, and the need to monitor them. “We should continue research into a cost-effect means to reduce or eliminate this input into our waterways.”

That is one of the key problems facing cities, as most of our current waste water and drinking water treatment systems aren’t set up to neutralize a lot of personal care chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

“Several types of (products) can be removed by chlorine, but many more are unaffected by chlorine,” says a fact sheet published by the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, an advocacy group focused on ensuring quality around the country.

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