Summary
Chlorine is often used to decontaminate and disinfect sewage before it is pumped out to sea, but chlorine kills fish and marine invertebrates as well as bacteria. Though sewage is supposed to be dechlorinated before it is disposed of, chlorination also produces carcinogenic byproducts that can be as dangerous as the chlorine itself.
Original source:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66855,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
Details
Ever since the advent of modern plumbing, people have embraced a practice of flush and forget.
Unfortunately, public works employees and clean-water advocates rarely enjoy such a luxury, and recent debate has focused on the final step in sewage processing, chlorine disinfection, which is no longer the foregone conclusion it once was.
Chlorine disinfection kills pathogenic bacteria so people swimming or fishing near treatment plants' discharge locations don't contract cholera, E. coli infection, Legionnaires' disease or other illnesses.
The practice is still widespread, and chlorine remains the most widely used disinfectant at 16,000 wastewater treatment plants nationwide, according to John Millett, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
However, the toxicity of chlorine that kills harmful bacteria also hurts other life.
And while the EPA says treatment plants must dechlorinate before spewing out treated wastewater, that effluent is not pure.
"The chemical process might cause more problems in the environment than if you didn't do it at all," said Tom Franza, assistant general manager of wastewater enterprise for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, or SFPUC.
In 1988, SFPUC successfully petitioned the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to eliminate requirements to disinfect water released from a pipe four miles offshore.
SFPUC conducted a study with the EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that tracked effluent currents and demonstrated that the
bacteria died quickly in the cold, salty water and that the stream never made it shoreward, where surfers or bathers might get sick.
In the short term, some municipalities such as San Francisco have succeeded in reducing their chemical use by improving chemical-delivery methods and developing more sensitive instruments to take measurements, according to Arleen Navarret, regulatory manager for SFPUC Wastewater Enterprise.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and pursues hobbies such as martial arts, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
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Wednesday, March 30, 2005
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