SOFT PAWS: Find dog control officers, services during ‘Pause’

Part 5

By DEBORAH E. LANS

GHENT–Every street and road drains water that works its way into ditches or through the ground and eventually into the water supply. When we urinate or wash dishes, the output finds its way into a septic system or wastewater treatment facility. Fertilize a field or a tree and the earth soaks up the chemical residue.

By these means, New Yorkers add salt, pharmaceuticals, nitrites and arsenic (among other pollutants) to our water.

Rock salt, used to melt snow and ice on the roads, is known to harm aquatic life and vegetation, according to a study by the Cary Institute. As salinity increases in lakes, algae blooms and causes other life to die off, strangled by a lack of oxygen. Too high levels of salt on roadside Milkweed and other vegetation can kill off the caterpillars that will produce Monarch butterflies.

Salt can also be hazardous to human health, as many who live on salt-restricted diets due to cardiovascular issues can attest.

The state Department of Transportation reports that New York is the largest consumer of road salt in North America. The county’s 2024 budget allots $475,000 to road salt acquisition (and a tiny fraction of that amount to sand) – 19% more than the 2022 budget.

Does all the salt we use on roads enter the water system? Road construction plays a large role in how run-off affects the water supply. A paved surface is impervious, meaning that water rolls off it into roadside ditches or the countryside, rather than percolating through it. When water can seep through the surface, it is filtered as it makes its way through the layers below – aquifer, sand and gravel deposits and rock, a process that works to eliminate pollution. Water in ditches, culverts and the like makes its way to streams, rivers and lakes directly without filtering

Is there an alternative to rock salt that keeps the roads safe? A number are being tested. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is researching permeable pavement – a hard surface that will nevertheless allow water to soak through to the ground, to be “treated” naturally. The Cary Institute is studying “agro-products,” such as brine water (think pickle juice) or fermentation by-products, like the waste from beer and wine production, to be laid on roads in lieu of rock salt.

To these concerns, add the climate change factor. Scientists worry that the dramatic storms that climate change is bringing may change the existing patterns of runoff, overwhelming water treatment facilities and leading to the overflow of untreated water into rivers and other “outflow” sites.

Other by-products of everyday life also pose concern, as they find their way into the water supply.

Chemical fertilizers include nitrate and nitrites that find their way into groundwater and then, through uptake, into the fruits and vegetables we consume. Nitrites have been found in the Kinderhook and Valatie water supplies.

Arsenic was historically a component in the spray used to protect fruit trees. It can still be found in the land and water near orchards.

Nitrites are particularly harmful to infants and nursing and pregnant women, causing “blue baby syndrome.” Arsenic can cause cardiovascular and kidney disease and is a carcinogen.

And, the latest modern-day source of water pollution is pharmaceuticals – that are excreted from our bodies or that are discarded, unused, into toilets and sinks.

A 2015 study made by Riverkeeper and the Cornell School of Civil and Environmental Engineering found an assortment of drug residue in the Hudson River. Samples were taken at 24 sites from the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers down to the Tappan Zee Bridge. At every one of the test sites, Atenolol (a beta-blocker,) the insect repellant DEET, Venlafaxine (commonly known as Effexor, an anti-depressant) caffeine and artificial sweeteners were found. Samples taken near waste water treatment plant outfalls showed higher numbers and concentrations of drugs.

A study by the Cary Institute found that “Aquatic life is swimming in a cocktail of antidepressants, amphetamines, birth control, and antihistamines.” Drug pollution in turn passes through the food chain, to fish, animals and plants. Most of these pollutants are not addressed, as yet, by waste water treatment.

Jokes about happy fish aside, the drugs found can disrupt important behavior, like breeding patterns. For example, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study of 19 National Wildlife Refuges found that 60 to 100% of the fish studied displayed hormonal abnormalities, in that they were intersex – i.e., had female eggs growing on their testes.

Of equal concern is the presence of antibiotics in water supplies. Antibiotics are not fully absorbed by the human body. Hence, antibiotics enter the water systems, and antibiotic residues are leading to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The World Health Organization lists antimicrobial resistance as one of the top 10 global public health threats.

The many sources of water pollution can feel overwhelming and inevitable. Next week’s article will look at some, among the many, steps that can be taken to test for and reduce the risks.