US wetlands ‘restored’ using treated sewage tainted with forever chemicals | Pfas

Many wetlands in the country are filled with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” because the effluents of the wastewater treatment plant tainted by compounds are increasingly used to restore swamps and other waters. The practice threatens wildlife, food and drinking water sources, warn environmental defenders.

The effluent is the liquid unloaded by wastewater treatment plants after having “disinfected” wastewater in the country’s sewer system. The processing process largely kills pathogens and water is rich in nutrients that help plants develop, so at a level, it is beneficial for ecosystems in difficulty.

But the processing process does not deal with any of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals potentially unloaded in the sewers, including PFAs. The tests have revealed that effluents practically always contains PFA at worrying levels, but the practice of using it for the restoration of wetlands is always presented as an environmentally friendly measure.

“There is a huge obscure side to this whole affair of municipalities using effluents that carry charges of PFAS and other toxic materials and calls it` Restoration of wetlands ”, “said James Aronson, ecologist of catering and president of the non -profit organization of the ecological health network. “It’s really the worst kind of lie to the public.”

PFAs are a class of around 15,000 compounds which are nicknamed “forever chemicals” because they do not decompose naturally and accumulate in the human body and the environment. Chemicals are linked to a range of serious health problems such as cancer, liver disease, kidney problems, high cholesterol, congenital malformations and the decrease in immunity.

The volume of wastewater that plants treat each day makes it possible to effectively eliminate chemicals. However, effluents have been used to recharge hundreds of wetlands across the country, as well as certain rivers and aquifers, when they dry or otherwise degraded by human activity.

Among the biggest projects are in Louisiana, which has increased its use of effluents to restore bayou and protect against coastal erosion which is partly motivated by the installation of levee systems. Florida has implemented similar programs aimed at regenerating Everglades and shores.

Meanwhile, some southwest rivers, such as the Trinity river near Dallas, are “almost entirely” effluents, while in California, the Los Angeles, Santa Ana and other rivers are “dominated by effluents”.

The County of Orange, in California, now uses effluents to recharge its aquifer which provides drinking water to 2.5 million people. At the same time, the country’s water districts spend approximately $ 1.8 billion to install technology that will eliminate APF and other water pollutants they draw from the aquifer. PFAS levels in effluents in 200 California wastewater treatment plants were almost all thousands of times above the level that the Environmental Protection Agency considers safety for certain compounds, revealed recent research.

The practice is often presented as “recycling of water” and “green”, but the defenders say that the terms are misleading because toxic waste is literally uncontrolled in the environment. These are not only PFAs – microplastics, heavy metals and other toxins have been found at high levels in effluents.

Few regulations concerning chemicals exist and although the wastewater industry has the extent of the problem. This is a problem “do not ask, do not say,” said Laura Orlando, a non -profit civil engineer who worked on the design of waste management.

“There is a lot of media threshing on recycling and others, but nothing on public health, because they respect the rules – which do not protect public or ecosystem health,” said Orlando.

Although little research on how PFAS levels in the effluents used to restore wetlands affect wildlife exists, chemicals can have consequences for animals. For example, in Northern Carolina, where PFAs came out of industrial sources polluted by wetlands, chemicals were considered health problems similar to lupus in alligators and immune impacts on Pelicans.

“We are talking about the health of ecosystems,” said Aronson. “These are the interactions of the food canvas and the soil, animals and water – everything is degraded and poisoned, and it is the opposite of catering.”

There is some potential to use certain types of wetlands to treat effluents that can then be released as really clean water. The “wetlands built” are filled with effluents and the influx and water flow are controlled. These can be filled with plants that take apps and other contaminants. Plants should be eliminated in hazardous waste installations.

Although there are efforts to explore how it could work on a large scale, chemicals and toxins are a problem with the wastewater industry, said Orlando.

“Unless you recognize the problem, you cannot solve the problem and we must examine these words as” clean “and” safe “,” she said.