Pacific Institute expert, Peter Gleick, on “the looming water crisis”

 

 Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute was a recent guest on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross discussing “the looming water crisis”.  Listen to the interview on-line here.

Expert Unconcerned About Pharmaceutical Residues in Drinking Water

AU Water Resource Center Committee Member, Jim Hairston, responds to the recent stir over pharmaceutical residues in drinking water in this March 14th post for Extension Daily by Jim Lancuster:

As far as threats go, Jim Hairston doesn’t get it – this growing fear, prompted by a series of recent news articles, that U.S. drinking water contains minute traces of pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics, sex hormones and anti-anxiety drugs.

Based on these findings, some political leaders, watchdogs and scientists are urging a full-scale public accounting. But Hairston says they would be better off taking a get-real pill, if one were available.

That’s not to imply that Hairston, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s water coordinator and Auburn University professor of agronomy is unaware or insensitive to the issue. Yes, he’s the first to concede that tiny amounts of these pharmaceuticals are in the nation’s drinking water supply. But so are a host of other residues – some natural, some manmade.

The question is whether they pose any serious threat to American consumers. Hairston is convinced the answer is no.

“The sorts of people the media should be talking to are the scientists and others who understand scientific research, how it’s conducted and how it relates to chemicals,” Hairston says.

He says the same holds true for environmentalists and similar individuals who sow fears without ever bothering to consult the people who best understand the threats associated with these pharmaceutical residues – again, scientists.

Indeed, as Hairston describes it, chemical exposure is something that every human being on this planet simply can’t avoid.

“We live a world of chemicals,” he says. “We’re exposed to them everywhere, breathing them, drinking them, and even wearing clothing that has been dyed with them.”

Even so, Hairston says this hasn’t stopped some people from depicting trace elements of these chemicals in drinking water as a major environmental menace. He says years of scientific research have shown that minute traces of most of these chemicals pose no threat to humans.

“They conveniently fail to mention the dose-response relationship and that those trace elements are showing up well below the levels considered unsafe,” Hairston says.

Still, he readily concedes that much of this fear is unavoidable – a fear bred by the Internet, which has enabled growing numbers of Americans to obtain unfiltered and often unreliable information. In the case of drinking water, this fear is compounded by reluctance among water treatment authorities to disclose information about trace chemical elements in drinking water, fearing that this will create even more groundless concerns.

Ironically, Hairston says, the United States boasts the safest drinking water supply in the world. Even the small amounts of manmade chemicals in water reflect the dramatic strides against common disease prevalent throughout the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, he says.

“We probably have a lot less water pollution today than ever before, though with a greater incidence of chemicals in the water generated by humans,” he says. “But these, much like treated water, have helped us extend our lives and to eliminate many of the things we fear most.”

Currently, most drinking-water treatment plants in the United States do not screen for pharmaceuticals, according to a recent report by Associated Press – a fact that has prompted some political leaders and environmental and health watchdog groups to stress the need for more stringent regulations for sewage and waste-water treatment.

For his part, Hairston says he’ll hold of making similar demands unless science concludes that trace elements of these pharmaceuticals prove detrimental to human health.

“I trust science, and I trust the scientists,” he says. “I trust the fact that we have the best system for protecting public drinking water than any country in the world.”

Gadsden’s Sticky Dilemma

 

Gadsden city officials recently joined a growing number of Alabama municipalities challenging the trite old saying that “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”Actually, you can, if this sow’s ear happens to be used cooking oil.

Find out how at Extension Daily, the daily weblog for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.  See Jim Langcuster’s post of March 12, 2008 for his take on this renewable energy initiative.

Gadsden Kicks Off Waste to Fuel Program

On Friday, March 7th, the City of Gadsden officially launched its Waste to Fuel Program with a press conference featuring Greg Noah, Gadsden’s Fleet Management Superintendent, Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton and Larry Fillmer, Executive Director of Auburn University’s Natural Resources Management & Development Institute.

Andy Powell covered the event for the Gadsden Times.  Check out his story below:

Biodiesel gives quick return on investment

By Andy Powell, Times Staff Writer
Published March 8, 2008

An Auburn University official said Friday he hopes the city of Gadsden’s biodiesel program will become a “playbook” for other cities to follow to adopt similar programs.

And payback in fuel cost savings is expected to take less than a year for cities that adopt similar programs, according to the Alabama Clean Fuel Coalition.

Larry Fillmer, executive director for the Natural Resource Management and Development Institute at Auburn, said at a press conference here that Auburn partnered with the city of Gadsden and the Gadsden Waterworks and Sewer Board on the program to recycle cooking oil into biodiesel fuel as a way to encourage other cities to adopt the program.

The city already has begun producing fuel, which can be run in diesel engines, said Greg Noah, the city’s fleet management superintendent. He said most of the fuel will be used in the department’s fleet vehicles but some has been used in city trolleys and to operate a bulldozer. The city expects to save about $14,000 a year in fuel costs. The equipment can produce about 55 gallons of fuel in eight hours. The process adds methanol and lye to the cooking oil to produce the biodiesel fuel.

Gadsden Mayor Sherman Guyton said he was pleased Auburn had supplied the equipment for the project and that Gadsden is one of the first cities in the country to have such a program. He said he hopes the program will be a “model” for other cities to adopt.

Noah said since the program was announced, the city has received oil from nursing homes, restaurants and from Camp Sumatanga. Noah said residents can pick up jugs from recreation centers, the water board and the fleet management building on Chestnut Street. Drums are available for businesses.

The project will help save the city money, will keep grease from going into the sewer system, which can cause clogs, and is “environmentally sound,” Fillmer said.

“One of the really important things we hope to be able to obtain out of the work here with the city of Gadsden and you folks is the opportunity to create a playbook for other municipalities around the state who may have interest in undertaking similar projects,” Fillmer said.

He said an important part of the program here is to document the processes used and to document the cost to be able to give that information to other cities.

Fillmer said Auburn has been contacted by about half a dozen cities in the state about a biodiesel program.

Auburn University is collecting cooking oil on campus and using it to produce fuel, he said.

Fillmer said he recently attended an international conference in Washington on bioenergy and alternative energy that was attended by 8,000 people.

“The time is right to look at alternative energy, to look at the technology, to look at the innovation, to look at the breakthroughs that I think will occur because of projects like this,” Fillmer said.

He said the Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts (which is part of the Natural Resources Management & Development Institute), works to develop renewable fuels and alternative energy sources with programs such as the one here but also with the agricultural and forestry industry in the state.

Jeff Breeden of Biodiesel Logic, which produces the equipment in Arab, said the Environmental Protection Agency is doing a documentary on the equipment to give to every city in the United States.

Mark Bentley with the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition said payback on the program, which costs about 75 cents per gallon to produce biodiesel fuel, would “pay back” the investment in just more than six months.