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The health of the St. Lawrence waterway threatened by cocktail of drugs
Posted by Montreal Environment in Montreal, Urbanism
A new study by researchers at Université de Montréal has revealed yesterday that medications used to treat certain types of cancer (Methotrexate and cyclophosphamide), high cholesterol (Bezafibrate) and hypertension (Enalapril) were found in the St. Lawrence river, upstream and downstream from Montreal. Although only two of the three compounds found in the raw wastewater were present in the treated wastewater that gets discharged into the river, there is a high probability that cancer drugs could also be found if detection methods are improved. The study was initiated due to concerns over the sharp increase in drug consumption, which between 1999 and 2001 has doubled worldwide, from $342B to $643B.
Although alarming, this is not news for researchers. A study by Blaise, C., F. Gagné, P. Eullaffroy, and J.-F. Férard published in the Brazilian Journal of Aquatic Science and Technology in 2006 had found a dozen pharmaceutical products in the effluent from a sewage treatment plants emptying into the St. Lawrence River. The cocktail of pharmaceuticals included: anti-inflammatory, lipid regulators, anti-convulsants, antibiotics, caffeine, and a nicotine metabolite. The long term effects on the aquatic life have yet to be established, nevertheless scientists observed that certain compounds can have toxic effects at concentrations 10 times lower than those measured in municipal effluents.
Municipal Wastewater Effluent (MWWE) is one of the largest sources of pollution, by volume, discharged to surface water bodies in Canada. The State of Municipal Wastewater Effluents in Canada prepared by the Indicators and Reporting Office of Environment Canada found that wastewater effluents “are made up of both sanitary sewage and stormwater and can contain grit, debris, suspended solids, disease-causing pathogens, decaying organic wastes, nutrients, and about 200 identified chemicals.” Health problems related to water pollution in general are estimated to cost Canadians $300 million per year. In 2006 there were 84 treatment plants in operation in the St. Lawrence riverside municipalities, servicing 90 municipalities in whole or in part. It is estimated that everyday an equivalent of 1700 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 4.6 million cubic meters of treated wastewater is returned to the St. Lawrence River. The main sources are the larger urban centers such as Montreal, Quebec City, Laval and Longueuil. Montreal alone treats and returns close to 2.8 million cubic meters of wastewater per day, in total more than 1 billion cubic meters of wastewater in a year.
More disconcerting is the fact that even in 2009, there is no federal act that specifically governs wastewater management in Canada, especially since nearly 60% of Canadians are serviced by a primary or secondary treatment plant. The current regulatory framework is a hodgepodge of federal, municipal and territorial regulation with little coordination. The only country-wide policies that govern contamination of waterways are the Fisheries Act that “protects Canadian waters from the discharge of contaminants in waters frequented by fish” and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act that governs the “discharge of deleterious substances into the environment and the adoption of regulations on the use of these substances.”
The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) established a committee to develop a Canada-wide Strategy for the management of MWWE by November 2006. The Strategy will address a number of governance and technical issues resulting in a harmonized management approach which includes: harmonization of the regulatory framework, coordination of science and research, and the development of an environmental risk management model. The consultation period for the Canada-wide Strategy ended on January 31, 2008 and the CCME is supposed to release its report sometime in the near future.
More information on the health of the St. Lawrence River can be found at the St. Laurence Center, “the only federal research and development centre devoted entirely to the river ecosystem.”
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