Prescription drugs found in water

I recall a story... traces of prescription tranquilizers and antidepressant drugs had been found in the water in the UK. The good news is, no one was terribly anxious about it.

Now, a report on prescription drugs turning up in the local aquifers in Los Angeles.

Behind a tangle of willows, every second of every day for almost half a century, recycled sewage has gushed into an El Monte creek and nourished one of Los Angeles County's most precious resources: the drinking water stored beneath the San Gabriel Valley.

Cleansed so thoroughly that it is considered pure enough to drink, this flow from the Whittier Narrows reclamation plant meets all government standards. Yet county officials now report that they have found some potent — and until recent months undetected — ingredients in the treated waste: prescription drugs.

Hmmm. This is, by the way, the same "toilet to tap" water recycling program Joel Wachs thought he could ride into the Mayor's office a few years ago. Years after he had received briefings on the topic, he found the memo on his desk, and decided to raise a stink over it.

Result: Cancel a multi-million dollar project the month before it's turned on, and he's still not Mayor.

But I digress...

The concentrations are so minuscule — in parts per trillion, or a few drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool — that scientists suspect there is little or no human danger. They acknowledge, however, that no one knows the effects of ingesting tiny doses of multiple drugs continuously over a lifetime.

In the meantime, the newest technology can detect chemicals in parts per quintillion — equivalent to one tablespoon in the Mississippi River.

"The analytical capability has really, really outstripped our ability to understand what it means," said Michael Wehner of the Orange County Water District, which taps a basin replenished by the Santa Ana River, composed almost entirely of treated sewage.

The main concern with these drugs is their effect on aquatic life.