
US wetlands ‘restored' using treated sewage tainted with forever chemicals
Effluent is the liquid discharged by wastewater treatment plants after it 'disinfects' sewage in the nation's sewer system. The treatment process largely kills pathogens and the water is high in nutrients that help plants grow, so on one level it is beneficial to struggling ecosystems.
But the treatment process does not address any of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals potentially discharged into sewers, including Pfas. Testing has found effluent virtually always contains Pfas at concerning levels, but the practice of using it for wetland restoration is still presented as an environmentally friendly measure.
'There's a huge dark side to this whole business of municipalities using effluent that's carrying loads of Pfas and other toxic materials and calling it 'wetland restoration',' said James Aronson, a restoration ecologist and president of Ecological Health Network non-profit. 'It's truly the worst kind of lying to the public.'
Pfas are a class of about 15,000 compounds that are dubbed 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down, and accumulate in the human body and environment. The chemicals are linked to a range of serious health problems such as cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol, birth defects and decreased immunity.
The volume of wastewater that plants treat each day makes it virtually impossible to efficiently remove chemicals. Still, effluent has been used to recharge hundreds of wetlands across the country, as well as some rivers and aquifers, when they dry up or are otherwise degraded by human activity.
Among the largest projects are in Louisiana, which has increased its use of effluent to restore the bayou and protect against coastal erosion that is in part driven by the installation of levee systems. Florida has in place similar programs aimed at regenerating the Everglades and shorelines.
Meanwhile, some rivers in the south-west, like the Trinity River near Dallas, are 'almost entirely' effluent, while in California the Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and other rivers are 'effluent dominated'.
Orange county, California, now uses effluent to recharge its aquifer that provides drinking water for 2.5 million people. At the same time, the country's water districts are spending an estimated $1.8bn to install technology that will remove Pfas and other pollutants from the water they pull from the aquifer. The levels of Pfas in effluent at 200 California wastewater treatment plants were almost all thousands of times above the level that the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for some compounds, recent research found.
The practice is often billed as 'recycling water' and 'green', but advocates say the terms are misleading because toxic waste is literally being pumped unchecked into the environment. It's not just Pfas – microplastics, heavy metals and other toxins have been found at high levels in effluent.
Few regulations around chemicals exist, and though the wastewater industry knows the scale of the problem. It's a 'don't ask, don't tell' issue, said Laura Orlando, a civil engineer with Just Zero non-profit who has worked on waste management design.
'There's lots of hype about recycling and such, but nothing about public health, because they're following the rules – which are not protective of public or ecosystem health,' Orlando said.
Though little research into how the levels of Pfas in effluent used to restore wetlands affects wildlife exists, the chemicals can have consequences for animals. For example, in North Carolina, where Pfas discharged from industrial sources polluted wetlands, the chemicals were thought to be behind health problems similar to lupus in alligators and immune impacts on pelicans.
'We're talking about ecosystem health,' Aronson said. 'It's the food web, and soil, animal, and water interactions – everything gets degraded and poisoned, and it's the opposite of restoration.'
There is some potential to use some types of wetlands to treat effluent that can then be released as truly clean water. 'Constructed wetlands' are filled with effluent and the inflow and outflow of water is controlled. Those can be filled with plants that take up Pfas and other contaminants. The plants would have to be disposed of in hazardous waste facilities.
While there are some efforts to explore how this could work on a broad scale, the chemicals and toxins are a problem that few in the wastewater industry are thinking about, Orlando said.
'Unless you acknowledge the problem you can't fix the problem and we have to examine these words like 'clean' and 'safe',' she said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Canadian wildfires prompt New York air quality alert
An air quality health advisory has been issued for New York City and its surrounding areas because of smoke from wildfires in Canada. In a post on X, New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of Health (DOH) issued the advisory for Long Island, New York City Metro, Lower Hudson Valley, Upper Hudson Valley, and the Adirondacks on Saturday. Authorities are warning air quality in those regions is "unhealthy for sensitive groups".Wildfires in Canada have forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes, and the smoke drifting over the border has sparked air quality concerns across the northern United States. The air quality index (AQI) is predicted to be above 100 in much of New York state on Saturday, and could reach 135. Alerts are also in place for parts of New AQI measures the severity of pollution in the air and categorises health risks. The higher the number, the more unsafe the air is to breathe. This is not the first time US authorities have issued air quality alerts because of smoke from the Canadian mid-July, a similar alert was issued for Chicago, with additional precautions advised for babies and the political implications of the wildfire smoke have also reached in July, six members of Congress wrote to the Canadian ambassador complaining that smoke from wildfires was making it difficult for Americans to enjoy their are currently more than 550 active fires in Canada, with the most concentrated in the province of Manitoba, according to authorities. 6.1 million hectares (15 million acres) of land has been burnt across the country in the past and June were particularly destructive months in western Canada, with roughly 30,000 people forced to evacuate in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where local administrations declared a state of have consistently linked the intensifying wildfire seasons to climate is believed to be warming at twice the global average rate, and its Arctic regions are heating up at nearly three times the global rate, scientists have warned.


The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
RFK Jr. looks to boot panel that decided which HIV and cancer screenings would be free: report
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly planning to remove all the members of an influential health task force that helps determine what preventative care services insurers must cover for free, after removing all members of a vaccine advisory board last month. Kennedy wants to clean house at U.S. Preventative Services Task Force next because he believes its 16 members have become too 'woke,' The Wall Street Journal reports. Under 2010's Affordable Care Act, the task force makes evidence-based, public recommendations on a variety of treatments, ranging HIV prevention to prenatal care to mental health, that insurers must cover at no cost to patients. Health and Human Services has said the secretary hasn't made a final decision regarding the task force. The Independent has contacted the agency for comment. Kennedy's reported dissatisfaction with the group comes after the American Conservative magazine accused the task force of being a 'festering corner of woke bureaucracy' in an article earlier this month. 'The task force is packed with Biden administration appointees devoted to the ideological capture of medicine,' the author argued, pointing to 'sinister' recent task force actions committing to removing racial inequities in health care and using more inclusive language around gender. Earlier this month, a July meeting of the task force was postponed. At the time, a letter from over 100 health organizations warned about the politicization of the task force's work. 'The loss of trustworthiness in the rigorous and nonpartisan work of the Task Force would devastate patients, hospital systems, and payers as misinformation creates barriers to accessing lifesaving and cost effective care,' the letter reads. 'When something works well and helps inform doctors about how to take care of their patients, to postpone the task force's work just doesn't make any sense,' Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association, told The New York Times after the meeting was postponed. 'This flies in the face of what is good for the country's health.' In June, the Supreme Court upheld the task force's ability to recommend free coverage for preventative services, in the face of a challenge from individuals and businesses objecting to the body's recommendation regarding HIV prevention medication. Concern over the fate of the task force comes after Kennedy removed all the members of a vaccine advisory board, replacing them with some members who share the secretary's vaccine skepticism.


The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Company involved in Coldplay KissCam drama hires Gwyneth Paltrow as spokesperson
Astronomer — the company whose CEO resigned after being caught on a KissCam at a Coldplay rock concert embracing a woman who was not his wife — is trying to move on from the drama with someone who knows the band pretty well. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin for 13 years, announced Friday on X that she has been hired by Astronomer as a spokesperson. Astronomer, a tech company based in New York, found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight when two of its executives were caught on camera in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concert — a moment that was then flashed on a giant screen in the stadium. CEO Andy Byron and human resource executive Kristin Cabot were caught by surprise when Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd during a concert earlier this month. 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' Martin joked when the couple appeared on screen and quickly tried to hide their faces. In a short video, the 'Shakespeare in Love' and 'Ironman' star said she had been hired as a 'very temporary' spokesperson for Astronomer. 'Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,' Paltrow said, smiling and deftly avoiding mention of the KissCam fuss. 'We've been thrilled that so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,' she said. 'We will now be returning to what we do best — delivering game-changing results for our customers.' When footage from the KissCam first spread online, it wasn't immediately clear who the couple were. Soon after the company identified the pair, and Byron resigned followed by Cabot. The video clip resulted in a steady stream of memes, parody videos and screenshots of the pair's shocked faces filling social media feeds. Online streams of Coldplay's songs jumped 20% in the days after the video went viral, according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company.