Our wastewater is a reflection of ourselves and our society. What we excrete is made up of the world we consume through our air, food and water, released from our cells and flushed from our bodies. We live in a society that has accepted an abundance of chemicals into our lives and our homes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compiles an inventory that shows more than 86,000 chemicals in use today. Water quality professionals use the term “contaminants of emerging concern” for chemicals we detect at our treatment facilities. Our wastewater is telling us that what we consume is increasingly contaminated.
One family of these chemicals is the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), consisting of thousands of varieties with differing impacts upon the environment and our bodies, including links to compromised immune and cardiovascular systems, decreased fertility, low birth weights and several types of cancer.
Despite having been in use since the 1940s, we know very little about most PFAS. What we do know has largely been reported by the companies that manufacture them. As a result, we’re not getting the full picture of their risks to us. In April, Maine became the first state to effectively ban land application of biosolids (residuals from our wastewater treatment facilities) due to the presence of PFAS in wastewater sludge. Recently, the EPA issued drinking water recommendations for two PFAS, representing 0.002 percent of the compounds on the afore-mentioned chemical substance inventory. PFAS are just the tip of the iceberg.
The construction of our wastewater treatment facilities (following the Clean Water Act of 1972) was founded on a principle of “assimilative capacity,” meaning we can pollute up to nature’s capacity to absorb that pollution – without detrimental effect. We need to move on from this principle; these chemicals do not readily break down in nature and even miniscule amounts have an impact on our bodies. Our wastewater is telling us that our environment and our bodies have reached the limits of assimilative capacity.
We need to fundamentally alter the way we use water and relate to nature. Instead of viewing nature as a giant sponge that can cleanse our chemical lives, we must shift our understanding of our environment as a foundational source of our own survival. “Water is life,” the well-known ethic of our Wabanaki neighbors, shifts our thinking and requires we care for our water as we would a loved one.
Nature creates new life with “waste” products. We cannot continue to make waste that does not break down in the environment. We must choose to buy products without harmful chemicals in them and carefully consider our purchases and their broader impact upon on the environment and our health. We can demand ingredients lists on all products – not just food – and we can demand the EPA know more about chemicals before allowing them into the marketplace.
There is hope. While the technologies to treat for PFAS and other contamination do not yet exist, new regulation is driving innovation and we will find ways to reduce this contamination from our water. A dedicated group of water quality professionals have been working for clean water for generations. No one cares more about water quality or works harder for it than the professionals in this field. However, we need your help, advocacy and encouragement. You can support our efforts by reconsidering your relationship to water and by listening to what it is telling all of us. Together, we must change the way we think about our water and our environment.
Water has incredible power to clean and to nourish. Water is life.
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