UCLA-led study explains how much damage is caused by treated sewage
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Algae blooms in Newport Bay, off the coast of Southern California. UCLA researchers found that nitrogen in treated sewage is driving a massive growth of oceanic algae, which could have lasting effects on the region’s ecosystem. Sonia Aronson |
May 17, 2021
At a glance, the sparkling waters of the Southern California coast appear healthy. But a deeper dive into the water’s chemical composition reveals high levels of algae and low levels of oxygen.
The estimated 23 million people who live along the coast from Tijuana, Mexico, to Santa Barbara, California, produce tons of sewage each day. That sewage is treated by water treatment facilities to remove some of the potentially harmful chemicals and then discharged deep below the surface of the ocean.
SAN DIEGO Chula Vista resident and Imperial Beach lifeguard Lillian Burkhart still remembers the sting on her skin after surfing in Imperial Beach waters one day last summer. Within 24 hours, she fell ill with a gastrointestinal infection, she said. As the day went on after I left the water, I could really smell it. It was pungent. It smelled like sewage, she said. The next day I woke up feeling awful and I just threw up for 12 hours straight. I ve never been that sick in my entire life.
Burkhart s experience is commonplace and a reminder of the decadeslong struggle to address the recurring sewage spills from Tijuana that pollute the shoreline of San Diego County s South Bay region.
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Chula Vista resident and Imperial Beach lifeguard Lillian Burkhart still remembers the sting on her skin after surfing in Imperial Beach waters one day last summer. Within 24 hours, she fell ill with a gastrointestinal infection, she said.
“As the day went on after I left the water, I could really smell it. It was pungent. It smelled like sewage,” she said. “The next day I woke up feeling awful and I just threw up for 12 hours straight. I’ve never been that sick in my entire life.”
Burkhart’s experience is commonplace and a reminder of the decadeslong struggle to address the recurring sewage spills from Tijuana that pollute the South Bay shoreline.
RACHEL BECKER
CalMatters
California is poised to issue the worldâs first guidelines for microplastics in drinking water despite no data on how plentiful they are in the state, no scientific agreement on how to test water for them and little research on their health risks.Â
The pieces of plastic â smaller than an ant, some so tiny they can be seen only with a microscope â have contaminated wildlife and human bodies through their food, air and water.
Under a 2018 state law, California must require four years of testing for microplastics in drinking water, and the state must consider guidelines to help water providers and consumers determine what levels may be safe to drink.
Premature or precautionary? California is first to tackle microplastics in drinking water.
Photo by Cole Brookson courtesy of Rochman Lab
California is about to set the world’s first health guidelines for microplastics in drinking water. Yet no one agrees how to test water for the tiny bits of plastic, or how dangerous they are.
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
Pictured above: Microplastics collected in the San Francisco Bay Area are identified and labeled for research in a lab headed by Chelsea Rochman, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. California is about to set the world’s first guidelines for microplastics in drinking water.