Email This StoryWater treatment research active
March 4, 2008
By Shannon Daily
Staff Writer
Baylor researchers are working to figure out a way to clean chemical compounds such as those found in Prozac and birth control pills out of the water supply.
Dr. Bryan Brooks, an associate professor in the environmental science department, said while waste water treatment plants clean a large amount of chemicals out of water, they aren't yet able to catch everything.
"Our current waste-water treatment plants do a really good job most of the time," Brooks said. "They just aren't designed for pharmaceuticals or personal care products."
Small portions of the compounds found in these products are able to slip through the treatment processes at the waste-water plants, getting into the water supply and affecting the wildlife it houses, Brooks said.
"The question is, do those substances present problems to humans and aquatic organisms when they're released out?" Brooks said.
One area research has focused on is the effect the pharmaceuticals have on fish.
While this specific research is ongoing, it has been determined that if a human were to eat the fish, the compounds the fish had absorbed into its tissue wouldn't affect the human, Brooks said.
This research is particularly important for drier areas, Brooks said, or areas that rely on effluent-dependent rivers. An effluent-dependent river is a river that receives the majority of its water, effluent water or waste water, from waste water treatment plants.
The Trinity River, for example, is an effluent dependent river.
The river receives 95 percent to 98 percent of its water from waste treatment plants in Dallas and Fort Worth before reaching its last reservoir at Lake Livingston, Brooks said.
"The work we've been doing with compounds -- it's just a microcosm of the various environmental health problems associated with water reuse," Brooks said.
Dr. Joe Yelderman, geology professor, is another researcher working with Brooks. Yelderman works mainly on the treatment of the water while Brooks researches its effect on the environment.
The two work with the Baylor Waste Water Research program to find new ways to recycle water.
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