Mussels in WA's Puget Sound test positive for opioids

So why is it that opioids are the only thing listed the headline as if the mussels only contained this contaminants ? I must say I hate misleading headlines like this! Why not print, "Mussels in WA's Puget Sound test positive for opioids among other contaminants"   

The article goes on to mention that the opioid contained in the mussels is the least worrisome. So why is it the point of the headline then? The mussels also contain 4 kinds of synthetic surfactants-chemical cleaners, seven kinds of antibiotics, five kinds of antidepressants, more than one type of anti-diabetic drug, and one chemotherapy agent! 

Thank you for posting this article seasidemermaid. It makes me very sad to hear of this. The only way I can think of that those things got into the water is that they were flushed down the toilet. Or it could have been in the feces of the people flushed down that toilet although I don't think so-it would be too concentrated. 

To me this is a PSA-Please don't ever flush left over medication down the toilet-it ends up in bays and the ocean. There are places to take it. Ask your pharmacist and they can guide you. 

ugh. ugh ugh ugh. That is so upsetting.

    Watch the documentary I recommended to seasidemermaid to get some of these answers-"Blue Mission". It's about the ocean, conservation and how fast we are killing the ocean. I only saw it once when I was really sleepy and should have long gone to bed, but I do remember it showed something about cruise ships routinely dumping their trash over the sides, even recently. I'm not sure how the waste water is handled on those ships. We've long thought the ocean is so huge we can put anything in it and it won't matter, but that certainly isn't the case. 

The documentary doesn't cover your question about the drugs because it was made awhile ago and this was very recent-the news article. It does go over what little is being done as far as conservation efforts. It opened up my eyes as to how bad the problem is. 

My guess is that this was probably from the huge wastewater plant failure earlier this year. I doubt it's from people flushing their opioids.

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/silence-reigns-as-sewage-spews-into-puget-sound-heres-why/

It's all the raw sewage coming down from Victoria that they dump into ocean.

www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4537222 Back in February Victoria reported finding all kinds of drugs in mussels.

Where do you think that the trash went? And all the human waste?

Airplanes dump waste just before the approach the airport.

Our neighbor works for the railroad, he has list count how many times the amtrak will dump waste on his repair team.

It is expensive carry waste to the port.

Yikes

I'll take 60 please

Chemicals get into waterways by the storm drain system. It empties right into the whatever waterway is closest. It by passes the treatment plant because that facility could not handle the influx of so much water.

In Seattle you will see signs saying, don't dump chemicals down drain.


People do it anyway.

not true any longer. airplanes have tanks that collect the waste, and that tank is pumped / cleaned when required.

How Airplane Toilets Work


another possibility for chemicals in water is companies that don't dispose of chemicals properly, and dump them / rinse them down the drain rather than following safety / hazard requirements. (possibly due to ignorance, willful or not-- if they don't get inspected, they won't know or have reason to change.)

(spoken from experience, bc 20+ years ago, I worked for a company and our practice was to dispose of things down the drain that I'm pretty sure shouldn't have been, but I was in my early 20s, then- we didn't know who to ask to get assistance with that kind of thing.)

First, I fully admit to being a nerd who is fascinated with the workings of things like this. If facts about how toilet water is processed in this area is gross or boring to you, skip the rest of my post.

I worked for a local city’s sanitation department for over 20 years as a side job. I took the meetings down verbatim with my steno machine and then created meeting minutes for them. And over the course of all those years, I absorbed a lot of information about what happened with the trash and water. In the Orange County area, the wastewater from your sinks, showers, and toilets travels in the sewer system to one of two reclamation plants where they remove the solid sludge (feces, toilet paper, tampons, egg shells, etc.) and separate it from the liquid waste.

The liquid wastewater, approximately 185 million gallons a day, is treated via multiple stages and types of filtration and ends up in one of two places. About 130 million gallons of this cleaned and treated water is directed to the “ground breaking” groundwater replenishment program. This water is cleaner than any bottled water you could purchase and it is returned to the groundwater system to be eventually used again by homes and businesses throughout the area. 130 million gallons of water that is sterilized and used again. With the water shortages we have been through in the past, this is an amazing and critical program.

When this program was first introduced, it freaked people out and they began labeling it “Toilet to Tap” water, and people were joking that the water district put the “Number 2 in H2 0” But the water tested so incredibly pure that minerals had to be added back into it. People eventually got used to the idea of reclaimed water and it is an extremely important source of clean water for this area.

The remaining filtered water is sent through a giant pipe that is 10 feet wide and 5 miles long out into the Pacific Ocean off of Huntington Beach. The ocean water is monitored and tested daily. I think I remember that the water is sampled daily from within a 25-mile wide area and that there are approximately 100 thousand tests performed each year to make sure everything is as it should be and that no harm comes to the environment or inhabitants of the ocean.

The solid sludge is treated with anaerobic digesters and heated to where it becomes biosolids. The biosolids are a nutrient rich material and is then trucked to fields throughout California and Arizona to be used as a soil amendment. The gases created from the anaerobic digestion process is used to power the water district’s onsite generators, so everything reclaimed from the toilets, showers, and kitchen sinks is put to use. And with 185 million gallons of it being treated every single day, it is an amazing system that utilizes waste material and turns it into clean water, soil amendments, and power.

Like I said, I admit to being a nerd who is fascinated by information. I have no idea how wastewater is handled by landlocked states and would be interested in hearing about it if you happen to know how it is handled in your area.

    Really happy to hear this. I only saw the part about the cruise company dumping the waste in the documentary. They didn't go on to say what happened to them doing it. I assumed nothing. Bad thing-assuming. Thanks for checking it out Wellway. I'm very glad they were fined and especially glad to hear this isn't ordinary practice.