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Topic: Dangers Of Shenandoah Pollution

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Chuck
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Dangers Of Shenandoah Pollution
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By Val Van Meter
The Winchester Star


FRONT ROYAL — Rick Eades promised to “terrorize” members of the Friends of the Shenandoah River Saturday.


He did it with facts about water.


Eades, who holds a master’s degree in geology, is a watershed educator with the Canaan Valley Institute, an organization that supports environmental efforts to protect water quality.


Speaking to the 15th anniversary meeting of the FOSR in Front Royal, Eades took a verbal tour of water woes that stretched around the world.


China’s Yellow River, a major source of irrigation agriculture, has run dry three of the last four years, he said.


In India, 4,000 dams built to provide water for the population are filling with erodable soils and livestock waste.


South Africa recently dealt with the worst outbreak of cholera, a water-borne disease, in human history.


Closer to home, Eades said, the Colorado and the Rio Grande rivers are being overtaxed. The Oglala Aquifer, a 200-million-year-old source of water for the Great Plains, could be used up in 70 years.


Shifting from water quantity problems, Eades took a look at water quality, something the Friends’ organization has been monitoring for 15 years.


While the FOSR tests over 100 water samples from the entire Shenandoah River watershed every two weeks for nitrogen and phosphorus, there is a new threat to water quality, Eades said.


Pharmaceuticals.


After drugs cycle through bodies, they are discharged from sewage treatment plants.


What do they do?


“In smallmouth bass, males are producing eggs,” Eades said, referring to a study on the South Branch of the Potomac River in his home state of West Virginia.


Eades said reports of fish changing sexes are coming in from around the world.


He said a recent study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control on river water samples found traces of just about every drug Americans take. Municipal plants aren’t set up to screen for these drugs or clean them out of the water supply.


Eades said springs and headwater areas of rivers are perhaps our cleanest water supplies. But they are being bought and sold.


“Perrier has bought 75 spring-water companies in one year,” he said. “How will the Shenandoah River accommodate the pollution if companies buy headwater springs for drinking water?”



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Tovah
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Survey: Weed and bug killers found in people
By: Martin Mittelstaedt

 


A comprehensive study of more than 1,300 Americans has found traces of weed- and bug- killers in the bodies of everyone tested, leading environmentalists in both Canada and the United States to call for tighter controls on pesticides. 


 


          The survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that the body of the average American contained 13 of these chemicals.


 


          A surprising finding was that 99 per cent of Americans, including virtually all children born in recent years, had DDT residues.  The use of the insecticide has been subject to controls and outright bans since the late 1960’s, and its presence indicates how persistent it is in the general environment.


 


          More than half of those tested also had residues of 2, 4-D.  The lawn herbicide is controversial in Canada, where its use has been targeted by dozens of municipal bans on the cosmetic use of herbicides.


 


          The finding of widespread pesticide exposure suggests that, despite the trend of the increased consumption of organic food and intense regulation of the pesticide industry, the U.S. public is routinely coming into contact with these substances through the environment and food.


 


          “The fact that Americans are carrying a mixture of toxic pesticides suggests a dramatic failure of government efforts in the U.S. to protect public health and safety,” contended Andrea Peart, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club of Canada.


 


          Health authorities in Canada have done no comparable survey on the amount of pesticides in Canadians.  A spokeswoman for health Canada, Catherine Saunders, says the agency relies on the U.S. data to estimate what Canadians may have in their bodies.


 


          She said Health Canada is currently proposing to have some pesticide measurements done as part of a Statistics Canada survey on the health of Canadians, but that research won’t be available until 2006-2007.          Without detailed studies, there is no way of knowing if Canadians are as heavily contaminated as Americans, or have lower amounts of pesticides in their bodies.  “I think the logical question… is are we going to find these same results in Canada?” said Ms. Peart.


 


          The levels of pesticides found in Americans were generally small.  The DDT residues were detected in parts per billion, with the highest readings in women.  Women generally have more fatty tissue than men and DDT is stored in fat.


 


          But environmentalists have raised concerns that some residues exceed safety standards.  Pesticide Action Network North America analyzed the U.S. exposure data and determined that for two insecticides – chlorpyrifos and methyl parathion – exposures exceeded acceptable thresholds, in one case, by more than four times the amount recommended for children.


 


          Canadian health authorities believe Canadians may have smaller amounts of the two compounds in their bodies.


 


          A SURPRISING FINDING WAS THAT 99 PERCENT OF AMERICANS, INCLUDING VIRTUALLY ALL CHILDREN BORN IN RECENT YEARS, HAD BANNED INSECTICIDE DDT RESIDUES.


 


 





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