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Estrogen, recycled water and urban mythology....Holbrook

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Justin Holbrook (above) at the Noosa North Shore private water reclamation plant, one of several he has inspired.

“The phobia of recycled water is curable. Today no one refuses heart surgery because this is safe technology. Similarly we should get properly informed about the safe science of water recycling, particularly as weather extremes are increasing”......Justin Holbrook, Environmental Scientist.

Science can combat “recyclophobia”

The estrogen debate is the one were always going to have, according to Environmental scientist, Justin Holbrook.

In other words, does recycled water contain traces of hormones, from public usage, that reduces masculinity or produces breasts in males? Otherwise can it be safely used by the general public?

Mr Holbrook has entered the debate with good and bad news however the latter is apparently all about perception.

Apparently the drinking public has been consuming recycled water for ages and the only side effect is the shock of finding out.

In south-east Queensland several streams have been replenishing Wivenhoe Dam, Brisbane’s main water supply, with secondary treated effluent, for several years.

Justin’s explains: “From the time that water was enjoyed by dinosaurs right down to today’s filtering and treatment of dam and river water, all water is recycled.

President of the Sustainable Business Association and developer of Australia’s first private water supply authority, he specializes in recycling water.

“Nature’s desalination and treatment process has been going for quite a few years without interruption. It takes the water up as vapour and it condenses and falls back to earth where it collects in dams and tanks,” he said.

“In recent times not enough water has been falling from the sky and that is why humans have to manually recycle water.

The real issue at hand is that our demand is outstripping our supply and in the absence of continual and reliable rainfall recycling is the smartest option,” Mr Holbrook said.

Urban myths and male breasts

He says that fear of recycled water can be overcome through education.

“There is an urban myth today that class A+ recycled water contains sufficient estrogen to produce breasts in males. This is a total furphy and has been conclusively debunked by several world class research projects.

“It’s that simple. Science has skilled us to clean up many problems and water is just another one to add to the list.”

“Modern technology turns out water to a standard, in some cases better than normal potable drinking water.

The pathogen debate is more simple than the estrogen debate although recycling removes estrogen before it gets rid of viruses. Four levels of disinfection take care of pathogens and viruses. The first hit is 1) primary and secondary treatment, with 2) membrane filtering and 3) UV and or Ozone treatment is the third followed by 4) chlorine to complete the process.

Options 1 and 2 have been clearly shown to get rid of hormones and pathogens however we add stage 3 and 4 to give an additional level of assurance.

Key studies, (results from several cited at end of this article) have shown that primary and secondary wastewater treatment removes estrogen. After secondary treatment there are no detectable levels of hormones, estrogen included.

The Queensland Government has listed dozens of published articles by scientists who have worked on hormonal and other chemical removal from recycled water, up to March 2006.
http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/list_archives/water-recycling/msg02232.html

It is even easier to remove estrogen from water than it is to eliminate pathogens and viruses and we’ve been doing the latter for many years.

Mr Holbrook said there have been no cases, anywhere in the world, of recycled water being linked to the decline of masculinity or increase in male infertility. If this wasn’t the case, some wags in society would be bottling and selling it by now as a way to enhance femininity.

Researchers have tested the outflows of primary and secondary treated effluent, from STP’s, and found no detectable levels of estrogen.

Some have come up with cases of wildlife and some species of fish, getting reactions to water not properly treated however this happened in water from agricultural or industrial outfalls. Water Reclamation Plant’s today are giving us water to a Class A+ standard, beyond tertiary treatment standard.

Every treatment after secondary is about getting rid of pathogens and viruses.

Today a person is more likely to be affected by foodstuffs produced with growth enhancing hormones than by drinking Class A+ recycled water.

“Today we have membrane technology with filters so fine that viruses can’t get through, as well as chlorine and ultraviolet rays, so there is a substantial array of safety nets in the recycling process. Oddly the anti recycled water faction cite a distrust in advanced technology to deliver clean water, yet they routinely trust far more complex technology to prolong and enhance their very lives in every day life, particularly in the medical profession’.

“The phobia of recycled water is curable. Today no one refuses heart surgery because this is safe technology. Similarly we should get properly informed about the safe science of water recycling, particularly as weather extremes are increasing.”

“Filtering and disinfecting water is not brain surgery after all,” Mr Holbrook said.

Mr Holbrook says that health problems have historically originated in the pipes used to transport water. It takes hundreds of kilometers of pipes to get from the source to people’s homes and the main reason for adding chlorine is to ensure there is no bacteria growth in pipes.

Apparently it’s a reliable estimate that recycled A+ water is actually of a higher quality than dam water that we use for potable supply.

How to make dam construction irrelevant

“Using recycled water for toilet flushing, watering gardens and so on can reduce potable water demand by 40%.

“Combined with rainwater harvesting we can reduce consumption by about 80%, something that would please most local authorities at the moment.

“If all new housing or industrial developments were built with this in mind, there would be less demand on potable water and no need for dams.

In the promotion of his science, Mr Holbrook regularly drinks recycled water.

The big drought has been a wakeup call however tanks and recycling could eventually remove the clamour for superdams.

A reasonable mathematician can calculate that if ten houses in your street install a minimum of a 3,000 litre tank, each could claim a council rebate, plus an extra 30,000 litres of water would be available.

If it rained 10 times per year on your street, that would put an extra 3 million litres at the suburb’s disposal.

The most ideal scenario is for 1000 houses in your suburb, to each have a 3,000 litre tank, which means 300 million litres of water would not be flowing down the drain and out to sea.

This could be done if we had a mere 10 rain events per year.

Justin said that water reclamation and installing a tank makes sense because elderly people love their gardens and its hight time we stopped disrespecting water.

h4. Water storage for the Holbrook-inspired manly west development, see below, where 21 drought-proofed homes are currently under construction.

Further information and interviews
Justin Holbrook 0439 715 730
Sudtec’s website

Further studies on removal of hormones and pathogens: http://www.toowoombawater.com.au/resources-and-forms/doc_view-20.html

http://www.membrane.unsw.edu.au/imstec03/content/papers/WWT/imstec215.pdf

The following is an extract from a study by Vasantha Aravinthan, BSc.Eng, M.Eng, PhD, M.IEAust, M.AaeE, Research Fellow University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350. It shows a table citing the each water contaminant and the process by which it is removed from recycled water.
aravintv@usq.edu.au

Table 4: Unit Processes and operations used for EDCs and PPCPs removal

13
GroupsClassification AC BACO3/AOPsUVCl2/ClO2Coagulation/
flocculationSoftening/
metal oxidesNF RODegradation
(B/P/AS)
EDCs Pesticides E E L-E E P-E P G G E E (P)
Industrial chemicals E E F-G E P P-L P-L E E G-E (B)
Steroids E E E E E P P-L G E L-E (B)
Metals G G P P P F-G F-G G E P (B), E (AS)
Inorganics P-L F P P P P G G E P-L
Organometallics G-E G-E L-E F-GP-F P-L P-L G-EE L-E
PhACs Antibiotics F-G E L-E F-GP-G P-L P-L E E E(B)
G-E(P)
Antidepressants G-E G-E L-E F-GP-F P-L P-L G-EE G-E
Anti-inflammatory E G-E E E P-F P P-L G-EE E (B)
Lipid regulators E E E F-GP-F P P-L G-EE P (B)
X-ray contrast media G-E G-E L-E F-GP-F P-L P-L G-EE E (B and P)
Psychiatric control G-E G-E L-E F-GP-F P-L P-L G-EE G-E
PCPS Synthetic musks G-E G-E L-E E P-F P-L P-L G-EE E (B)
Sunscreens G-E G-E L-E F-GP-F P-L P-L G-EE G-E
Antimicrobials G-E G-E L-E F-GP-F P-L P-L G-EE F (P)
Surfactants/
detergents E E F-G F-GP P-L P-L E E L-E (B)

B – Biodegradation, P – photodegradation(solar), E -excellent

(>90%); G-good (70-90%); F-Fair (40-70%); L- low (20-40%); P-

poor (<20%); AC – Activated Carbon; BAC- Biological Activated Carbon; O3/AOPs- Ozone and Advanced Oxidation Processes; UV – Ultraviolet Disinfection; NF – Nanofiltration; RO- Reverse Osmosis, AS- Activated Sludge

The following is an extract from the report by Vasantha Aravinthan, internet link cited above:
8
Singapore NEWater conducted a comprehensive set of physical, chemical and microbiological tests in each of the processes for over two years, and concluded that NEWater is considered to be safe for potable use. 3 The quality consistently met the latest requirements of the U.S. Environmental protection agency’s national primary and secondary drinking water standards and world health organization’s drinking water quality guidelines.3 A complete two-year chronic toxicity and carcinogenic study were conducted on the recycled water in Denver and the existing drinking water supply, with no adverse health effects detected. Reproductive studies on the recycled water and the existing drinking water supply detected no adverse health effects from either supply. 2 Toowoomba’s proposed plant will use the treatment system similar to that of Singapore’s. The results of the comprehensive sampling and monitoring program and health effects study conducted in Singapore and Denver would reinforce the council’s initiatives to go on with the plan to augment the potable water supply from the reclaimed water from Wetalla wastewater treatment plant.

The clean-green, Holbrook-inspired Noosa North Shore water plant (pictured) is an rwa sewage treatment and water recycling unit, smoothly processing 50,000 litres per day with state-of-the-art membrane technology.

(Sanderson Media's breezy writing style and great images can get your message out to the world) contact john@sanderson-media.com

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