Treated wastewater? It'll still affect our rivers
Water pollution
We all know about water pollution. We know about tiny fraction of total water on Earth that's actually drinkable. We know that wastewater from factories affects river, lakes and seas. But we take a mental escape when we read that the wastewater was 'treated' before it was released into the natural water bodies. The words 'treated wastewater' suddenly makes the entire affair environmentally safe and morally passable.
But now Goethe University Frankfurt has demonstrated that even treated wastewater has harmful effect for natural water bodies and organisms that live in it. As per a reportby Science Daily, the university has found that even the treated wastewater has an impact on 'species composition of invertebrates'.
So are wasterwater treatment plants useless?
Not quite. It is true that wastewater treatment takes some fangs out of the pollutants and lessen their impact on surface water. The ability of wastewater treatment plants to completely remove micropolutants from the wastewater is reportedly mostly limited. Micropollutants may include active ingredients from pharamceutical compunds and personal care products, pesticides and more sythetic substances. This puts additional burden on river systems.
Studies prior to this one have mostly focussed on single wasterwater treatment plants, says Science Daily. But this one has extensively studied how wastewater from 170 wastewater treatment plants in the German city of Hesse had an impact on species composition of invertebrates.
The researchers found an interesting phenomenon. They found that some species were especially affected by treated effluents such as stonefly and caddisfly larvae. These reportedly disappeared entirely in some places. Other organisms like worms and crustaceans were found to be benefitting from addition of the treated water.
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Overall, it was found that mixing of treated wastewater changed the composition of species in the natural water bodies. In any case, it does not free us from the responsibility of trying to prevent water pollution.
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