Drugs in water change wildlife

SNYDERVILLE -- Decades ago, federal agencies asked the public to flush extra pills down the toilet. But in the last few years, the message has changed - and now health programs are trying desperately to break that habit.

Most Utah treatment plants separate the water from other sewage waste, clean it, and then release it back into the rivers, often for agricultural use.

But in the Snyderville Basin, rivers make up all of the water, and when those rivers dry up, residents depend on recycled sewage water.

Mike Luers, General Manager of the reclamation district, says Snyderville's three-step treatment is one of the best out there, but it doesn't catch everything.

"The water in the creek is mostly treated waste water," he said. "[but] the treatment facility isn't designed to remove medications from the water."

Luers says some of the medication comes out "naturally," when you use the restroom. Some of it comes when you flush old pills.

Regardless of how it gets there, all of it is causing problems in our waterways. For example, he says they've learned male trout are absorbing the female hormone, estrogen.

"They actually produce ovaries within their bodies," Luers said of the male fish.

Luers said if they can flush the water out with mountain runoff, the hormones are diluted and the fish go back to normal, but in a bad drought year, or if more hormones enter the water, it overwhelms the fish, producing the potential for a population collapse.

And hormones aren't the only problem. Luers says they've also found drugs like Prozac, a popular anti-depressant, in bugs, fish and other organisms, several miles downstream.

Health officials say it's impossible to know the full impact.

At the Salt Lake County Health Department, Eric Michaels, in Household Hazardous Waste management, said it's well-documented that medications are in the waterways all over the state of Utah, but there are no good long-term studies to tell us what that means.

He says that's why they are pushing so hard to get people to stop flushing those old pills and instead, leave them in drop boxes at pharmacies and police stations.

If you are unsure where to take medications near you, there is a list of drop-off locations here.