CALGARY – Alberta researchers say gender-bending fish swimming in the province’s southern rivers raise serious questions about whether the water is safe for people to drink.

Two University of Calgary professors have been studying how a small species of minnow reacts to a wide variety of hormone-altering chemicals detected in several rivers.

They found sexual changes both in the wild populations of the fish and under controlled lab experiments with the same chemicals, said co-author Hamid Habibi.
He said while it’s not known whether the levels are high enough to hurt humans, there is a possible risk the chemicals could increase cancer rates or developmental abnormalities.

“We think there’s a health concern,” he said Thursday. “We’d like to be able to predict these things and reduce that kind of risk.”

In some locations, female fish accounted for as much as 90 per cent of the minnow population, far higher than the normal 55 to 60 per cent.

At many of the sites studied, male fish showed elevated levels of a protein normally high only in the blood of females. Other areas have produced male fish with female eggs in their testes.

Habibi and co-author Lee Jackson found a large variety of chemicals that affect hormones in the water. They include synthetic estrogens, such as the birth control pill and bisphenol A — a chemical used in making plastics — as well as agricultural byproducts.

The disturbances in fish populations were greater downstream from cities than upstream and were most notable around several major cattle feedlots.

One area of high concentration was interrupted by a normal region where the river is joined by several tributaries from Waterton National Park.

The researchers managed to replicate many of Moneygram money order the changes in a lab environment by combining the chemicals in the same ratio as found in the river.

They also discovered that while a single chemical might affect a fish one way, the combined effect with another chemical might be much greater than expected.
In one case, two chemicals might each have a one-fold effect on a fish, while in combination the effect might be nine times bigger.

“The potency of these chemicals improves significantly if they are present in a mixture. That is new information,” said Habibi.

“Which means some of the data used by Health Canada and EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States) may need to be revised, because they’re based on individual studies for those chemicals.”

Jackson said most wastewater treatment plants don’t get rid of many of the chemicals.

The researchers have partnered with the City of Calgary to begin work at a new treatment plant investigating how engineering can keep the chemicals from flowing back into the water.

He said it’s too early to tell whether the current levels in water might have anything to do with a rising trend of cancers that are under hormonal control, but he added that a possible link should be studied.

“I think we need to look at this a little more carefully and ask, what is the message the fish are telling us,” he said.

“If the fish are showing bent genders and people are drinking the same water … we need to try to evaluate that risk.”

Part of the research is to be published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

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Originally reported at CTV News

TORONTO — More than a decade after the Walkerton disaster, much of Canada’s tap water remains at risk from contamination despite initial progress in front-line monitoring and treatment, a new report concludes.

In its third such report released Tuesday, the environmental group Ecojustice warns that while some jurisdictions have stepped up water protection efforts in the past five years, most have not done enough.

In 2000, seven people died and 2,500 fell ill in Walkerton, Ont., when the town’s poorly monitored drinking water was contaminated with E. coli from farm runoff.
The tragedy prompted most provinces to review and revamp their drinking water laws with mixed results — but that burst of enthusiasm has faded in recent years, according to the report.

“In many places, the health of Canadians is still at risk,” the report concludes.
“The lack of recent progress also seems to indicate that the impetus for improved water protection, spurred by events like Walkerton, is on the wane.”

The report called “Waterproof 3? finds only Ontario among the provinces worthy of an A grade for its water protection efforts, while Alberta lags with a C-.
The federal government gets an F for a record that continues to worsen, the report states.

In particular, the report criticizes Ottawa for a lack of progress on the legislative front, poor water quality for First Nations, and budget cuts it says will hurt Environment Canada’s ability to monitor the situation.

“The federal government is failing in almost every aspect of water protection, even though it should be setting rigorous standards,” the report says.

For the first time, the report has expanded to include source-water protection efforts — the idea that the best way to provide safe tap water is to ensure the water does not get contaminated in the first place.

The findings are not encouraging.

“Full-fledged source-water protection — a critical first step in achieving safe drinking water systems — has been implemented to some degree in only seven of 13 provinces and territories,” the report states.

“(It) is notably lacking in industry-heavy areas where the risk of contamination is high.”

According to the report, Prince Edward Island leads when it comes to protecting water sources. Almost everyone is getting tap water from systems covered by legally binding source-water protection plans. On the downside, the province does not mandate water treatment.

Alberta has no legislation in place to protect water sources, and its standards for testing and treatment have not changed in five years, the report finds.
The report praises Ontario for implementing “the most ambitious source-water protection program” in the country and having the tough standards for treatment, testing, operator training and public reporting.

Among the territories, Nunavut does not legally protect water sources and its treatment standards are “among the lowest” in Canada. The Northwest Territories gets a nod for an “ambitious” review of its laws.

Canadians living in rural and remote areas are most vulnerable to the “alarming deficiency” when it comes to warnings about contaminated water, the report finds.
Overall, the report concludes, the biggest threats have shifted over the past decade from deficiencies in front-line water protection to unprotected source water, climate change and government cuts.

For example, it cites Ontario research that pharmaceuticals are increasingly finding their way into drinking water but testing for them is generally not mandatory and treatment does not always remove them.

Ecojustice — formerly the Sierra Legal Defence Fund — is a national group of lawyers and scientists who Credit union agent work on environmental issues.

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According to the United Nations each person needs 20-50 litres of safe freshwater a day to ensure their basic needs for drinking, cooking and cleaning. Unfortunately more than one in six people worldwide – 894 million – don’t have access to this amount of safe freshwater. In Canada we’ve come to take fresh water for granted, but if we are aware of water problems around the world we can do our part to help.

So tomorrow when you wake up and shower, begin cooking your Thanksgiving meal and sit down with your family and friends take an extra minute to think about how lucky we are. Happy Thanksgiving from Home Water Systems!

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