Comments on: More Dust Storms = Faster Snowmelt in the Rockies, Less Water This Summer http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/26/more-dust-storms-faster-snowmelt-in-the-rockies-and-less-water-this-summer/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:16:34 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Dr Edo McGowan http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/26/more-dust-storms-faster-snowmelt-in-the-rockies-and-less-water-this-summer/comment-page-1/#comment-28700 Dr Edo McGowan Wed, 27 May 2009 07:15:39 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/26/more-dust-storms-faster-snowmelt-in-the-rockies-and-less-water-this-summer/#comment-28700 Several recent articles in the lay and scientific literature have commented on the levels of drug resistant pathogens pumped out into the environment by American sewer plants. The solids (biosolids) from these plants are predominantly spread on agricultural land (70% are land applied). A large portion of Southern California's sewage is applied on Arizona soils. As this material, formerly classified as hazardous waste, dries and blows about with the dust storms, it is depositing antibiotic resistance across large areas. In the case of snow, this impacts the area's fresh water resources. Dr. Amy Pruden has written on antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) which are not affected by chlorine levels used in water treatment and these ARGs are so small that they pass through many of the current filtering systems used in water treatment. Thus she has tracked these ARGs into the fresh water supplies. Thus the glass of water that you drink may contain these ARGs. Once within the human gut, these ARGs can be transferred to the human gut flora and represent tiny time bombs. U.S. EPA has been informed of this but seems reluctant to address the risk. It has steadfastly refused to effectively look at antibiotic resistance in sewage, yet again numerous peer reviewed papers discuss, and for some time have discussed, the creation of antibiotic resistance by sewer plants. U.S. EPA is the major promoter of land applied sewage sludge since this material had been banned from ocean dumping because of adverse impacts on marine life. It is difficult to, at the same time, promote and regulate something. In the interim, the risk of increasing antibiotic resistance within the U.S. population continues to rise. Several recent articles in the lay and scientific literature have commented on the levels of drug resistant pathogens pumped out into the environment by American sewer plants. The solids (biosolids) from these plants are predominantly spread on agricultural land (70% are land applied). A large portion of Southern California’s sewage is applied on Arizona soils. As this material, formerly classified as hazardous waste, dries and blows about with the dust storms, it is depositing antibiotic resistance across large areas. In the case of snow, this impacts the area’s fresh water resources. Dr. Amy Pruden has written on antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) which are not affected by chlorine levels used in water treatment and these ARGs are so small that they pass through many of the current filtering systems used in water treatment. Thus she has tracked these ARGs into the fresh water supplies. Thus the glass of water that you drink may contain these ARGs. Once within the human gut, these ARGs can be transferred to the human gut flora and represent tiny time bombs. U.S. EPA has been informed of this but seems reluctant to address the risk. It has steadfastly refused to effectively look at antibiotic resistance in sewage, yet again numerous peer reviewed papers discuss, and for some time have discussed, the creation of antibiotic resistance by sewer plants. U.S. EPA is the major promoter of land applied sewage sludge since this material had been banned from ocean dumping because of adverse impacts on marine life. It is difficult to, at the same time, promote and regulate something. In the interim, the risk of increasing antibiotic resistance within the U.S. population continues to rise.

]]> By: Nick http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/26/more-dust-storms-faster-snowmelt-in-the-rockies-and-less-water-this-summer/comment-page-1/#comment-28653 Nick Tue, 26 May 2009 23:04:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/26/more-dust-storms-faster-snowmelt-in-the-rockies-and-less-water-this-summer/#comment-28653 Also, on the merely local scale, houses could be build with giant cisterns sunk beneath them, not as power-efficient as an overhead way of pressurizing your water system, but if you could build a cistern big enough to hold a years water for four people, and then have the house built to capture all the rainwater that falls on the property, you'd do a great deal towards keeping any one particular place livable. You could easily purify the water with solar distillation for drinking and bathing purposes. In fact, with the right technology, you could have the entire attic space be the solar distillation chamber - since heat rises, and the sun almost always rises. Water is pretty good for holding on to temperature - you could use it in an SHPEG system to capture excess heat in the earth for future use (winter heating). Also, on the merely local scale, houses could be build with giant cisterns sunk beneath them, not as power-efficient as an overhead way of pressurizing your water system, but if you could build a cistern big enough to hold a years water for four people, and then have the house built to capture all the rainwater that falls on the property, you’d do a great deal towards keeping any one particular place livable. You could easily purify the water with solar distillation for drinking and bathing purposes.

In fact, with the right technology, you could have the entire attic space be the solar distillation chamber – since heat rises, and the sun almost always rises. Water is pretty good for holding on to temperature – you could use it in an SHPEG system to capture excess heat in the earth for future use (winter heating).

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