Sunday, October 9, 2011

Another Risk From Phosphorus: E.coli Bacteria Contamination In Drinking Water

We know that phosphorus leads to algae contamination of rivers, lakes and wetlands - - and Scott Walker's administration has delayed implementation of new phosphorus controls in a misplaced sop to business that took years among stakeholders to negotiate - -  but now a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher finds a new threat, particularly to users of rural well water:

Phosphorus interacts with soil allowing deadly E. coli bacteria to penetrate groundwater.
On rural fields, cow manure is a major source of E. coli 0157:H7, a strain that can trigger internal bleeding and kidney damage when people ingest it. Each year, this pathogen causes about 73,000 illnesses and 60 deaths in the U.S., says Jin Li, an environmental engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Contaminated drinking water is the culprit in about 15% of those infections.
Details here.
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4 comments:

  1. waterwheelOctober 9, 2011 at 9:29 AM

    did you know soda has phos added to it?
    did you know cities add phos to the water systems to prevent rusting of pipes?
    there are many ways to prevent phos contamination. All plants and animals need phos. If grass does not have phos, it can not survive he winters. if you have no cover crops, erosion causes more damage than any phos level would

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  2. DaveOctober 9, 2011 at 9:59 AM

    Waterwheel's comment telegraph an ignorance of the environment that is common among the right-wingers and GOP science-haters.

    Phosphorus in soda? Hmmmm. Great analogy except for the fact that it is irrelevant and wrong.

    Oh well, the neurotoxins that are being spewed out by polluters seem to have created another repug.....

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  3. Paul TrotterOctober 9, 2011 at 10:20 AM

    Walker intends to rape Wisconsin's natural resources. It's time neuter him.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A. WagOctober 10, 2011 at 4:00 PM

    Simple solution: Get rid of the U of Wis researchers. With no researchers to uncover new problems, Whallah! No problems.

    ReplyDelete