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water?</title></head><body>
<div><font face="Times" size="-1">AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AGRONOMY</font>
-<font face="Times" size="-1"> PUBLIC
RELEASE: 2-MAR-2016</font></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="-1" color="#262626"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="+2" color="#202020">Reduce, reuse,
recycle: Safe for water?</font></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="-5"><i>Pharmaceutical, personal care
products show scant presence in crop irrigated with
wastewater</i></font></div>
<div>http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/asoa-rrr030216.php</div
>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="-1" color="#262626">W</font><font
face="Lucida Grande">hat would you do without water?</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Farmers in drought areas are especially concerned by this question. As
fresh water resources become scarce, one option for water-conscious
farmers is to water crops with treated wastewater. This effluent is
becoming a more popular option for applications that don't require
drinking-quality water. However, there are still questions about how
the effluent interacts with and affects the rest of the
ecosystem.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
This is where Alison Franklin and her team at Pennsylvania State
University come in. Franklin is investigating what happens to certain
compounds that remain in the effluent after treatment. She wants to
know, "Where do these compounds go?"</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
The chemicals that Franklin studies are pharmaceutical and personal
care products, including antibiotics. Currently, wastewater treatment
facilities are not able to completely remove these compounds. They
frequently remain in the effluent in an active form.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Franklin explains, "As I learned about pharmaceutical and
personal care products in the environment, I became very interested in
where these compounds were ending up. What were the possible
implications of these low level compounds in the environment on human,
animal, and ecological health?"</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Franklin and her team set out to follow the environmental paths of
four different compounds found in effluent when it is used to spray
irrigate wheat crops.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
First, Franklin measured the amounts of three types of antibiotics and
one anti-seizure medicine in the effluent from the University Park
wastewater treatment plant. The water from this treatment plant was
then used to irrigate wheat crops at Penn State's Living Filter site.
This site is a special area used to test the reuse of effluent.
Samples of the wheat straw and grain were collected before and at
harvest time, and the samples were analyzed for the four different
compounds.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
"The concentrations of the compounds in the effluent were fairly
low, so I was quite surprised when we were able to actually quantify
the compounds in the samples," says Franklin.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
The researchers found that the pre-harvest samples showed most of the
compounds on the outer surfaces of the plant, but insignificant
amounts in the plant parts (grain and straw). The samples collected at
the time of harvest had trace amounts of all four compounds on the
plant surface. Three of the compounds were detected in the plant
parts. Two compounds were detected only in the grain and not in the
straw. The third compound was detected in both the grain and the
straw. However, none of the compounds were at toxic
levels.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">Many factors affect the path of a
compound into and within the plant, such as the pH level of the soil
and the plant, the plant species, and even the specific plant part. By
analyzing both the straw and the grain, Franklin was able to have a
better idea of how the wheat plants take up the
compounds.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">"It is preferable for the
compounds to be taken up into the non-edible portion, like straw,
because it minimizes risk," she explains. "By looking at
both plant parts the study provided more comprehensive information
about the fate of these compounds."</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
The compounds' trails have been tracked from the effluent to the wheat
plants. So Franklin's next investigation will be whether the small
amounts of compounds in the wheat plants pose potential health risks
for humans and animals. Franklin admits, "It's a fine balance of
protecting the health of the environment and organisms, yet managing
water resources that are diminishing."</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Franklin is working to understand that balance and determine best
options for smart water use. Read more about Franklin's work in<i>
Journal of Environmental Quality</i>. Penn State's Office of Physical
Plant and the USDA Regional Research Projects W-3170 and W-2082 funded
this project.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Cambria"
color="#000000"
>====================================================================<span
></span>===<br>
"E</font><font face="Georgia" color="#000000">lectric utility
executives all over the world are watching nervously as technologies
they once dismissed as irrelevant begin to threaten their
long-established business plans."</font></div>
<div><font face="Georgia" color="#000000"><br>
"A reckoning is at hand."<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Times" color="#000000"><i><b>Sun and Wind Alter
Global Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind<br>
</b></i><font size="-2"><b>By JUSTIN GILLIS</b>SEPT. 13, 2014<br>
<br>
</font></font><font face="Cambria" size="-2"
color="#000000"><u
>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/science/earth/sun-and-wind-alter-g<span
></span>erman-landscape-leaving-utilities-behind.html</u></font><br>
<font face="Cambria" size="-2" color="#000000"><u></u></font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande" size="-1"
color="#000000"
>==============================================================<br>
"This review Š deals exclusively with observed
responses of wild biological species and systems Š. "<br>
<br>
"A surprising result is the high proportion of species responding
to recent, relatively mild climate change (global average warming of
0.6 C)."<br>
<br>
Camille Parmesan. "Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent
Climate Change."<i> Annual Review of Ecol. Evol. &
Systematics </i> 2006. 37:637-69</font><br>
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