AgdaPkt 2002-10-14 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7lti~ ~--- be~ bee~t e.m~led~to alt Council Members on 9-20-2002, 8:14 a.m. Da~: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 08:14:25 -0700 (PO~ F~m: "Chri~ina ~i" <chri~tnaylaiOyahoo.com> I This is S=am I Add to Address Book $#~eet: health issue with mwcled water reposed this week TO: dclaire@mdwoodci~.o~, im~mdwoodclty.o~, Jha~ne~dwoodciW.o~, dhowa~mdwoodciW.o~, bpierce~dwoodciW.o~, ims~nOmdwooddW.o~, ~o~an~dwoodci~.o~ Reclaimed water teeming with parasites By Kevin Spear Sentinel Staff Writer September 16, 2002 More than 100,000 lawns and 400 golf courses in Florida are irrigated with treated sewage, a practice the state endorses as a way to reduce lake pollution and conserve drinking water. It may also spread potent germs through sprinklers. Kids play in recycled sewage, golfers walk through it and landscapers are doused by it. For two years, state regulators have required sewer utilities to test for the parasites giardia and cryptosporidium. Both bugs, which can cause illness and death, were found in high levels. Florida's Department of Environmental Protection hopes that research by a California utility will show that sewage treatment renders the microscopic parasites unable to infect people. But clean-water advocates are worried by Florida's inaction. "The state is going blindly forward not accounting for the risk," said Suzi Ruhl, director of the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, or LEAF, in Tallahassee. "There will be an outbreak, and it won't be pleasant." An outbreak did occur in 1996 in the Clay County development of Eagle Harbor, where more than 60 residents were infected by either giardia or cryptospirodium. Health authorities never proved the source, but suspected recycled sewage. Single cases of infection also are cor~on, though disease specialists don't often determine the cause. Last year, 88 people were sickened by cryptosporidium and 1,124 by giardia, according to state records.