PATHOGENS IN RECLAIMED WATER
California
High Water
By Dr. Edo McGowan
Thursday, August 16, 2007
How we manage our water will influence our future. The Zaca fire has already impacted the watershed.
Rains hitting denuded watersheds bring tons of silt, filling dams and shortening supply. At the other end of
the pipe, Santa Barbara’s sewer plant discharges several million gallons of salvageable water a day into
the ocean. It also is capable of reclaiming that water. The issue of reclaiming, not a simple matter, will
become more important to our future.
How water is ultimately reclaimed will and does have a profound impact on public health. This is the water
used to irrigate our numerous local parks, playing fields, and golf courses—and the reclaimed water
contains pathogens that can be transferred to people.
A 2004 technical paper discussing reclaimed water—the water from sewer plants—was published by the
Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF). WERF is the research arm of the national wastewater
industry, of which Santa Barbara is a member. That study, which included Santa Barbara’s sewer plant,
noted that considerable numbers of pathogens came through in the reclaimed water. Many of the plants
studied, including Santa Barbara’s, often failed to meet even the most minimal standards, and the
produced reclaimed water contained high levels of pathogens.
A local analysis of this water was also conducted and found that it contained multi-antibiotic resistant
bacteria. This is serious. Medical problems from antibiotic-resistant pathogens already impact Cottage
Hospital and local patients. These pathogens defy antibiotics—they're superbugs. If Santa Barbara’s
recycled/reclaimed water continues to carry what we found and what the WERF study found, the public is
at serious risk.
In producing this water, the city conforms to current state methods, which are badly out of date. While the
WERF study concluded that recycled/reclaimed water cannot be generally deemed pathogen-free, it
continues to be used on parks, playing fields, and golf courses.
—Dr. Edo McGowan
