Tamara Neely

'You and I are drinking water every day not knowing what we may be getting,' says University of Calgary biologist Hamid Habibi

Drinking water from taps in southern Alberta contains hormone-like pollutants that may be causing sex changes in fish and could potentially affect human health, according to a growing body of research.

And while Calgary is slated to develop a first-of-its-kind research facility to find ways to remove these pollutants from wastewater — a challenge facing cities around the world — the multimillion-dollar project has been in limbo for several years, sparking fears it may be shelved.

The pollutants, called endocrine disruptors, mimic human estrogen and come from a variety of sources, including pharmaceuticals and pesticides, as well as everyday household items like shampoo, soap, food cans and plastic bottles. “They’re chemicals that we put out that we think are just waste, that actually have this biological activity to them,” says Wolf Keller, the city’s director of water resources. Scientists around the world are finding higher levels of these “emerging pollutants” in water supplies — and Keller says Calgary’s no exception.

Most of the chemicals come from municipalities and agricultural feedlots, but their impacts are largely unknown because until recently, scientists didn’t have the technology to detect the miniscule but potent levels of the pollutants. “It’s all new science,” says Keller. “The research to determine the impacts is only really just beginning.”

Most of the chemicals aren’t filtered out of municipal wastewater and end up in rivers. While Calgary gets a small amount of endocrine disruptors from smaller communities upstream (and contributes significantly more of these pollutants to downstream communities), Keller says there’s no cause for worry. “The impacts are largely environmental, and in this case, these kinds of things mostly seem to be affecting fish,” he says. “There are no known human impacts.”

Not everyone is convinced the water’s safe for human consumption. “In my opinion, there is sufficient evidence that some of these [pollutants] are potential hazards and risks to humans,” says Hamid Habibi, a University of Calgary biologist who studies the chemicals’ impacts on fish. He’s discovered male fish developing into female fish downstream from municipalities in southern Alberta and he believes the sex reversal is “likely because of the presence of compounds with estrogen-like activity.”

His findings are consistent with scientists’ findings in the U.S. and Europe. Because the factors affecting sexual development are similar in animals and humans, Habibi says humans could be impacted. “The good news is that some of these levels are still at the lower level that will probably not cause an effect. But these levels have been going up. While it’s not a concern now, I think if we don’t do anything about it, five years, 10 years down the road, then it will be.”

The cumulative effects of the pollutants on humans, Habibi notes, wouldn’t be immediately observable. “We don’t just drop dead.” Impacts could include hormone-dependent cancer, allergic problems, increased hypersensitivity, problems with cognitive behaviour in children, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, Habibi says. “Some people claim that is the risk and they have good evidence.”

Habibi is a principal investigator with the Pine Creek Research Centre, an ambitious research project tasked with the tricky job of removing the nearly undetectable pollutants from wastewater. The $30-million centre was supposed to be up and running alongside the city’s new Pine Creek wastewater plant this year, but funding delays have stalled the project. “We haven’t had a meeting about this for a long time,” says Habibi, who’s frustrated by the delay. “It’s fallen off all the radar screens.”

The federal government gave a $10.4-million grant for the project in 2006 under the condition that the provincial government match the money, but the province has yet to contribute. Habibi calls the delay “beyond ridiculous” given the growing nature of the pollutant problem. “You and I are drinking water every day not knowing what we may be getting,” says Habibi, adding that there are thousands of these chemicals that need to be researched. “It deserves looking into.”

Project plans have already been scaled back because of costs. Current plans for the centre involve a series of man-made streams that researchers would intentionally pollute to study the impacts of the chemicals. But the project’s main focus would be experimenting with ways to remove the pollutants from wastewater instead of sending them back into the river. “It’s not just finding information, but actually taking a more active role of actually dealing with this problem,” says Habibi. The technology could then be replicated nationally and internationally.

A spokesperson for Alberta Advanced Education and Technology says the project is being reviewed and a decision is expected next month. Both Habibi and Keller are hopeful that the project will finally get the money and become reality. “We’re already on Plan B, and we really don’t have a Plan C right now,” says Keller.

In the meantime, Habibi is continuing to research the pollutants in the Bow, Elbow and Oldman rivers. He says the chemicals are “one of the main challenges of the new millennium” that need to be addressed. “We’re aware of global warming and things like that, but this is also very, very significant.”