Reply #17: There was an article just about that [View All]

[laylah]

in our local paper earlier this week. Many city's water has been tested and found to be contaminated with different drugs. It was suggested you call your pharmacy and see if they have a safe disposal program, and if not, if they know who does. Flushing puts them in the water, putting them into the landfill, they eventually find their way back into the earth, groundwater.

Here's part of that article:
Pharmaceutical compounds are most likely present in the Mississippi River that provides drinking water for Quad-City residents, but there are no federal requirements for system operators to test for them.

A 2001 study in Iowa found small concentrations of pharmaceutical and other compounds — measured in parts per billion or trillion — in nearly all river and stream samples taken at 10 cities across the state. Although neither Davenport nor Bettendorf was included in the study, most of the waterways sampled eventually empty into the Mississippi.

“They are certainly there,” said Dana Kolpin, a research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey office in Iowa City who led the study. “Because of its size, you would probably find fewer of them and in lower concentrations in the Mississippi, but they would probably stay there longer.”

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/11/news/local/doc47d727661bbc7449382593.txt