The fifth "River Minute" from this week's series on the Merrimack River.
An old idea finds a new use to provide clean drinking water from the Merrimack.
With this Merrimack River Minute, I’m Sam Evans-Brown
Dave Paris with Manchester water works says the latest issue in drinking water is prescription drugs. Virtually any pill you might keep in a medicine cabinet can make its way into the river.
CUT PARIS: As a civilization we discharge all kinds of pharmaceuticals either directly or indirectly to sewer and waste water facilities aren’t always well geared to deal with those.
Manchester is investigating taking drinking water from the Merrimack and if it does, it’s likely to use natural river bank filtration. This method uses the sand and gravel base of the river to pre-filter the water and block the pharmaceuticals.
Using sand as a filter is actually an old idea. The country’s very first drinking water filtration plant in Lawrence, Massachusetts, used this approach to provide clean drinking water in 1893.
With this Merrimack River Minute, I’m Sam Evans-Brown
I read in a scientific report that a cubic meter of sand had a surface area of about 4 acres and that sand is coated by meiofauna and beneficial bacteria that serve to filter toxins and organics. This is why beaches and sands are such great filters in lakes, rivers and oceans. That is one reason unnatural water flow regulation and pollution is so harmful. If you want to do a water report on the biggest killer of biota and alterer of biodiversity and water degrader with plenty of political scandal send me an email-Roger