How Did the 42 Chemical Compounds Get in the Water Supply?

[Hei Hu Quan]

A little while back I reported that pharmaceutical chemicals were found in the U.S. national supply of drinking water. Over 42 separate chemical compounds including psychoactives, pain-meds among others were found in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA water supply. How did it get in there was the main question?

This new evidence sheds some light on the origin:

Link: Merck Plant Dumps Vaccine Waste and Chemicals Into Water Supply

Story:
(NaturalNews) Merck, the maker of the very controversial Gardasil vaccine, has a pharmaceutical plant located in West Point, Pennsylvania, that discards pollutants from this facility into the Upper Gwynedd Township Publicly Owned Treatment Works (UGT POTW), according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice. The treated wastewater is released into the Wissahickon Creek, a tributary of the Schuylkill River. A federal court complaint was filed alleging that Merck violated the Clean Water Act with various discharges that caused numerous pass through and interference violations at the UGT POTW.

On June 13, 2006, Merck released potassium thiocyanate (KSCN) into the water that reacted with the chlorination at UGT POTW which resulted in extensive fish kills in the Wissahickon Creek on June 14th and 15th. The Philadelphia Water Department had to shut down its Schuylkill River drinking water intake for several days, and a health advisory was issued stating that all recreational uses on the Wissahickon Creek were prohibited from June 14th

[sullivan]

This article seems to be accepting the assumption that the release of the chemicals into a water-course was accidental. In all likelihood it was anything but accidental. Fines are a nonsense. Merck need to have their license to operate terminated. While the global warming bullshitters bleat on about the "poison" that is CO2, they blithely ignore the real poisoning of our environment, as demonstrated in this example.

[Hei Hu Quan]

I know the source is liberal left paradigm shite, with faux "journalistic objectivity" but I posted it for the relevant evidence that did occur.

[vaultkeeper]

This contamination also occurs because when we urinate, we pass on many of the compounds that we consume.  Many of the compounds found in pharmaceuticals are merely quickening agents, stabilizers, and other chemicals used in the synthesis of the main compound.  Most of these our body has no use for we pass as much of them as we can through urine.    When flushed - the water sometimes goes to a treatment plant where it is filtered, however our filtering agents and methods were not designed to separate many of the compounds that are part of the drugs that people consume these days.  

How many toilet flushes happen in the average metropolitan city per day? - that might give a clue to those who do not think that our expulsion of chemicals will make a noticeable trace in our drinking water.  

I have been pondering the thought that maybe some of these pharma/chema manufacturers will admit to "dumping" and maybe even practice illegal dumping on purpose to hide the fact that if they did not dump, there would already be chemicals in our water - that would lead to some people choosing not to consume their drugs and they just cant have that.  

your thoughts?

[hireality]

The offending compounds are the API's (active pharmaceutical ingredient) and the metabolites of these drugs.
The fillers are inert.
It is possible to filter the water clean of these API's on a large scale, I guess it's one of those things that doesnt get fixed until people complain.
i.e. Who pays the bill for the new filtration system - the water company or the pharma companies...?

As a matter of note, in Rahway in New Jersey, next to the Merck plant, all the residents of the local towns have large bottles of water delivered (by Merck) on a regular basis as their fresh drinking water supply.