I go to the doctor with assorted ailments and he prescribes I eat a carp a day and call him in the morning?

It’s a familiar theme that we touched on before – but as more evidence appears in the press, we might want to cut the big drug companies out of the mix – carp is a lot cheaper than prescription meds..

“Lake Mead is a fortuitous worst-case scenario” for study, said environmental toxicologist Greg Moller, holding a bottle of Lake Mead water he planned to take back to his lab at the University of Idaho. “You’ve got the wastewater, you’ve got the documented impact on wildlife, and you have drinking water uptake.”

What’s new in this topic is some of the effects not yet attributed to trace drugs in the water supply. Much of the focus has been on the larger critters, fish and humans, now they’re discovering that some of the building blocks of a healthy ecosystem are at risk.

Tiny zooplankton, another sentinel species, died off in the lab when they were exposed to extremely small amounts of a common drug used to treat humans suffering from internal worms and other digesting parasites.

No mention of us being targeted as a source of pharmaceuticals, but it’s only a matter of time before trace amounts of fly floatant or desiccant are found in “Catch and Release” water – we’ll have to take our turn in the docket just like the rest of the crowd.

Lake Mead is apparently the poster child for research; it has all kinds of fish to test for effects of human drug waste, but the really tasty part is that it’s the water supply for Las Vegas and the seven states south. The article suggests that outflow of water treatment plants, and the intake of water for citizens may be close together.  Because Lake Mead is only half full and shrinking continues (drought, etc) repositioning pumps is years of work and many millions of dollars.

Antidepressants are mentioned frequently – they might be “longer lived” in water – therefore more virulent. I can’t say that the casino owners would be shedding many tears – why wouldn’t I want my guests hopped up on how good they feel (as I lighten their wallets).

As a fisherman I have to agree, all I ask is that big arsed triploid get a gob full of antidepressants just as my Clouser minnow ambles by..