Best,
________________________________________________________
Kenneth R. Code
Director & Chief Technology Officer
BioLargo, Inc. (USA)
IOWC Technologies Inc. (Canada)
Glastonbury Technologies Inc. (AB)
Edmonton, AB Canada
Irvine, CA USA
Hi All.
Below are the responses I received.
Thank you again!
Jacqui
Dear all
Here's the site of the company I mentioned is doing the Job. Not very useful, I suppose, since it's strictly in Portuguese but it provides at least a contact in case you should wish to contact them directly:
I phoned them up to check what info I could raise and send to you and I've been told the iodine concentration used is the lowest possible to differentially reduce counts of known pathogens (i.e. dermatophytes) instead of all existing flora and they calculate the original spray based on the analysis of the organic matter and other iodine reducing concentration materials (for example Iron). This is followed by chemical and microbiological analysis of results (this part is made at the lab before scaling up to live usage). I've also been told the iodine solution used (diluted as much as necessary to use appropriately) is purchased from Denmark and is 99% biodegradable and chemically stabilised (I've no idea what brand or detailed chemical composition). I can tell that final concentration of active iodine is as low as the following: Mortality of a human being by iodine would require eating 25kg of the contaminated sand and it doesn't kill the entire flora.
Hope this helps a bit.
Roger: Our sand is always a mixture of both silica and carbonates and the composition varies enormously throughout our coast.
Regards to all,
have experience in analysis of the result of al alternative sand treatment that takes place every summer nearby Lisbon (Cascais). Iodine spray. Results are negative every time treatment occurs, treatment takes place at the minimum inhibitory concentration levels and is applied once every two to three weeks to maintain low bacterial count.
Regards,
João Brandão
Departamento de Doenças Infecciosas
Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge
Av. Padre Cruz 1649-016 Lisboa, Portugal
Tel: (+351) 217.519.247, Fax: (+351) 217.526.400
www.insa.pt / www.onsa.pt
P
Proteja a natureza: pense na necessidade de imprimir este e-mail antes de o fazer.
Protect nature: think again before you print this e-mail.
During part of the 1970's the City of Cleveland ran an extensive program of chlorination of bathing waters behind a large curtain that separated the swimming area from the rest of the lake. Regrowth was an issues, as was concern over the production of chlorine by-products. We may have a report on this effort in our archives. If interested respond or call.
Lester Stumpe
Manager of Watershed Programs, Policy and Technical Support
Phone: 216-881-6600 Ext. 6830
Fax: 216-881-7703
Email: stumpeL@neorsd.org
Hi Jacqui,
I would expect the chlorine to be bound to organic substances immediately so that a disinfection would not be efficient and would only create cancerogenic disinfection by-products. Our veterinarians sometimes suggest to use peroxide (which I don’t think much of either), but why don’t you try to avoid contamination by waste water treatment and wait for the sun and the low nutrient level to kill off the remaining faecal bacteria in the water and the sand? Sorry about the comment, but we don’t believe in chlorinating the environment J
Christiane
--------------
Prof. Dr. Christiane Höller
Dept. of Hygiene
Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority
Veterinärstr. 2
85764 Oberschleißheim
Germany
Tel.: 089/31560-236
Fax: 089/31560-458
Mail: christiane.hoeller@lgl.bayern.de
Jacqui, I have not heard of using chlorine for that purpose. Sounds like they want to treat it like a swimming pool. Not a good idea in my opinion as some of the breakdown products of chlorine in an organic environment may be potentially harmful (i.e., chloroforms). There is obviously significantly more organic matter in a beach environment than a pool. Chlorine will kill many pathogens at a right concentration, but how to maintain that concentration in a sand environment would be the question. Also, some pathogens like Cryptosporidium may only be inactivated with long contact times (concentrations x time), which may not be feasible in a sand environment. Then there is the issue of harm to other organisms in the sand (i.e., inverts, beneficial bacteria, etc.). Good luck.
Michael Adam, M.S.
Senior Biologist
Lake County Health Department
3010 Grand Avenue
Waukegan, IL 60085
(847) 377-8002
www.co.lake.il.us/health/ehs/lakes.asp
Hello Jacqui,
Our utility had a major spill in 2006 at Manhattan Beach, CA and initiated a thorough beach sand chlorination effort. The
area affected did not include the swash zone. This event occurred prior to my employment at the Sanitation Districts, however I am the project manager for the Supplemental Environmental Project that was part of the Settlement Agreement that followed the event. Although I don't have immediate access to the reports and files, I know they are available and will look into it. I will send you what I can. For now, I can give you my personal opinion and some info.... The chlorination effort was effective, but some of the areas required treatment up to five times. There were no protocols so they had to develop them as part of the effort. Further, the only microbial parameters evaluated were total and fecal coliforms, enterococci, and HPC. All of these are bacteria, like their pathogenic counterparts, are easily inactivated by chlorine. Viruses are, too, but they were not evaluated. I do know that protozoan pathogens are not easily inactivated by chlorine but these were also not assessed.
My advice to you is to reconsider chlorination to permanently 'fix' the 'problem'. There is so much evidence that the E. coli are naturally occurring and can multiply in the environment if the conditions are favorable. However, they are very good indicators for bigger problems that could be happening in your area. Consider a thorough evaluation of potential contamination sources and address these first (such as septic, leaking sewers, overflows, illegal discharges, etc.). If the E. coli levels are not explainable, consider that this may be the natural background levels for these organisms in this environment and it is possible that another water quality indicator would be more appropriate. Lastly, follow the USEPA efforts to update the 1986 criteria and methods, the epidemiological studies that are ongoing as part of these efforts, and plan for some significant changes for USEPA beach water quality monitoring recommendations in 2012.
Finally, check out the Southern California Coastal Water Research Projects website and reports for ongoing research and technical reports. See the SCCWRPS website: http://www.sccwrp.org/
I have also attached the three experts reports for the BEACH Act litigation for further information.
Good luck to you!
Kind regards,
Terri Slifko
Hi Jacqui, at the National Beaches Conference in Niagara Falls in October, 2006, there was a presentation given by Kristen Ruffell of the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, entitled, "South Bay Cities Sanitation District's January 15, 2006 Wastewater Spill," where they used a dilute bleach solution to kill the bacteria. I was going to refer you to EPA's beach watch website for the conference proceedings, but the link is not working right now, so I'll check on it and will advise. But - in the meantime, if you send me your fax number I can fax you her slides if you'd like to check them out before contacting Kristen
at: (562) 908-4288; kruffell@lacsd.org
Holly Wirick (WQ-16J)
Water Quality Branch
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 353-6704
(312) 886-7804 (fax)
Jacqui,
In early 2006 there was a large (approx 2 million gallon) sewage spill in Manhattan Beach near Los Angeles. Much of the spill was “contained” on the beach. After as much of the sewage as possible was recovered, Los Angeles County Sanitation District (LACSD) sprayed the beach sand with a bleach solution to attempt to disinfect it. There was a lot of trial and error involved, and eventually LACSD held a conference to develop a standardized spill contingency plan to better deal with future emergencies. More details can be found here:
http://www.lacsd.org/info/publications_n_reports/other_publications/spillcontingency.asp
Rick Wilson
Surfrider Foundation
Direct Phone 949-732-6415
Jacqui:
The City of Chicago rejected using chlorine because of potential chemical residuals that might be hazardous to humans.
Best Regards,
David C. Rockwell, MS, MBA
Biology Program Manager
Environmental Scientist, Monitoring and Indicators Branch Great Lakes National Program Office, G-17J U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
77 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago Illinois 60604 Tel 312-353-1373, Fax 312-353-2018 Rockwell.David@epa.gov
Hi Jacqui,
I think these two articles will provide you with some information.
http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/research/project_fujioka/cupridyne.htm
http://www.healthebay.org/assets/pdfdocs/newsletters/currents/2006_spring.pdf
Although it is basically on Enterococci, there should be no difference. There were two spills in California in 2006 where chlorine was used to disinfect. A workshop was held in Los Angeles to discuss the findings. I tried to find the workshop material but could not. The workshop was sponsored by Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. If I recall correctly, it was very expensive, complaints about fumes, results were dubious, and in hindsight, it might have been better to let the spill discharge into the ocean. The two beaches were Hermosa and Manhattan Beach in Calif. Hoep this helps you.
Watson Okubo
Monitoring & Analysis Section Chief
Clean Water Branch
Department of Health
919 Ala Moana Blvd#301
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Phone: 808 586-4309
Jacqui,
We presented at the EPA beaches conference in Niagara falls last year, through Dr. Jenny Jays of UCLA, who conducted experiments with iodine (CupriDyne technology), and achieved 5log10 reduction of selected bacteria species. As a fellow Canadian, I would be happy to share this data with you; just tell me where to send it.
Also, another study is underway in Hawaii courtesy of Dr. Roger Fujioka of UofH. The CupriDyne is disinfecting, but he is running some other tests for us before fully reporting.
The US EPA is happy with our overall efforts to rteplace chlorine in these applications. Iodine is part of a natural marine cycle, and EPA is about to publish a reregistration of iodine which exonerates it a great deal from its toxicology history.
Pls advise.
Best,
________________________________________________________
Kenneth R. Code
Director & Chief Technology Officer
BioLargo, Inc. (USA)
IOWC Technologies Inc. (Canada)
Glastonbury Technologies Inc. (AB)
Edmonton, AB Canada
Irvine, CA USA
Jacqui Milne B.Sc.
Physical Scientist
Environment Canada
Aquatic Ecosystem Management Research Division
867 Lakeshore Rd.
Burlington, Ont.
L7R 4A6
tel: 905-336-6432
fax: 905-336-4699