Fish deformities elevate concerns over pollution

A $60 million upgrade to the plant that treats sewage from Binghamton, Johnson City and parts of Vestal is expected to come on line this month, ending more than a decade of planning, construction and a major flood-related setback.

The improvements will reduce flows of nitrogen into the Susquehanna River from the plant, addressing a problem that has been degrading water quality downstream to the Chesapeake Bay. But they will not address a newly discovered type of contamination: hormones and pharmaceutical compounds passing through the treatment process into rivers -- in some cases changing sexual traits of fish.

The discovery represents an emerging ecological issue that may lead to a new era of regulation, according to experts. That could mean more upgrades to sewage treatment plants locally and nationally, and more public funds necessary to pay for them.

While fish downstream of the treatment plant in Vestal have not been tested, researchers at Binghamton University have found traces of hormones and drugs -- including antibiotics, estrogen and aspirin products -- in the plant's effluent and downstream.

In the Potomac River near Sharpsburg, Md., researchers have found male fish who have developed eggs and other female traits -- a sign that a little-understood type of pollution is spreading downstream from West Virginia.

Transsexual fish also have been found and documented in the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Boulder Creek in Colorado and other waterways throughout the world.

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