Chemicals in Cootes Paradise are making fish sluggish Study says fish are burning energy to deal with effluent from treatment plant instead of on feeding, mating by Mark McNeil, Hamilton Spectator If you've ever noticed fish looking unusually tuckered out in the waters of Cootes Paradise, a new McMaster study might have an explanation. It seems effluent from the Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant could be the cause. The study published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology says wild sunfish downstream from the plant expended 30 per cent of their energy to push back the onslaught of chemicals. That means less stamina for other things like finding food and a mate. "The main thing we found is that the exposure essentially required the fish to burn a lot more energy," said Graham Scott, senior author of the research paper. A lot of chemicals — including pharmaceuticals — just pass through the treatment plants into receiving waters. Expose...
A call for a paradigm shift toward nature in Hamilton Ontario