Tyre dust: the ‘stealth pollutant’ that’s becoming a huge threat to ocean life

[..]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/25/tyre-dust-the-stealth-pollutant-becoming-a-huge-threat-to-ocean-life?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 Scientists spent decades on the trail of a mystery toxin killing salmon en masse. A recent breakthrough revealed the culprit.

[Jersey mike]

It’s true there are many things we do which are harmful to the planet, in a sense we are our own worst enemy. The more “advances” we make the more we find a way to add some type of pollution into the ecosystem. I’ll be honest I’ve never thought about tire dust, but have seen landfills filled “to the sky” with used tires. I can’t remember when or where but I do remember a landfill filled with tires that caught fire and it was a long time to get it extinguished and the black smoke filled the sky.

When I read and see photos of Lake Mead I wonder what are we going to do. Desalination sounds good on paper but apparently the sludge which would need to be returned to the ocean is a nightmare on the ecosystem and to use filters would be extremely expensive not to mention what happens tomthe filters when it’s time to finally replace them.

[Valker]

When I was a kid in Ohio back in the 50s, Lake Erie was a dead lake. Fish couldn't live in the polluted waters. It was so bad back then that a river in Ohio caught fire...The RIVER burned. My first trip to southern California back in 1968 showed how bad the air was. When I crested the roads surrounding the L.A. Basin, it was like a brown fog filled the whole basin. I couldn't even see the city itself. The environment has greatly improved since those days. The countries which are making an effort to clean up are doing marvelous. Some countries are still destroying part of the environment with their practices, but it's generally better. It was really bad 200 years ago with dead animals, even horses, rotting in the streets of big U.S. cities, open sewage running down the streets and being dumped into rivers. Some good technology has helped as well as most peoples' thinking processes. As a species, we will get more problems worked out and fix even more pollution issues. I hope we don't collapse as a society since most of the better innovations are coming from here at the moment.

[Psychotic Bovine]

Another major threat is microplastics in clothing.  Tons of that stuff ends up shedding from our clothes during washing, goes down the drain, and ends up in the rivers and oceans. 
Yet, the solution is simple.  Instead of these man-made synthetic fibers, we really need to get back to cotton, silk, leather and fur.  The irony is that the "animal rights" people are the main reason for these toxins. 
Then the "earth first" people pushing for plastic bags instead of paper bags made from trees.  Look where that has gotten us.

[pais]

It’s true there are many things we do which are harmful to the planet, in a sense we are our own worst enemy. The more “advances” we make the more we find a way to add some type of pollution into the ecosystem. I’ll be honest I’ve never thought about tire dust, but have seen landfills filled “to the sky” with used tires. I can’t remember when or where but I do remember a landfill filled with tires that caught fire and it was a long time to get it extinguished and the black smoke filled the sky.

When I read and see photos of Lake Mead I wonder what are we going to do. Desalination sounds good on paper but apparently the sludge which would need to be returned to the ocean is a nightmare on the ecosystem and to use filters would be extremely expensive not to mention what happens tomthe filters when it’s time to finally replace them.

Hey Jersey,
Here in NE Ohio in a isolated part of rural Portage County a Township they called Deerfield, now the City Of Deerfield. Property owner took tires for $$. He had a huge amount of tires on the property. It caught fire and burned for days before it was extinguished. Late '70's very early '80's

[0leman]

I don't really trust the Guardian newspaper.  Would like to see the amount of "Dust" the researchers expose the fish to before I get really excited about this.    Did they expose the fish to the amount of tire dust actually in the ocean or 2-10 times the amount?   

The Guardian new paper is generally very one sided and don't give you the whole picture.

[hubcapsc]

I don't really trust the Guardian newspaper.  Would like to see the amount of "Dust" the researchers expose the fish to before I get really excited about this.    Did they expose the fish to the amount of tire dust actually in the ocean or 2-10 times the amount?  

The Guardian new paper is generally very one sided and don't give you the whole picture.

Here's some tire people talking about it...

https://www.tiretechnologyinternational.com/news/regulations/pollution-from-tire-wear-1000-times-worse-than-exhaust-emissions.html

https://www.michelin.com/en/documents/michelin-approach-to-measure-directly-the-emission-factors-of-a-tire/

-Mike

[Jersey mike]

It’s true there are many things we do which are harmful to the planet, in a sense we are our own worst enemy. The more “advances” we make the more we find a way to add some type of pollution into the ecosystem. I’ll be honest I’ve never thought about tire dust, but have seen landfills filled “to the sky” with used tires. I can’t remember when or where but I do remember a landfill filled with tires that caught fire and it was a long time to get it extinguished and the black smoke filled the sky.

When I read and see photos of Lake Mead I wonder what are we going to do. Desalination sounds good on paper but apparently the sludge which would need to be returned to the ocean is a nightmare on the ecosystem and to use filters would be extremely expensive not to mention what happens tomthe filters when it’s time to finally replace them.

Hey Jersey,
Here in NE Ohio in a isolated part of rural Portage County a Township they called Deerfield, now the City Of Deerfield. Property owner took tires for $$. He had a huge amount of tires on the property. It caught fire and burned for days before it was extinguished. Late '70's very early '80's

That may have been what I was thinking about, I’m not sure. It’s not like tire fires are all that common.

[Patrick]

Its always something.

As mentioned, Nixon's baby in 1970 [ EPA] did a good job of cleaning up our water and air. Typically, it  became an overly crazy agency.

Remember acid rain ? As mentioned , the Great Lakes were dead. I watched both come back to life.

Back when Cortez raped and pillaged his way thru southern California the L A basin was called the valley of smoke. Not a whole lot of bad ole smoke stacks or tail pipes back then.

So, now it tire dust !  I can't imagine that much washes into the oceans. I thought we had old tires all figured out. Around here they go into asphalt. So lets make a tire that never wears out ! I'll go for that.

As for any pollution. America is clean compared to other countries.

[3fan4life]

I guess that we need a push for electric flying cars now.

Since, tires are bad for us.

[Robert]

California stopped the desalinization of water and instead is now making the direct, toilet to tap the law of the land. Effectively limiting a possible endless, pure water source at the cost and possible health of the people. Because the possible harm done to one kind of small aquatic life.

Carbon taxes are doing nothing but costing society as a whole.

 Now they have to admit that what comes out of the exhaust pipe of a car is not that bad, but in its place are they going to put in the tire issue or use it in conjunction to extort the people.

while I am for a healthy planet I have lost the faith that once knowing a problem it can be solved reasonably with the best solution to both planet and people. Especially in the prevailing climate of lunacy.

 Every day we are now greeted with the hysterics over one problem or another. So like a hammer blow to the finger, these discoveries are not something you want and sometimes prudence tells you to try and avoid.

So I see it as a another way to remind people they are a scourge on the planet to fleece the people then tax them for it. Since the solution is not presented or even the scope of the solution discussed.

So we have an open ended problem with no projected solution or cost to solve, so at this point its open ended. Sounds like the wars, economy, climate change, ozone, monkey pox and every other problem flown in the public's face as of late. 

 Like everyone I would hope that a solution that is workable and fairly painless would be put forth promptly, but I have little faith in that being the case and wonder if this will be the hinge pin for taxing people by the mile, limiting the use of transportation or any other financial solution that has a continual cost to the people with limiting of freedoms and no closed end cost to solve. 

 

[Robert]

When I read and see photos of Lake Mead I wonder what are we going to do. Desalination sounds good on paper but apparently the sludge which would need to be returned to the ocean is a nightmare on the ecosystem and to use filters would be extremely expensive not to mention what happens tomthe filters when it’s time to finally replace them.

Water that is returned to underwater wells today is the same quality of water that could be returned to the ocean. The same processes that we use today would be adequate for desalinization. Since waste refuse or solids today are taken out of the water normally today, so it is not really a problem.

So its not about the water returned to the ocean its just simply worrying about aquatic life that may or may not be harmed. Just as California has decided to bleed off much of its reserve for Salmon and other fish that may be harmed.

Even though the water treatment process can differ substantially from municipality to municipality, the general steps of the water treatment process include:

    70 million gallons of water can be treated by the municipality each day
    35 MGD will be pumped into large injection wells in order to create a seawater intrusion barrier
    The remaining water will be pumped into percolation basins nearby the city, which are used to manage stormwater runoff
    The water is subjected to advanced water treatment methods like reverse osmosis, ultraviolet disinfection optimization, wastewater chlorination, and wastewater reclamation
    Once the water has been treated at a wastewater facility, it will be taken through a round of chlorine disinfection before it’s provided to businesses and homeowners
    Facilities that are able to treat 70 MGD of water each day should meet the water needs of around 500,000-600,000 residents

[Jersey mike]

California stopped the desalinization of water and instead is now making toilet to tap the law of the land. Effectively limiting a possible endless, pure water source at the cost and possible health of the people. Because the possible harm done to one kind of small aquatic life.

Carbon taxes are doing nothing but costing society as a whole.

 Now they have to admit that what comes out of the exhaust pipe of a car is not that bad, but in its place are they going to put in the tire issue or use it in conjunction to extort the people.

while I am for a healthy planet I have lost the faith that once knowing a problem it can be solved reasonably with the best solution to both planet and people. Especially in the prevailing climate of lunacy.

So I see it as a another way to remind people they are a scourge on the planet to fleece the people then tax them for it.   

 

Desalination is a great idea just like wind and solar, great in theory and on paper but the environmental impacts of the production of and waste are not too good.

We’re all aware of the issues of production of and recycling of solar panels as well as wind turbines and from what I’ve read the problem with desalination is what to do with the brine or brackish water that is left over when the good clean water is removed. The salt content is so high it will destroy areas where it is pumped back into the ocean and destroy plants if used on land.

The idea of using filters sounds good, but again all that is filtered needs to be removed/flushed and filters cleaned and when the life of the filter is over disposed of.

I believe it’s 1/3 of the water taken in gets turned into fresh water which means 2/3 needs to be disposed of…that a lot of brackish water.

Saudi Arabia is (I believe) currently building a huge desalination plant but there’s not much written (that I’ve found) what the plan is for the waste water. If I remember correctly their plant will be run largely from solar.

All these “green technologies “ are fantastic utopian ideas and look and sound great until you look past the mock-ups and 3d renderings. Look at what is in the process of making lithium, I believe a million gallons of water is necessary for 1 batch which is not very big. On the positive side, lithium is extracted from salt brine, could the brackish water from a desalination plant help produce lithium, I do not know, that water would probably need further work to get the concentration to the proper level and would ot be cost effective.

[Jersey mike]

When I read and see photos of Lake Mead I wonder what are we going to do. Desalination sounds good on paper but apparently the sludge which would need to be returned to the ocean is a nightmare on the ecosystem and to use filters would be extremely expensive not to mention what happens tomthe filters when it’s time to finally replace them.

Water that is returned to underwater wells today is the same quality of water that could be returned to the ocean. The same processes that we use today would be adequate for desalinization. Since waste refuse or solids today are taken out of the water normally today, so it is not really a problem.

So its not about the water returned to the ocean its just simply worrying about aquatic life that may or may not be harmed. Just as California has decided to bleed off much of its reserve for Salmon and other fish that may be harmed.

Even though the water treatment process can differ substantially from municipality to municipality, the general steps of the water treatment process include:

    70 million gallons of water can be treated by the municipality each day
    35 MGD will be pumped into large injection wells in order to create a seawater intrusion barrier
    The remaining water will be pumped into percolation basins nearby the city, which are used to manage stormwater runoff
    The water is subjected to advanced water treatment methods like reverse osmosis, ultraviolet disinfection optimization, wastewater chlorination, and wastewater reclamation
    Once the water has been treated at a wastewater facility, it will be taken through a round of chlorine disinfection before it’s provided to businesses and homeowners
    Facilities that are able to treat 70 MGD of water each day should meet the water needs of around 500,000-600,000 residents

I was writing my post below when you posted yours, mine is not a response to this post. This does sound close to some of the info I’ve been reading.

[Robert]

All these “green technologies “ are fantastic utopian ideas and look and sound great until you look past the mock-ups and 3d renderings. Look at what is in the process of making lithium, I believe a million gallons of water is necessary for 1 batch which is not very big. On the positive side, lithium is extracted from salt brine, could the brackish water from a desalination plant help produce lithium, I do not know, that water would probably need further work to get the concentration to the proper level and would ot be cost effective.

Some other information for you, since it already being done. Sorry was putting more information in for you. 

Desalination or the process of “desalting” removes minerals and salts from either ocean water or “brackish” water.

https://yoursocaltapwater.org/2016/12/30/brackish-water-desalination/


Desalination: Brackish Groundwater

https://www.twdb.texas.gov/publications/shells/Desal_Brackish.pdf