A few weeks ago I wrote on the always hot-button issue of water politics in the West [1], and a framework developed by Western Progress for divvying up the precious resource. They need to go back to the drawing board and figure in a new problem in the whole configuration -- how to make that water safe.

It seems that our prescription-drug dependent culture is far more pervasive than anyone knew--even if you're not consciously swallowing the pills, you're taking the stuff. At least, that's what the Associated Press found in an investigation [2] of the nation's water supply.

(AP) -- "A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs -- and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas -- from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit, Michigan, to Louisville, Kentucky."

Ok, so maybe it's not in concentrations yet high enough to affect human health, and in our self-obsession we can all be relieved about that. But there's this whole other issue that the AP story barely touches on.

"Some scientists stress that the research is extremely limited, and there are too many unknowns. They say, though, that the documented health problems in wildlife are disconcerting."

Hmmmmm..... disconcerting. That's the extent of what the AP has to say about all of the other organisms enjoying the wonders of pharmaceuticals. But the Rocky Mountain News dug a little deeper [3] to find out what's in Colorado's water and exactly what that means for everything else.

"Antibiotics and lotions, pills and hormones foul Colorado's water, from the most pristine alpine lakes to the downstream rivers, say water experts....

Below the wastewater treatment plant in Boulder, female suckers outnumber male suckers 5-to-1, likely from ingesting estrogen in the streams, said Alan Vajda, a research associate in integrated physiology at the University of Colorado.

Joan McCarter is a contributing editor of DailyKos.com and a researcher of Western politics

Males have egg-yolk proteins in their systems, low sperm counts and intersex gonads.

Downstream from Denver on the South Platte River, female fish also greatly outnumber the males, he said."

That's just the fish. The stuff is seeping into aquifers, mixing in with an already potent concoction of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, the stuff of lush green lawns and verdant croplands, and being poured back onto our lawns. And our food supplies. Want some lithium with that green salad? You might not have a choice.

Of course water quality is always at the back of our minds--why else do you see so many people carrying around those little plastic bottles of the boutique stuff--bottles that may or may not be leaching out the petrochemicals they're made of but nonetheless might be containing nothing more than the the plain old tap water [4] they are seemingly avoiding.