新闻周刊:水中含毒素敲响美国水安全的警钟(4)

（单词翻译）

But toxins¹ don’t have to enter the water system to cause disruption. In Utah in 2016, a massive algal bloom on Utah Lake tainted² the water that residents in three counties use as untreated “secondary water” for their lawns and gardens. Officials were unable to determine if food grown with the contaminated water was safe to eat. As the algae³ spread, one secondary system after another opted⁴ to exercise an abundance of caution and close its valves. Residents switched to watering their lawns with drinking water, causing citywide shortages.

但毒素并不一定要进入水系统才会造成破坏。2016年在犹他州，犹他州湖上的大规模海藻爆发污染了三个县居民用来浇灌草坪和花园的未经处理的“二次水”。政府无法确定用受污染的水种植的食品是否安全。随着藻类的扩散，二级系统一个接一个非常谨慎地选择关闭阀门。居民转而用饮用水浇灌草坪，造成全市缺水。

Algal toxins in drinking water is not a rare event, Mishra says. “They’re always there,” he says. “It’s just that a lot of them go undetected.” The question is whether low-level consumption is harmful. Mishra suspects that if the exposure is long-term, there could be cumulative⁵ damage to the liver and brain. Unfortunately, with research focused on trying to understand how, and when, these toxins kill, there are few studies on public health consequences.

米什拉说，饮用水中的藻类毒素并非罕见。“其实藻类毒素一直存在，”他表示。“只是大部分一直未被发现。” 问题是少量进入人体是否有害。米什拉怀疑，如果长期接触，可能会对肝脏和大脑造成累积损伤。不幸的是，由于研究集中在试图了解这些毒素如何以及何时杀死这些毒素上，很少有关于公共卫生后果的研究。

The lack of good treatment options has led the Water Research Foundation to recommend a multistage approach combining several methods of decontamination. That could require treatment plant renovations that run into the millions of dollars. Many states are taking aim at the algal blooms themselves, attempting to starve the cyanobacteria by reducing nutrients⁶ like nitrogen and phosphorus, present in fertilizers and discharge from sewage plants. Kansas has an annual budget of over $5 million dedicated⁷ to limiting the amount of fertilizer and wastewater in waterways used as drinking water sources.

由于缺乏良好的处理方法，水研究基金会建议采用一种结合多种净化方法的多级方法。这可能需要花费数百万美元对处理厂进行翻修。许多州将矛头对准了藻华本身，试图通过减少化肥和污水处理厂排放的氮和磷等营养物质来饿死蓝藻细菌。堪萨斯州每年有超过500万美元的预算，用于限制用作饮用水水源的化肥和废水的数量。

But Oregon isn’t taking any chances; cities in the state are already investing in expensive new treatment plants. “This appears to be a new normal for us,” says Modie.

但俄勒冈州不会冒任何风险；该州的城市已经在投资兴建昂贵的新处理厂。“这对我们来说似乎是一种新常态，” 莫迪亚表示。