Water, water, everywhere at the Denver Zoo, but not a drop fit for both elephants to drink and trees to absorb.
The elephants were happy and healthy enough slurping up recycled water that was also used for irrigation, and it was deemed safe and environmentally friendly by an EPA despot.
But for some unknown reason, the evergreen trees in the park weren’t perky enough to meet USDA standards, so that federal agency insisted that the zoo abandon the EPA-deemed safe recycled water and instead use potable water.
Zoo officials said the veterinary staff deemed recycled water to be a safe source for drinking and still believe that is the case. However, they decided to review the issue after news that recycled water could be to blame for evergreen trees wilting in some of the city’s parks.
“We strongly believe that the recycled water is safe for animals due to the facts that it met Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act standards for human consumption in the 1980s and the results from the continued monitoring of health and necropsy records show no indication of health concerns relating to water consumption of the exhibit’s animals,” Denver Zoo spokeswoman Tiffany Grunert said in an e-mail.
It matters not that there were no facts to back up the USDA’s demand that the water was the culprit, so the zoo just spent $20,000 to convert from recycled to potable water.
So, why the switch?
Grunert says “it was much easier to add potable water to the area than to try and change a federal agency’s definition.”
Will the EPA fight back and demand that their federal drinking water standards are better than the USDA’s federal tree watering standards?
Stay tuned.
Dear Folks,
You got a few of the facts mixed up in this story. The EPA had nothing to do with the Denver Zoo's decisions regarding the use of recycled drinking water for animals in the Zoo. The EPA was, i think, involved in approving the use of recycled water left over from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science's new heating/cooloing system for animals at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. The USDA has not been involved in any way with the concern about the trees in Denver Parks dying from being watered with recycled water. Denver Water did a study and found that the recycled water had too much sodium in it and killed trees. It appears that it is well known fact that recycled water kills many kinds of plants and trees and affects soil.
The Zoo animals and many other animals in the USA including animals that are bought and sold and acquatic animals etc are protected by provisions of the USDA Animal Welfare Act. The ACt is very clear that Zoo animals have to have potable water, water suitable for human consumption. Captive animals do not have a choice of drinking water so i suppose the Act decided to err on the side of caution, at least until more was known about recycled water, a rather new development. In 2011, Denver Water published a story that the Denver Zoo planned on giving the animals in the new Toyota Elephant Exhibit Recycled water to drink. They apparently overlooked the Animal Welfare Act. That was about the whole story. The animal Welfare Act came to their attention, they saw that the trees wer dying in the park and decided, i guess , to take another look. Elephants are very expensive to replace.
Cheers,
Bridget Walsh
Denver, CO