Ruminations: Public Urination Issues Threatening to Impact Environment

"Illicit drug contamination from public urination happens at every music festival."
"The level of release is unknown, but festivals undoubtedly are an annual source of illicit drug release."
"Unfortunately, Glastonbury Festival’s close proximity to a river results in any drugs released by festival attendees having little time to degrade in the soil before entering the fragile freshwater ecosystem."
Dan Aberg, School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Wales, U.K.

"[The levels of illegal drugs were] high enough to be classed as environmentally damaging. [However, levels] decline pretty quickly after Glastonbury has finished."
"This has highlighted the fact that stopping public urination is so important. Not just for the traditional pollutants, which we've kind of known about, but for these these types of pollutants, which we're only now really just becoming aware of -- pharmaceutical waste, illicit drug waste -- these are important."
"We need to start highlighting the dangers of these drugs to the public and to festival goers and saying, 'look, another reason why you should not be peeing on the ground, go and use the loos, go and use the facilities."
"Our main concern is the environmental impact. This study identifies that drugs are being released at levels high enough to disrupt the lifecycle of the European eel."
Christian Dunn, professor in wetland science, Bangor University

Public urination at Glastonbury Festival leaves traces of cocaine and MDMA in river, posing threat to rare eels. Pictured, Glastonbury Festival goers at Worthy Farm, Pilton. (Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Published in the journal Environmental Research last week, a study out of Bangor University Wales, led by Professor Christian Dunn, has revealed the presence of dangerous levels of illicit drugs running through rivers, after Britain's Glastonbury Festival is over, representing a threat to local eels. Due to cocaine levels in the river the sexual maturity of the European eel population downstream is in danger of being delayed.

Narcotics are released into the waterways from festival-goers spurning the use of the public lavatories placed at the festivals to be used, whereas among those in attendance many find it more convenient to urinate on the ground, and do so in sufficient numbers that the effluent reaches streams and rivers, polluting them, negatively impacting wildlife and aquatic vegetation.

Outdoor urination has resulted in levels of MDMA quadrupling during the week following the festival, according to findings in the study dating from the 2019 festival. Cocaine concentrations rise to levels affecting the life cycle of European eels, which happen to be a protected species of aquatic wildlife. The threats posed by the influx of drugs into the waterways also impact zebrafish embryos and mussels, along with fern spores.

The area where the festival takes place is close to the Whitelake river, making it all the more vital that people attending the festival make use of the official lavatories. A partial solution suggested by the study researchers might be to construct reed beds to treat wastewater prior to it entering the river at Glastonbury, a method of intervention that might be useful at other festival sites with similar problems.

The best solution, however, is to educate people, and advise them of the potential damage their carelessness creates. Dangerously high levels of antibiotic pollution with the potential to create bacterial resistance has been found as well through previous studies of waterways.