Brain-eating Bug Lurking in Industry Ponds
Naegleria fowleri, colloquially known as the "brain-eating amoeba", flourishes in warm water bodies such as ponds, dams, lakes and hot springs. It has also been found in drinking water-pipes in every state of Australia and in the soil near warm-water discharges of industrial plants.
The amoeba can live in extremely high temperatures and has become resistant to chemicals like chlorine, surviving more than 30 times (20 mg/L for 3 h) the recommended concentration of chlorine in drinking water.
N. fowleri is thought to enter the body through the nose, infecting the brain with Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM). Even with treatment, most people with the infection die. The most recent case of Amoebic meningitis was a 12-month-old baby at Townsville Base Hospital in 2015. In the US 143 cases, from 1962 to 2016, were reported with only four survivors.
Coal-fired power stations use water from cooling ponds or canals, providing the perfect temperature for the amoeba to live and breed in. Other coal facilities such as bulk coal terminals use settlement ponds which are naturally warmed in the summer months. Coal mines also use slurry ponds to store the wastes produced after washing coal, also naturally warmed during summer.
A French group also studied the incidence and numbers of amoebae associated with nuclear reactor cooling systems, ultimately pioneering a risk analysis model which predicts the likely incidence of PAM as a function of the degree of contamination.
Spills and leaching from these various industry-based warm water sources allow the amoeba to penetrate the water tables, as well as nearby ponds, dams, lakes and other surrounding water bodies. One such case currently being investigated is the wetlands spill from Adani-owned Abbot Point Bulk Coal terminal during Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
The doubt raised by some Australian researchers about the effectiveness of chlorination during the 80s has since been supported by the University of Western Australia in the first known study demonstrating how N. fowleri persists despite chlorination. Yet the Australian government still insists chlorine is effective in disinfection, while making no mention of the risks of industry contamination.
The Adani Carmichael coal mine will be the largest in Australia with unprecedented sized slurry ponds placed over the water tables which also provide water to surrounding grazing properties. As yet, no risk assessment of dormant amoeba cysts that could be given life by the introduction of these ponds has been published.
Given Adani Group's track record on environmental management, both in Australia and India, has been widely regraded as appalling, it is doubtful any such assessment will take place.