Illicit substance waste: The devastating pollutant impacting river life

This common, yet controversial action by festival-goers could have damaging consequences on the environment, especially river life.

High levels of illegal drugs have been found in a river running through Britain’s Glastonbury music festival site, endangering a rare species of fish and other wildlife.

Scientists are concerned about high levels of cocaine and MDMA, which could be harming wildlife downstream in the Whitelake River that runs through the festival grounds.

It follows over 200-thousand people taking part in the five-day summer festival, which takes place in southwest England.

Experts are urging festival-goers to use official toilets because it is believed the drugs enter the surrounding water sources through public urination.

Repeating the past

This is not the first time the river has fell victim to overexposure from illicit substances, with the festival’s last occurrence triggering a similar result.

Dan Aberg a masters student studying science at Bangor University, worked alongside Dr Daniel Chaplin from the Centre for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) to measure the similar damage in 2019.

The pair took samples from both upstream and downstream ends of the Whitelake River and found that MDMA concentrations quadrupled the week after the festival, with the same outcome expected for this year’s instance.

The life cycle of eels residing in the river were also impacted due to high cocaine concentrations.

“The level of release is unknown, but festivals undoubtedly are an annual source of illicit drug release,” Aberg says.

“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.”

From their findings, the pair are calling for environmentally-friendly research to take place to find a method to minimise the impact illicit drugs have on the environment.

A call for better messaging

Dr Christian Dunn, from Bangor University is also asking for more messaging to be displayed at events to remind festival-goers about the impacts public urination has on the environment.

“Education is essential for environmental issues, just as people have been made aware of the problems of plastic pollution, and Glastonbury have made great efforts to become plastic-free,” Dr Dunn says.

“We also need to raise awareness around drug and pharmaceutical waste – it is a hidden, worryingly-understudied yet potentially devastating pollutant.”

Glastonbury Festival is open to working alongside the researchers to combat the issue, a spokesperson for the festival says.

“We are aware that the biggest threat to our waterways – and the wildlife for which they provide a habitat – comes from festivalgoers urinating on the land.

“We are keen to see full details of this new research, and would be very happy to work with the researchers to understand their results and recommendations.”

Written by Rebecca Borg