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For five miles downstream of the Boulder, Colo., sewage treatment plant there are no male fish.
In Pacific currents off the Los Angeles coastline, fish are too lazy to hunt, too laid back to bother with breeding.
In south-central Asia, vultures are dying of drug overdoses.
All because what goes in must come out.
Recently, Miller was asked to go on a hunt for fecal contamination - sewage, basically - in Helena Valley groundwater. She was to use certain microbial markers, such as E. coli and coliphage, to sniff out the presence or absence of fecal taint.
But the more she read about sewage-borne contaminants, the more she became convinced that more modern markers would make for a more interesting study. And so Miller added 28 man-made chemicals to her search target, including pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupters and personal care products.
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