Browsing by Author "Green, Lesley"

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    Contaminant denialism in water governance
    (John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2025) Petrik, Leslie; Green, Lesley; Ojemaye, Cecilia
    Noting that contaminant denialism is an increasing problem in environmental governance globally, this study describes public communication strategies that inappropriately minimize the problem of contaminants in respect of sewage discharges in and around water‐bodies in Cape Town, South Africa. The article describes four kinds of contaminant denialism encountered in official public communications: data foreclosure; misinformation; the weaponization of science, and the use of point data instead of flow models. Interpreting these with reference to the sociology of science known as agnogenesis, the study of the production of public ignorance, the study demonstrates that contaminant denialism is exacerbated in contexts where scientific findings are expected to support marketing of tourism or excellence in a political administration. This is further exacerbated where there is reluctance to recognize that public infrastructure designed prior to the increased influx of toxic, non‐biodegradable compounds that bioaccumulate in the open environment, generates new hazards; a political culture has difficulty acknowledging human waste; point‐based data is regarded as definitive empirical fact without regard to the hydrological reality of water flows, and science provision derives from a privatized and market‐driven service sector. The study concludes with proposals to minimize contaminant denialism in the public sector, inter alia removing institutionalized conflicts of interest; using predictive modeling; re‐assessment of inherited infrastructure design in light of the challenges presented by new toxins, and subjecting for‐profit scientific consultancies and official public science communications to regular peer review and/or audits by statutory scientific bodies that are independent of regional governance. Plain Language Summary The study identifies strategies that have been used by authorities in one city to dismiss or downplay contamination issues, including secrecy, withholding data, and attacking the credibility of independent scientists.
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    Desalination and seawater quality at Green Point, Cape Town: A study on the effects of marine sewage outfalls
    (Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2017) Petrik, Leslie; Green, Lesley; Abegunde, Adeola P.; Zackon, Melissa; Sanusi, Cecilia Y.; Barnes, Jo
    This paper presents our collection methods, laboratory protocols and findings in respect of sewage pollution affecting seawater and marine organisms in Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, then moves to consider their implications for the governance of urban water as well as sewage treatment and desalination. A series of seawater samples, collected from approximately 500 m to 1500 m offshore, in rock pools at low tide near Granger Bay, and at a depth under beach sand of 300–400 mm, were investigated for the presence of bacteriological load indicator organisms including Escherichia coli and Enterococcus bacteria. A second series of samples comprised limpets (Patella vulgata), mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), sea urchins (Tripneustes ventricosus), starfish (Fromia monilis), sea snails (Tegula funebralis) and seaweed (Ulva lactuca), collected in rock pools at low tide near Granger Bay, and sediment from wet beach sand and where the organisms were found, close to the sites of a proposed desalination plant and a number of recreational beaches. Intermittently high levels of microbial pollution were noted, and 15 pharmaceutical and common household chemicals were identified and quantified in the background seawater and bioaccumulated in marine organisms. These indicator microbes and chemicals point to the probable presence of pathogens, and literally thousands of chemicals of emerging concern in the seawater. Their bioaccumulation potential is demonstrated.