News in Brief Environment

Colorado deluge produced flood of drug-resistance genes

Pristine waterways were inundated with antibiotics in 2013

A 2013 Colorado flood

FLOATING AROUND  Colorado’s 2013 floodwaters (flooding in the city of Longmont shown) spread antibiotics and microbial drug-resistance genes to new places, including pristine headwaters of the South Platte River Basin.

Bryce Bradford/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

By Beth Mole

- More than 2 years ago

VANCOUVER —The historic 2013 flooding in Colorado left pristine waterways awash in antibiotics and microbial drug-resistance genes, researchers reported November 12 at the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.