Technocrat

Third day of "boil your water" for Vancouver

zogger
Sat Nov 18 17:01:45 -0800 2006
Chemistry.
manage

Residents of Vancouver in Canada are on their third day of a "boil your drinking water" advisory because torrential rains have caused mudslides that contaminated the municipal water supplies.

..."I never felt I had to think about water here in Vancouver. I just took it for granted that the water is fine. But this just adds more work and preparation," she said."...more there

ed, and it is an ed: that's the problem, people won't think, they don't think they need any backups in the "just in time" society, that they can always rely on government or large corporations to save them. Infrastructure alteration or collapse is something that happens to those other folks on TV. Uh huh.  We have the technology, good gravity water filters, that for most folks is quite affordable and very effective, yet in 99% of the homes out there(my guess but bet I am close), it doesn't exist, yet I bet you could go through their homes and see any number of more expensive gadgets and things that were more important than knowing you could have some potable water.

This is a clear cut case of where using technology to make your life better is doable, to be proactive rather than reactive.  Ever with the "boil" advisory, that doesn't remove the mud that is in the water, nor will boiling remove toxic chemicals if that situation occurs. Now, just imagine if that quake (and the resultant baby tsunami) the other day in the north Pacific was one richter scale larger, just one, or two. It wouldn't be roughly a million with a boiled water advisory, it would be ten million or more with zip water, food running out, no fuel quickly, etc, etc, the whole gamut of bad news type stuff. The coastal areas are ripe for some pretty serious damage. I think governments should go way out of their way, do a better job, use public service commercials or something, to really get it sunk home to people that they can't be everything for everyone 100% of the time.

Third day of "boil your water" for Vancouver
the womble
Sun Nov 19 02:29:10 -0800 2006
 manage
Another problem is that the cost and environmental impact of supplying potable water is huge. Using it to flush your toilet is an incredible waste. It would be much better if we did not rely on this particular bit of infrastructure.

gray water

zogger
Sun Nov 19 12:56:40 -0800 2006
 manage
Gray water holding tanks to flush away the brown water would certainly be a good idea, and anything extra could go to like watering the lawn, etc.. It would take awhile for folks to get used to anything but sparkling clear water in the commode, but it certainly would help in the long run.
Third day of "boil your water" for Vancouver
AB3A
Sun Nov 19 18:48:06 -0800 2006
 manage
The primary obstacle to using grey water is that most houses would have to be replumbed to do it.  Another issue is that one must ensure there is not too much particulate matter in it.  Most toilet reservoir tanks are filled with a needle valve.  It won't take much to clog it up. 

You forget how important water is....

wowbagger
Sun Nov 19 05:58:07 -0800 2006
 manage
A couple of years ago we had a major ice storm here in the Midwest right after the new year. I came back from vacation, just beating the storm in, and the next day, BAMF - no power. At that time I did not have a generator, so all I had was various UPSs, inverters, and my car.

I live out in the semi-country - this was a wheat field 8 years ago, now it is a small housing development - so we have electric and telephone/DSL, but no water, sewage, or gas, Instead you have wells, septic tanks and leech fields, and propane tanks.

For the most part, it was a minor annoyance - I had heat via my propane fireplace, I had light via batteries. I could live without Internet for the duration, or if I really got to jonesing for the connection, I could fire up my firewall on the UPS and 100 amp-hour backup battery. I had books and magazines, I had my battery powered radio. I could cook with my 12V portable stove in the car, or with my Coleman white-gas stove. In the main, I really wasn't bad off.

EXCEPT....

No power meant no water - you don't spin up a one horsepower 220V wellhead on a battery powered 110V inverter. No water meant no sewage - its hard to flush without water. You'd be surprised at the number of times I turned on the faucet in the morning to brush my teeth. AND this is even though I filtered all my drinking and cooking water anyway. If I had a way to get water, I'd've been fine.

Now I have a generator, and a transfer switch to allow it to power the house. I keep enough gasoline on hand for the generator to run it for several days straight, and I wouldn't run it more than a few hours a day.

I'm not as "serious" as Zogger is, but I still have enough ability to survive off the grid for a period of time - I can call for help on my radios, I can get potable water from the R/O rig, I can get heat from the propane tank. But being able to do that requires a bit of space - I doubt your average apartment dweller could do that themselves, and the average apartment owner isn't motivated to supply them.

You forget how important water is....
Farrell J. McGovern
Sun Nov 19 23:10:43 -0800 2006
 manage
One thing that I have noticed is that in major parts of the US, the electrical grid is very fragile, especially compared to Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Here it took over a week of freezing rain to take down our electrical system back in 1998. Some of the high tension towers in Quebec, for example, had between 6 inches and a foot of ice buildup on them before they collapsed. There is great piece of footage of a Montreal news crew (the CTV affiliate, I believe) doing a remote shoot with a bunch of towers in the background when they call came collapsing down....fscking scary!

In contrast to this, I lived in Charlotte, NC for a couple of years, and it seemed every time there was a decent wind storm, or thunder storm, parts of the city grid would go down.

ttyl
You forget how important water is....
President4242
Mon Nov 20 12:16:41 -0800 2006
 manage
Bet you missed the one water source most people miss- unless you run your hot water heater off of propane, most people have a 60-80 gallon potable water source even in the worst of circumstances.
Third day of "boil your water" for Vancouver
AB3A
Sun Nov 19 06:22:30 -0800 2006
 manage
Since I work for a water utility, I do know something of the problem.  Yes, we're cursed with the fact that we do our jobs all too well most of the time.  People turn the tap and water happens.  Nobody thinks twice about it.  The only ones who do are usually self-appointed public health "experts."  They get entirely too focused on one public health issue instead of looking at the whole picture.  The latter is often left for a few obscure political appointees who then make random decisions because they're too busy working their way up the political ladder. 

The problem comes in when public officials get too arbitrary with their political decisions.  The decision of where to locate a water treatment plant or what water sources to use is often made and then forgotten.  The factors leading to that decision are often lost on those whose duty it is to protect those resources.

I feel for the folks in Vancouver.  The clean-up of the water system will be expensive.  People forget that  clean water and sanitary sewers has done more to improve public health than the rest of modern medicine's discoveries combined. 

It's important to remember this case and beat your local officials over the head with it every so often.
 

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