You Can't Recall Tap Water

Technocrat

You Can't Recall Tap Water

zogger

Wed Apr 25 15:49:31 -0700 2007

Science

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Dogfood still in the bag you can recall, bad laptop batteries you can recall, but tap water sent down the pipe you cannot. That is what happened this morning in Spencer, Massachusetts, as the local water supply was somehow inadvertently dosed with much higher than normal concentrations of Sodium Hydroxide, or Lye. It has sent some folks to the hospital and they are trying to get the lines flushed now. Authorities didn't know about it until people taking showers in the morning started to get burned.

ed: seems like something as important as water they would have a host of redundant backups for determining quality and measuring dosages of treatment chemicals, etc. Or maybe they do (I do not know), and they all coincidently failed at the same time or something.

A lot of critical necessities vulnerabilities are being exposed lately. Longer the chains, the more the links, the more the links, the odds go up that one could be weak at some point.

You Can't Recall Tap Water

ehrichweiss

Wed Apr 25 17:43:31 -0700 2007
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Holy crap!!! Enough to cause BURNS!?!?!?! WTF?!?! Don't they make electronic pH meters? Unless the NaOH burned the things up they should have been SCREAMING that the water was far too basic for any human consumption. Fill up some squirt guns and go find the idiot(s) responsible....and if you don't feel like harming a human, spray his car.

You Can't Recall Tap Water

bill_mcgonigle

Wed Apr 25 18:04:57 -0700 2007
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Holy crap!!! Enough to cause BURNS!?!?!?! WTF?!?

It must've been houses right near the treatment plant, right? Enough to cause burns over the whole town would have to be more NaOH than they had on hand. You'd hope, anyhow.

I have an artesian well.

You Can't Recall Tap Water

turtledawn

Wed Apr 25 20:15:51 -0700 2007
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Do they have open sediment settlement ponds or tanks? It's not uncommon for those to be vandalized by people dumping in them if they're not _very_ well secured, and depending on the size of the town they might only have one or two water treatment guys and lack the budget or know-how for automated alarms tied into pagers. Besides, once it gets into the system the only thing to do is flush it out anyway.

You Can't Recall Tap Water

turtledawn

Wed Apr 25 20:17:27 -0700 2007
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Population of 12,000. Probably not more than three guys running th water plant.

Camelford, 1988

alanw

Wed Apr 25 23:34:22 -0700 2007
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In 1998 a tanker driver emptied 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank,
This flushed a cocktail of toxic chemicals out of the pipework, and many people suffered health problems after drinking tapwater.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/127270.stm

Camelford, 1988

William Boyle

Thu Apr 26 07:08:10 -0700 2007
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And my wife complains because I don't drink tap water...

Camelford, 1988

AB3A

Thu Apr 26 09:38:12 -0700 2007
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Gloat all you want. The history of bottled water isn't too bright either. Tap water is usually safe. That's what makes this story so unique.

Camelford, 1988

William Boyle

Thu Apr 26 09:52:48 -0700 2007
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Who's gloating. I know that bottled water has issues as well - chose carefully is my motto. Personally, I don't like the taste of most tap water. Often it has too much chlorine in it. Also, in most towns/cities I have resided in there have been incidents like this one where the tap water became contaminated because of some snafu or breach of the supply (broken mains, or whatever), and people got sick as a result.

Camelford, 1988

turtledawn

Thu Apr 26 21:04:29 -0700 2007
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Chlorine taste is no good.. I try to fill up my water bottle the night before and leave it sitting open on the countertop. Most of the chlorine dissipates that way.

Camelford, 1988

William Boyle

Fri Apr 27 06:27:20 -0700 2007
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So, given most water sources have issues at some time or other, I go for the taste, and for the most part, bottled spring water tastes better IMO (more neutral I suppose), though there are some municipal sources that are essentially springs or deep artesian wells that taste quite good as well.

You Can't Recall Tap Water

AB3A

Thu Apr 26 07:09:34 -0700 2007
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I wonder if the treatment plant was staffed 24/7. There may not have been any legal requirement to do so. The pH probe may have failed and that could have caused the PID controller to go seeking some reading at the end of the scale.

I expect there will be a very interesting review after the fact.