Day 25: A week or so ago I mentioned that the creek that runs along my home is sometimes full but most of the time it's pretty dry. Up above our property is a mountain and about a mile up is where the water of our creek originates from several underground springs. In between the spring head and my home lies a industrial business. As the water travels down, first fresh and clean, it picks up microorganisms along the way such as giardia, amoebeosis, cryptosporidium from animal droppings or decomposing carcasses. As it passes by the neighboring industry, it may pick up dust and traces of oil and gasses from the heavy machinery they use. Fertilizers and pesticides that we use on our lawn may get washed down into the stream as well. In some neighborhood creeks, contaminants are more in the form of leads, chemicals, toxins and detergents, trash, etc etc.... This is what it looks like when it gets to my house.
Doesn't look so bad does it? Care to take a drink? Go ahead, if you want a good dose of stomach cramps, diarrhea and maybe a little fever to go along with it! For a really long list of all the nasties that our local water treatment facilities screen our water for before it reaches our faucets, visit: http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/index.cfm
Now You See It.
Now You Don't
I sometimes like to think about the "What If's" . What if our well, which by the way produces around 30 gallons per minute and is fabulous in taste. What if, the well runs dry with no possible way of getting it fixed and we became totally dependent on the water out of our creek. Remember, sometimes it runs and sometimes it doesn't. Yikes!
Here in this country I would probably run to the nearest Walmart and pick up some charcoal filters or some iodine tablets with vitamin C treatment. I may use ultraviolet filters to disinfect it or strain out the biggest particles and debris and use the most effective manner of making it safe, boiling it.
Or,
I could pick up a case of bottled water........
Water facts:
97% of the water on earth is in the oceans.
Only 3% of the water on earth is freshwater.
About 2.4% of the water on earth is permanently frozen in glaciers and at the polar ice caps.
About 1/2 of 1% of the water on earth is groundwater.
Only about 1/100 of 1% of the water on earth is in the rivers and lakes.
It takes 39,090 gallons of water to make a new car, including the tires.
Over 17,000,000 houses use private wells for their drinking water supply.
A person can live about a month without food, but can live only about 1 week without water.
