'This article deals with municipal water systems. The author says they
are in bad shape now. In 2000, your life will be in danger if you rely
on municipal water.
* * * * * * * * * *
Water is your second survival priority after shelter. Without water,
you have on average, about four days before you will die.
Introduction
When a friend of mine requested that I write an article about water to
add to the y2k preparedness texts, I expected to focus specifically
on finding, gathering and treating water in a survival situation. But,
before I even set pen to paper three things happened that caused me
to expand the contents of this paper.
First: An investigation of the California water treatment systems
indicated that no contingency plans are being considered for y2k
disruptions.
Second: An outbreak of Giardiasis and Cryptosporidiosis in Sydney,
Australia sent me on a detailed mission to investigate our local
municipal treatment facilities.
Third: I have been criticized for teaching individual preparedness, that
somehow being personally prepared is in itself responsible for the
breakdown of our infrastructure.
Let me take the last issue first.
As you will see from the article I have written, our infrastructure (as it
stands today and as it relates to water treatment) is frail and
crumbling. The effects of contaminated water cannot be
countermanded by a system that is not only unable to detect the
bacteria but cannot afford to upgrade this antiquated system. If we
must rely on this failing portion of our infrastructure, many people will
die, with or without the disruptions of y2k. The only responsible
measure is to, therefore, advise the public and ask them to take
action individually. We will not cause the infrastructure to break
down. It is already broken.
The second issue brought to light the details of our local municipal
water treatment plants, and their inability to control the contaminants,
and the "toilet to tap" waste water recycling program. And the first,
the fact that no y2k contingency plans are being made at an
"infrastructure" level should be enough, in and of itself to frighten you
into appropriate individual action.
Water, Water, Everywhere And Not A Drop To Drink
Water is one of the most important elements of our day to day
survival and yet it is too often taken for granted. Though most of us
know that our ground water supplies are heavily polluted, few realize
that the water provided by our municipal drinking water facilities is
far from safe to drink.
The Safe Drinking Water Act
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 and its amendments, the
EPA regulates 83 contaminants in drinking water, and enforces
public suppliers to go through several purification steps to remove
harmful impurities before they reach your faucet. The contaminants
include lead, chemicals and microorganisms (viruses, parasites and
bacteria that can enter water exposed to human or animal wastes).
The EPA requires that public suppliers notify you if the water does
not meet the standards. Sounds great but, there is a problem.
It isn't safe to drink
Drinking water always contains two bacteria, Giardia and
Cryptosporidium. Because we humans are remarkably adaptive
creatures, in small quantities, these bacteria do us no harm, unless
you have a compromised immune system (I'll refer to this later).
However, if the water entering your municipal treatment plant has
been heavily contaminated by human or animal waste, additional
numbers of these bacteria slip in unnoticed. Standard sand filtration
and chlorine disinfectant will not systematically remove these
contaminants. Giardia is becoming more resistant to chlorine
disinfectant and Cryptosporidium is already entirely resistant to
disinfectant. In fact neither of these bacteria can even be isolated in
the water. The only way a public supplier knows there is a problem
with the drinking water is after the fact! Once an outbreak occurs
and people contact Giardiasis and Cryptosporidiosis, and they
receive treatment at a health facility, then the doctors can run tests on
the fecal samples. If the research proves that the infected people
drank from a municipal plant, that facility is notified and the plant
must issue a boil water directive. That is what happened recently in
Sydney, Australia where 3 million residents were affected. In 1993,
an outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin left over a hundred dead. . . .
A drinking water emergency situation already exists
It must seem obvious to you by now that you must consider all water
provided by your municipal water plants to be suspect. In fact, in
1995, the Center for Disease Control and EPA issued a directive
that announced that anyone with a severely compromised immune
system should consider boiling all their drinking water. The directive,
which includes AIDS patients, the elderly and many cancer patients,
and could affect 10 percent of the U.S. population or about 26
million people, was sent to all Public Environmental Health offices. In
San Diego, that directive was forwarded to the individual water
treatment plants for their information but there was no mandate that it
be distributed to their customers. To date, this information has not
been made readily available and although the AIDS community is
well advised and aware, hospital cancer centers are still unaware of
this directive. . . .
Bottled water is suspect too
The quality of all water you drink today including bottled water needs
to be carefully evaluated. The FDA (Federal Drug Administration),
not the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), regulates bottled
water. The standards are not equal across the board and in some
cases are non-existent. Do your homework, before you drink.
No need to wait for y2k
Regardless of the source, all water on earth is now contaminated.
There is something of man in every drop. Researchers cannot even
conduct baseline experiments because they cannot get water clean
enough to conduct the tests. Where water is concerned we are
already living in a survival situation.
Storing Water In Case Of An Emergency
Being prepared for an emergency situation, earthquake, hurricane,
flood or y2k disruptions, means always having some stored clean
water on hand. One gallon per day per person is a minimum. We use
plastic juice bottles. They are number one food grade and what you
don't use for water are great for storage of food. We get ours from
the recycle centers. You can also use your empty soda bottles,
though not as strong, they are quite serviceable. Using anti-microbial
soap, clean the containers and then air-dry. Fill with clean water,
treat with a drop or two of iodine, bleach or chlorine and store the
bottles out of direct sunlight.
Storing enough water for a few days is simple. However to store
enough water for a family of four for one year you would need 5110
gallons. That amount of water takes up considerable space and is
extremely heavy.
Where Do I Find Drinkable Water? . . .
Be cautious of water from a lake. By the time the water has collected
in the lake, it may have collected a host of pollutants and
contaminants along the way. It is better to find the feeder stream
entering the lake. A running stream is a great source of water but it
must still be considered contaminated. It is important before you
gather any water, to look around and determine if the plants and
animals nearby are healthy.
Snow, ice, ocean water and heavily polluted areas
Though freshly fallen snow may be drinkable without treating, you
should always warm and melt it before ingesting. Be aware that
bacteria are very likely encased in old snow and ice, so always treat
it before drinking.
Do not collect water from caves, mines, agricultural areas, railroads,
roadsides, timber farms and any other areas that may be heavily
polluted with herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals. Do not use
ocean water unless you have a commercial filter designed to purify
salt water.
Treating Water
If the water is particularly dirty, begin by filtering the water through a
coffee filter, a T-shirt, sand or a clump of dried grass. This will get rid
of the big chinks.
There are three ways to treat the water:
1.Using man-made filters. There are many commercial filters on the
market today. Small filters like the Katadyne are popular with
backpackers. Do your homework when you buy these filters and
determine what they actually filter out. Don't rely on filters to remove
the viruses.
2. Chemicals: You can use bleach, chlorine or iodine to chemically
treat the water. The rule of thumb is 12 drops per gallon of water.
Then wait twenty minutes.
3. Naturally: The best method of treating water is to boil it. For how
long? Our research provided interesting and different answers.
Ranging from 1 minute (FEMA) to 3-5 minutes (Red Cross) to 10
minutes (Mayo Clinic) to 15 minutes (National Safety Ag Council).
We did some follow-up research with biologists from Environmental
Health offices and determined that the safest method would be to
bring the water to a rolling boil and continue boiling from 10-15
minutes depending on your own personal level of paranoia. But,
please no less than 10 minutes. (that amount of time should
adequately take into consideration those people who live at higher
altitudes - remember that it takes longer to reach the boiling point at
higher elevations). Of course, let the water cool before you drink it,
making sure that it is kept in a clean container and kept covered
If you have a limited supply of water there are several things to be
aware of:
Don't eat, smoke, drink alcohol or coffee
Travel only during cool hours, and wear light colored clothing
Move slowly so you don't lose moisture through perspiration
Stay out of the sun
Don't drink your urine
You Are the Best Container!
Store as much water as possible in your stomach. There have been
horror stories of people who have died with full canteens as a result
of trying to conserve their water supply.
One Final Word About Water
In any survival situation, the first thing you must always ask yourself is
"Am I willing to bet my life on this drink of water?" If you come
down with Giardiasis and/or Cryptosporidiosis you will become
extremely ill. Without medical treatment your chances of recovering
are not good. In an extreme situation, you could die. And, today, as
you take a sip of water from your faucet, you may want to ask
yourself the same question.
Link:
members.home.net |
