Topic: Is anyone concerned

[=SEALZ=MrsX]

I was just wondering if anyone was thinking what I was, and that is this..... ummm is anyone concerned about this contaminated waterthat is being pumped out in to the mississippi getting into our water table ? and since New Orleans is below sea level, and it isnt completely pumped dry yet, they havent even begun to pump out all the under ground sewage............yuck.... i mean im sure all these epa people know about how evaporation of water works. and isnt this how all the bacteria and stuff gets moved all over........i dunno, but man for how much crap is in that, i dont understand how the water could become that diluted to work all that stuff outta it....................makes ya wonder doesnt it?

[Crazy Tac]

Wow good point mrs X i never even thought about that.

[Kurn]

Good thinking !

For the "biological content" no need to worry in long term (short term it is VERY problematic).
Bacteria is in term of pollution a rather large particle that is filtered quite well by the infiltration process that bring water to the water table. This is why deep well water is of such good quality. Also bacteria being living organisms have a quite narrow range of conditions propice to their devellopement. Outside of these, they die. So nature will go back the it's balance there after a time.

More worrying is the chemical pollution resulting from the flood. especially from heavy metals like lead, cadmium, etc and PCB, petroleum products, industrial solvents etc...

Those will mix with the water at a much "finer" level that cannot be easily be filtered out. Same goes for petroleum products that break down in steps, creating each time a different poison... and the process is slow !

The main short terms issue will be the farm lands in the area (i don't know if there is any...) where the soils will be contaminated by those chemicals.

Then there is the Gulf of Mexico fisheries : everything you pump into the Mississipi get there !

According to CRS Report for Congress RS22241, Hurricane Katrina: Fishing and Aquaculture Industries ? Damage and Recovery :

The Gulf Coast where Hurricane Katrina struck is an especially important center
of commercial and recreational fishing, producing 10% of the shrimp and 40% of the
oysters consumed in the United States. Many areas have been closed to fishing because of pollution-related contamination concerns. In addition, inland areas account for much of the U.S. farmed catfish production.

So those industries, mostly small entrepreneurs and familly businesses, gonna need long term help in the recovery efforts. You can expect more complicated issues to raise as the emergencies are dealt with. You can expect that the cost for solving those issue will be at least as high as the cost of emergency operations if not higher.


P.S. Just got that in my inbox :

Potential Toxic Chemical Sites in New Orleans

This page has been put together for disaster responders, media, activists, and anyone else interested in an initial list of known, major sites that store, use, or produce toxic chemicals within New Orleans, LA. This list only covers the three parishes (counties) of Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard. This is simply a list of all sites within these three counties that were tracked in several major EPA databases before the flood. We do not know whether any of these sites have in fact been affected by the Katrina hurricane or the flood.

[=FC=DirtyHarry]

I have been in the water/swimming pool industry for over 12 years, so have a fair bit of knowledge in this field.

The average glass of water from your tap has been through other peoples bodies no fewer than 7 times!

Water filtration has come a long way in the past decade with the addition of much better filtration methods such as Carbon, UltraViolet & Ozone filtration (kills 99.99% bacteria).

Do you ever think of thing like this when your in a public swimming pool??? Commercial pools only do very small water changes, so most of the water in there has been in there for a good few months, and the filters are refurbished on average every 10 years.

As kurn said its harder to get the chemical aspect out of the water than it is the bacteria.

[=SEALZ=MATRIX*SFL]

No fewer than 7 times!!! !!!  That's it for me...No more water ever!

[=FC=DirtyHarry]

LOL - thought that would happen.

Cant find any reference to the exact amount, but heres an extract from a water report in the UK.

Almost all tap water is officially clean and safe - but only because it has been processed. Tap water is surface water from rivers and lochs that has been stored in reservoirs, pumped through filter beds to remove fine particles, then treated to destroy harmful bacteria. Everything that goes down the lavatory or plughole - human waste, household chemicals from soaps, toothpaste, shampoos and disinfectants - is piped to sewage works for treatment. But it can then be discharged into the rivers that feed our drinking water supply. The more densely populated the area you live in, the more likely it is that a proportion of your drinking water has been through somebody's kidneys - hence the old joke that Londoners' water has been recycled several times.

[Kurn]

LOL
One of my friend once did a pool chlorine test on regular tap water : it was ok to swim ! 

I'm trying to find some data on the ammount of Cadmium in a "typic" household. Those NiCad batteries are, along with Americium 241 from smoke detectors among the worst pollutants in a regular house. Americium quantity remain really small tho, but it's half-life (time to loose half of is radioactivity) its  432.7 years.

Well I'll go continue my useless thesis  6.^ hehehehe

[Kurn]

an exemple of chemical pollution in New Orlean disaster...

[ruffneck]

hmmm 7 times I guess I'll stick with bud.Thanx Dirty that just kills my whole perspective on drinking water!!

[=SEALZ=s7.62]

Just think of how much recycled beer you drink everyday  

[Spartan]

Dunno were to post it, but GunnyDog has started poping back in on ts every once in awhile... he dosent stay long, just to say hi and leaves.

[GUNNYDAWG]

Ok,
    I'm Going to  make it real simple for all you "experts" out there.  My house had 3 weeks of raw sewage, floating bodies, flotaing animals, rats, bugs, and every other kind of nasty bullshit you can think of floating against, through, and imbedding itself into my newly renovated home. It is now a teardown. PERIOD! I lost all my shit...everything except my wife, my 2 dogs and a suitcase full of clothes. You can spin it anyway you want.
    I am now personally getting a good rogering from FEMA because I am not the right color, and I had flood insurance. Where other people
have taken advantage of the storm, and padded their claims.....I have not!  I am still out of pocket 10's of thousands of dollars. But this is where it ends!
    I want to take this time to thank all of the =SEALZ= and =FC= members for their concern and sympathy during this very excrutiating and devastating time for my wife, kids (the puppies), and I. I don't think I have enough days in my life to repay all the prayers and warm wishes. Thank you, from the bottom of my soul. I mean that.
    I am tired of "certain" people claiming major loss of property, when damage on their homes was minimal. I played everything buy the book, and recieved little or no assistance. I'm sorry if this sounds bitter, but its hard to stomach people who are non-deserving recieve so much.


Sincerely,

Michael R. Flora
(aka Gunny)

[GUNNYDAWG]

I also can't wait for the FEMA audits....which will be 6 months from now.  I'm not sweating that, can't audit what you don't get. Oh......by the way...Red Cross audits as well....and so does the IRS!

[GUNNYDAWG]

And the strange part is, FEMA knows my phone #

[=SEALZ=s7.62]

Sry to hear about all that BS going on down there Gunny, but man I am glad to hear that you and your family are doing as well as you are considering all that has happened to you all. But I do understand your fustration , that's why I left Lousiana 13 years ago,  sadly it still sounds just the same as it did when I left.