Don't Drink The Water

You Turn on the faucet. From it issues forth crystal clear, cool, refreshing water. It’s been processed by the local utilities, whose job it is to assure that we’re provided with the best water possible. It’s been purified, tested, treated, maintained, monitored and distributed right to our homes. It’s reasonably priced and thoroughly convenient…Don’t drink it. So, you’ve put a water softener onto your incoming water line. Those hard water stains, and crust are gone. The rotten egg smell is gone. Your coffee tastes better…Don’t drink it. One of my concerns has to include just how that water is purified. It is fundamental to understand, however, just how serious the the need is for strong water treatment. One of my concerns has to include just how that water is purified. It is fundamental to understand, however, just how serious the the need is for strong water treatment. the main problem is not the one we hear so much about; i.e., the seepage into the ground of weird new chemicals. that makes for excellent press and allows for tons of grant more to be allocated for high-tech chemical research. That dilemma exists, no question, but the real, high-volume problem is not nearly as spectacular. It’s a much more mundane, more expensive, more fundamental horror: Our own sewage is dumped directly into our rivers from every city in the nation. (The use of septic tanks is not the technique of cities!)Think about it. Unless you are the absolute uppermost town on a river, your water intake is starting with all the dumped wastes of the town above you. And all the towns above them. Pleasant thought. We take someones Else’s sewage, draw it into our water supply, chop it up, filter it, dump enough chlorine into it to hopefully kill all the worms, microbes, and other bugs and parasites that are obviously there, and then we, uh…Drink it.

A common misconception is that as long as all the ” bugs” are gone everything is okay. Pump that chlorine or bromine in there, kill off all the bad guys, and everything is taken care of. Nothing could be so disastrously further from the truth. It’s true that microorganisms cause the most acute adverse effects, usually diarrhea. It would be nice, therefore, to be able to drink water without playing host to every Giardia Lamblia or amoeba that comes out of the pipe. It’s also true that we are being bombarded by huge quantities of chemicals, estimated at over 70,000 types, with hundred’s more new pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, additives, industrial chemicals, and organic compounds coming at us each year, many of which leach into our water supply.