water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

#Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink plus#

For their sake I hope it's not weeks, which is possible, although less likely if it's a failed coupling. People will be boiling water at least for days. This means the joint can be repaired with a new collar and welding rather than ordering and installing a custom made pipe, but to be sure they will have to pressure test it in case there is damage elsewhere in the 150 feet of conduit not easily visible. Latest word reaching us from the scene is that now that the main supply has been shut off, the source of the rupture has been found and is not as serious as feared because it seems to have occurred at a joint where two pipes are coupled. So the 'boil water order' is from an abundance of caution, quite prudent when millions of people are being exposed. The real concern is not this minor risk of discomfort or inconvenience but the more serious consequences for those with compromised immune systems, chronic illness or infants who are more vulnerable to dehydration or opportunistic infection. For most people this might produce some queasiness or cramps or even nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. The source supply is relatively clean, but now it's not being disinfected, so it is possible it could pick up enteric pathogens in sufficient quantity somewhere along the way to give someone a gastrointestinal illness. What would happen if you drank the water? Probably nothing. Media are reporting that local stores are sold out of bottled water already. The back-up supply is enough for any purpose - flushing toilets, showering, bathing - but if you want to drink it, cook with it or wash your salad with it, people are being advised to boil it first, letting it reach a roiling boil for at least a minute and then letting it cool naturally. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

(Beth Daley, Michael Levenson, and Martin Finucane, ) Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. “This is everyone’s worst nightmare in the water industry,’’ said Frederick A. The backup water, which one official compared with “untreated pond water,’’ can be used for bathing and flushing toilets, but not for drinking or cooking.Īuthorities said they were attempting to set up mobile units to chlorinate the backup water supply, but they cautioned that even so, the water from the backup system would not meet federal drinking water standards. The MWRA said it could continue supplying water by activating a backup system that began drawing water last night from the Sudbury Reservoir, and can also tap into the Weston and Spot Pond reservoirs if necessary. when the pipe sprang a leak, which worsened throughout the afternoon and eventually cut off Greater Boston from the Quabbin Reservoir, where most of its water supply is stored.

#Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink plus#

Which brings us back to the plight of some 2 million plus people in the Boston area: The crisis began around 10 a.m. And while provision of safe water is a great boon, the same system that distributes a healthful substance can also deliver harmful ones. When you do one thing it produces new problems that make you do another. When connected up to toilets ('water closets') that in turn produced the need for domestic sewerage. In the 19th century, piped water was originally needed to fight fires but was also used for drinking. Provision of piped water to our cities that is safe to drink is one of the great public health triumphs of public health in the 20th century (filtration began in the late 19th century and disinfection with chlorine in the first decade of the 20th). The Reveres have family in the area so we were concerned (for the record, our water is not involved). Several million people there are now under a 'boil water' order because a section of steel pipe bringing water from its main surface supplies tens of miles to the west of Boston and surrounding communities blew out and the main water supply had to be shut down.

I am quite familiar with drinking water issues, however, and over the weekend we received news of another catastrophic leak, this one affecting the Boston Metropolitan area. There is a lot of information already in the media. I'm not an oil expert, so I won't discuss this much here. Everyone has heard by now that there is a catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.