No, this is not a cooking entry. Unfortunately, the city in which I live has announced that we are to boil our water for drinking, brushing teeth, cooking, making ice and any other use where we are likely to imbibe the water.
Friday night, in the middle of quilting bee, all the phones in the house rang. DH answered one of the lines, and it was a recorded message telling us to boil the water for the next two days. Since then, the boil order has been extened to "sometime" this week.
Do you know how something like that can disrupt the running of a household? You have to bring the water to a boil and continue to boil it for five minutes for it to be safe to drink. Then, the water has to cool before you can transfer it to plastic jugs. I purchased six gallons of drinking water on Saturday morning, and we've used part of that water, and keep refiling the empty jugs.
I had to call to see whether the dishwasher was an acceptable way to wash our dishes. I couldn't figure out how to rinse the dishes in boiling water with out hurting my hands. They said the dishwasher was safe, but that I should let my water run first to raise the temp of the water going into the dishwasher. Actually....that sounded rather stupid to me, but I was desperate.
The upshot of all this is, that we are doing fine. We can bathe, wash dishes and clothes, and do housecleaning with the water. We just can't drink it, or eat things prepared in it.
It seems that the city has an underground reservoir that was built in 1935. They had planned to do some repairs on it this summer, but it may have cracks, allowing dirt or geese feces into the water supply. Charming thought, hmm?
The coliform count was rising last week, so they likely knew about the contamination for days before they told us to begin boiling the water.
Our water is now coming from two other reservoirs, while they try to determine the cause. The Water Department is telling the media that the contaminated water is not getting past the treatment plant, so our boiling is likely irrelevant, but none of us are willing to risk unboiled water.
So...every half an hour I boil another kettle of water, and transfer the last one to a plastic jug. Wouldn't it be nice if our water was FREE for this week?? Do you think they will actually charge us for sending contaminated water through the system? Ohhhhhhhhhh yesirreee! I bet they do!
Comments (3)
Just down the road (about 6 miles) from where I live, is a sewage treatment works. If you drive past on a bad day the stench can be so extreme you're gagging. Unfortunatly it's in the middle of a residential area. I don't know how they put up with it. On a plus side the treatment works do a nice line in tomatoes though...
Posted by Legomen | February 10, 2004 2:28 AM
Posted on February 10, 2004 02:28
Sheesh... that sounds like a pain in the arse way to get through a day, but until all is well it is the safe way to deal with your water crisis.
Posted by Desiree | February 10, 2004 3:02 AM
Posted on February 10, 2004 03:02
Yes, running the water sounds stupid - but really it isn't. Once the water cools down in the pipes, any bacteria that wasn't destroyed by the heating will begin reproducing. While the number may be low to begin with, with time, it gets to be a huge number.
That is the reason that it is recommended that well-water users let any line flush for a 30 - 60 seconds before using the water for consumption. I think they got the idea correct, but may have messed up a bit on the explaination, or simplafied it(but then again, maybe not - I'm no expert).
Posted by bogie | February 10, 2004 6:20 AM
Posted on February 10, 2004 06:20