Our nation’s water supply is vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
Editor’s note: check out Water4Patriots for our top choice of personal water filtration.
___________________
Recently, a chemical seeped into the water supply in Charleston, West Virginia, threatening to sicken hundreds of thousands of people. What tipped off authorities to the fact that there was a problem was when people started calling in complaints about a strong licorice-type smell in the air.
West Virginia American Water, which supplies 300,000 people with water in the central part of the state, would not otherwise have known about the problem because there is no testing for the particular chemical – 4-methylcyclohexane methanol – which got into the water supply.
In addition to inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people who were without tap water for five days, this incident was a wake-up call for the Department of Homeland Security, which admits that not nearly enough has been done to protect U.S. water systems from accidental spills or deliberate contamination.
Despite the fact that most large-city water treatment plants in the U.S. are located downstream from industrial facilities – making them more vulnerable to contamination – it has been more than 10 years since Congress last addressed water security in legislation. In 2002, utilities were required to assess their vulnerabilities and report them to the Environmental Protection Agency, but there was no mandate to correct the shortcomings. The Safe Water Drinking Act does not give any additional authority to states or utilities to reduce or eliminate threats.
Critics are saying that unless there is a widespread, deliberate attempt to poison water supplies, nothing significant will be accomplished to try to prevent such an act.
Have you ever had a drinking water emergency in your area? Did you boil your water to deal with it, or did you dip into your emergency water supply? Let me know how this problem has affected you in the past.
Recommended Today
The Ultimate In Water Purification? Scientists have discovered a weird 2 oz. device that purifies the nastiest, filthiest, bacteria-riddled and parasite infested water without chemicals or even moving parts. Video >>
I read that most water filters and tablets do not get out all of the bacteria, etc. They said the best way is to boil water. They also said it just needs to come to a boil, not boil for 10 minutes like we have been told. It would save fuel. If its loaded with chemicals, I would not breath it while heating it. What do you think?
Boiling water is great and yes, a full minute boil is really all you need to kill pathogens. Boiling, however, will not get rid of dirt, insect larva and hosts of other things floating around in the water. I like a high-quality filter, like http://www.water4patriots.com the Lifestraw that gets rid of both, or, if needed, a less-efficient particle filter plus boiling.
Little Ely, Nevada had a couple of teenagers break into our water supply. We had to boil water AND break into water stash. It actually takes a situation like this to occur to make one realize…that was just the water. Am I prepared for shortages of water, food, etc.? I actually will be this week…thanx
A huge issue to keep on the look out for is the contamination of ground water due to frack mining. This is a pretty common occurrence around areas where frack mining is done. Check out this alarming video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8pr6uFA_Y