Water, Water, Everywhere, Just Don't Take a Drink!

Sometimes we think we’re just being paranoid.  Other times, we wonder, are we being paranoid enough?

College Station is roughly 5 inches behind our average year-to-date rainfall totals this year, so we were exceptionally grateful this week when we received roughly 2 inches in one 24 hour period.  However, during that (for us) torrential downpour, several citizens noticed that fire hydrants were being set off like some kind of epic hydrological manifestation of government waste.

This being the small town it is, these good-hearted Nosey Joes called the local radio station, and thus we got word today that the reason the fire hydrants were being run like geysers is that the city water supply was too chlorinated.  “But don’t worry,” we were advised.  “The danger we usually watch for is the water not being chlorinated enough.”

Oh, hey, sure, we won’t worry.  After all, the folks from the city say not to worry.

We have written before about the advantage of distilling one’s own drinking water.  We are now doubly certain that this is the right course of action.  A brief perusal of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) documentation on drinking water shows that there certainly are a large number of critters occuring naturally in our nation’s supply of groundwater, and that these critters must be removed via some sort of disinfection routine.  Chlorination and bromination certainly fit the bill for those particular needs. 

However, the list of problems caused as a side effect of disinfection seems (to us at Myrtle’s place, at least) equally disturbing.  Keep in mind that the following list only encompasses those risks the EPA has determined they have sufficient evidence for which to establish liability – there are other, longer-term effects they have not tracked nor yet quantified:

How contaminant gets there, what it does:	How disinfectant gets there, what it does:
Cryptosporidium: Comes from human and animal fecal waste; causes gastrointestinal illness (diarrhea, vomiting, cramps)	Bromate: Byproduct of drinking water disinfection; causes increased risk of cancer
Giardia lamblia: Comes from human and animal fecal waste; causes gastrointestinal illness (diarrhea, vomiting, cramps)	Chlorite: Byproduct of drinking water disinfection; causes anemia; in infants and young children, affects the nervous system
Legionella: Found naturally in water; multiplies in heating systems; causes Legionnaire’s Disease, a type of pneumonia	Haloacetic acids: Byproduct of drinking water disinfection; causes increased risk of cancer
Viruses (enteric): Comes from human and animal fecal waste; causes gastrointestinal illness (diarrhea, vomiting, cramps)	Total Trihalomethanes: Byproduct of drinking water disinfection; causes increased risk of cancer; causes liver, kidney or central nervous system problems
	Chloramines: Water additive used to control microbes; causes eye/nose irritation, stomach discomfort and anemia
	Chlorine: Water additive used to control microbes; causes eye/nose irritation, stomach discomfort
	Chlorine dioxide: Water additive used to control microbes; causes anemia; in infants and young children, also causes nervous system effects
	Fluoride: Water additive which promotes strong teeth, erosion of natural deposits, discharge from fertilizer and aluminum factores; causes bone disease (pain and tenderness of the bones); children may get mottled teeth

Additionally, of course, there are the various chemicals also found in city water supplies.  One wonders if some of these are in the list of “trace elements” doctors notoriously cite as the reason not to drink distilled water.  Following is just a partial list; the full list is too exhaustive to reproduce here, but this provides a sufficient taste:

How inorganic contaminant gets there, what it does:	How organic contaminant gets there, what it does
Antimony: Discharge from petroleum refineries, fire retardants, ceramics, electronics, and solder; causes increase in blood cholesterol and a decrease in blood sugar	Acrylamide: Added to water during sewage/wastewater treatment; causes nervous system and blood problems; increases risk of cancer
Arsenic: Erosion of natural deposits, runoff from orchards, runoff from glass and electronics production wasts; causes skin damage or problems with circulatory systems and may increase risk of getting cancer	Alachlor: Runoff from herbicide used on row crops; causes eye, liver, kidney and spleen problems, anemia, and increases the risk of cancer
Asbestos: Decay of asbestos cement in water mains, erosion of natural deposits; causes increased risk of developing benign (?) intestinal polyps	Atrazine: Runoff from herbicide used on row crops; causes cardiovascular system and reproductive problems
Barium: Discharge of drilling wastes, discharge from metal refineries, erosion of natural deposits; causes increase in blood pressure	Benzene: Discharge from factories, leaching from gas storage tanks and landfills; causes anemia, decrease in blood platelets, and increases the risk of cancer
Beryllium: Discharge from metal refineries and coal-burning factories, discharge from electrical, aerospace, and defense industries; causes intestinal lesions	Benzo(a)pyrene (PAHs): Leaching from linings of water storage tanks and distribution lines; causes reproductive difficulties, increased risk of cancer
Cadmium: Corrosion of galvanized pipes, erosion of natural deposits, discharge from metal refineries, runoff from waste batteries and paints; causes kidney damage	Carbofuran: Leaching of soil fumigant used on rice and alfalfa; causes problems with blood, nervous system, or reproductive system
Chromium: Discharge from steel and pulp mills, erosion of natural deposits; causes allergic dermatitis	Carbon tetrachloride: Discharge from chemical plants and other industrial activities; causes liver problems, increased risk of cancer
Copper: Corrosion of household plumbing systems, erosion of natural deposits; short term exposure causes gastrointestinal distress; long term exposure causes liver or kidney damage; people with Wilson’s disease should consult their personal doctor if the amount of copper in their water exceeds the action level	Chlordane: Residue of banned termiticide, causes liver or nervous system problems, increased risk of cancer
Cyanide: Discharge from steel/metal factories, discharge from plastic and fertilizer factories; causes nerve damage and thyroid problems	Chlorobenzene: Discharge from chemical and agricultural chemical factories; causes liver or kidney problems
Lead: Corrosion of household plumbing systems, erosion of natural deposits; in infants and children, causes delays in physical or mental development, slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities; in adults, causes kidney problems and high blood pressure	2,4-D: Runoff from herbicide used on row crops; causes kidney, liver, and adrenal gland problems
Mercury: Erosion of natural deposits, discharge from refineries and factores, runoff from landfills and croplands; causes kidney damage	Dalapon: Runoff from herbicide used on rights of way; causes minor kidney changes
Nitrate (measured as Nitrogen): Runoff from fertilizer use, leaching from septic tanks, sewage, erosion of natural deposits; infants below six months who drink water containing nitrate in excess of the MCL could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may die; symptoms include shortness of breath and blue-baby syndrome	1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP): Runoff/leaching from soil fumigant used on soybeans, cotton, pineapples and orchards; causes reproductive difficulties, increased risk of cancer
Nitrite (measured as Nitrogen): Runoff from fertilizer use, leaching from septic tanks, sewage, erosion of natural deposits; infants below six months who drink water containing nitrate in excess of the MCL could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may die; symptoms include shortness of breath and blue-baby syndrome	o-Dichlorobenzene: Discharge from industrial chemical factories; causes liver, kidney or circulatory system problems
Selenium: Discharge from petroleum refineries, erosion of natural deposits, discharge from mines; causes hair or fingernail loss, numbness in fingers or toes, circulatory problems	p-Dichlorobenzene: Discharge from industrial chemical factories; causes anemia, liver, kidney, spleen damage, changes in blood
Thallium: Leaching from ore-processing sites, discharge from electronics, glass and drug factories	1,2-Dichloroethane: Discharge from chemical factories; causes increased risk of cancer
	1,1-Dichloroethylene: Discharge from industrial chemical factories; causes liver problems
	cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene: Discharge from industrial chemical factories; causes liver problems

 

Keep in mind, these are chemicals and compounds the EPA knows need to be monitored; on a regular basis, someone is supposed to be letting you know whether the levels of these various poisons is “acceptable” according to their formulations.

However, as a practical matter, most water supplies in the world cannot be properly tested and monitored sufficiently. There are simply not enough resources, both in time and money, to guarantee that your drinking water is safe when it comes out of the tap – and that is even if you make the assumption (a very big assumption, in our opinion) that the measures taken to assure the safety of that water were correct in the first place.

In point of fact, one of Myrtle Maintenance Personnel's one-thousand-and-one jobs working their way through college was as a transcriber for a civil engineering firm who did inspections of water systems in small east-central Texas towns, like Marlin and Weimar and a hundred other places you'll probably never go.  And we were never bored by the gruesome details, let us assure you.  The amount of machine oil, for example, which is permissible as a sheen on the top of the water in a municipal water tower is measured in inches.  If that doesn't scare you off of tap water, we cannot convince you.

Which brings us back to distilling your own water. Hurrah for the government officials with their pocket protectors who figured out what level of chlorine would kill the cryptosporidium; but doesn’t it make sense, once the bacteria are dead, to also remove the chlorine?

We’re just sayin’.

Happy farming!

Distill or not Distill, That is the Question

And thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.   --Ezekiel 32:2

We wouldn't have brought it up, of course, if the answer was "Not distill".  But we have a history of taking a strong opinion on subjects where science has been woefully silent.  Best compost practices are our favorite example.

Distilled water is another.  There are all sorts of pseudo-scientific claims about "potential death" from drinking distilled water, much of it (like the linked article) based on fanciful thought experiments which, even if they were true, would be easily mitigated by simple precautions.  Take the "acidity" claim, for example.  Distilled water supposedly acidifies with contact with the air.  Okay, if that's true... then maybe I should keep my distilled water in a glass container?  Hmmm?  Anybody think of that?

The real problem, of course, is that nobody has studied it.

We have a lot of anecdotal evidence of medical professionals saying there are "trace elements in tap water that you need in order to be healthy."  Really?  Which ones?  Why aren't they in my food or air?  What's so special about tap water?

On the other hand, the very "acidity" claim linked above is based on one of the most fundamental characteristics of distilled water that make it so beneficial -- stuff breaks down easier in distilled water.  Do you have any idea how much extraneous crap gets into your body?  From "trace elements" in tap water, to heavy metals poisoning, even when regulations exist, it doesn't help.

So what are we supposed to do?  Sit passively and just accept?

No.  That's not the Myrtle way.

We don't have any studies to back us; as indicated, nobody is taking the question seriously enough to do good science on it.  All we have is anecdotal evidence:

• For 10 years, we were unable to get pregnant.  Six months after starting to distill our own water at home, and one month after giving up, we conceived our son.
• Both of us have been very overweight in spite of eating well and exercising.  A year and a half after starting to distill our own water at home, and making very few other changes, we have both lost considerable amounts of body fat.
• For 20 years, we have been fighting allergies; some of that time medicated, some of that time, not.  A year and a half after starting to distill our own water at home, we don't seem to have as many allergy related problems (though, to be far, pulling up the carpet the minute we moved into our new home certainly helped as well).
• The salt crystals formed at the bottom of each container we distill are significant; frequently, for 2 1/2 gallons, we get two tablespoonfuls of "trace elements".  How much is chlorine?  How much is "other"?  We don't know; we just know it makes a good replacement for Ajax.
  

How much of that is quantifiably related to drinking water?  Your guess is as good as ours.  Commercially distilling water and storing it in glass (not plastic!) is prohibitively costly, so no company is going to do it.  There is simply no profit motive in studying the proper preparation and storage of drinking water, so expecting our profit-oriented system of university research to come up with good data on this (and many other) essential health question is just whistling dixie.

You want real health-care reform?  Start thinking about these kinds of questions, and taking matters into your own hands.

Happy farming!