We have a boil water order

[CapeCMom]

OK-my life at work is hell today. Our town drinking water has come back with high bacterial counts including E-Coli. So the State makes us issue a boil water order-which is good.
But let me tell you that people are nuts! The phone calls I am getting are just insane.
"This is horrible-I can't take a shower!" I said-who told you that?
"Everyone is saying it!" -although the officials never said it -Do you drink the water while your in the shower? No.
Then take a shower and use hand sanitizer on your hands when you get out! They thought that the bacteria would absorb through their skin.
What am I supposed to do with my dog!-I asked what do you mean? He's got to drink water!
They didn't realize that you could give a dog bottled water or that if you boil it and then COOL it, it is safe for Fido. They wanted to know what town official they could blame for the rain that washed the contaminants into the pond-it goes on and on.
We have had every press truck in the State here with microphones being shoved in the faces of our Dept heads. I went to Walmart during my lunch to get my youngest beach sandals and decided to have some fun by going over to the water section-the entire aisle as you can imagine was cleaned out and there was one tiny pallet left in the aisle and people were heaving and throwing cases of water in their carts with this total frenzied attitude. I just stood and watched them only being able to smile.
It did however give me the opportunity to preach emergency preparedness again.
All in all it's is proving to be a day of learning-and perhaps the next 3 or four also.

[CapeCMom]

Update on stupid people day-someone actually believed that their skin would turn green if they took a shower-you know-because of the germs in the water. God help me.

[randallhilton]

Just to make you feel better. . .these are the people who are electing your leaders. :shout:

But seriously, as a licensed plumber whose job it is to make sure that the pipes deliver safe water I have often wondered why in the world we go through all the trouble of making ALL water pure enough to drink. We only drink a smattering of what goes into the system. The rest flushes toilets, waters the lawn etc.

I foresee a time when budgets will mandate that we either do a final treatment at home or perhaps everyone gets bottled water as they do in many parts of Mexico and other countries. Everything has a price and a trade off.

[Pokeberry Mary]

Just to make you feel better. . .these are the people who are electing your leaders. :shout:

.

That explains it!

:lol:

[pcrowder]

CapeC - I have the complete solution for you!


1. Don't drink the water, but either boil some or buy some bottled (explanation will be clear later.)
2. Gather your family together and tell them it's an emergency and they must all do exactly what you tell them.
3. Drive around and assemble all the cardboard boxes you can find.
4. Pack up everything you own (it's gonna be hot, hard work - refer to #1) and head out here NOW!!!!! We do NOT have crazy people like that living way out here!! And we have plenty of room the more the merrier, and I can guarantee that the people out here are 99% sane!


Seriously, I have been through what you are going through now when we lived back in the city. The city mgr and the mayor and other "high up" political officials of the city all knew that the filters at the water treatment plan weren't working right for a year and a half, yet they allowed it to continue in completely silence. Only when people actually started GETTING VERY SICK did the word leak out from the employees at the water dept, and they were forced to act immediately to fix the problem. We had a major brewery bringing in tankers of drinking water for everyone. I didn't bother to go to the "collection point" with the rest of the people in the city -- I just stayed home and boiled mine.

Yes, people were idiots then, and from what you've cited, they're still idiots now. All the more reason to "practice what you prep". This is a GREAT lesson for all of us. Until you've actually had to "live it", all the planning in the world is just that ---- planning.

I wish you luck with all of the idiots - especially those who think their skin will turn green if they shower. Eeeee gads, those types scare me! But, like they say - water seeks it's own level, and those people are proof of that.

Keep us posted on the unfolding events. I only hope that this will not end up being a long-term problem for your city.


Oh yeah -- just to show you how idiotic people are? The Mayor and the City Manager are STILL employed in their previous positions with the city, and even though they openly lied and deceived the residents of the city, they were not punished one iota for their crimes.

[CapeCMom]

Oh Pat your such a love!

It was crazy today for sure. My Boss went down and lit into the Town Manager because no one was giving us any info and we were the ones fielding the phone calls. What you said about when you lived in the city rings true about what seems to be happening here. Everyone is tight lipped and that is causing huge problems because rumors are flying. To top it off, the Town activated it's reverse 911 system to notify residents about the boil order and a lot of people did not get the call. Needless to say, a lot of people are very angry. What is scary is that if something even worse had happened, our system failed. I have the news turned on now because it seems to be the only way to get any info about the details of the problem. Our Emergency Preparedness director didn't even get a call from our Water Dept about the problem. She had to hear it from MEMA who called her last night at 10:00 p.m. Now that's just stupid.
Evidently this water sample was bad on June 7th and we are just finding out about it now.
Fortunately we filter all of our water and no one has any symptoms.

I tried to joke with people today to relieve some of their stress. One guy was threatening to go bathe down at one of the local ponds if he couldn't take a shower and I joked that he should be careful because all of the Boston news people were down and he might end up on the nightly news. He laughed and I think he appreciated the levity.

There have been meetings all day, and we should find out more tomorrow. This is the first time our town has had this problem so we are lucky, but other Towns around here have had problems like this in the past. All of our water comes from local ponds because we are surrounded by salt water so we don't have the Natural Springs needed to supply everyone. It makes us very vulnerable.

Thanks for letting me vent. I am sure the crazies will be back out tomorrow because I just watched the news and they are raking the Town for not notifying the residents in a timely manner. Whew boy-tomorrow should be fun.

Makes you VERY aware of how quickly things could get ugly in a major SHTF situation.

[pcrowder]

It's good to find our NOW that your reverse 911 system doesn't meet expectations. And it's doubly frightening to know that your Emergency Prep Director didn't get the word in a timely manner -- sounds like your chain of command is VERY broken! Just make sure that once this crisis is over that things don't just get ignored by the powers that be and everybody goes back to the "before" status, and the problems that are discovered now aren't just forgotten about. As bad as this is, it could be a blessing in disguise because at least some of the potential problems during SHTF have been brought to light.

Makes me think that even though we have a very deep well, that maybe I need to expedite getting a Berkey as part of my preps.

Yes, it's good to try to keep a sense of humor during a crisis. It brings that old saying back to mind, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs..." Let's hope we ALL can do that in the future, because as you so intuitively pointed out, "Makes you VERY aware of how quickly things could get ugly in a major SHTF situation. "

It can.

And it WILL.

[patience]

Somewhere around 30 years ago, our town got a grant to update the water plant. The mayor then was called on the carpet for paying outrageous prices for street light bulbs in a scam, where the bulb supplier paid town officials a kickback--new TV was left on the porch, etc.. The mayor had a heart attack and died before charges were brought, but the grant money was gone, without getting the water plant fixed. Several local towns were involved. Same period, corrupt zoning officials allowed a trailer park to be put in just up the hill from one of our reservoir lakes. Their sewage drained toward the lake.

Fast forward to today. We have only one lake we can use for water--the one below the trailer park is condemned until it can be dredged. The water treatment plant is hopelessly out of date, and way under capacity for the town's larger population today. When in rains hard, the system overflows crud into a creek that runs through town, and it is UGLY!

I think our present town officials are really trying to fix this mess, but revenue is down badly, and it ain't easy or cheap. The state is on them like white on rice, and the water stinks from some chemical they are using as an interim measure. They SAY it is safe to drink, and the state hasn't made them shut it down, but we filter our water. So far, so good.

But, this is why we are renovating our cistern at the moment, among other reasons. And, no, I don't want to be in the way if the state says it ain't fit to drink. People will go stark raving nuts. :eek::eek::eek:

[Rimfire_Red]

OK-
What am I supposed to do with my dog!-I asked what do you mean? He's got to drink water!


Gee - my dog PREFERS the run off in the ditch, the snow melting that forms puddles in the manure in the corrals and the water in our stock dams.

So really - what is it with these people?????

[CapeCMom]

New phone call-my boss took it. he was laughing so hard when he got off the phone he had tears coming down his face. He said the guy was actually quite upset.

Caller- "Is there still sh*t in the water?"
Boss "Yes we still have a boil water order"
Caller "So, if you boil it, will the sh*t float to the top so that you can skim it off? Is that what happens?"
"No, it's so small that you can't see it-microscopic"
"Well my water is clear-how am I supposed to know if there is still sh*t in it! I have company coming this weekend-what am I supposed to do!"

I'm totally serious.
*sigh*

[randallhilton]

Caller- "Is there still sh*t in the water?"
Boss "Yes we still have a boil water order"
Caller "So, if you boil it, will the sh*t float to the top so that you can skim it off? Is that what happens?"
"No, it's so small that you can't see it-microscopic"
"Well my water is clear-how am I supposed to know if there is still sh*t in it! I have company coming this weekend-what am I supposed to do!"

I'm totally serious.
*sigh*

I wonder if the caller was on his cell phone? (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=2273311) :fie:

[pcrowder]

CapeC - I was thinking about you this morning when I jumped in the shower, and wondering how today's been going with the crisis. Please keep us posted...you can even start a blog about it -- "How The Water Boils"....and please include all of the hysterical accounts like you have above.


But -- seriously -- it's those kind of people who absolutely cannot think for themselves, nor "process" any information they're given when in a crisis that scares the crap out of me. These will be the people when TSHTF that will be the biggest drain on not only the resources available, but mentally on everyone as well. These are the people who just cannot look past this second and plan for anything down the line, whether it be 5 minutes from now or 5 weeks. They will be the ones uttering those famous words I remember so well from a M*A*S*H episode when Frank Burns in hysterics, says "Just do something--- ANYTHING!" and Hawkeye says, "Ok, let's all do anything." This is the mentality we all will face. We all know we cannot anticipate nor plan for every eventuality, but at least we all try to have some sort of a workable and changeable plan ready for most scenarios. These are the people that not only have NO plan, but if you give them a plan, they can't follow it anyway.

The more I think about it, the more your words ring true with a huge red flag over and over in my head "Makes you VERY aware of how quickly things could get ugly in a major SHTF situation. " These are the people who will be running around screaming "Just do something - ANYTHING", and becoming more hysterical with every passing minute. These are the people who when they can't think of a plan or utilize a plan given to them who will resort to ugly mobs and will attempt to take things by force and will fight to the death for some inconsequential item just to have it. (Remember the news footage in the past of of people fighting over the last microwave TV dinner in the store for when the hurricane hits? They will have no way to microwave it, nor keep it frozen, but they will get into hand-to-hand combat with another shopper just to have it. Or those people who buy 96 rolls of TP when they predict a 3 day blizzard.) These are the people who because of their inability to think in rational steps will be the ones the gov't must attend to first, but because they can't process the info, they will just keep being a drain on the system because they will have to be "walked through" each step repeatedly. These are the people that I call "rinse and repeat".....Alot of the older shampoo bottles said basically to put shampoo on your hair, suds well, rinse and repeat --- wonder if alot of these people were sooooo dense that they didn't stop "repeating" till the bottle was empty cuz they couldn't get past the "repeat" part? You think I'm kidding? I can just picture the guy above with the phone call about boiling the sh*t....he fits the definition to a "T".

[pcrowder]

I wonder if the caller was on his cell phone? (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=2273311) :fie:

Thanks alot randall --- now I wanna go figure out how I can "boil" my cell phone!!!!!!!

[CapeCMom]

Well the E-Coli is gone from our water but the coliform remains-yuck
Someone called and asked if it was ok to water her lawn and would the water kill her grass.
My co worker laughed and no-it'll probably fertilize it, lol.
They are dumping a lot of chemicals-lovely-in the water now. The DEP authorized us to up the load, so hopefully it will be clear soon. The local businesses are freaking out because this weekend officially marks the start of the tourist season because most schools have now let out. We really depend on the tourist dollars even though we all hate them with a passion.

[randallhilton]

As a licensed plumber this thread has been of interest to me. I wondered if your plight had made it to the news so I went to news.google.com and searched for "boil water order."
:eek:

What I found were pages of current and recent boil water advisories from coast to coast. There's a lot of contaminated water out there and the size of the town doesn't matter (remember Boston not too long ago).

Bottom line: Be prepared to supply and/or treat your own water.

[CapeCMom]

It made the Boston news. Here's some links for various stories.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100618/NEWS/6180327

http://www.falmouthmass.us/

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/23916940/detail.html

[marnee]

So, this is only marginally related, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

A local power substation was having problems over the winter and we lost power for several hours one evening. My husband was making all of the good-friend phone calls and checking in with our friends and family close to see if they needed anything or wanted to come over to our house. He got to our friend whose family is, really, technically better prepared for the situation than we were, but he still checked with them. They were great, they told us, except they didn't know if they could flush their toilets or not with out power. These friends are inteliigent people, have a good 3 month supply of food and water stored, but didn't know that their toilet didn't need electricity to flush.

[Bones]

So, this is only marginally related, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

A local power substation was having problems over the winter and we lost power for several hours one evening. My husband was making all of the good-friend phone calls and checking in with our friends and family close to see if they needed anything or wanted to come over to our house. He got to our friend whose family is, really, technically better prepared for the situation than we were, but he still checked with them. They were great, they told us, except they didn't know if they could flush their toilets or not with out power. These friends are inteliigent people, have a good 3 month supply of food and water stored, but didn't know that their toilet didn't need electricity to flush.

OR maybe they were thinking of the sewage pumping stations that do not work if there is no power to pump the crap in the sewer line. Once reason I am glad I have a septic tank. And if you are on a well you will get maybe two flushes before you lose water pressure.

[marnee]

OR maybe they were thinking of the sewage pumping stations that do not work if there is no power to pump the crap in the sewer line. Once reason I am glad I have a septic tank. And if you are on a well you will get maybe two flushes before you lose water pressure.

Point taken. We're lucky enough to have very minimal to no interruption with pumping stations, especially when they're with out power for just a few hours. And, yes, I know how the well water pressure works, especially after the first experience in our new house like that. :) City water/sewer stuff usually has no problems here though.

[CapeCMom]

Well, the water ban is still on. They have been flushing hydrants all over town trying to get the new chemicals through the system. Our DPW manager explained that we have over 400 miles of water main in our town and that it's going to take awhile for all the-excuse the choice of words cr*p flushed out of the system.

If anything, this is a good exercise on adequate water storage!

I am on vacation this coming up week so I will get a break from the crazies- I had a woman who told me that all Town Hall employees should be elected, and that we're all lazy sob's.
People are getting down right crabby! I don't have anything to do with the Water Dept. I register people to vote!

Speaking of that-new article.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100619/NEWS/6190318

[Bones]

just wait until the power is off for more than a day and they don't refuel the backup pumps/generators for those sewage pumps. It does not take much start causing backups.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Well the E-Coli is gone from our water but the coliform remains-yuck


I take it you don't often have boil orders? It is extremely common in this area. Small cities or water districts have boil orders almost on a weekly basis in one area or another. It gets a little tricky when an area where a school is located comes under a boil order, but they usually just ask for the parents to send in bottled water or perhaps dismiss early.

And many wells in rural areas are deemed unfit to drink because of either nitrates or bacterial contamination. People seem to use them anyway, and live to tell about it. Usually, you just get water from a different well for drinking, but still use the one for everything else. We did that for years due to the nitrates found in the shallow well's water here. The deep well still tested ok.

I can't imagine everyone freaking out like that. It's such a common occurrence in some areas, especially with all the rain and new sewer/water lines that go in each summer in different areas. Of course, I have never lived in a heavily populated urban area, so maybe people don't think like we do.

[CapeCMom]

No, this is the first time we've had one to my recollection. There are several towns around us though that have them pretty regularly. We've been very lucky up until now. People are spoiled. It's been a little alarming to me to see how people have reacted.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

It's been a little alarming to me to see how people have reacted.

It sounds like they just went into a panic. That is more scary to me than a simple boil order, especially with so many frenzied people living in such a densely inhabited area. People themselves can be a lot more dangerous in a panicked state than simple bacteria is.

[CapeCMom]

True enough but I know several people who have gotten sick from this including my six year old and my brother. It's about the fact that they did not tell us in a timely manner, and when asked about the horrible smell to the water they said it was fine and it was not. Sorry, Billy, I like you and all but I think your time is up.

[WileyCoyote]

OMG.

Where I used to live, the Water treatment fellas would, at the first of every month, go to the local Ace Hardware and buy out their 3-gallon bottles of bleach, and pour it into the plant. THAT was our 'water treatment system". You could tell when the water had been "Treated" because your water would smell and taste like bleach for 3-5 days afterward. I bought a whole-house water-filtration system.

Later, our town sold our Water treatment plant to a corporation that actually tested and treated the water, and built a new state of the art storage and treatment facility to take care of the proposed 250,000 new residents that were going to move in during the next 10 years, as well as the current 80,000 customers in both our and our neighboring county. BUT - the water they tapped was from the Savannah River - have any of you ever heard of the Savannah River Plant? The place where they store hundreds of thousands of tanks of nuclear waste, buried underground - that is leaking into the groundwater and going into the river? We were advised "not to eat more than three fish a month from the river" to avoid a concentration of nuclear buildup - but the water was "safe to drink"! :eek:

When we looked for our ultimate farm, one of the major requirements I had was - pure water. That is one of the main reasons I bought where we did - the water is from an underground aquifer that runs through miles of sand. I'm told that it comes down from the snowmelt and rain from the mountains west of us. It is pure and sweet with literally NO contaminants - no 'floaters', no rime, NOTHING. For the first time in over 30 years, I can drink tap water and not puke. The rivers here are so clear you can see straight through to the bottom - no matter how deep. The recent rains to the West have given us even MORE water; several rivers are up to the tops of their banks... and clear as blue glass.

Water IS life. And the better your water, the better your life, the stronger your plants, the healthier your animals. I wonder just what all of the oil spill and increasing waste-matter runoff will do to the coastal regions when they really do run out of potable water - and boiling won't help.

[NCLee]

I wanted to yell at the TV a couple of days ago. A knucklehead was giving the weather forecast. We're running behind in rainfall by a couple of inches, year to date. In a heat wave, mid to upper 90's for at least the next 10 days. Only a slight chance of a widely scattered thunderstorm.

Knucklehead said about the lack of rainfall.....

"That's OK because the resevoirs are full."

Guess knucklehead forgot about all the folks not hooked up to the resevoirs. Guess he forgot where the water comes from to keep them full. Guess he forgot that a couple of years ago those same bodies of water were almost empty. Some places less than an month's worth of water in them. And, that was at the lower and more contaiminated level that normally isn't pumped for drinking water.

But, that's OK because the resevoirs are full.

Lee

[bookwormom]

Lets just all give thanks for good water, I do every day. what a blessing to turn on the faucet and get a drink. I just did.

I don't understand the hysteria of the people. What is so hard about boiling water, if it says to boil your drinking water.

Maybe it needs to be spelt out for them?

Fill up teakettle,
put on stove,
bring to full boil,
boil five minutes,
turn off stove, let stand until cool,
fill in jars or container,
put in refrigerator.
Use as needed.

I bet you dollars to doughnuts there are some people who think they have to boil toilet flush water, too.

[WileyCoyote]

NO bets, bookwormmom! That would definitely be a sucker bet!

[vgodenwa]

"I take it you don't often have boil orders? It is extremely common in this area. Small cities or water districts have boil orders almost on a weekly basis in one area or another."

This is my situation exactly.
We have never had a problem by just drinking the water from the frig with those expensive water filters.
Cooking has never been a problem due to the heat, I guess (same effect as boiling).
Our frig is a Sears brand with about a $50 filter change a couple of times per year.
If there are any water experts here I'd like to know if we are slowly killing ourselves by doing this!!!:D:confused: