Good grief. Did you see this morning’s news? Hundreds of thousands of people are banned from using their tap water, thanks to an industrial chemical spill into the Elk River, which flows through Charleston!
Ever been in Charleston? It’s a real city with a real economy, which has now skidded to the proverbial screeching halt. Restaurants are closed, hotel customers are canceling, schools have shut down, and people are having to stand in line upwards of an hour to get trucked-in water.
An interesting page from a technical site offers some insight into just how toxic this fine substance is. Under “Safety Information,” click on the links next to “Risk statements” and “Safety statements”; in the sections that come up, navigate to the numbers shown in those live links in “risk” and “safety” statements. Holy mackerel! Irritating to eyes, skin, respiratory system…and “safety statements”? There’s twelve of them.
This is not some far-fetched terrorist attack. It’s not an unlikely natural disaster like a tornado or a brushfire ripping its way through the downtown of a major city. It’s just the cost (to the citizenry…that would be the likes of you and me) of doing business in an unregulated or laxly regulated economy. Hey…what are a few sick kids when there’s billions of bucks to be made?
The perp does business as “Freedom Industries.” Heh…no joke! Wave that flag.
It’s a good reason to have a couple of carboys full of water on hand at all times. And it reminds me that mine is getting mighty old — time to pour it on the plants, rinse out the containers, and refill the things.
By extension, I think it’s also a reminder to always have an extra tank of propane, which you can use for cooking if the power or gas goes out. Just refilled one yesterday, having noticed that the tank in the BBQ is running low. I keep three propane bottles on hand, but in my recent spate of a) incapacity and b) bone-laziness, I failed to refill two of them and have let one come close to running out. I’d better take the other one over to U-Haul later today and get that thing topped off.
Water, propane, and at least a few stores of canned foods and dry staples such as rice, beans, and flour: Don’t get caught without ’em!
WHICH is why I’m so concerned about this whole “fracking” craze. The thought that one can pump hundreds of gallons of chemicals into the ground to free up “nat gas” from ROCK and not have any adverse effect on ground water…is just crazy. They’re doing this just up the way in Pa…NY and WV and just came to the conclusion there may be some impact…Ya think! Once this water is polluted …that’s it . Several instances of folks being able to “light” the “water” coming out of their faucets…
Wow! That was a trick people living along the Love Canal could do.
One nice thing about a swimming pool is it serves as an 18,000-gallon reservoir of water that you can render potable simply by boiling it.