Water boil order? Health question...

Diana

Diana

Final Approach
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Diana
We're presently on a water boil order, but sometimes we forget and drink the water or brush our teeth without boiling the water first. What's going to happen to us? What are you likely killing by boiling the water first? We're on rural water that comes from some big well or water table somewhere.
 
Diarrhea is the most likely outcome.

A solution is to boil water and put it into plastic bottles or water jugs and leave those by the sinks.

I lived through accidentally getting water in my mouth in Indonesia. I sincerely doubt that things such as cholera, etc. are sitting in your water. More likely dirt is the big the contaminant.
 
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You probably have a tapeworm or two now. And possibly diphtheria. Been nice knowing you.
 
Teller1900 said:
You probably have a tapeworm or two now. And possibly diphtheria. Been nice knowing you.
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well that settles it, Matt will get to know our friend at Gastons. Which friend? The White River.
 
Hi Diana,
I'm really sorry for what you, Tom and all the folks in that part of the country are going through. The main reason to boil the water is to reduce the count of coliform bacteria. Most likely nothing will happen if you accidentally brush your teeth with water that has not been boiled because the dose (inoculum) is small. Try not to drink it in larger amounts.

If you get diarrhea, the most likely symptom of acute gastroenteritis, take a tablet of Septra DS or Bactrim DS or Flagyl 500 mg if you have it handy. I know nurses always keep a stash of goodies for times like this. If not, and you have your pharmacy phone number, send me a pm and I'll call a prescription for you and Tom.

Hope things improve soon!
 
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Giardia:

Giardia.jpg


Cryptosporidium:
cryptosporidium_3.gif



Cheers!
-harry
 
Biol water orders usually come when the utility can no longer maintain tested standards for a system, due to some problem such as the one you are experiencing. It does NOT always mean that abnormal levels of coliform have been detected. It is kind of a CYA thing. That being said, there is no downside to boiling :eek:
 
In general, you are not likely to have some of the nastier things found in other parts of the world in the midwest. It is likely that the worst that happens is that you get good and sick.

~ Christopher
 
alaskaflyer said:
Biol water orders usually come when the utility can no longer maintain tested standards for a system, due to some problem such as the one you are experiencing. It does NOT always mean that abnormal levels of coliform have been detected. It is kind of a CYA thing. That being said, there is no downside to boiling :eek:
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Diana, sorry about all your problems!

But this got me thinking. I have an individual well and my water has only been tested once, when it was drilled, 15 years ago. There must not be anything bad going on, though, since I am not sick. Either that or I've developed an immunity. However, it seems you have a community well so maybe they are worried that the supply pipes have been damaged or something.

Of course if I was in your situation I wouldn't have to worry about boiling or not. In my house, no electricity = no water, since the well pump is electric. :rolleyes:

Hope things are better soon!
 
TeenDoc said:
Hi Diana,
I'm really sorry for what you, Tom and all the folks in that part of the country are going through. The main reason to boil the water is to reduce the count of coliform bacteria. Most likely nothing will happen if you accidentally brush your teeth with water that has not been boiled because the dose (inoculum) is small. Try not to drink it in larger amounts.

If you get diarrhea, the most likely symptom of acute gastroenteritis, take a tablet of Septra DS or Bactrim DS or Flagyl 500 mg if you have it handy. I know nurses always keep a stash of goodies for times like this. If not, and you have your pharmacy phone number, send me a pm and I'll call a prescription for you and Tom.

Hope things improve soon!
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Gil, you are a very kind and thoughtful gentleman. Thank you! :)
 
Hi Diana,
I agree with all the (serious notes) above, and add that the CDC is a great source of info on many human health problems especially infectious ones; here is their link to water contamination.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/water/drinking.htm
Coliforms can be very serious - one I'm sure you have heard of O157 H7 which can cause renal failure as an end result (but is easily avoided by boiling or chlorinating)
I used to live a few miles away from the site of Canada's worst water borne O157 E.coli outbreak in which 7 died:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/walkerton/
The chlorination equipment was neglected and e coli from the cattle of neighboring farms made it into the water supply.
And Harry's photos of crypto and giardia are not without substance, these are real threats as well.

Boil water orders often come from flooding problems where surface water is spilling into wells. Surface water is full of um...nastiness - whereas most well water is usually fairly pristine. If you have not had flooding recently, it could be a chlorination failure (or are they all using chloramines now?) or as mentioned, a monitoring deficiency.

I have never heard of a farm that is on community water, all my farm experience is those with their own wells, so that is a bit surprising.
We have our own well, and had it tested as M. did, also we were advised as a precaution to shock the well when we first drilled it, with several gallons of chlorine poured straight down the casing.

It should be easy to figure a way to not forget to brush teeth etc - maybe you could lay something over top the faucet so at 1am when you get up to get a drink it will be in your way and make you remember....also move your toothbrush and paste to the kitchen so the abnormal location will remind you that you need to do it differently now.
 
Good luck with the water problems.

I ended up brushing my teeth with the water in India at a location that did not have a central "Westernisation" plant, as my co-workers over there called it. If someone tells me to boil water, I'll end up doing it - that was probably the worst 24 hours of my life.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
astanley said:
Good luck with the water problems.

I ended up brushing my teeth with the water in India at a location that did not have a central "Westernisation" plant, as my co-workers over there called it. If someone tells me to boil water, I'll end up doing it - that was probably the worst 24 hours of my life.

Cheers,

-Andrew
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Yick!

We had a woman, my former boss as a matter of fact, pick up hepatitis in India. I don't know if it is water related or not but it almost killed her.

In Indonesia I was eating at a restaurant in Surabaya, They would wash the dishes in a river that was out front. In that rive up stream I had seen a guy with his trousers down reliving himself of solid waste. I stopped eating immediately!! :hairraise::hairraise:

But I think for Dianna the boil order is more precautionary one and the risk is pretty low.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Hi Diana,
I agree with all the (serious notes) above, and add that the CDC is a great source of info on many human health problems especially infectious ones; here is their link to water contamination.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/water/drinking.htm
Coliforms can be very serious - one I'm sure you have heard of O157 H7 which can cause renal failure as an end result (but is easily avoided by boiling or chlorinating)
I used to live a few miles away from the site of Canada's worst water borne O157 E.coli outbreak in which 7 died:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/walkerton/ If you have not had flooding recently, it could be a chlorination failure (or are they all using chloramines now?) or as mentioned, a monitoring deficiency.
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Dave, thanks for all the great information. I got on dial-up this morning and checked out the links. We probably need to be more careful now.

Here is the info that just came out in the local paper. I'm not sure what "bulk impurities" they are talking about. :dunno:


"(December 12, 2007) There is an Advisory Boil Order in effect for all customers of CPWSD No. 1 (rural water district) located in Barton County, western Dade County, southwest Cedar County and northeast Jasper County.
Residents are encouraged to drink bottled water or boil water with the following steps:
1. Strain water through a clean cloth to remove bulk impurities.
2. Bring water to a rolling boil for three minutes.
3. Let the water cool before drinking.
Boiled water will taste better if you put oxygen back into it by pouring the water back and forth between two clean containers. This will also improve the taste of stored water.
This Advisory Boil Order is in effect until the water district issues a notice to stop boiling."

For a few days, we had lower water pressure, but the pressure is back up now, although the water looks carbonated.

Mike, I can't find your post asking where our rural water comes from, but it comes from a really, really deep well somewhere.

We have a well here at the farm, but the water has a LOT of sulfur in it, so we don't drink it. Tom had to cut a path with a chain saw to get to the wellhouse yesterday so we can get some kind of heater in it for the upcoming lower temps, so it doesn't freeze up in there.
 
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Checkout_my_Six said:
Tough bunch here....hope the water problems clear in a day or so.
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Thanks Rick!

Yep, sometimes they can be tough, and occasionally get into tough love, but most all are marshmallows at heart, and are incredibly generous and thoughtful. :)

I'd be posting more on the purple board right now, but it's hard to post on forums from my iPhone, and I only get on dial-up a few times a day.
 
Mike Schneider said:
Diana, my guess as to why the water looks looks carbonated, is that it has air entrained in it. This could have happened due to a pipe break. If you will pour a glass full, and let it sit for a while, you will see the infinitesimal air bubbles rise to the top (and go away). A call to the water utility will tell you if there is something in the water (bacteria and/or virus) other than dirt (which could, of course, can contain bacteria and/or virus) from a pipe break. They can tell you also if the main to your farm broke. If the main from the well to your farm didn't break, you don't have much to worry about if the problem was caused by a pipe break. Most water utilities are proud of their product and will gladly talk to a customer about any problem they are having.
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Thanks Mike, I'll call them today. I know part of their problem was the lack of electricity for several days. There are still 26,000 homes/businesses without power with our electric company.
 
Diana, if the only problem with your well is sulfer, you can probably make it drinkable with a good filter (Britta, EPure etc). This won't help with a contaminated municipal supply though.

-lance
 
lancefisher said:
Diana, if the only problem with your well is sulfur, you can probably make it drinkable with a good filter (Britta, EPure etc). This won't help with a contaminated municipal supply though.

-lance
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That's something we hadn't really considered before. But not a bad idea. Right now the problem would be getting power to the pump out there, but if we got desperate, I bet our personal well water might be an option.

There is probably something we can use the 300 gallons of water in the hot tub for. On the news the other night we saw someone use their hot tub water to flush their toilets. I kinda liked that as an option if we should ever need it.
 
Had a water well that stunk to high heaven of sulfur...didn't even want ot shower in it. Got one of the commercial water treatment companies to test and filter incoming supply...worked great...fine to drink. I believe the cost was around $20/month at the time to supply and maintain system.

Merf
 
Diana said:
That's something we hadn't really considered before. But not a bad idea. Right now the problem would be getting power to the pump out there, but if we got desperate, I bet our personal well water might be an option.

There is probably something we can use the 300 gallons of water in the hot tub for. On the news the other night we saw someone use their hot tub water to flush their toilets. I kinda liked that as an option if we should ever need it.
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Here's what I know....You are getting your water from a well in the Ozark aquifer (rural water in Barton County). This is a deep aquifer system with practically no contact with the surface. In your area it is confined (separated from the surface) by two confining units. The little beasties that have been brought up here are associated with surface water (streams and lakes). There is very little to no chance that the water in the Ozark aquifer has any coliform, guardia, or cryptosporidia. The only exception to this is if there is a break in the distribution lines somewhere at the surface where dirt and debris (and beasties) could enter the distribution system. To my knowledge this has not happened.

Tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of Missouri residents (me for one) drink groundwater from the Ozark aquifer with no treatment whatsoever.

Some systems (say Lamar for example) get their water from surface water (Lamar Lake) and are much more likely to get "stuff" in their water. The boil order is for all residents because most people do not know where their water comes from. Better safe than sorry. The water suppliers, as previously posted, are playing CYA since the electricity that operates their treatment facilities is currently off.

Your water is fine.

Joe
 
rknlazyr said:
There is very little to no chance that the water in the Ozark aquifer has any coliform, guardia, or cryptosporidia. The only exception to this is if there is a break in the distribution lines somewhere at the surface where dirt and debris (and beasties) could enter the distribution system. To my knowledge this has not happened.
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Thanks for the explanation Joe. :) Tom wasn't sure where the water came from. He even mentioned glaciers...maybe that has something to do with the Ozark aquifer?

I just called the rural water department to check on line breaks and they said there were no line breaks. Yay! The lady said that any time the water pressure gets below 20 pounds of pressure they have to issue a precautionary boil order. I guess it's a CYA thing, like you said. She said something about the potential for a possible backflow with less pressure, whatever that means. So, I guess I'll quit worrying about it quite so much, but we'll still use the bottled water for now until they rescind the boil order, just in case.
 
Activated carbon (activated charcoal) should also remove sulfur from water. Worst comes to worst, you can probably use a couple of the extra fish tank filters, at least for the short term.


~ Christopher

EDIT: Obviously, you'd want to use a fresh filter, not one that's been in the fish tank.
 
jwriteclub said:
EDIT: Obviously, you'd want to use a fresh filter, not one that's been in the fish tank.
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:D

My poor fish...their air pump is hooked up to a battery, but they have gone without their heater. They are still moving around, so hopefully they won't be any worse for the wear after this is all over.
 
wrap a blanket around the tank? perhaps you've already done that. ...
 
Mike Schneider said:
Joe, is there no requirement in Missouri for there to be "stand by" power (usually diesel generators) to power water treatment plants, wells and wastewater treatment plants?
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I can't say difinitavely that there isn't, but I'm not aware of those contingency plans being required by the State. Some communities have backup power for those (and other) facilities that they maintain at their own expense, but to my knowledge (which is limited) there is no State requirement for it.
 
BTW if you are really worried a drop or two of chlorine bleach will kill all the stuff in your water. This is an survival school trick to make nasty water drinkable.
 
Or if you happen to have a backpacking filter/pump. They have a finite lifespan but should last for a while.

~ Christopher
 
I have also used drops of iodine but it make the water taste pretty crappy. Still if that's the only thing to drink...

I think this was long before the days of backpacking filters... or maybe they wanted us to be more primitive.
 
An example of "backflow" would be if you had ahose submerged in the horse watering trough and the pressure went negative in piping system. The system would begin to siphon water out of the horse trough into the distribution (pipe) system. Thereby taking any bacteria and/or virus with it into the piping system.
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And I think what Mike is saying is that it doesn't even have to be 'your' hose, it could be some distant neighbors hose submerged in a tank of whatever nastiness with the valve open, doing this.....hence the recent (well, decades for some places) requirements for anti-siphon valves.

Its natural to take our supply of fresh pure water for granted until we have these problems, or hear of what 3rd world nations live with (die from).

Sorry if this seems harsh info to some but disease and death can sometimes be a serious topic!
 
My parents have anti-siphon valves on all the irrigation and faucets on their ranch.

There are actually 2 wells, but the systems interconnect in a couple of places, and without the valves water could (theoretically) run back into the household system.

~ Christopher
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
And I think what Mike is saying is that it doesn't even have to be 'your' hose, it could be some distant neighbors hose submerged in a tank of whatever nastiness with the valve open, doing this.....hence the recent (well, decades for some places) requirements for anti-siphon valves.

Its natural to take our supply of fresh pure water for granted until we have these problems, or hear of what 3rd world nations live with (die from).

Sorry if this seems harsh info to some but disease and death can sometimes be a serious topic!
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Dave, thanks for all the great information! You're right that most of us take it for granted.
 
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