The water is still not safe but coffee is
The water in Vancouver is still not safe to drink, and the exciting (fucking annoying) part of that equation is that there’s no time frame from the authorities as to when it might be [cbc]. So what does that mean? Are they just under promising so that they can over deliver? Is it that hopeless that they don’t want to start an exodus from the city? Does the mayor have shares in a bottled water company and he just wants to drive the share prices up before they announce the news.
The good news is that our coffee drive economy is back on track. Thankfully it seems that the standard cafe coffee makers boil water hot enough to deal with any health concerns created from the murky water that was in turn created by the storm. According to the CBC:
Ian Tostenson, the president of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Service Association, said a meeting with health officials cleared the way for the resumption of full service, provided the water is heated to at least 74 C.
Vivianna Zanocco of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority said that’s hot enough to lift the ban.
“We’ve talked to people who have more of an intricate knowledge of the equipment they use, and we’re satisfied it would do a good enough job that if there was any bacteria in the water there would be no threat.”
So hurray. Now I don’t drink coffee, but at everyone else in Vancouver does and I ddn’t want to be in town when everyone starts to go through caffine withdrawls. I was planning on leaving until the whole thing blows over (no pun intended) but thankfully now I can stay.
I was talking to a hydrological engineer yesterday, and she speculated that the current water “crisis” has been blown out of proportion and prolonged to drum up public support for the expensive $600-million water filtration plant that’s currently under construction on the North Shore. She’s been drinking the water out of the taps for the past week and she tests water quality for a living. No contamination has been discovered in our water and no one has been reported ill. That’s pretty amazing considering 2 million people were under the boil water advisory at one point. Health officials have only ever reported “increased risk” of contamination.
Interesting theory, and one that she said was widely held at her office. I should note too that she supports the new plant, probably because it will create more work for her and the engineering consulting company she works for.
hi
i am new in Vancouver area and i am surprise for the water alert
no emergency plan and free water furnish to the population. i am not undestand that.i am an environemtal counselor and know the water problem but i am not undestand the lack action …
i am sorry for my english, i am a french people from france.
I’ve been drinking the tap water for days, actually, and aside from the weird tentacle growing out of my back, I’m fine.
Seriously, though, it was only an advisory, and there hasn’t been a single reported case in the news of someone getting even remotely ill (meanwhile people in Maple Ridge are getting in fistfights over the last bottle of Evian), so I definitely agree this has been blown out of proportion by the media. By being so sensationalistic, they’ve actually caused more harm than they’ve apparently saved.
I figured I’d braved the water in Mexico and China, so temporarily murky water in Canada wasn’t going to do too much to me.
wow. i never would have thought of the ‘crisis’ being dragged out to drum up public support for the water plant. it is something to consider, for sure.
i am glad for the whole experience. it has been a wake up call for me (and it seems others, too) to be more prepared for emergencies. the city is puts on emergency preparedness workshops. there is one tonight http://www.changeeverything.ca/emergency_preparedness_workshop_tonight
I sell water filters and I noticed that there is a lack of consumer knowledge in what to look for in a water filter that can deal with boil water advisory situations. To put it simply, water filters which are rated at 1 micron absolute or lower will be able to remove parasitic cysts such as giardia and cryptosporidium, but cannot remove or kill bacteria (such as coliform or E coli). Adding an inexpensive UV sterilizer will kill practically all bacteria and render the filtered water safe to drink. Such a setup is pretty inexpensive, prices having dropped more than 50% in the past 5 years. However, 1 micron rated cartridges are pretty easy to get clogged up by sediments in the water. If not protected by high capacity sediment cartridges, the cost of filter cartridge changes will be phenomenal! Water distillers (manual or automatic) can also produce safe water. All my customers do not have to scramble for bottled water - Note that plastic water bottles is now a serious environmental concern, growing quickly year by year too.
an interesting globe & mail article on the water issue:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061122.wxbcrisks22/BNStory/National/home