Continued water contamination is minimized

Found this article in the Dickinson Press today and worry about the minimization that is widespread regarding out drinking water in North Dakota

Published July 26, 2012, 12:00 AM

Regent water safe despite notice

Regent residents can continue to safely use their drinking water, even though a public notice has been issued indicating the city had three violations in the annual Drinking Water Compliance Report for 2011. The report was issued this month.

By: Betsy Simon, The Dickinson Press

The violations included microbiological violations, community water systems, public notification rule violations and failure to monitor/report major violations with Chloramine, which is a combination of chlorine and ammonia.

LeeAnn Tillotson, environmental scientist with the North Dakota Department of Health’s Division of Municipal Facilities Drinking Water Program, said it appears the city forgot to collect a sample, which she said isn’t uncommon.

“They just missed a sample and there hasn’t been any indication with past samples that the city has tested positive for bacteria,” Tillotson said. “The city appears to be back in compliance now though, so there is no need for people within the city to look for alternative sources of drinking water.”

Regent city auditor Karen Kouba said the violation was due to timing.

“We didn’t have a maintenance person for a while in 2011, and they were the ones who usually took the monthly water samples,” she said. “Then, when we did get the sample sent in it was on a Friday and they don’t take water samples on Fridays, but everything is good now and there are no problems with the water itself.”

The start of the American water war

This is far from the first time in my life that I have lived a place with contaminated water. Upon first moving to Dickinson ND I felt confidant that the city water supply was not safe and began buying filtered water at the grocery store. Granted it was purely for drinking when at home, I was still cooking with tap water and drinking tap water when out to eat or at the office. This combination of tap and bottled is something that I did when living in Manila and Mumbai, knowing that the water was bad but also know I could not 100% ovoid it so worked to build a tolerance. However the contamination in these cities that I feared was more due to lake of water treatment that would cause short term problems such as diarrhea. In Dickinson I fear something much greater that will have long lasting negative impacts on my health and the health of those around me. I am willing to forgo the florid and convince that comes with tap water completely now knowing that its public knowledge that the leaking has occurred ... see previous post on the water is going to kill us.

If you have any doubt, I think the fracking in Pennsylvania is a great example of whats to come in Dickinson ND. These are just a few of the hundreds of articles about the pollution of our drinking water.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/dimock-pa-fracking-epa-water_n_1368148.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jCUQcMjaT-TJqizs7WRB1zIw8rzA?docId=cef00570f618477d8e9fcb53579af91c

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-09/pennsylvania-fracking-can-put-water-sources-at-risk-study-finds

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/07/fracked-pennsylvania-shale-could-be-naturally-leaky/


When living in the developing world we spoke often about water security, the water crisis and water wars. We always thought that they were something we would see in our lifetime and really believed they would start in the mega cities of the world and that western countries would not face serious crisis for at least another generation. Little did we know that our corporate government would pollute our groundwater beyond repair in ever area that they can frack to get richer.


So what have I done? Not sure that the filtered water in this area is even safe, (reverse osmosis is wonderful technology but it cant remove radioactive drilling byproduct) we are buying our water an hour and a half away. Still using the re-usable jugs we have been using since our arrival we have coupled that with dozens of gallon bottles processed in Wisconsin. Stocking up on water each time we leave the area and not sure what we will do to get through four months of having to buy all water even the cooking water.

Extreme?...... yes
Crazy? ....... doubt it
Serious? ...... with out a doubt