Rebecca hit the nail on the head when she called this boil water advisory blogging gold[miss604]. You might be saying that this is getting old and not worth reading about anymore. If that’s true for you, then skip this post. You can say that I’m whining, but this is more about documenting a short lived nuisance to exhibit potential bigger problems that I highlighted in my last post about this situation.
I bit the bullet today and started in on the pile of dishes in our kitchen. Quite honestly, it’s been driving me nuts. I blame my mother for instilling this element of a neat freak in me, nicely balanced by my dad’s ability to achieve zen through delicately controlled messes.
I did boil a large pot of water to fill up an empty gallon jug for various needs, mainly to make coffee. The water still smells a bit funky, even after boiling. I’m not brave enough to ingest it, and that includes cooking. Once again, it’s a matter of the smell translating into funky taste that steers me away just slightly.
A recent post on Metroblogging Vancouver caught my attention when someone posted the following comment.
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.
Posted by: Chris at November 20, 2006 07:42 PM [mbv]
I was waiting for the “theories” to start popping up, but there is a lot of truth in that statement. No one has been getting sick from the water, and there hasn’t been any evidence of harmful bacteria being found through testing.
On the same post, a recent resident to Vancouver from France is amazed at the poor response the city has given to the locals. They site that the city has done poorly to provide water to those in need, which is somewhat true. I’ve heard more reports of radio stations and businesses giving out free water than local authorities. I’m not going to lay blame anywhere, but it is interesting to note.
The advisory, for the most part, is basic over caution, but it’s expected to go on for a while longer than I imagined[cbc]. Several days? Couple weeks? Ridiculous. I doubt that all of this has been done intentionally for the support noted above. However, it has much more support than ever before, that’s for sure.
It’s just nice to have clean dishes again. With Thanksgiving coming up, of which we will be celebrating in this household, it will make cooking a tad interesting. Like I said, I’m not ready to drink it, and the leg of lamb we intend to make might take some careful prep. The side dishes will need a little finesse as well. Would the water give potatoes a strange tint?
Living in China, we live with crap water on a daily basis. Some things we do, and we haven’t had any issues…
1. We drink only bottled water (or beer).
2. Tai-tai (my wife) washes all veggies, fruits and eggs in a bleach solution. Essentially, you fill the sink with water, and pour in a capful of Milton Sterilizing solution…or, you can look in the baby care aisle for bottle sterilizing solution. After letting set for 10 minutes, she then rinses the whole lot with bottled water. Yup…hoist up the 5 gallon bottle to the sink and pour yourself a sinkful. Drain and pat dry.
3. We shower, bathe, brush our teeth, wash hands, with the tap water. The water is generally heavy mineral, but the bacteria content is the thing to watch for. Washing yourself, you use soap…so it should kill the baddies. Brushing teeth, well, we only use it to rinse the brush…and that is HOT tap water.
The veggie, fruit and egg washing is the key for us. You might think, eggs? Yeah, the eggs we get are fresh from the farm and you need to scrub them…and then cook them until they are dead (no sunny-side up in Chiner), because of the bird flu concerns. Given all the issues we have read about in the USA recently with packaged spinach, etc., we just may carry the task of washing everything home with us whenever we move back.
Knock on wood…with all the precautions…we haven’t been gravely sick with intestinal issues during our (coming up on) 8 years here in the past 11 years.
But…when visiting this fair country…don’t ever eat a salad in a 2-bit restaurant. You may think it looks lovely, but you have no idea if they have done the above. Hotel restaurants tend to clean and wash things well for you…no worries.