Salem OR- Water advisory issued

Oregon Monkeys please take note:

Salem, Turner water advisory: Young children, vulnerable people should not drink tap water
SALEM, OR (KPTV) -
Salem, Turner water advisory: Young children, vulnerable people should not drink tap water

 

Here is the notice from the City- DRINKING WATER ADVISORY

They say not to boil the water because it may increase the toxin levels. I did see someone say that a Berkey could filter it but I do not know if that is true.

 

Worse than a hydrocarbon, they are toxins formed by algae and are organic toxins. Some studies show that combination of fine filter and activated charcoal will get rid of 97 to 99 % of it. Organic compounds stick well to the surface of activated charcoal. In the 1950's in the USAF we used different water processing tanks and stored and tested the water before using it. How long before it would be best to reprocess your water if you live in an urban environment? Most problems, beaver fever, algae toxins, lead, etc, are only found after the fact and any deliberate action would be designed to bypass the normal checks. Water safety is not only a very exact science, there is a lot that we have only recently been able to study with tests that go down to parts per billion, dna tests, hormonal contamination tests, etc. If you have a good deep well that has good water, a very valuable part of your preps has been secured.

 

Seeing as how a lot of your bottled water is filtered tap water, that may or may not help.

 

Even activated charcoal will not filter out all of the poisons, best bet is to purchase potable water from a known and reliable source, or distill and decant for 24 hours with vinegar before further filtering. Also, a good ultra violet treatment should be used during the pre filtering prosess! Small scale treatment can actually be done with a Steri Pen, and a MSR or similar Filtration system, before going into a known clean storage container, adding a small amount of vinegar to your supply!

 

I have some inside knowledge on this situation. I don't lend myself to many conspiracy theories, but it's hard to ignore in Salem right now. The city found out about the problem on Saturday. On Tuesday, they sent out a city wide warning that encompassed three neighboring cities that were unaffected as they were on a different water system. Then, the farking idiots at the state sent out a note on every cell phone in the area that essentially said there was a citywide emergency and everyone should wait for more information. These two notifications had the effect of making everyone in these areas race to the store to buy bottled water, even those who were in unaffected areas. So, a ton of folks who didn't need water bought water thinking zombie apocalypse was coming. A friend raced out to Costco and saw folks nearly fist fighting over water. Gave us a nice chance to test the preps. Apparently the city knew days in advance of the problem and notified several local businesses, but didn't notify the citizens until a few days later. Apparently no one knew what the reach of the citywide phone notification was or the limitations of the statewide notification (which essentially said "HOLY CRAP, THE CITY'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE, WE'LL LET YOU KNOW SOME TIME LATER WHAT THE ACTUAL PROBLEM IS"). When we saw the message from the state, we earnestly assumed something had happened in addition to the water problem and went to the city website, which had crashed. Then we went to the state website and looked up the code on the message sent. Couldn't find it. Then I pulled up my radio and listened to some of the ham radio club guys essentially saying someone had really smooched the pooch on this one, so we calmed down a ton.
My church's response was significantly more effective and timely than the government's response. Within two hours of the notification, several people with wells contacted the church and said to send anyone their way who needed free water. The church notified anyone who visits with the elderly to check on their people and see to it they know about the problem and are ok for water. Weirdly, I heard a ton of rumors about gouging (which actually serves a real economic purpose during emergencies), but I didn't personally see any. We had our preps set up and though, as previously mentioned, our filters are useless, we do have both a large supply of water bottles and three fifty gallon rain barrels. Husband didn't have the heart to tell the kind neighbors who brought us two gallon jugs of water we were good. Moto, you can delete this if I shared too much.
Now they are stating this could last two to three months, which makes sense if you think about it in terms of agriculture. Dude, we lived in South America, I'm pretty sure we've been exposed to worse things. I did learn that if there's a real emergency, probably best to trust the church over the local government.

 

This was the lead story on all the local news channels yesterday, and for us was the first exposure to it. We got a hold of my MIL and stepson who live there and then embarked on a five hour adventure to locate and deliver water. Our first stop was the local Fred Meyer/Kroger where we bought out the remaining supply of gallon jugs - 21 of them. The shelves were otherwise bare except for packages of small bottles (each with a 10 cent deposit). Note that our city is over an hour away and on a completely different water system that is not prone to algae bloom. I don't know if the water being virtually sold out was due to Salem residents looking for water (per my MIL there was none to be found in the stores there) or confused locals here or folks like us running water to Salem.

We found additional water on our trip bringing the total to 40 gallons. Likely overkill as they expect this to be over by the end of the weekend. We decided to deliver because my MIL was ill and my stepson doesn't own a vehicle. Per the advisory healthy adults were OK to drink the water, but there are children where he lives so we wanted to make sure they had good drinking water. We did find out they had been using the water to cook, which the alert specifically said not to do as the heat could intensify the toxins by breaking down the bloom in the water.

Lesson here is that all the talks about preps with others tend to go unheard, and I'd frankly be shocked if either of them kept even a small reserve on hand in case it recurred or there was another issue.

 

First this is not the end all be all monograph on water treatment or detailed you have to research it yourself but here is enough info to get you by if you can remember it.

the old filtration of a bed of a foot of each sand then charcoal then sand covered with uncolored muslin. the sand hold on to biologicals and filters dust dirt and insects the charcoal has to be a mix of dust small particles and pellet and pea size. They would put this in a wooden barrel with holes in the bottom for the water to seep out slowly and catch it in another barrel. you need to still boil it.

This does not compare to pressed carbon block filters. removes VOC's volatile organic compounds, pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine and its by-products

the better way is RO reverse osmosis then carbon block, then, then boiling.

Distillation /distilled water has no elements/ minerals, drinking it pulls out minerals from your body causing vitamin deficiency and causes a host of health issues, even death.

well water is no guarantee of healthy water flooding or close to sewer lines old or new as well as runoff from farm land treated with pesticides all of this can get around the casing into the well or overflow into it. depending on the height of the well head compared to the surrounding area if it's lower flooding will contaminate the water, so depending on the depth and type as to how to handle it a down hole pump need to run to evacuate the casing bottom to top an open pit well needs to be blow out and a couple of bleach pucks dropped in. and I would still boil and filter the water.

some of the best water is rain but if you live in or the air is contaminated by an event or smog or your area has acid rain boil and filter. boiling need to bring the water to a rolling boil for minimum of 1 minute but not longer. Part of what your killing off is wild molds yeasts and other stuff like viruses.

Hydrogen peroxide can be used to purify water 3% to 10% by volume I would filter and boil then use it on the cooled water.

It has been mentioned but you can make a solution called Chlorine Dioxide or MMS. All this is a solution of a pinch of salt in a ounce of water I use a shot "glass" or plastic nothing conductive. and using a DC electrical source not AC out of the wall unless you rather be dead instead of hydrated. there is so much hype on the net about this I'll let those interested run the gauntlet and how much B.S. you can handle. It is true I use stainless steel wire batteries in series until I can get 18 to 24 volts DC -- actually 3 9 volt batteries connected together and connect the wires make sure they do not touch in or out of the glass one wire across from each other salt mixed well and in about 10 minutes you have it longer might be better less voltage leave it longer like a car battery 12 volt leave it 20 minutes or so.
Again here is where the internet is full off off the wall stuff but basically I use 3 to 10 drops in a gallon of water, That water is RO filtered and boiled beforehand. why --- again the internet give you clues but basically Chlorine Dioxide is a oxidizer and when in contact with chemicals it is like acid on metal it eats it up turning to a gas and that as well.

Taking a multivitamin a day during a event is a good idea liquid vitamins are better than pills as pills don't completely dissolve so much is wasted.

 

Time to set up the still

 

I was putting off buying IBC totes until after the move, but today I located a 330 gallon food grade tote that was used for food grade glycerin about a mile away for half the price of the going rate. I'll be picking it up after work along with some pool shock to help clean and sterilize it. If the Salem situated had happened in the metro area there is zero chance that any water would be available. One tote I can haul when we move.

 

Just like AGENT Orange in the water, the dioxin passes across and is concentrated in the process.
Stills do not always work.

 

Why the hell would you use a perfectly good still to make water?

 

Where are you getting your information? We heard that it won't be over for two or three months. There is no info at the city site when last I checked on the expected duration. They said the advisory is in place until Saturday.

 

We got that from the KOIN news that it would likely be resolved by Saturday. Stayton, which is upstream, has already cleared their warning. Salem announced that they wouldn't clear their warning until they had clean water for two days, so it could be early next week. If this is long term I'll likely put my new tote back in the truck and haul as much as the truck will carry and let them refill containers if the local supply stays scarce.

 

Im hearing the same thing as Seepalaces Posted, 3 to 4 months before they think it will be gone or at least safer to drink!
Salem dosnt have a very good infrastructure of vendors That supply water normally, and now that has been pushed far beyond the capasity, so folks are having to range far and wide to find water.

 

My old 2500 might just have to become a makeshift water tanker for a bit... I'm not going to be using up a quarter tank of gas to deliver a few gallons here and there on a regular basis.