Friday - September 09, 2011

We lucked out again

We’ve been on a “boil water advisory” for several days now, because the ultra-high water table from all this rain and flooding has allowed some septic system run-off to contaminate some of our town’s water wells. That advisory was lifted today. Thousands, perhaps several millions, of others here in the north east aren’t so lucky. Actually, they’re lucky to have a water truck in their town at all, whether or not they choose to put on heels and pearls to go fill up a bucket like Miss Brit the other day.

Nasty floodwaters from the remnants of Lee and Irene—tainted with sewage and other toxins—threaten public health in parts of the Northeast by direct exposure or the contamination of private water wells, officials said Thursday.

“We face a public health emergency because sewage treatment plants are underwater and no longer working,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said as flooding from Lee’s drenching rains inundated central and eastern Pennsylvania. “Flood water is toxic and polluted. If you don’t have to be in it, keep out.”

A dozen Vermont towns flooded by Irene were still on boil-water orders 12 days later, though officials reported no waterborne illness. Similar precautions have been taken throughout other storm-damaged states.

New York City officials said any threat from Irene’s backwash had passed, but upstate, 23 municipal water systems had boil-water orders for varying lengths of time. As some communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were taking similar precautions after Irene, the unrelenting rains of Lee were expected to trigger more.

Officials in Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, which were also hit hard by Irene, said drinking-water quality had not been compromised.

Stretching from central Virginia up through New York and into New England, the latest area hit by this round of flooding and water contamination is considerably larger than the entire United Kingdom, and probably has more people as well. And this is all inland areas, mostly unaffected by any coastal hurricanes. They’ve got their own problems down south too, as Lee made an impact up and down the whole east coast.

Is it inconvenient?  A little. Is it costly? A tiny bit. A shopping cart full of water set me back $20, and will last the two of us for several weeks. But it could have been so damn much worse:

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — The Susquehanna River, swollen by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, spilled into downtown Binghamton on Thursday and threatened riverfront towns in Pennsylvania, and nearly 100,000 people were ordered to pack up and leave their homes.

The storm’s rains continued to pelt the Northeast, which has been saturated since Hurricane Irene roared through in August as it became a tropical storm. Rivers and streams passed or approached flood stage from Maryland to Massachusetts and experts said more flooding was coming.

River water coursed into the streets of Binghamton, a city of about 45,000, and climbed halfway up lampposts at a downtown plaza. Buses and then boats were used to evacuate residents, and National Guard helicopters were on standby. Streets were closed to non-emergency traffic.

“It’s going to get worse,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Rainfall totals topped 8 inches in some areas around Binghamton.

The Susquehanna is an ancient ancient river, perhaps the oldest on earth and easily the longest river on the east coast, but it’s in flood from upstate NY (Cooperstown) all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay. Right past Three Mile Island, as a matter of fact.

We will continue to use our 3 stage filter on the water that comes out of the tap for cooking water, and we have no plans to actually drink any of it until we’ve gone through all the inexpensive bottled spring water we bought (Nirvana brand, $1/gal in a clear plastic bottle. Not bad tasting at all). I still have enough to last another week, so any latent problems in the wells and pipes should be sorted out by then. Well, assuming we don’t have another deluge and another flood situation between now and then. Personally, I blame Obama.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/09/2011 at 05:23 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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