Sunday, September 14, 2008

Do you buy this? Do you swallow this shit? Quiz for El Pasoans at end of this blog

Water drawn from the kitchen this morning. Note the opa-
city of the water. Note the mud in the bottom of the bottle.

I'm not sure how much of this contaminated water Mrs. Dada or I, or thousands of other El Pasoans consumed yesterday before we noticed the water in our commodes looked horribly discolored, leading us to investigate the water coming out of our kitchen faucet.

On the evening news that asked, "Some El Pasoans are wondering, 'What's that coming out of my tap?' " we learned El Paso Water Utilities claimed it was a developer that had accidentally allowed dirt to get into the water lines. Dirt that is still coming into homes today in Northeast El Paso disguised as water.

Water drawn this morning from the "flushed" water lines.

The news also reported EPWU had "flushed the line" but this morning's water remains unpotable. Being as how it is our day to water the yard, I did so hoping that would clear the line from the street to our house. It has not.

Quiz for El Pasoans drawing shit through their pipes instead of water:
(Dada Note: Not to worry if you didn't study for this quiz. While there are definitely right or wrong answers, you will not be graded, but the possibility exists if you drink this crap you may be degraded.)

Are you swallowing this shit? If the water line has been flushed (with the implication it's okay to resume consuming it), why is our water still brown?

Are you buying this crap, i.e., are you going to pay your water bill compliantly without assessing a penalty on your water supplier, just as we buy anything the powers that be sell us from homes we can't afford to phony wars we can't either?

Did you make your coffee and oatmeal with this shit this
morning? Will you wash your dishes in it? Do your laundry with it? Did you shower in it this morning? (You dirty bastards!! ~grin)

Will you charge EPWU for the bottled water you'll buy at the store (if you care about what you put in your body)? What if you get sick from drinking this shit?


Dada would love to sit down with EPWU and the developer allegedly responsible for this contamination and discuss it. Would they share with me, a pot of coffee made from this crap? More than likely not. Most likely they'd politely decline my offer and ask me to drink some of their Kool-Aid instead. (Made with their water, not mine, of course.)

7 comments:

Billie Greenwood said...

Yikes!!!!

Dada said...

You cannot believe the hassle we have had trying to contact the public water utility. No one answering their phone (hey, it's Sunday!).

Mrs. D. finally called the police on a non-911 line asking if they knew of another number for EPWU -- they gave her the number of a private citizen (who's been getting all kinds of calls from the public). Finally, I saw water running in the streets on my way to the store for bottled water. (The water co. was bleeding off fire hydrants. They assured me my water was clear "now" (several hours ago). It wasn't. So I went driving around the neighborhood trying to find them again. I did. Told them of the fire hydrant across the street from our house -- they had moved beyond our immediate neighborhood. They said they would get it. When they didn't show, Mrs. Dada tried calling 'em again and finally got an answer at 1:00. We're hoping (still, STILL) they'll show today sometime.

We spend $$$$billions for homeland security, but if someone "poisons" your drinking water on the weekend, try not to die before Monday. (Whoops, I'm probably giving the terrorists ideas, aren't I?)

Yeh, $billions for defense and all we have to show for it is DE-FENCE (which is full of holes).

Oh well, we should be thankful I guess. We only have brown water. No Blackwater -- yet!

D.K. Raed said...

It looks like something out of a dirty public gas station toilet! Hopefully it was only CLEAN dirt, not anything that might have coliform bacteria.

Be sure to drain your hot water tank after they give you the all clear. If you have soft water, you'll have to put it through a couple cycles. Same if you have a reverse osmosis system (just bleed it dry, let it recharge, then do it again). Same if you have an ice-maker and/or cold water dispenser in your fridge.

We had to go through this a couple times in the avocado groves of So Calif when agricultural run-off ended up in our house water. All the systems that store water need to be flushed.

Hope there isn't a run on bottled water in your part of town or you may end up consuming more energy to drive to another part of town. Maybe EPSU will advise that you should just drink the gasoline instead.

ps, Sam gets bottled water for now, too, right?

PTCruiser said...

El Paso water is SOYLENT GREEN!

Seriously though, this is BULLSHIT.

OK, I promise I'll stop.

Dada said...

OK -- update. Thanks for all the "Yuk!"s and sympathy. (grin)

Late last evening clear water returned to the faucets at Dada's house. (And, yes, DK, the bottled water was for Sam as well and hot water heater was drained after restoring water.

I know I was going a little over the top, but when you can't reach the people responsible in an emergency because it's Sunday, it throws all preparedness into doubt. (Water co. DID answer their phone yesterday afternoon.)

But until the waters returned clean, it did seem like we lived in a Soylent Green world. (Make that Soylent Brown.)

Fran said...

Jeez! When they gave you the first *all clear*, did they think you would not notice the silty sludge in your brown tinged water?
Makes you want to pull an Erin Brockovich & pour them up a cup of the stuff. Cheers!

I bet you are more inspired to have a large stash of safe drinking water.

Dada said...

Fran: Exactly! How'd you ever come to that conclusion? This incident and preparedness for all emergencies. (To include a collapsing economy!)