Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink

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Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1615012 21-Aug-2016 10:40

This^^^

When you are just putting water into bottles, they add ozone to the water to kill any bugs. The ozone breaks down into oxygen and since the bottle is sealed. No new bugs can get into the bottle.

But running a water distribution network. In reality contamination can and does happen. Most common will be when sections are turned off for repairs. Small leaks will allow ground water to enter pipes. Also water often backflows from customer pipework and hot water cylinders. So if the neighbour has turned down their cylinder temp to perfect legonella breeding temp. They may end up spreading it to the council mains if the mains get turned off.

And due to pipes being large diameters to get enough flow for fire hydrants. Sediment will build up on bottom of pipes, as normal water velocity will be very low. The sediment will be a perfect breeding ground for bacteria if no chlorine used.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1615036 21-Aug-2016 11:39

They've managed to get away without chlorinating the Chch water supply for 100 years, though chlorine was added to some bores particularly after the Chch quakes, and on occasion when they've had positive test for E. coli.

That may be revisited following the Havelock North debacle. I hope not - though you get used to the stink of chlorine, if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

Chch ratepayers are paying dearly for (repair/replacement) due to under-insurance and under-investment in water and sewerage networks. Out of sight - out of mind, if it seems to be working okay, then it's hard to get funding for upgrade/maintenance.

Geektastic

17946 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1615042 21-Aug-2016 11:54

Fred99:

They've managed to get away without chlorinating the Chch water supply for 100 years, though chlorine was added to some bores particularly after the Chch quakes, and on occasion when they've had positive test for E. coli.

That may be revisited following the Havelock North debacle. I hope not - though you get used to the stink of chlorine, if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

Chch ratepayers are paying dearly for (repair/replacement) due to under-insurance and under-investment in water and sewerage networks. Out of sight - out of mind, if it seems to be working okay, then it's hard to get funding for upgrade/maintenance.

Water really ought to be regarded as a national resource and funded/managed accordingly.

Pumpedd

1759 posts

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Inactive user

#1615044 21-Aug-2016 12:01

Geektastic:

Fred99:

They've managed to get away without chlorinating the Chch water supply for 100 years, though chlorine was added to some bores particularly after the Chch quakes, and on occasion when they've had positive test for E. coli.

That may be revisited following the Havelock North debacle. I hope not - though you get used to the stink of chlorine, if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

Chch ratepayers are paying dearly for (repair/replacement) due to under-insurance and under-investment in water and sewerage networks. Out of sight - out of mind, if it seems to be working okay, then it's hard to get funding for upgrade/maintenance.

Water really ought to be regarded as a national resource and funded/managed accordingly.

Didnt the Governement and insurance fund a considerable amount of the ChCh infrastructure repair?

deadlyllama

1264 posts

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Trusted

#1615143 21-Aug-2016 16:26

Geektastic:
Fred99:

They've managed to get away without chlorinating the Chch water supply for 100 years, though chlorine was added to some bores particularly after the Chch quakes, and on occasion when they've had positive test for E. coli.

That may be revisited following the Havelock North debacle. I hope not - though you get used to the stink of chlorine, if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

Chch ratepayers are paying dearly for (repair/replacement) due to under-insurance and under-investment in water and sewerage networks. Out of sight - out of mind, if it seems to be working okay, then it's hard to get funding for upgrade/maintenance.

Water really ought to be regarded as a national resource and funded/managed accordingly.

Watch what you ask for, ECan's elections got cancelled and the Government appointed commissioners who replaced the councillors have proved very poor stewards of Canterbury's water.

Jaxson

8044 posts

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Trusted

#1615418 22-Aug-2016 07:52

Fred99:

if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

The same could be said for contaminated water...

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1615462 22-Aug-2016 08:52

Pumpedd:

Geektastic:

Fred99:

They've managed to get away without chlorinating the Chch water supply for 100 years, though chlorine was added to some bores particularly after the Chch quakes, and on occasion when they've had positive test for E. coli.

That may be revisited following the Havelock North debacle. I hope not - though you get used to the stink of chlorine, if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

Chch ratepayers are paying dearly for (repair/replacement) due to under-insurance and under-investment in water and sewerage networks. Out of sight - out of mind, if it seems to be working okay, then it's hard to get funding for upgrade/maintenance.

Water really ought to be regarded as a national resource and funded/managed accordingly.

Didnt the Governement and insurance fund a considerable amount of the ChCh infrastructure repair?

Yes and no. IIRC the shortfall for water/sewers is about $500m. I doubt any other city in NZ would be in a better position if/when similar disaster happens.

You speak of it in the past tense - I think they'll still be fixing quake damaged horizontal infrastructure in 2030.

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Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1615463 22-Aug-2016 08:56

Jaxson:

Fred99:

if you're not used to it then it's very noticeable.

The same could be said for contaminated water...

In Chch case - making sure that an aquifer which doesn't need treatment stays that way seems sensible.

Lastman

306 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1615529 22-Aug-2016 10:04

As mentioned previously, what this case also highlights is the inadequacy of the current methods of testing for bacteria in water. Clearly there's a reason the "bio-luminescence" method is so inaccurate but it, again, resulted in a false positive reading on the Hastings supply. Further testing came back as negative but not before the national media had pounced on it and the damage done.

Recently my cat had a blood test. Within a few minutes the Vet had come back with a full blood analysis printout and the results of a whole heap of disease tests. Obviously finding tiny bacteria in water is a whole lot trickier.

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