On Wednesday 26 January 2005 07:18 am, Jeff Garland kindly wrote:
>
> Actually, I understood that the problem is that turbid water (full
> of sediment) cuts the effectiveness of chlorine used to kill
> bacteria in the water.  But in any case, you might find these pages
> interesting reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbidity
> http://ga2.er.usgs.gov/bacteria/helpturbidity.cfm

A few months ago I did a lot of reading about water filtration systems 
because I wanted to buy one for my house. The issue with turbidity is 
this:
Municipal water systems use ultra-violet light to kill certain viruses 
and critters that are too small to get caught in filters, or immune 
to chlorine- things like cysts that chlorine can't touch. The UV 
damages the reproductive DNA of the virii. For the UV to be able to 
treat the water, the water has to be relatively clear and still, not 
chugging lots of dirt and bubbles.  If there's a lot of turbidity or 
"cloudiness" in the water, the UV will miss microbes that are hiding 
in the shadows of the dirt. 

Some home filtration systems have UV but it usually isn't necessary 
for municipal water. It's a good idea for homes that use well water, 
though. 

I wonder how many people will treat this incident as a wake-up call to 
get purified bottled water and keep it on hand for emergencies. This 
is a desert! I'm amazed at the normally intelligent people who have 
100% trust that they will always have water coming out of the tap and 
don't have any stored for emergencies. I have some gorilla shelves 
with many gallons of bottled water. Have always had several weeks 
worth of stored water on hand. I recommend it for everybody- 
especially people with children.

Siri Amrit
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