Boron Elgar wrote:
On Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:52:16 +1100, Fran Farmer
wrote:

On 30/12/2014 9:10 AM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Hypatia Nachshon wrote:
Managed to save 2 trashcans full from our recent welcome rains.

Plan to use them for potted plants, indoor & out. They are SO much
happier with clean sky water! You folks that get rain don't
realize how precious this is.

Water may last quite a while. Should I chlorinate it to avoid
--what? Haven't seen any mosquitoes breeding over last [censored]
years...but...

If yes, how much bleach per 32 gal trash can?

TIA

HB


Why go to the trouble of collecting clean water, that you claim is
better for your plants, to then pollute it? What do you imagine
might grow in it that would harm your plants? To repel mossies
hang socks around the rim of the tubs.

:-)) I once saw a question in a newsgroup from someone who asked
whether he could drink rainwater. You can imagine how that made me
roll around laughing.


http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drin...ollection.html

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/can-wat...ink-78356.html

http://www.harvesth2o.com/filtration...l#.VKQLoSvF-6U

Sure there are risks involved in anything that you ingest but these articles
are not balanced. There seems to be an unstated assumption in relation to
modern public health (often from the USA) that anything that is not sterile
is a serious risk. We see this in 100 ways, where you can't eat this or
touch that, your kitchen benches MUST be cleaned with some handy dandy
steriliser and you will drop dead if any human hand has touched the food
before you put it in your mouth.

This is a relflection of ignorance, stupid officials covering their arses,
commercial interest in selling 'remedies' and the consequences of (what
seems to outsiders) of endemic poor commercial food handling practices that
result in mass poisoning by strains of E Coli in supermarket salad veges.
This is of course intertwinned with a big dose of "yuuuuuuccckkkkk how could
you possibly (eat, touch, drink) that" from people who have no idea where
food or drink come from nor the trillions of microorganisms to be found in
every part of your house. This view conveniently ignores the fact that your
environment is never sterile and never will be. You will always need the
defences of your body to keep out foreign organisms.

It is as if a whole generation have compromised immune systems are will drop
like flies of not kept in an airtight bubble.

In country Australia 90% of domestic water is collected from roofs and aside
from gross fitering to keep out solids and insects it is untreated. It is
fine water and there is no pattern of ill health because of it and no
attempt by authorities to regulate it or to insist on treatment. Such water
is never hard and is never over-chlorinated (because it isn't chlorinated)
and you never get transmission of diseases to millions such as happens from
time to time with reticulated water. I am thinking things like Giardia and
Cryptosporidium that have been found in major city (eg Sydney) water
supplies. There is city (eg Adelaide) water that is so hard that people buy
bottled water to wash their hair.

The last time I was on town water it tasted terrible and every time I ran
the shower I got a coughing fit from the chlorine. To me the health risks
from those things were far worse than the possibility of the yuk factor from
a bit of bird poo. As if city water supplies never get bird poo or dead
animals in them, the difference is you don't see it. Sure the water is
treated but mostly this is chlorine and as the articles say some bugs are
resistant to it.

I am reminded of a very large dinner party where I served dessert and forgot
the garnish of sliced guava. I brought out the dish of garnish and asked
who wanted any. Some said yes others no. One said he would have some if I
used a spoon to serve. So I got a spoon and served and he had some and ate
it with relish. I later explained that I had to touch the fruit to peel and
slice it and in fact every dish that he had eaten through the night had been
touched by those same paws and consequently if I was infected death would be
quick and nasty. He sheepishly admitted that he knew that there was no real
risk but he just couldn't WATCH me use my fingers and then eat the food I
had touched.

So the upshot of it is there are risks to living and you should not imagine
that those risks are eliminated in town water or necessarily greater in roof
water.

But we drift OT as HB never said anything about drinking it. What is your
opinion on treating rainwater for the garden?

--
David

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A better world requires a daily struggle
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