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#16
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Chlorinate rain water?
Boron Elgar wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jan 2015 10:50:14 +1100, "David Hare-Scott" wrote: 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. That is not the intent or implication of *any* of these articles. You seem to have read that into them all by yourself, then conflated it into the rant you posted while sliding down an awfully slippery slope, Mr. StrawMan. Stick to the specific topic. Boron Ok then what do the articles actually mean and what point do you intend to make? Say it in your own words so I don't have to guess. Or are we going down the path of the microwave cooking thread where you refuse to do so? -- David - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A better world requires a daily struggle against those who would mislead us. |
#17
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Chlorinate rain water?
On 1/01/2015 1:43 AM, 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 I think the authors of those articles need to get out more. |
#18
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Chlorinate rain water?
On 2/01/2015 2:06 AM, songbird wrote:
David Hare-Scott wrote: ... 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. there are decent (low tech even) systems which reject the first amount of runoff from a rooftop collection system which avoids most of the "gunk". We drink the rainwater we collect from our various roof surfaces as do all of our rural neighbours. There is no way known that we would ever install those 'first flush' diverters. It wastes too much water from what might be a brief passing rain event. |
#19
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Chlorinate rain water?
On 1/01/2015 6:16 AM, songbird wrote:
Fran Farmer wrote: ... :-)) 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. consider yourself very blessed that you live someplace where it may be safe enough to do so. Even in most of our cities people are now choosing to install rain water tanks (cisterns in USian). |
#20
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Chlorinate rain water?
Fran Farmer wrote:
songbird wrote: .... there are decent (low tech even) systems which reject the first amount of runoff from a rooftop collection system which avoids most of the "gunk". We drink the rainwater we collect from our various roof surfaces as do all of our rural neighbours. There is no way known that we would ever install those 'first flush' diverters. It wastes too much water from what might be a brief passing rain event. if i were in that dire of a situation (where i couldn't afford 1 bucket to be diverted to a garden) i'd be looking at a filtering system, enclosed greenhouses and other water vapor preserving methods. songbird |
#21
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Chlorinate rain water?
songbird wrote:
Fran Farmer wrote: songbird wrote: there are decent (low tech even) systems which reject the first amount of runoff from a rooftop collection system which avoids most of the "gunk". We drink the rainwater we collect from our various roof surfaces as do all of our rural neighbours. There is no way known that we would ever install those 'first flush' diverters. It wastes too much water from what might be a brief passing rain event. if i were in that dire of a situation (where i couldn't afford 1 bucket to be diverted to a garden) i'd be looking at a filtering system, enclosed greenhouses and other water vapor preserving methods. I have my own private well for all my water needs, that water is filtered for sediment, treated with UV, softened, and for drinking pre-softened water passes through a Reverse Osmosis filter... thing is an RO filter makes 3-4 gallons of gray water for each gallon of filtered water, that gray water is piped to my lawn where it flows via gravity to water a few shrubs. Were I collecting rain water for drinking I would definitely RO filter it, untreated rain water is poluted. Anyone drinking collected rain water is drinking worse quality water than the gray water from my RO filter. No one drinks so much water in a day that they can't afford to produce some as gray water, certainly less than a few toilet flushes. RO filters are very inexpensive, costs far less than element filters and works a thousand fold better than any other filtration system. Considering the price of an RO filter and the cost of water (I still need to pay for my well water in electric and maintainence) each gallon of RO filtered water costs five cents... and also saves more than it costs in not having to buy bottled water... bottled water is just ordinary tap water, albeit from someone elses tap... buying bottled water is paying for plastic bottles and transportation, the water is pretty much free... those plastic bottles are huge polutants. |
#22
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Chlorinate rain water?
David Hare-Scott wrote:
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. Alright in the country but in the cities and especially industrial areas all sorts of acids and chemicals land on your roof and are washed into the tank, can alleviate that a bit by diverting the first part of rain fall elsewhere for a while then back to tank 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? |
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