If you remember a while back, we asked whether Charlottesville drinking water contained drugs. There was a big national article about this issue and it prompted some serious debate. While no one actually tested it, we found out that because our water source is not from a treatment plant, the water is probably free of drugs. I’m still surprised no one tested it.
Today we found out that there aren’t enough antibiotics in the water, because apparently it grows mutant algae that makes the water taste musty. I don’t drink tap water because I recently converted to only Icelandic Glacier water. It gets pricey to shower in this stuff, but at least I can experience the essence of million year old glacial runoff. I also use that line to pickup chicks.
The Daily Progress reports:
The blue-green algae blooms every year in warm waters. The recent near-100 degree days hastened the growth of the algae at the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, which has made the tap water taste musty.
They say there are no health issues, but, unless you like the musty smells it probably makes sense to buy some drinking water.
Popularity: 79% [?]
Tagged as: algae, Charlottesville, drinking water
oh well. If it’s safe, no biggie.
Algae will be a major source of sustenance when we all live on space stations, anyway.
/nerd out
Did you read that in Dune or in the Robot Series?
well, I have read that in fiction but it’s actually a real-life postulation of astronomers. It’s amazingly healthy and contains a lot more nutrients in a much more efficient and easy-to-grow form than a lot of other possible foods that we could grow in a low gravity, high radiation environment at the outset of a self-sustaining space station program.
I’ve actually tasted it in a “milkshake” like form– basically, green sludge– and, well… hey, at least we’ll be living in space.
(sigh, I love Dune.)
No drugs? Really? Dammit.
Is that why it tastes like they double the chlorine content of the water here every summer? The past two weeks have been particularly potent. Every year I say I’m gonna buy one of those office-style water coolers but I never do, ’cause it’s about as exciting as spending money on a vacuum.
i was recently told that our office-water jug is POISON!!!! those jugs, like the nalgene bottles that have been recently exposed as POISON, contain BPA, which (you guessed it) is poison. if your water bottle has the number “7″ inside the little recycle symbol printed on the bottom, then that is how many days you have to live. i learned that from a hippie.
oh my bad, that had nothing to do with algae.
Dr. Tuffy drops science round II:
There is algae in everything, everywhere, all the time. It’s in your aboveground pool, terlit, belowground pool, sink, kiddie pool, peeing cherub water fountain, etc. It’s just how it is. But we need to remember that algae is a plant, albeit a small one. So when you’ve got warm days, lots of sun, and some nutrients, then the algae are fat city happy so we get a bloom. Fortunately, these kind of algae are just going to make the water green and a little smelly, not kill us.
And yes, it is going to make your water taste and smell a little more like pond water than usual. Which is why they add all the chlorine in an effort to kill the algae.
Musty=bad, musty+chlorine=scrumptious
Enjoy those Blue Greeno Mojitos!
Wearing only a lab coat,
Dr. Tuffy
Cvillain is some pretty musty smells.
i propose a weekly medical feature with doctor tuffy mcfucklebee. he can be our doctor sanja gupta. he’s probably not as ethnic, but his name is every bit as good, and apparently he’s also very funny. possibly even knowledgeable.
@10 - You too have been fooled. But, let’s make it happen.
The funny is generally limited to puns and uncle-worthy jokes. Transparent would be a better fit.
@10: If you had heard his discussion of the mating habits of horseshoe crabs, you would a) know he is knowledgeable and b) not want a weekly column.
@12 - the human physical sexual response it totally normal when talking about horseshoe crabs and their mating habits. I’m sorry if my manhood offended you or knocked your glass of wine off the table.
But grandma said they were piggy-backing.
That is one fine grandma.
Indeed
The bad smell and taste in your water is probably blu-green algae. These arenot plants - they’re bacteria - scientific name cyanobacteria. They are a global phenomenon which occures wherever you have either fres or sea water, There are more than 2000 species about which we know very little. Several off them, about 10 in fresh water release toxins when they die. These toxins are worse than cobra venom and are responsible for the deaths of birds (fowl), fish, crocodiles, farm animals anf countless dogs and in 2002 you have had the first human in Milwaukee when a youth died as a result of igesting a toxic alga whilst swimming in a glf course pond!
You need to learn more about them and get your water tested at an accredted micro-biology lab. They can only be accurately identified in a lab. Your water authority should be doing this now as a matter of urgency.
You’ll find out my own efforts to get our own Environmental agency to bring back pro-active monitoring of recreational waters but they’ve got their head in the sand and only act - see http://www.beaminster-tc.co.uk/id16.html (cut and paste) in your browser.
Under favourable environmental conditions, blue-green algae will increase their numbers rapidly, causing population explosions. ‘Bloom’ is commonly used to describe an increase in algal numbers to a point where they discolour water, form scums, produce odours and reduce water quality for human and live animals use. They most commonly occur in warm, calm, shallow bodies of water, ponds, reservoirs, etc., where the water is hard, alkaline and rich in nitrogen, phosphates, carbonates and organic matter.
When environmental conditions are such as to attract us to their ‘battlegrounds’, their noxious properties can cause severe damage to a range of happy water users, Algal blooms are aesthetically unpleasant. More importantly, the toxins of some species have the very real potential to cause sickness and death in humans and animals.
Blue-green algae cells can group themselves into different shapes, according to their species. They can remain as single cells or form colonies of filaments, chains, coils and so on. Blooms (scums) form when large numbers of algae float to the water surface, the tiny gas bubbles in their cells allowing them to float to the surface for sunlight or sink to the bottom to feed. This partly explains why a bloom can appear, disappear and reappear quickly even during a single day. Wind stirring also plays an important part in this process. Wind pushes the floating algae across the water concentrating scums against leeward shorelines or obstructions.
At the beginning of the bloom, scums can vary from paint like accumulations at water surfaces to small green floating dots. Scums are often green or blue green, but can also be white, brown, blue, yellow-brown or red. They can also camouflage themselves and be mistaken for common plant life (duckweed, for example-which is inoffensive). Wind movement and water flow or other species of blooming algae can cause swirling patterns of a mixture of these colours.
One species doesn’t always dominate the water to the exclusions of others, although if the conditions are right, it can happen. The toxins of the algae are not poisonous to each other, only to higher forms of life. Their toxins increase their virulence through concentration in the food chain, ending in fish, turtles, alligators, shellfish, mussels etc, and should we eat any of those, in us, where they can seriously harm us or even kill us!
Blooms occur because environmental conditions are suitable for their growth. These conditions include increased levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the water, chemicals (produced by man) toxic to organisms that eat algae, lack of fresh water inflows, temperature stratification in the hotter months, murkiness (turgidity), removal of other vegetation that might compete for light and nutrients, fish activity, strong sunlight and high air and water temperatures.
They are made even more suitable by unthinking, intolerable and unclean human activities in the catchments of the waters and in the waters themselves. Although normally very visible to the human eye, the blooms of some species can exist below the surface of the water. (They are capable of underwater warfare, too!) The presence of a bloom is identified by environment agencies as a threat to:
·Public health - when the water may be used for drinking and domestic purposes.
·Public health - when a natural water body may be used for recreation.
Animals - where the water is a natural body, e.g. lakes, ponds, etc.
Please, if your appropriate water authority is not taking action now you’ll have to agitate until they do.
Good luck in your efforts,
Mikay
Beaminster, Dorset UK
Wow, Mikay that’s very informative.. also, how did you find cVillain?
Thanks Thor, that was a speedy response. Sorry for the typos - the Alzheimers]’s gets worse! (I got to blame somebody, no?) I guess I feel strongly and angry about the lack of response from AUTHORITY in this area so it falls to the man in the street to remind them. Thanks for your interest,
I subscribe to Google Alerts - keywords blue green algae, cyanobacteria. If it’s reported I should get to know.
I’m trying to build awareness of this potentially dangerous nuisance in my own neck of the woods - but it’s hard work. People only concern themselves with the subject when it affects them. It’s real bad this time of year in the USofA, I understand, especially in the Southern States - but it’s also global.
Try typing my keywords in your search engine sometime when you’ve a few hours to spare.
Regards and best wishes,
Mike Garcia
I smoked some blue-green algae and I saw god.
Funny, that. I smoked god and saw blue green algae.
wow, that is awesome. mike garcia just stole tuffy’s job as resident water quality advisor (mike the job pays nothing but endless satisfaction), AND we learned more about how the internet works! google alerts! now i’ve seen everything!
still parlie, you did not read it on your iPhone.
because you do not have one.
none.
SON OF A BITCH.
i don’t have one either.
that’s why i drink.
shot?
if god took acid, would he see people?
@ 26 How do you think we got here?
on the short bus?
We are a mere hallucination of the gods baby, and don’t you forget it. The truth will set you free.
Ok, the game is afoot.
I must say Mike G, your points are all accurate - a bit alarmist - but accurate in some circumstances. While we ought to bear the worst case in mind in understanding the potential repercussions (cobra venom, alligator death) of our actions, the fact of the matter is that having cyanobacteria and the other phytoplankton posse in the water is perfectly normal. It’s been there as long as any of us have been drinking from our reservoirs and always will be. Otherwise, we’d be drinking ‘dead’ water.
So I say drink up, swim deep, and save some $ on the full latex body suit for that dip at Blue Hole (Shen, I’m looking in your direction).
what am I gonna catch swimming at Blue Hole? or a better question, where’s a good swimming hole? I’ve been to the swimming hole website, I’m looking for personal endorsements.
where’s a good swimming hole? I’ve been to the swimming hole website, I’m looking for personal endorsements.
That there be a stellar blog post idea, matey. Post it starboard. Or aft. Or something.
thor? random admin? here’s the site…
http://www.swimmingholes.org/va.html
See, mc, I was suggesting you write a blogpost about it. On the internet. With lasers and shit.
yeah, I got that impression, but I’m lazy. although it would be nice to have something productive to do with all this awake time I’m accumulating.
although it would be nice to have something productive to do with all this awake time I’m accumulating.
Would that there were a blog to post on, or even a friend’s band to go see at a local establishment purveying wings and spirits. The universe weeps.
@31- swimming holes: http://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/content/June-2007/JUMP-Swimming-Holes-with-Big-Splashes/
i still don’t speak html, and i’m comfortable with that.
@36: oh man, I really couldn’t go to the show!!
/sheepish
i still don’t speak html, and i’m comfortable with that.
parlie thinks the internet is an illegal immigrant who doesn’t speak English yet but will eventually have to learn and assimilate and stuff.
37: excellent. But the closest one to us has this warning:
Dangers: The high ledge at Cedar Run requires a little distance in the jump or it could mean disaster; not recommended for the timid. Be mindful of water levels.
have you been there? am I gonna break my neck?
40: mc, yeah i’ve been to cedar run and white oak. you’re totally going to break your neck.
wait, that’s not what i meant: if it feels like you’re going to break your neck, don’t jump. otherwise, you’re gud to go.
@39: if the internet wants to live in america, it can learn to speak american. gimme another budweiser.
@30: I ain’t afraid of no gohst. I’ll go swimming in my swimsuit, thankyouverymuch. Wanna go saturday?
And parlie, I checked our water cooler at work and it’s a #7 too. I think, though, you can only get the toxins if the bottle is heated or reused. As quickly as we go through the water here, I doubt we’re getting a lot of dioxins in our cup of H2O. You’re getting more bad stuff from your vinyl shower curtain actually. Google it.
a simple $15 BRITA water filter pitcher or water filter will get rid of this, and it’s a worthy investment considering all the plastic waste associated with buying your own drinking water. The carbon filtration system takes any taste right out, and it takes less than 3 minutes to filter a pitcher of water.