Power failure blamed in New Orleans water issues

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 3/4/13 | Janet Mcconnaughey

[Kartographer]

Taps in New Orleans briefly went dry Sunday after a boiler's heating flame went out of control in the immense steam generator that powers pumps for the city's water treatment plant. Marcia St. Martin, executive director of the city's Sewerage and Water Board, said the outage lasted less than 20 minutes Sunday morning. Twitter came alive with residents bemoaning the loss about 9 a.m. Central time, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu tweeted to his followers that the city was looking into the matter. The loss of pressure opened the way for possible contamination and water samples are being taken citywide, she said. She said all sample collection should be complete by Sunday afternoon, and results should be available about 24 hours later. It takes that long to detect high levels of intestinal bacteria that could cause diarrhea.

[Kartographer]

Just a small glitch and see what happens.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ Ping!!

Seems like a good time to post a lick to a new water filter I ran across over at Cheaper Than Dirt:

Manufacturer: Monolithic JWDF14
Item: CAMP-352

Just Water, monolithic ceramic drip filter works as well as the high end British ones only at a fraction of the cost!

This half-micron filter removes water-borne bacterium with a 0.5 micron efficiency which exceeds NSF standards. The ceramic filter can be cleaned with a soft brush at least 100 times, and it produces 14 gallons of drinking water per day. This system includes a ceramic filter, filter sock, and spigot.

Simply double stack two clean five gallon buckets with lids, drill a 1/2” hole in the bottom of the top bucket and through the top of the bottom buckets lid, place sock over filter and install it in the bottom of the top bucket. Drill a 3/4” hole on the side and near the bottom of the bottom bucket and install the spigot. Fill the top bucket with water from a lake, rain, tap, river or stream and in an hour you will have bacteria free water to drink in the bottom bucket.

Non-returnable, buckets not included. See our item # CAMP-309 for a food grade, standard 5 gallon bucket. Need just a filter? See our item # CAMP-354. Same ceramic filter material and made by the same company, but in common “candle” shape and without the sock or spigot.

Filters are manufactured to meet:
National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) Standard 42
National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) Standard 53
ISO 9002 Quality Standard
USA AEL Laboratories
USA Analytical Food Laboratories
USA Johns Hopkins University Laboratory
Abbot Laboratory South Africa
University of Chihuahua Mexico
British 5750 Quality Standard
England’s Water Research council (WRc) Performance Standards

The filtration efficiency is 0.5 micron
Removal capabilities as follows:
99% Arsenic 5 and 99% Arsenic 3 (special order)
99% Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S special order)
95% Chlorine and Chloramines
99% Taste
99% Odor
98% Aluminum
96% Iron
98% Lead
90% Pesticides
85% Herbicides
85% Insecticides
90% Rodenticides
85% Phenols
85% MTBE
85% Perchlorate
80% Trihalomethanes
95% Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons
99.999% of particles larger than 0.5 micron (Staffordshire University Labs) (includes Anthrax)
99.7% of particles larger than 0.3 micron (Staffordshire University Labs)
98% of particles larger than 0.2 micron (Staffordshire University Labs)
100% Giardia Lamblia
100% Cyclospora
100% removal of live Cryptosporidium (WRc Standard)
100% removal of Cryptosporidium (NSF Standard 53 – A.C. fine dust – 4 log challenge)
100% removal of E. Coli, Vibrio Cholerae (Johns Hopkins University)
99.999% removal of Salmonella Typhil, Shigella Dysenteria, Kiebsiella Terrigena (Hyder Labs)

Product is silver impregnated and will not permit bacteria growth-through (mitosis) provides a hostile environment for all microbiological organisms and will not support their growth. Ceramic elements may be cleaned 100 or more times with a soft brush or damp cloth.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/CAMP-352?pagenumber=2

[Malone LaVeigh]

When you consider that N.O. gets its water from the lower end of the Mississippi river, you have to wonder if this was a bad thing.

[NYTexan]

Thanks for the info and link!

[rawcatslyentist]

Flush twice, it’s a long way to N O.

[RetiredTexasVet]

Cutting edge water pump they got there. Wonder whose brother-in-law got a kick back on that one. Someone ought to tell them about electric. Among primitives, even simple technology is considered magic!

[OKRA2012]

A day in New Orleans of not being able to drink New Orleans water is the healthiest day in a New Orleanian’s life.

[Kirkwood]

Keeping constant positive pressure in the NO water system is critical because there are so many breaks in the system where contaminants can enter.

[OKRA2012]

When I am there, I don’t drink the water, I even give my dog bottled water when in NOLA.

[corbe]

Lived in Kenner (beyond meterie), right B4 Katrina, The facet water was light brown AND Stunk. The boiled Crayfish/Shrimp were GREAT!

Think it may be time to move to Idaho.

(Runon sentences, can be your friend)

[Iron Munro]

That filter is a good find at a fair price.
Thanks for the post.

FWIW

I have recently had good results asking for used food buckets at the bakery/deli departments at the three major grocery chains where I live.
Generally if they have any they will give them to me.
I have even had ladies r.
So far every one I spinse them out and take the time to find the correct lidsoke to has been cooperative but I try to not be intrusive and avoid approaching them when it is obvious they are really busy.
I figure if I miss a chance at a bucket today they will have more available tomorrow.

I haven’t tried the local WalMarts so have no first hand info about availability there.

The best time to find buckets available has been in the mornings when they have finished the baking and food prep for the day.
Most of the ones I have been given originally contained various frosting and pastry fillings although I got one or two that had salad dressings.

They all cleaned up easily with soap and water. If there was any lingering odor I just aired them out on the patio for a while.

So far I have some regular round 5 gal., round 2 1/2 gal. and a few rectangular ones that look to be about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons.

[Iron Munro]

OOps!

Correction:

Sentence in my post above should read:

So far every one I spoke to has been cooperative but I try to not be intrusive and avoid approaching them when it is obvious they are really busy.

I have even had ladies rinse them out and take the time to find the correct lids.

[Don W]

You are aware that the vast majority of your electric power is produced by burning fuel in a BOILER, right? That goes for nuclear plants too, they boil water to run steam turbines to produce power.

Even co-gen gas turbine setups use steam to produce electricity in addition to the direct driven generator.

The plant operator messed up. At least it was just a minor loss of water flow. Remember the steam line that blew in NYC a couple of years ago. A 24” line at 175PSI IIRC. Ka flipping boom!

[Stegall Tx]

Might I suggest that you use a third bucket and pre-filter your water through sand before going into the ceramic filter? A simple filter made of a five-gallon bucket, a few layers of cloth or fine screen (to keep the sand in the bucket), and enough sand to fill the bucket half full will do an amazing job of keeping the largest contaminants out of your drinking water. When used consistently, over time, organic material grows in your slow sand filter. It sounds yucky, but it actually works. The organic material traps more junk than the sand does alone.

A wikipedia article on slow sand filtration is available at http://www.ask.com/wiki/Slow_sand_filter.

[Stegall Tx]

Here’s a picture of a household slow sand filter in use in India. I’ve seen this design used in Progresso, Mexico (across the border from McAllen, Tx). It seems to work, but I’ll admit that I passed up an offer of a glass of water at the orphanage that day.

http://www.traveljournals.net/pictures/87172.html

[outofsalt]

Cool find. Glad to see a Prepper post in my pings this morning. Always good to learn more!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Taps in New Orleans briefly went dry Sunday after a boiler's heating flame went out of control in the immense steam generator that powers pumps for the city's water treatment plant.

WTF? Are they using Victorian Era technology down there?

[Iron Munro]

Thanks for your posts on the Slow Sand Filter.
I especially like the idea of using it as a pre-filter.

Not only would it give an extra bit of confidence in the purity of the water from the final filter, it would no doubt extend the life of the final filter element.

I found some interesting articles and videos on DIY sand filters doing a simple search for "how to make a slow sand filter".

I already have a bucket filter made using AquaRain filter elements so my next prep will be to put together a slow sand filter bucket and store a few bags of clean sand for it.

[Godzilla]

I have a Katadyn filter along with another homemade filtration system and 2 x 55 gal drums full of water. Water is important!

[Stegall Tx]

I’ll admit that the first time I heard of the thing (on a trip to Mexico), I thought it was just wishful thinking. “Uh, yeah, we filter the water through sand and this works great!”

However, the research really seems to indicate that it is a good system that improves with use. And what seems to be yucky algae growing in the sand is actually an organic filtration system of its own.

So, as you use the system, the sand filter will IMPROVE over time just as your ceramic filter will slowly deteriorate. It’s weird, but that’s what the research indicates.