> But with good reason!  There seems to be a very high amount of scare 
> mongering about this issue.  I can't say I'm surprised since the 
> mass media has *never* been good about accessing any kind of 
> relative risks... but still.

Totally agree -- in fact, the scarier it is, the better for the news.  In
fact, I'm pretty certain that the news only presents the most 'extreme' risks,
because they are the ones that get ratings. I read that more people died from
'bad-water' supplies in Asia last year then in the Tsunami, but that doesn't
make the news because it happens a few at a time.  This isn't a risk, but it
goes to the point of the distorted picture you can get from the media:  Did
you know that in the presidential election the final vote count was closer in
Pennsylvania than Ohio?  But, of course, it is Ohio that is always discussed
as the swing state that was "so close"....

> Here's the issue in a nut-shell:
> 
> Due, probably, to the recent storms, the water in Phoenix had a 
> higher percentage of sediment (dirt) than it should have.  Federal 
> limit is roughly 1 part per billion, the water Tuesday afternoon was 
> over 2 ppb.   Sediment can contain potentially dangerous microbes 
> and if THAT was the case, then it might have been bad.  But it 
> wasn't the case.  This was 'clean' dirt, if you will. 

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

I really, really, really, really wish when something like this happens a
chemist that actually understands all the measurements would be put on TV to
explain exactly what they are measuring for and exactly what it means. 
Instead we have the news people filming the grocery store and saying clever
stuff like "many more people bought bottled water today than usual"....

Jeff

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