My home town newspaper, the Wichita Eagle, has this article, in yesterday’s edition:
digital.olivesoftware.com/…
Wichita’s water is safe to drink, tests show, but its treatment plant is 80 years old. The average life expectancy of a water treatment plant is 50 years. An assessment two years ago found that 99% of its parts were in poor or very poor condition, and 100% of the city’s raw water pipes were in very poor condition.
This water treatment plant serves about 500,000 of us, here in Wichita, Kansas, and surrounding communities.
The article is long, and goes on to explain, that other cities of similar size, have two or three or even four water treatment plants. In those cities, it is clear what happens if any one plant must shut down for any reason: the other plants provide the water for the citizens.
Here, in Wichita, we only have the one water treatment plant, and there is no clear plan of action, to provide safe water for 500,000 citizens, if the one, single, plant must shut down for critical repairs, for example.
A new water treatment plant is in the planning stages, and will take at least five years to build.
But, that is still just one water treatment plant, not two, in the planning stages.
What if there are bugs to get out, of the new plant?
Also:
The article does not mention, but I have noticed, that this one plant is in a low lying area, an area that will flood, when, not if, we have a 500 year flood, of the Arkansas river, that flows through the middle of Wichita.
We have a flood control channel, but in a 500 year flood, it will overflow, over-top the levees, and flood the middle of Wichita.
Remember New Orleans? Hurricane Katrina? Over-top the levees?
Climate change might cause central Kansas to become drier, or, climate change might cause more floods, and more severe floods, with 500 year floods every twenty years or so.
So, clearly, anyone who lives in Wichita, Kansas, and most folks who live anywhere, should stock up, with at least a month’s supply, of bottled water.
At our house, where we have 7 of us living in a small house, we keep, on hand, a minimum of ten, and maximum of thirty, cases of bottled water.
That’s about a month’s supply.
Everyone here, including the small dog, drinks the bottled water.
We are down to about 13 cases right now.
I plan to buy 24 cases next week.
www.walmart.com/…
Ozarka Natural Spring Water Value Pack, 16.9 Fl. Oz., 32 Count
I buy the water online, and that way, a young, strong, Walmart worker loads the water on to a flat cart, long before I arrive at the store, and, when I arrive, a Walmart worker wheels the water out to my vehicle, and loads it in the back.
As the Walmart worker and I roll out with all that water, often, somebody asks, why I am buying so much water?
I ask them, why are they not?
Thanks for reading.
Saturday, Aug 17, 2019 · 2:04:08 AM +00:00 · bigjacbigjacbigjac
My response to those pointing out, that storing tap water makes more sense than buying bottled water:
I agree.
However.
My family likes the taste of the bottled water, rather than the mineral taste of the tap water.
So, we all, including the small dog, we all drink the bottled water, and use it for cooking and making coffee and tea.
When we get low on bottled water, we buy more.
We only use the tap water for the toilets, showering, washing hands, washing dishes, and washing clothes in the washer.
This system keeps my family happy, and assures we always have between two weeks’ supply and over a month’s supply, at all times.
My wife and I plan to get a place of our own, within the next few years. When we do that, here is my plan:
I plan to buy 30 file crates, and 240 half gallon mason jars.
I will buy the jars, 40 at a time, and fill them with water, and place them in the crates, 8 jars per crate, and stack the crates, in a stack five crates high. That will be a stack with 20 gallons, enough for about ten days, in an emergency.
Six of those stacks, will give us about a two months’ supply of emergency water.
I want to use the glass jars, because I don’t trust any kind of plastic, even food grade, to not leech into the water.
The metal lids may rust, but I can check them, every year or so, and replace them with new flats, as needed.
Okay?