Keep the undead out of your drinking water

Feb 22 2012 Brian Bienkowski 3 Comments

Contaminated water is a serious problem.

Please stay out of my water. And my nightmares. Photo: PruittAllen (Flickr)

And so are zombies.

So you know what’s a really serious problem? A zombie in your well. There’s no Brita filter for that.

But according to the Center for Disease and Control and Prevention’s Public Health Matters Blog, “clean water is zombie-free water.”

Don’t worry, zombies aren’t the newest invasive species, rather the federal agency is using the zombie-based TV show, The Walking Dead, to give pointers on preparing for and responding to public health events.

The show is a post-apocalyptic series based on a comic book series of the same name. Before the show started its second season on Feb. 12, health officials highlighted three lessons from season one – fill up your car with gas before it’s too late, never leave home without a first aid kit and beware of contaminated water.

The agency recommends boiling, disinfecting or filtering water that you think may be contaminated from flooding, farm run-off, human sewage, chemicals or the undead.

So there you have it – government health officials giving tips based on fictional TV shows. Hey, whatever works.

And if zombies ever do invade the Great Lakes, now you’ll know what to do.

And who knows, they may even bump Asian carp off the front page for a day or two.

3 Comments »

Geoff said:

In Michigan the Republicans make sure the manure zombies remain in the waterways on behalf of their CAFOs. When the DEQ fines a polluter CAFO $29,000 after scores of deliberate violations, the Michigan Republicans gut the DEQ budget more millions of dollars to help their polluter partners and campaign contributions. The Republicans now make sure the DEQ staff will not be able to function to protect the public health.

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# 22 February 2012 at 2:38 pm

Carol said:

Many of us don’t give a thought about what is deliberately added to our drinking water …chlorine and fluoride. Is there a long-term health impact?

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# 23 February 2012 at 8:01 am

Dave said:

There is definitely a long-term impact from exposure to chlorine and the myriad compounds that are created when drinking water containing organic materials is chlorinated. Moreover, chlorination of sewage effluent to disinfect is very toxic to aquatic life; replacement of chlorine with ozone or UV treatments reduces the toxicity of effluents to fish and other species.

That said, there are many other micro and macropollutants that pose a significant risk to humans and to other life forms when they occur in water. Michigan’s waterways are polluted from past and current discharges of toxic chemicals from industry, POTWs, and non-point sources.

It is time to expand the focus of disaster preparedness to include protection and restoration of watersheds and groundwater infiltration zones in order to ensure long-term supplies of clean water, particularly when power outages have the potential to shut down water treatment and sewage treatment plants.

Simply protecting freshwater spring recharge and discharge zones can help to ensure clean water for prolonged periods, even during and after droughts.

But that would mean that somebody may not be able to spread manure on frozen ground or build a subdivision on a wetland or dump persistent and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals into the air and water. And when those somebodies have direct control over politicians via unlimited campaign donations we get the situation that the good People of Michigan (and Wisconsin and Ohio and Florida and….) now find themselves in.

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# 24 February 2012 at 1:23 pm

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