Stolen Map of NYC Water System May Put Supply in Jeopardy

The New York Sun ^ | 2/23/06 | LAUREN ELKIES

[upchuck]

Happy, as always, to be living the quiet life in the hinterlands.

Amen, Brother from Aiken, SC.

[XR7]

My water is still a light blue. I never noticed it until I filled up a large white spa tub; it is not noticeable unless the water is in that tub or in a white container, so I have no idea when it started. Any possible effect from my water heater has been ruled out as the cause and that is what the water co. thought of immediately. Any ideas?

Copper sulfide (Cu2S) or copper sulfide (CuS) may be the culprit. How is that possible? If you have copper plumbing and there is hydrogen sulfide gas in your water (it usually gives water a "rotten egg" smell) they may be causing a chemical reaction creating the compound. In school, children use copper sulfate to grow beautiful blue crystals. Copper sulfate has been used to kill algae and microrganisms in swimming pools and water reservoirs, but it needs to be monitored carefully because it is toxic.

[Rodney King]

This is silly. Teh resevoirs that supply water to NYC are all well known and visible on ANY map of the areas north of NYC. It wouldn't be all that hard to figure out where to dump poison if you wanted to contaminate the water supply.

[redgolum]

In most water systems, it isn't that hard to raise a lot of havoc. Heck, it often happens by accident.

[FreedomCalls]

Detailed enough? It's easy enough to find New York City's reservoirs. Many are in the Catskills and I'm sure it's easy enough to find on the Internet.

You mean this, this, or this?

[FreedomCalls]

Detailed enough? It's easy enough to find New York City's reservoirs. Many are in the Catskills and I'm sure it's easy enough to find on the Internet.

Here's another.

[Gondring]

[calljack]

Too many nervous nellies on this particular topic. If the bad guys want to create a water issue, they can just dump their juice into the reservoirs. We lived near national parks in Rockland County, NY. There are dozens of lakes and reservoirs that supply NYC with their water.

Not how to do it.

Pump it back into the system by hooking up in the backyard of a rental house.
Privacy and no dilution problem, kill the whole neighborhood downstream, easy.

[willyd]

poisoning water is a stupid way to mount an attack anyway. The early risers would drop dead and everyone else would just avoid drinking the water. Not as effective as other means I would say.

[spanalot]

This talk of poisoning is silly - do you realize how many billions of gallons of water would have to be simultaneously dosed with at least thousands of pounds of the most potent toxins?

Were one to invent such a mixing system, it would rival the greatest innovations of all time.

[agere_contra]

As you say, you would need immense amounts of poison - and you would somehow need to get it part the Water Treatment Plants.

Far more likely is a physical attack against a key component of the water infrastructure to cause flooding and/or loss of service.

Or one of those microwave thingies to aerosolise pre-existing poison in the water (is it just me, or was "Batman Begins" really lame?)

[Amish with an attitude]

"My water is still a light blue"

So is my mountain spring water.

I had it tested and the company said I should bottle it, it's that good.

[Blue Jays]

Hi Issaquahking-

Sorry that I pointed those rascal Muslims your way! Wonder if they'll be able to sneak 15,000 tanker trucks across the Hoover Dam under cover of darkness in order to complete their dastardly and poisonous mission?

;-)

~ Blue Jays ~

[GOPJ]

The New York Sun has just up the price of the jacked computer - it's gone from $30 to a couple thousand. Only problem being that terrorists wouldn't want a witness...( bye-bye thief)

[Blue Jays]

Hi American Quilter-

"...I've read this elsewhere, and it does reduce the perception of threat to a more realistic level. Thanks for posting it..."

---

Yes, we're in agreement. When we stop to consider how many MILLIONS of gallons of water these reservoirs hold, they would have to have a very sneaky plan to contaminate the water with something that isn't immediately noticeable.

~ Blue Jays ~

[david06]

And ignore that water from the reservoirs still has to go through treatment plants.

[spanalot]

"Far more likely is a physical attack against a key component of the water infrastructure to cause flooding and/or loss of service. "

There is a fair amount of redundancy - and how long does it take to fix a pipe?

But the poisoning issue is nonexistant since it would take days to get thru distribution and it could never deliver in toxic concentrations

[sine_nomine]

They could do it easily in Phoenix. Just make the chemical smell like algae. No one would notice.