All Natural
Posted on 08/16/2005 8:27:48 PM PDT by neverdem
CARTHAGE, N.Y., Aug. 13 - For much of the summer, Dustan Wisner, 15, and his friends have whiled away the days fishing the banks of the Black River.
On Friday, he and his friends were beside the river again - no poles in sight. This time, they were learning that a toxic spill was snaking its way through the slow current and killing vast numbers of fish. "That stinks," Dustan said.
And it did.
The toxin was liquid cow manure - three million gallons in all - creating a murky plume that stretched for miles and giving unfortunate new meaning to the river's name.
The manure did not so much spill as gushed from an earthen reservoir at one of the largest dairy farms in the state, Marks Farm, in the nearby town of Lowville.
The police were notified on Thursday morning, but the callers did not know when the contamination actually began. "For some reason, one of the walls of the reservoir gave way and it started flowing into Black River," said James M. Martin, the emergency manager for Lewis County, which includes Lowville.
Workers tried to shore up the pit, but so much manure escaped that the contamination grew to roughly a fourth the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. "It started killing all the fish," Mr. Martin said. "Black River is known for its fish."
Trout, bass, pickerel, pike and walleye, to be exact. As the manure traveled the river's northwest current through several Adirondack communities toward Watertown, a city of 25,000, and on to Lake Ontario, it sapped the water of oxygen and poisoned the fish with ammonia. Hours later, fish began to bloat and float to the surface.
"It's the biggest fish kill I've ever seen," said Frank Flack, the regional fisheries manager...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"It sounds like in your area there need to be some changes specific to your soils and water tables."
Thank You very much for that concesion. It is at least good if this model has helped you.
Not to make light of the spill but take a look at how nature corrected the environment in the Valdez spill. Of course, pessimists will play the spill to the hilt. Just think how many environmental engineers will get jobs from this.
Threat
Nitrates contamination of the world's underground water
supply poses as a potentially serious health hazard to the
human inhabitants on earth. High nitrate levels found in
well water has been proven to be the cause for numerous
health conditions across the globe. If we intend to provide
for the future survival of man, and life on planet earth,
we must take action now to assure the quality of one of our
most precious resources, our underground water supply.
Ground water can be defined as the water stored in the open
spaces within underground rocks and unconsolidated material
(Monroe and Wicander 420). Ground water is one of the
numerous parts that make up the hydrologic cycle. The
primary source of water in underground aquifers is
precipitation that infiltrates the ground and moves through
the soil and pore spaces of rocks (Monroe and Wicander
420). There are also other sources that add water to the
underground aquifer that include: water infiltrating from
lakes and streams, recharge ponds, and wastewater treatment
systems. As groundwater moves through the soil, sediment,
and rocks, many of its impurities are filtered out. Take
note, however, that some, not all, soils and rocks are good
filters. Some are better than others and in some cases,
serious pollutants are not removed from the water before it
reaches the underground supply.
Now that we have a good working definition of what
groundwater is, and where it comes from, just how important
is it? Groundwater makes up about 22% of the worlds supply
of fresh water. Right now, groundwater accounts for 20% of
all the water used annually in the United States. On a
national average, a little more than 65% of the groundwater
in the United States each year goes to irrigation, with
industrial use second, and third is domestic use (Monroe
and Wicander 420). Some states are more dependent on
groundwater for drinking than others. Nebraska and the corn
belt states rely on underground water for 85% of their
drinking needs, and in Florida 90% of all drinking water
comes from underground aquifers (Funk and Wagnall 2).
People on the average in the United States require more
than 50 gallons of water each day for personal and
household uses. These include drinking, washing, preparing
meals and removing waste. A bath in a bathtub uses
approximately 25 gallons of water and a shower uses about
l5 gallons per minute of water flow while the shower runs.
Just to sustain human tissue requires about 2.5 quarts of
water per day. Most people drink about a quart of water per
day, getting the rest of the water they need from food
content. Most of the foods we eat are comprised mostly of
water: for example, eggs, are about 74% water, watermelon
92%, and a piece of lean meat about 70%. Most of the
beverages we drink are also mostly comprised of water, like
milk, coffee, tea and soft drinks. And the single largest
consumer of water in the United States, is agriculture. In
dry areas, farmers must irrigate their lands to grow crops.
It is estimated that in the United States, more than 100
billion gallons of fresh water are used each day for the
irrigation of croplands (Funk and Wagnall 2).
Since agriculture is the leading user of our groundwater,
perhaps it is fitting, that it is also the biggest
contributor of contaminating nitrates that work into our
water supply each year. Agriculture and livestock
production account for 80% of all nitrogen added to the
environment ( Terry, et al. 1996). Industrial fertilizers
make up 53%, animal manure 27%, atmosphere 14%, and point
source 6% (Puckett, 1994). Just how do these nitrates get
from the field into our water supply? There are two primary
reasons that nitrate contaminates reach our underground
water supply and make it unsafe. Number one reason is
farmer's bad habits of consistently over- fertilizing and
applying too much nitrogen to the soil. In 1995 America's
agricultural producers added 36 billion pounds of nitrogen
into the environment, 23 billion pounds of supplemental
industrial nitrogen, and 13 billion pounds of extra
nitrogen in the form of animal manure. Twenty percent of
this nitrogen was not used by the crops it was intended.
This accounts for about 7-8 billion pounds of excess
nitrogen remaining in the environment where much of it has
eventually entered the reservoirs, rivers, and groundwater
that supply us with our drinking water (NAS 1995). The
number two reason these contaminants reach our groundwater
supply runs parallel with the first. Over-irrigation causes
the leaching of these nitrates past the plants root zone
where they can be taken in by crops and used effectively.
Not all soils are the same and all have different drainage
characteristics. Soils with as higher amount of sand and
gravel are going to filter liquids down to the aquifer
faster than soils comprised of more silty finer sorted
particles. Today's farmers not only need to know when it is
time to irrigate, they also need to know how much and for
how long. When the two problems are added together,
over-fertilization, and over-irrigation, the potential for
harmful nitrate contamination runs terrifyingly high.
Just how harmful are nitrates in our drinking water?
Nitrates levels that exceed the Federal standard level of
10 parts per million can cause a condition known as
Methemoglobinemia, or Blue Baby Syndrome in infants.
Symptoms of Methemoglobinemia include anoxic appearance,
shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy,
and in more extreme cases, loss of consciousness and even
death. Approximately seven to ten percent of Blue Baby
Syndrome cases result in death of the infant (HAS 1977,
Johnson et al. 1987). When nitrate is ingested it is
converted into another chemical form, nitrate. Nitrate then
reacts with hemoglobin, the proteins responsible for
transporting oxygen in the body, converting them to
methemoglobin, a form that is incapable of carrying oxygen.
As a result, the victim suffers from oxygen deprivation, or
more commonly stated, the individual slowly suffocates (HAS
1977, Johnson et al. 1987). Although, Methemoglobinemia is
the most immediate life-threatening effect of nitrate
exposure, there are a number of equally serious
longer-term, chronic impacts. In numerous studies, exposure
to high levels of nitrate in drinking water has been linked
to a variety of effects ranging from hypertrophy
(enlargement of the thyroid) to 15 types of cancer, two
kinds of birth defects, and even hypertension (Mirvish
1991). Since 1976 there have been at least 8 different
epidemeology studies conducted in 11 different countries
that show a definite relationship between increasing rates
of stomach cancer and increasing nitrate intake (Hartmann,
1983; Mirvish 1983). The facts speak for themselves,
increasing levels of nitrates in our groundwater are slowly
poisoning our society.
We have only discussed contamination of our groundwater
supply by nitrates through the misuse of resources involved
in agriculture. Be aware that there are hundreds of other
substances and practices that add to the further
contamination of our groundwater every day. Time does not
allow for an in-depth analysis of all aquifer contaminates
in this paper, however, I would like to mention a few that
are at the top of the list just briefly. Storm water
runoff. Streets and parking lots contain many pollutants
including oils, greases, heavy metals and coliform, that
can enter groundwater directly through sinkholes and
drainage wells. Pesticides and herbicides can end up in the
water supply much the same way as do nitrates. Septic tanks
that are improperly or poorly maintained, can contaminate
groundwater. Underground storage tanks, hazardous
wastesites, landfills, abandoned wells, accidents and
illegal dumping all threaten the quality of our drinking
water. We must be aware of the potential hazards and take
measures to ensure the safety of our drinking water supply
for generations to come.
What can we do to prevent unnecessary contamination of our
groundwater? Farmers will and must continue to use nitrogen
fertilizer. They do not, however, need to overuse it. By
following a few simple guidelines, such as accounting for
all sources of nitrogen in the system, refining estimates
of crop nitrogen requirements, synchronizing application of
nitrogen with crop needs, using nitrogen soil tests, and
practicing good water management, farmers can not only help
keep our aquifers safe from contamination, but can probably
enjoy the same yields as before and spend less money on
fertilizer, thus increasing their net profits, (Halberg et
al. 1991, Iowa State University 1993). How about the rest
of us? What can we do to help drinking water safe? There
are many hazardous substances around the house that
frequently need disposal. Please don't dump them on the
ground, pour them down the drain, and always use
fertilizers and chemicals in moderation. Take proper care
and maintenance of your septic system at all times.
Finally, when in doubt, ask. Many areas have local Amnesty
Days. For information or to request an Amnesty Day, call
your local public works department.
Nitrate contamination poses a serious health threat to all
of us. Each of us uses a little more than 50 gallons of
fresh water every day. When all our fresh water is
contaminated beyond use, our world will not be a pleasant
environment to live in. We must all act now to maintain a
fresh water system that will be capable of sustaining us,
and many generations into the future.
http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/ReportEssay/Science/Earth%5CNitrate_Contamination_of_Groundwater_Poses_A_Serious_Health-36946.htm
As you can readily see I have been around here for quite some time; I have relatives of whom you remind me and I tend to distance myself from arguments that hinge on poor grammar, spelling and educational levels generally, but sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by the sheer preponderance of inanity inherent in what I read.
No insult intended beyond that which perceived.
This would confirm what you say about Iowa.
Nitrate contamination of rural water supplies poses serious health risk
April 1996
U.S. Water News Online
OMAHA, Neb. -- According to several environmental organizations,
Nebraskans and other mid-westerners living in rural areas, particularly those
with infant children, face serious health risks from the level of nitrates
in their drinking water.
A recent report by the Environmental Working Group warned of a possible
increase in "blue baby syndrome," a potentially deadly illness brought about
by exposure to nitrates in drinking water. The most common source
of nitrate in the environment is nitrogen fertilizer, which some citizen groups claim is
being overused by farmers. Rural water supplies of mid-western
farming states, whose sources are often untreated groundwater, are most
susceptible to high levels of nitrates which can be traced back to this source.
Though neither Nebraska nor Iowa has had a documented case of
blue baby syndrome in more than 15 years, The Environmental Working Group
said that as many as 2.2 million people, mostly in rural areas, obtain their
drinking supply from water systems that occasionally have levels of nitrates
exceeding federal health standards. The group added that there is evidence
nationally that this illness is under-reported.
Water agencies criticized the study by this environmental group,
saying it exaggerated health concerns about drinking water. But concern
over nitrates was also voiced by the Nebraska Audubon Society in Omaha. Donna
Rhee, an environmental chemist and representative for this branch of the
Audubon Society, said 43,596 people in 116 Nebraska communities have been
exposed to nitrate levels in water that exceed allowable federal standards
for safe drinking water. Those water systems, all in small Nebraska towns,
tested nitrate levels above federal standards at least once in the last
10 years. She encouraged the use of bottled water when mixing of baby formula.
Marla Augustine of the Nebraska Department of Health said all
water systems in the state are required to test for nitrates. If levels exceed
federal standards, officials are required to take corrective action, notify
the public, and provide another source of water for pregnant women
and infants. "I think the testing and monitoring system we have in place
assures infants are not at risk," Augustine said. "I think this
group exaggerates the risk."
Robert Johnson of the National Rural Water Association also took
issue with the report, stating that in its latest report to Congress, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that in 1994 only 0.1 percent
of water systems exceeded the federal health standard for nitrates. There
are 187,000 water systems in the United States. The EPA considers any level
of nitrates above 10 parts per million in drinking water to be a health risk.
But the Environmental Working Group's study of 200,000 water samples
dating back to 1986 found that 2,016 water systems over the last decade
had drinking water that exceeded the EPA nitrates standard at least once. Nearly
two out of three systems were repeat violators over that 10-year period.
http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcquality/6nitrate.html
" Negligent agricultural practices are easily recognized as the leading cause for nitrate contamination of water. "Farmers apply different rates of fertilizers into the soils where they want to grow higher yielding crops. When the producer applies too high of a rate of nitrogen or other fertilizer, it exceeds the soil's need for it, and the soil allows some of the nitrogen to permeate its structure. When this happens repeatedly, a buildup can occur in the underground water source. Agricultural practices contribute greatly toward the percentage of nitrates found in our rural groundwater."
http://w3.uwyo.edu/~tkc/tkb.html
The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen and is the source of all nitrates deposited in the soil from ordinary and natural processes, with or without the presence of mankind; all modern agricultural practice does is to concentrate the distribution.
The planet is in no peril.
Mankind will likely destroy himself through envy and blind hatred long before this orb is perturbed by a single degree second, but it is nice to have the chronically-worried on duty.
Best article I found.
http://www.altpressonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=333
Agri-business Stinks
What’s the fastest growing public health crisis in New York State?
The answer may surprise you, especially if you think of the bluest of blue states in terms of urban sophistication, or industrial manufacturing.
This year New Yorkers will face an increased threat to the air they breathe and the water they drink, caused by point source pollution from factory farms.
Factory Farms, known as CAFO’s or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are a failed model of agricultural and livestock raising practices that have already caused devastating pollution throughout the Midwestern United States. In the Midwest CAFOs have violated DEC and EPA policies, poisoned lakes, streams and rivers, contaminated aquifers with nitrates, pathogens and experimental chemical and hormonal compounds, caused large scale fish kills, and plundered local and regional economies.
CAFOs have literally destroyed rural life across the United States. Usurping what were once small family owned farms, these operations have divided communities, poisoned wells, sunk property values, and forced entire towns and villages to rely on bottled water for drinking and cooking.
It is impossible for people who live within a several mile radius of a CAFO to breathe fresh clean air, hang their laundry to dry, or enjoy a day of sun on their skin. Swing sets and sandboxes are rendered obsolete, playing outside no longer a simple joy.
Approved and courted by state, county and town governing bodies and owned by large international Corporations, these Factory Farms, generate tens of thousands of complaints a year, and commit thousands of violations of DEC and EPA regulations.
But despite numerous studies by government, environmental, and scientific agencies and think tanks, the dangerous trend of Factory Farming has grown and is now being pushed on New York’s failing economy as an artificial solution to serious fiscal problems.
The Pacific Research Institute, which compiles the U.S. Economy Freedom Index, ranking states according to their fiscal, regulatory, and judicial functioning, listed New York State dead last in 2003. Devastated by loss of industry, burdened with rising tax rates, and facing the crisis of counties across the state being bankrupted by Medicaid and social services payments, New York is in a compromised position when it comes to accepting any potential for revenue building, or employment.
By saying “Yes” to CAFOs, New York may saying yes to the straw that broke the camels back. With new Bush administration policies limiting polluter- pay policies, and class action suits, allowing CAFOs to operate in New York is both irresponsible and irrational.
Farm? I don’t see any farm.
A Factory Farm is hard to miss. But if you’re expecting to see a pasture and barn, cows grazing and chickens pecking and strutting, you may pass right by. Even the earthy smell of manure, hay, and cut grass is missing, replaced by an overwhelming, almost unidentifiable odor, a smell that would not readily draw your thoughts to agriculture. A smell more like the eye-burning blowover of a chemical plant with an intense undercurrent of decomposition about it. What you are smelling, depending on the animals housed in the facility, is millions of gallons of untreated feces, urine, blood, contaminated milk that has been dumped, and of course flesh, both living and dead. The smell is produced by tens of thousands of immobile bodies that in many cases have no more than three inches of space between them. The odor has about it a strange trace of stress and illness born from proximity and fear.
Driving down a winding remote country road you will smell a CAFO sometimes 30 minutes before the low lying stadium sized metal buildings of its industry catch your eye. And here is where you might find it odd that this structure is called a farm.
The landscape is unique in its desolation. Despite the nauseating odor, and particularly in the case of veal factories, the lowing and screaming of livestock, there are simply no animals to be seen.
The cows, pigs or chickens who are processed through Cafes remain inside at all times. They are fed grain, growth hormone, sub-therapeutic anti-biotics, and appetite enhancers. Much of the surrounding land, both above and below ground, is taken up by enormous storage tanks of untreated liquid feces. These tanks are euphemistically called “lagoons,” requiring anyone who has seen one to perform the same shift in perceptual reality that makes it possible to call a CAFO a “farm.”
A farm with a nearby lagoon sounds idyllic!
If only the residents of such areas did not suffer from rashes, asthma, uncontrollable vomiting, neurological damage, depression, and miscarriages, it might be possible to ignore the fact that the “farm” houses 80,000 pigs and produces millions upon millions of gallons of liquid waste containing a wide array of pathogens, hormones and chemicals which are stored, spigot sprayed and spread directly across vast tracks surrounding land, weather it is planted with crops or not.
Incidents of human disease caused by contact with livestock waste have increased with the growth of industrial farming practices such as land spreading and spigot spraying. Large numbers of viruses are excreted in animal feces and make their way into our drinking water. Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, and Cryptosporidium, to name just a few, have become ubiquitous in surface water and wells in proximity to factory farms. In one study of heifers and calves a shocking 90 percent of the herd tested positive for Cryptosporidium.
These are some of the same pathogens found in the beef, pork and chicken that is sold to the public. Ironically, the sicknesses caused by Salmonella and E. Coli poisoning are harder and harder to treat, because the strains have become resistant to antibiotics which are regularly administered to animals, and then consumed by humans. You could be contracting both the disease and the assurance that it will be not respond to treatment in one fatal bite, or one long cool drink from the tap.
But if you live near a CAFO there are other reasons not to drink the water. Nitrate contamination is the most serious consideration.
Nitrates and phosphates, which are characterized as nutrients become a kind of poison in large doses. Nitrate contamination goes hand in glove with factory farming and is a serious risk to human health and the environment. Nitrate poisoning causes miscarriages and blue baby syndrome. It also reduces the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen. As manure is high in nitrates, the land surrounding the CAFO is planted with Corn or other crops which readily absorb high nitrate fertilizer, but this does little to mitigate contamination of the watertable, aquifer and surrounding waterbodies.
Nitrate contamination has already destroyed aquifers across the Midwest and parts of Long Island, caused fish kills and increased algae growth in ponds and lakes. Manure spreading goes on year round regardless of the weather. This is a new and dangerous practice. Sustainable farms once spread solid manure just a few times a season. Liquid manure, which percolates rapidly and easily through the soil, is spread nearly every day of the year. This has already had a serious impact on the health of rural residents in New York State.
Animal, vegetable or mineral? You don’t see animals outside a Factory Farm, but you’re sure to see them on the inside, right? Not quite.
Some factory farms do not raise anything you would readily recognize as an animal, but instead, a genetically, hormonally and chemically modified creature that is used for human food. In terms of the corporate bottom line it might make sense to create, refine and one day even patent a living thing that has had its beak removed , has no feathers, cannot walk, and whose body consists of mostly white meat. But maintaining the “animal” on an I.V. drip while it voids perpetually into a vast underground pool of untreated waste, presents a complex array of health hazards.
The feelings of those sympathetic to various animal rights causes should be obvious when it comes to the issue of confinement, but traditional farmers have been much more vehement in their criticism of animal treatment on CAFOs.
One third generation farmer from Interlaken, NY described the sounds of confined pigs from a nearby factory farm as “horrifying.” No real farmer he said could tolerate such a noise, constant squealing, the sound of pigs in pain. “There’s no way you can hear that and not be affected by it. It’s not right.”
The noise is caused by the conditions of confinement. CAFOs cause point source pollution, which means the cause of contamination can be traced back to pipes, lagoons and storage tanks located on the corporations property. These outlets flow directly into creeks, rivers, fields, and ditches.
Factory Farms are fast becoming the leading cause of human respiratory and neurological damage in the rural areas in which they are located. But these problems are not just localized, nor limited to health problems of neighbors of these conglomerates.
The failed model of Factory Farming has been identified by the Union of Concerned Scientists as having caused an epidemic of disease resistant bacteria in humans throughout the United States.
Seventy percent of all antibiotics purchased in the United States are administered to Factory raised livestock, who must be dosed with anti-microbial drugs on a daily basis in order to live in the unsanitary conditions produced by extreme confinement. Factory livestock also require these sub therapeutic doses of anti biotics to combat the pervading illnesses which affect animals administered with growth hormone on a daily basis.
Though rural residents are well aware of the toxic health effects of factory farming, the majority of Americans are still in the dark about what exactly a CAFO is. Farming is associated with small wholesome family run businesses. But CAFOs are not farms. They are large scale industries that have bankrupted and replaced family farms, and in many instances turned farmers who have lived on the same land for generations into modern day share croppers, making little more than minimum wage subcontracting to the business school graduates who operate the CAFO.
But the vast majority of factory farms do not employ residents of the local area. They do not employ, for the most part, residents of the state or even the country. A quick tour of CAFOs in New York will reveal that nearly all employees who deal directly with the milking, feeding, and shipping process are brought from Mexico and Central America, and are not legally employed. There are no records of Factory Farm operators being fined for hiring illegals. Though the workers are periodically rounded up and deported, the Factory Farm CEO is seldom held responsible--claiming he did not know he had employed illegal workers, or that their papers were forged.
Hiring illegals, who are typically provided with a house in close proximity to the confinement area, is a way of keeping wages perpetually low, never having to pay health benefits, and preventing union organizers from shaking a living wage out of a multi-billion dollar industry.
Factory farms have taken over the livestock industry. Currently 98 percent of all poultry in the United States is produced by Factory Farms. Factory farms receive double the amount of government subsidies as independent family run farms. In the beef industry, 80 percent of all cattle raised and slaughtered pass through just four centrally owned meatpacking companies. Industrial hog farms have caused 247,500 family owned pig farms to go under. Just a handful of family operations remain, but their ability to compete with conglomerates is extremely limited. Saddest of all agencies like the Farm Bureau, and institutions like Cornell University’s school of agriculture have backed factory farming 100 percent because they stand to profit from corporations like Monsanto who fund university research.
Factory Farms have undoubtedly reduced the quality of life for rural residents, wrecked havoc on the State economy, and taken a serious toll on human health. Information about factory farming is available from a number of environmental, government and scientific agencies. The following list will help you get started on researching one of the most pressing and controversial issues facing New York residents today. A comprehensive and unredacted list of citizen complaints against CAFOs is available from the Citizens Environmental Coalition.
www.factoryfarm.org www.citizen.org www.nrdc.org www.sierraclub.org
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy 2105 First Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404 www.iatp.org/hogreport
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Water 625 Broadway, Albany NY 12233-3508
Union of Concerned Scientists www.uscusa.org/food
CRAP!
It is statistically impossible for a community to survive repeated incidences of uncontrollable vomiting and miscarriages, let alone the litany of other ailments, long enough to report on them.
Has common sense left the building?
Wow! How do you survive? You must be one big scaredy cat. If I were you I would not drink the water or breathe the air. Contaminants are intermingled in both since the days of Adam and Eve.
"Wow! How do you survive? You must be one big scardy cat. If I were you I would not drink the water or breathe the air. Contaminants are intermingled in both since the days of Adam and Eve."
At last after drinking clean mountain water for all of my life...I have had to resort to bottled water because the well water which now suddenly exceeds federal standards for nitrate for the first time since 1984 when such testing has been in progress here has been making me sick. Not knowing what was going on...I resorted to bottled water which has made me feel much better again. I was at first a skeptic myself thinking that this nitrate would never hurt me. I gulped it down with pride. I was wrong. You might think it is a joke. Some day you will be well aware just how serious it is. Maybe when you loose someone you love. So laugh all you want. It shows how cold and calyist you have become in this modern age where there is no difference between right and wrong.. So proud and so ignorant that you would not move out of the way if a Giant rock where about to fall on your head.
Not only that, but not all people have the same amount of intake of such poisons. Just because you live in the same community does not mean that you drink from the exact same well with the exact same contaminants(or level of) or that you drink the exact same amount from such given well. Better to be a Pepsi hallolic or even an Alchololic in such cases.
I accept your concern and sincerity; however we see things on different levels.
Do take care.
If you tried to avoid everything that could be harmful to you you may as well stay in bed every day. No sense going out into a society that is so rife with body threatening diseases and contaminants. Hey, everything you eat has something in it that may not be healthy for you. What's life if you have to analyze every thing you do, eat, drink or touch. A sad life indeed.
I know the initial setup of this costs a lot, but I don't understand why the major animal farms (both cow and pig) don't use this type of system to get rid of those big manure lakes they have.
http://cattlefeeder.ab.ca/manure/manure021104.shtml
It seems to me that this would help eliminate problems such as this one AND any ground water contamination there would be, although I admit to not knowing if other problems might arise from it.
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