Geniuses at a Water Plant in Ohio Mistake Hydrochloric Acid for Fluoride
As if the peanut recalls causing everyone to throw out most of the items in their cabinets containing peanut “product” or peanuts wasn’t enough to make you want to become completely self-sustaining, now the residents of Bellaire, Ohio have to worry about whether the geniuses at their water treatment plant can tell the difference between fluoride and hydrochloric acid!
Residents of Bellaire, OH were sent tap water containing hydrochloric acid after water department workers accidentally dumped it into the water supply at a treatment plant.
Apparently they though it was fluoride. By the way, the controversy over whether fluoride should be put into our water in the first place is big enough for it’s own article.
The drums used to ship hydrochloric acid and fluoride to this facility look very familiar, but the labels clearly stated what was inside the container. I guess that’s what happens when we hire people who can’t read.
And perhaps the biggest fear this raises is one of biological terrorism. To those who say it can’t happen – do you think someone who can’t read a label on a big drum of “stuff” they’re about to put into the water supply is any better at, say, checking IDs?
If you had an off grid home with an ample water supply (spring or deep well) and your own electricity, there wouldn’t be so much to worry about.
The off-grid culture will flourish as long as current methodologies are readily available and well disseminated on the web for free. Pressures from the (GRD) great republican depression and world wide Bushian economics will drive most sane folks to a “Post Materialist” meritocracy. As McMansions are foreclosed and fall to ruin, as SUV’s reduce themselves to piles of planned obsolescent rust on driveways, and as the “Banksters” of New York, their shysters, shylocks and swindlers in tow, get off to sunnier climes with bags of our money, we will retreat to a simpler, less susceptible way of life, giving up our 8 to 5 race to the early coffin in SUV’s for “The Man” and begin to enjoy life more, much as the Post Soviet era Russians do now. We only needed the gasoline to get to the job and the jobs have been off-shored to Asia – so, what’s your rush? Make home brew, have a beer! Pause to get to know your kids. Live a little, you paid your dues, now walk away while you can.
The concentration of fluoride added to drinking water is around 1 part per million. That much hydrochloric acid is harmless. The enstupidation of Americal public education has many pernicious effects, but this isn’t one of them.
Well said, Uncle B.
steve is correct. the level of hydrochloric acid would at worst slightly decrease ph [lower ph is more acidic] keep in mind that even dangerous chemicals are harmless at a low enough concentration.
The trick of course is to keep said chemicals below the level at which they become a problem.
I think some of you are missing the point/s. See the last two paragraphs.
#1 – It highlights the risk of biological or chemical terrorism via the water supply.
#2 – It highlights the benefits of having your own source of water.
How about the fact that most people seem unable to grasp basic principles of science? Apparently acid is scary, but when dissolved in enough water, there is virtually no change in water aside from a slight pH drop. It dissociates into H+ and Cl-, which are already in your water. Neither is going to hurt you. Alarmist misrepresentation of science is not helping. Municipal water sanitation has saved millions of lives. Before water was processed, it was frequently contaminated with potentially lethal pathogens. Let’s have a little perspective, shall we? And stop fear-mongering. It’s getting old.
Liz,
You make a valid point about fear mongering and what really happens when acid is diluted in enough water. Almost everything loses its ability to harm IF it is diluted in enough water.
But the point is not so much “hey we could all drink acid” as it is “hey, there is an inherent danger in a centralized water supply, as there is in a centralized food system in that one person could potentially harm millions of people”. You mention pathogens. Well they could cause the same problems. In a well or spring that provides water for one or a few households, those pathogens aren’t going to affect nearly as many people.
I understand that not everyone can move off the grid. There are too many people for that because humans seem incapable realizing the biggest threat to our survival and health is overpopulation… but my “stop breeding” rant is for another time. For those of us who want to and can move off the grid, the fact that we don’t want to be part of that centralized water system is one of the many reasons. It’s not fear mongering. It is common sense.
Thank you for your input.