It Could Happen Here - Butyl Acrylate Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Sophie and James are joined by Margaret Killjoy to discuss how to make dirty water safe to drink.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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AT&T, connecting changes everything. In a world where you end up standing in a two-hour line to buy mediocre and not climate-friendly water. Sorry, this is It Could Happen Here. This is Sophie. I really wanted to do that for a really long time. Well, now I want to watch it. Yeah, me too. Thank you. Those voices you hear are James Stout and Margaret Kiljoy.

And we're here to talk about the water crisis that seems to be getting worse in these United States. Yeah. James, what's happening? Well, a number of things are happening right um i think we should probably emphasize like at the start that water contaminants have been affecting people outside of like the kind of colonial core for a very long time long time and uh legacy corporate media whatever you want to call it hasn't given a solitary fuck about it until it affected people inside the colonial core so um what we're seeing right now is in two places uh east i believe it's pronounced palestine right i believe so too yeah yeah okay east palestine ohio uh and in philadelphia uh i

believe it's pronounced phil a delphia ah okay it's like someone's name like phil it was named for phil adele yeah the founder of the city. Phil from Delphia, like the Oracle. Ah, I see. He predicted that one day there would be a spill from a PLC chemical plant near the Delaware River. And famously, he was right. Yeah, and they built the city there anyway. Yeah, and for years they've been so angry

about not having a chemical plant. They've just climbed lampposts and thrown batteries at opposing football teams. Yeah. And I feel really good about starting with such heavy jokes about this thing. It's like 3 million people, I think. Anyway. Yeah. If you're in Philadelphia, we want to express solidarity with you, I guess, as you wonder

what the fuck to do about your water supply, which is currently contaminated, as we understand, by something called butylacrylate, which is a chemical that is found in paint. And the reason that there is a paint chemical in your drinking water if you live in Philadelphia is that a PLC manufacturing chemical plant called I think it's trinseo t-r-i-n-s-e-o had a leak and that leak went into a storm drain that storm drain went into the Delaware River and that river feeds into the Samuel S Baxter water treatment plant and obviously that water treatment plant feeds into the tap that you turn on to drink water when you live in your house and this has as it always does when there are like these somewhat bungled announcements of chemical contamination in drinking water uh cause

people to rush out to buy bottled water which is an understandable response if you think you're not going to be able to drink water which is cause people to wait in long lines to access uh sometimes like a limited supply of water and what we wanted to talk about today a little bit was not so much like what to do if you're in philadelphia right now um but like how we can better prepare to be ready for water emergencies water shortages water contamination things like that. Which is why Margaret has joined us because she is the prepper anarchist queen and knows a lot about these things. So yeah, Margaret, should we, I think you said you wanted to break this down by like bad things that can be in your water and things you can

do to get those bad things away, right? Yeah. Although I will say only a minority of this information directly relates to people who are dealing with toxic chemical spills. So I have a lot of information about general water safety, long-term storage of water, things that you don't want in your water, how to get those things out of your water. And I know you have a lot of experience with that stuff too. Um, but the very specific thing that people first in Ohio and now in Pennsylvania are dealing with, um, of chemical stuff is worse than other stuff and way harder to get out, especially on a DIY level. Um, so I don't know what, what feels best. Like, should we do an overview or should we try and first talk about the chemical stuff

and then talk about like the fun, easy stuff, like not getting Giardia when you're camping? Yeah. Let's maybe start out with the kind of, uh, this is the scary, you know, you, you can't buy a life straw for this. Fear first, fun later. Yeah. Because people might be listening and they might be afraid or they might be concerned or they might be in one of these places, right?

Flint, Michigan, where we still haven't fucking fixed the water. Fuck's sake, fucking Flint, Michigan. What a just disastrous incompetence. Yeah, I mean, yeah. It's extremely sad that the country that is as rich as any country has ever managed to be in human history is still poisoning people with water. But yeah, let's start with that. Let's start with what to do when you get a reverse 911 phone call telling you not to drink from your tap. I mean, honestly, going out and getting bottled water was the right move. Or also, since people did have a heads up that their tap water was safe for a period of time, storing water in various containers is the right move.

Because once your water is contaminated with chemicals, it's really hard to get it out. The main method that, well, on an industrial scale, the thing that someone can use, the way they treat wastewater with butyl acylate. I didn't write down the name in my notes. Acrylate, I think. Acrylate. Oh, like acrylic. That makes sense because latex paint. It's something called a fluidized bed reactor, which, frankly, I did not know about until I started doing this specific research for this specific chemical.

People who are like more at a high science level will know more about this. This is basically like you're using different bacteria to eat and I don't know, fucking clean out this shit. This is not what's gonna be happening in your kitchen sink anytime soon. This is not gonna be part of your Brita filter anytime soon. Ironically, and this is not,

how am I going to say this? Don't drink this chemical water if you have any possibility, right? If you can get other water, do that. And I believe in our current society, it is a better and safer bet to get water from elsewhere. If you were in some situation, which I suspect most people are not, I suspect most people could access supply lines. If you're in some situation, which I suspect most people are not, I suspect most people could access supply lines. If you're in some situation where the only water available to you has this, these types of chemicals in it, the most likely guess about a way to deal with it is activated carbon charcoal. And is, is actually the home filters that a lot of people use is your brita filter is your berkey although i'll talk some shit on berkey in a little bit um and and when we go over the more like nitty-gritty details about each filtration method maybe we can we can talk more about this

but basically it is like it is not tested to do this no one one has ever been like, man, what if we get a bunch of butyl acrylate in our water? Will our Brita filter it out? No one is running tests on this because it is not a thing that normally is in the water historically, although clearly it is often in the water now. However, the method of filtration of the various home level acts various home level methods of filtration adsorption is what it's called with a d instead of a b is the method that is perceived as most effective at reducing chemicals in water however again we're talking about like maybe this reduces some chemicals maybe not oh you run this through this and now you're fine yeah yeah it's there's a lot of things that could get no water right that we don't really have like any any like

decent research on how to get them out of our water and yeah so margaret james is there is there a say say you're not living in a place where you get a text letting you know that on Tuesday at 3 p.m. your water will not be safe to drink, which is really just... Is there a home testing kit or a water testing kit that is accessible for most individuals? Or what resources can people use to to understand their water at home because i'm not really going to trust the government on that yeah um margaret do you want to take that i only know about i do not know about testing for butyl acrylate um i think that this is the kind of thing that they are not, people are not prepared for, like at a society level, I don't, I believe. I could be wrong.

All of the water testing that I have done has tended to be around, like I live on a well, right? And so there's a lot of testing things that are available to tell you the acidity of your water, the hardness of your water, which is how many dissolved minerals, whether or not your water contains things like lead and arsenic, heavy metals, which we'll talk about in a little bit, and also bacteria, right? Like all of the stuff that we normally prepare to filter out of water, there are home tests available to you that you can use to determine. i don't know and i wish i had done more research ahead of time there's like some talk about like possible smells and stuff um for some of these but i i don't feel confident yeah i mean i know there's the ewg's

like website where you can put in your your your zip code and get more information on if there's been contamination or anything like that. But, like, that's, you know, reported things, not necessarily, like, on an individual level for testing. I definitely do that. Anytime I have moved anywhere, I'll type in my zip code and then I go, ah, that sounds really bad. I don't like that. But, yeah, you can find out, you know, once you put in, you can find out who, like, you put in your zip code on, this is just ewg.org. You put in your zip code and you can put who you pay for water and then it goes in and it tells you, you know, it's really fun.

Four, in my neighborhood, four EWG health guidelines, 14 contaminants. Oh, congrats. Yeah. I think a combination of two is probably your best bet, like unless you happen to own a laboratory. Because there's stuff coming, like if there is lead in between the water mains and wherever the EWD is getting its information and your tap, then you're still risking heavy heavy metal contaminants right or if you're on a well you should test that i think

it's every year right you're supposed to test your well water i probably should you know you'll be fine you'll know but yeah i i think it's important that like you i have definitely got super sick from water that looks super clear, had no odor, looked fine. And I have drunk from turbid as fuck, stagnant water and not been sick. So your nose is not going to tell you you do need some kind of help. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome.

I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time.

Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast hey i'm jack peace thomas the host of a brand new black effect original series black lit the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of black literature i'm jack peace thomas and i'm inviting you to join me in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the

brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.

Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Let's talk about storing water first, and then we'll talk about the more sort of established solutions for the more expected contaminants, I guess. How would you go about, let's say you're

not in Philadelphia right now, and you want to prepare for something that could happen in your area. How would you go about storing water? So the easiest way is that you go get bottled water. If it is sealed and you keep it out of the sun, you keep it out of the heat. Um, even though you're, it's supposedly good for a year or two, whatever. I feel like really nervous on this. Like this is what's safe, even though it's not safe. Right. But, um, you can, but water itself doesn't go bad. That is a thing that is worth understanding left to its own devices. Water does not go bad. Water goes bad when there's like something in it that replicates, like bacteria or something like that. Or when something leaks into it. The main reason that you want to keep your water out of the sun and out of the heat

is because if you're storing it in plastic, that can eventually kind of leach into it as the plastic degrades. And that, I don't know, there's probably long-term health effects, but like I would drink a water bottle that has been in the backseat of my car for a year before I would drink butyl acrylate water. And which is, I mean, it's, I guess that's just plastic or plastic, pick your poison. But yeah so so bottled water is generally very safe um and it is sealed and it has no particular reason to go bad you don't want to store it next to kerosene or gasoline like if you are the kind of person who keeps five gallon jug of gasoline around you want that in a different place than your water. Usually you want the gasoline outside your house in an outbuilding. Everyone lives on acreage in the rural areas of the country, right?

So many outbuildings around here. Yeah, everyone has outbuildings. I just go out to my urban barn. Yeah, exactly. So, okay. Well, okay. Then the other thing, if I'm actually preparing, go out and get some five gallon jerry cans um you're going to pay between 20 and 50 and you'll get a little bit of different quality depending on that you want something that is bpa free you want something that is um opaque and you want something that is like not really bigger than four or five gallons because

it's clumsy and unwieldy yeah uh You also don't want to stack these things unless they specifically say, this one is stackable to such and such depth. Like most stackable containers are also only stackable one or two high, well, two or three high. And I don't know. I mean, like frankly, on some level, that's what there is.

Okay, and if you're going to fill your own water containers, there are a couple weird things about it. One, you, people argue about how often you should rotate it. I, I rotate mine about once a year. You should theoretically rotate them somewhere between six months and a year or something like that. Um, depending on how you store it. The other thing is that if you are, I actually think living off of a well, you should probably rotate it more often. If you're on municipal water, don't run it through your Brita before you store it because that Brita is going to pull out all the chlorine,

all the bleach and people are like, whoa, I don't want to drink bleach. I listened to that punk song, Dead Milkman, whatever. People don't want to drink bleach, right? You actually do want to drink tiny amounts of bleach um you you want tiny amounts of miracle medical solution yeah um it keeps bacteria from growing so if you filter out all of that and then you put it the water in the thing if there's the tiniest little bacteria that got through it's like sweet the defenses are down you know um so but yeah honestly storing water

like people like they're gonna sell you lots of products and like prepper sites are full of people selling you shit um but it's just a matter of like finding containers and filling them with water and then rotating them every now and then and it's not actually that big of a deal or super complicated that's my take on it um i used to live off of i used to live entirely off grid and then had to just drink water out of 50 gallon drums and i just i didn't even you know what i'm not going to say how bad my practices were because i don't want anyone to emulate me i was going to say if you're like if you're storing on a scale i don't know why they'd say you uh live on a compound in the desert um you know you can get big water tanks right um i was looking at moving out to the desert a couple of years ago and i didn't uh but

yeah you you can get big water tanks they're pretty cheap you should some places about a dollar a gallon last time i looked for like a 1500 gallon tank yeah um i found them cheap uh like gov surplus ones as well pretty often oh really yeah um we'll talk later yeah yeah we'll send you some send you some links uh but you might want to check at some places you actually can't legally have those um it's it's getting better now with that stuff but um you do want to check on that i think if you're or you could get like a water buffalo which is a an industrial device for shipping water um you can probably pick up those pretty cheap no it's an it's an animal i don't want you don't dehumanize it calling it an industrial machine it's an animal it has feelings yeah it does and you just keep that

in your backyard and then what that does is attack anyone who comes after your water so it's quite effective yeah uh they are tough as nails i've had some run-ins with buffalo um animals okay uh another thing i guess that like if you're like going hardcore on this and storing thousands of gallons of water, maybe you could invest in something like a chlorine maker. And that way, if you do mess up with your storage, I guess that could maybe give you some leeway in terms of purifying afterwards. Is that fair to say, Margaret?

Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. Chlorine maker is the next step up from basically because bleach itself does go bad. And it's not shelf stable for i don't remember how long it lasts um it's not indefinitely shelf stable and so people often especially in places without access to clean water and stuff um i will say though when we get into it chemical treatment is really good for the main stuff that people normally worry about such as protozoa bacteria and viruses but once again isn't going to do shit for some stuff that goes bad yeah i think it might there's one thing maybe cryptosporidium there's something that chlorine specifically doesn't work for oh that's right actually yeah it's actually

not very good at protozoa it's weirdly good at viruses and then whereas most of the filters are not good at viruses and are good at bacteria and protozoa. So we should probably explain these different things, right? These different ways you can treat your water. Okay. There's a bunch of stuff that you can be in your water that you don't wish was in the water. The one that is like kind of off the top of my head, the one that I think about the most because I've had to deal with it and it sucked, um, are protozoa. The two big ones are Giardia and Cryptosporidium. And these are tiny little animals in the water if you can look at pictures of them they're really cute and they make you shit a lot forever sometimes until you die um mostly immunocompromised folks but everyone really unhappy and if you're in a survival

situation already diarrhea is like no laughing matter. Your inability to keep in fluids and nutrients will dramatically affect your chance of survival. So that's protozoa. They are the biggest of these things and therefore sort of the easiest to do. I actually don't know whether they're bigger than bacteria or not. Then there's bacteria, which it can also be in water and do bad stuff to you. And then there's viruses, and viruses can be in the water

and do bad stuff to you. Largely in the United States, people don't worry about viruses in water um and that's not because our heads are in the sand it's because we don't have as many viruses in our water um uh then there's chemicals you could have in your water we don't like them there's dirt that can be in your water which is just like not fun um There's heavy metals like lead and iron that can have deleterious effects on your health. Some people want to get water hardening minerals like calcium and magnesium out of their water, but you actually don't want to get rid of all of them. That's the catch. That's what we're

going to talk about because your body wants some of those things they mostly just like make your house has all the all the plumbing breaks that's like the main stuff there's also things like nitrates that i don't understand well enough to talk about how we get rid of things yeah the most common way that like backpackers and stuff who are a lot of the people who diy this on a regular basis use is something called filtration, or I'm going to call filtration. First, you screen your water, as in you get out the large chunks. Usually people use like a bandana or a sock or just some piece of cloth, right? And you want to use that so you're not gumming up your filter. And then it goes into something where it's forced through a membrane with micropores. These used to be ceramic, but these days they're like a bunch of tiny little tubes like the internet. And most of these are basically, the tubes have holes in them that are so small

that it stops protozoan bacteria from going through it. That is its main claim to fame. It is very effective at it. Now that they're not ceramic, you don't have to clean it like every fucking gallon. And these are really good. Top brands that I am not sponsored by are Sawyer and LifeStraw. They're going to use slightly different methods. People have opinions about them. I'm not going to offer mine right now. And they're measured in the, the, the size of the holes, anything that's like one micron is small enough to stop most protozoa. Most of these ones are either 0.1 or 0.2.

These don't block viruses. Um, so they make ones that have even smaller holes that can deal with viruses. And this also blocks microplastics, but you know, whatever. Then there's chemical treatment, chemical treatment. The two most common ones are bleach, chlorine, or iodine. And there's also like chemical tablets that you can buy that are like worth keeping around. They weigh almost nothing, whatever. Um, I am not going to give you the chart of how much bleach to add to your water. And don't just go listen to me and add bleach to your water. Fucking look it up.

Uh, do not use color safe bleach. Do not use scented bleach. It's just disinfected bleach, which will probably either come in 6% or 8.25% sodium hypochlorite chloride. Um, and sounds so gross. Just those combinations words yeah i know it's what they sent it with uh the blood of i don't know i got poison yeah poison like lavender then i hope it's you could have have smelled like hot dogs or something that sounds so gross yeah

I used to wear lavender all the time I actually I stopped for two reasons first I stopped when I was in college because like my girlfriend was like

you smell like soap and was like really mad at me if you're listening whatever I don't care and then I stopped because get one in Margaret

go on go off if you're listening what's good look at me now yeah And then I stopped because... Get one in, Margaret. Go on. Go off. If you're listening, what's good? Look at me now. Yeah. Thanks for turning me on to lots of cool stuff.

That was much healthier than I would have been. I'm proud of you. And then the other reason I stopped wearing lavender is it attracts ticks if you're out in the woods. Anyway, okay, so that's chemical treatment. Chemical treatment is really good for bacteria and viruses. It's not great for parasites. It is a really good backup system, right? Actually, I'll go over the fucking king of all of them.

For bacteria, viruses, and parasites, you want to get rid of it, you fucking boil your water. The classic way to deal with it is you boil your water and it only needs to get above 60 degrees celsius uh which is like 140 something in regular human um and i actually don't know the conversion i actually no when you're talking about quibble regular human as fahrenheit okay fahrenheit is really good about humans because zero is cold and 100 is hot I actually know when you're talking about quibble regular human as Fahrenheit okay Fahrenheit is really good about humans because zero is cold and 100 is hot yes Celsius is really good about water so we're we actually are talking about water right now so Celsius is the proper scale because it goes from zero is freezing to 100 is boiling yeah um go Go ahead. Yeah, it's... You know what we should do before we talk further about water?

Do you know what will not make you shit yourself to death? Reagan coins? Yeah. It probably is Ronald Reagan coins again. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America.

From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series. or wherever you get your podcasts. of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the

chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso

as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday.

All right, we're back. Thank you very much, Uncle Ron, for continuing to pay for my healthcare and insulin needs. So, Margaret were we were talking about uh boiling fuck boiling water that's it yeah yeah so how long do we need to boil stuff for to change depending on what we got it does but not really it's like the all of the main and do do the actual instructions overkill is better than regular get killed right um but most shit dies off at 60 degrees celsius which is below the boiling point of water even at high elevation

however basically the deal is you want to boil your water for one minute at sea level three minutes above 5 000 feet um or five kilometers no wait, wait, no. It's not a thousand feet. It's just under two kilometers. Okay. And yeah, so boiling water is actually one of the main things you can do. It doesn't get rid of everything. It gets rid of those three things, protozoa, bacteria, and viruses very effectively.

And that is most of the time what most people are treating water for. A lot of the other stuff is like long-term health effects, like metals and chemicals right um yeah other methods that you can use the other like kind of gold standard which isn't as good as it seems like it should be is distillation distillation gets out lots of stuff distillation is basically you evaporate the water and then let it run down into another container. Your moon shining your own water.

And you can do this DIY fairly well. And there's like solar stills that are really cool. I've never actually built one. I've always wanted to. The downside is if you live off of distilled water for a long time, it gets out the magnesium and the calcium. It gets out the minerals that you actually want in your water. So it can have negative effects on your long-term health if you only drink distilled water. The main thing that distillation does that I think no other method on this does besides a reverse osmosis, which I'm not

really going to get into, is it desalinates water. So go ahead. That's a big deal, right? Because if we look at long-term water insecurity, certainly where I live, we live in a place where people like to play golf in the desert. And that has become an issue as far as water supplies go. And so desalination is often proposed as a way to deal with our water crisis in California and the fact that the Colorado River is getting lower and lower and we rely on it.

But like you said lots of these methods aren't going to pull the salt out of water right they don't let you drink seawater right um but this one does and so i mean actually i don't really care about the health of golf course i have actually negative feelings about the health of golf courses um but theoretically maybe watering your lawn with the desalinated distilled water and then drinking the water that actually has minerals in it but then again like maybe the plants need that shit too i don't fucking know um so and in distillation um it's very good at getting out heavy metals also like iron and lead um and it the reason it gets out the bacteria and viruses is not because they can't evaporate

but because they die getting boiled because you boil to distill yeah um and some pesticides are filtered out if their boiling point is greater than the boiling point of water benzene and to lean which i don't know what it is i don't know too lean is um these are examples of things that do not get distilled out then there's a couple more there's adsorption adsorption rules this is the thing that i always misspell and so that's why i emphasize the ad adsorption um i don't really understand go ahead how. How do we adsorb? Is that just like absorption with adverts? You know, it's like, yeah, it's like I took three years of Latin and all I remember is that ad means towards and ab means away from.

And maybe a greek ally is either farmer or farmhouse. Yeah, I got pu-er-een. Sum-es-es, sum-es-es-es-an-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-aram-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S- is good for pesticides, heavy metals, chemicals, viruses, and bad tastes. It's the only one of these things that I'm aware of that actually can get rid of bad taste because this is pulling out all the weird stuff in the water. And what it is is it uses activated carbon, which is basically just some shit that's fucking burned and then crunched up real small.

It is a huge surface area because it's like little powder, right? And then the water passes through it and then by some weird science shit, the bad stuff tends to stick to the carbon. This is great. This is what your Brita filter does. This is what your Berkey does. This is what your Pure filter does.

It's not as good, I for bacteria and stuff and specifically the biggest problem with these things is that bacteria can grow on them um and so some people i mean that's why you replace it every so often it's not because it's like slow or clogged it's like literally unhealthy um and so sometimes what people do is they treat for bacteria with uv or some other method bleach whatever all the other shit that we talked about we haven't talked about uv yet um after it goes to the carbon filter i'm really excited about like kind of learning more about these because you can theoretically diy carbon right um yeah yeah you definitely could right like uh i know that it's not the same as this,

but one of the things you can do if you're in the backcountry is if you have water with a lot of turbidity, which is stuff in the water, if you can't see through the water, if it's got a lot of cloudiness, you can use white ash from a fire, and that will increase the rate at which it deposits the sediment. Do you see what I mean?

Oh, interesting. Because it sticks to it and then slowly filters to the bottom of the... I think the gold standard is a loom, which is something used in canning. Okay. And that increases it even quicker. But yeah, you can use white ash from a fire if you're dealing with... That's cool. I don't think that's activated carbon.

I think that's a different mechanism. Yeah, no, I don't think that's activated carbon i think that's a different mechanism yeah no i i don't know um and then one of the methods that is actually mostly done on an industrial scale that actually is like i think the main way that people filter water in this world is through sand and i didn't do enough research about um there's both slow slow sand filters and fast sand filters and some of them like literally depend on certain bacteria, good bacteria, like having a healthy culture of them that like eat the bad stuff and things. I used to know more about that than I do currently.

And then the last one I'm going to cover. Okay. Then there's reverse osmosis, which you might have a kitchen thing that does. And it, it also removes minerals. It's a very effective method of filtering out lots of stuff. It also, I don't know what causes wastewater and is complicated in some ways and then there's uv disinfection and

this is like one of the ones that gets touted as this like this is going to save the developing world or whatever right um yeah and uv disinfection is cool and good uh basically it uses uv light to kill off um bacteria parasites and viruses again these three things that are the main things people are usually going for. The biggest downside of UV disinfection, there's two of them. One is that it requires low turbidity water. Thanks for introducing that term. Clear water. It has to be fairly clear water because it's about light, right?

Does it make sense? And you have to be careful to do it right you just have to like actually get all of it with all of it um yeah so this is why i haven't like for a moment i got really excited about these things and in the end i was like i like my water filter that i already have yeah i think with uv filtration as well it's been big in the outdoor world kind of relatively recently you have to be conscious of storing it in a opaque container afterwards because the bacteria can uv like reactivate oh yeah if it's like any of it that it doesn't get it's like fuck yeah it's my time yeah because it stops them reproducing that's how

it uh they're still in there but they don't so it doesn't really matter you drink them and then you pass them through your system and it's fine but if they reproduce that's when you get sick so somehow they can uv reactivate um so like if you have a you know the classic like uh like through hiking thing if you use a smart water bottle right because it's cheap and it's dirty and but if you were uv filtering and then shoving in your smart water bottle and then putting that on the back of your pack and hiking all day, you might get in some difficulty. So, yeah. I don't know.

It's not. I haven't really messed with it much. Like, yeah, I have my comfortable setup and that's what I like to use. And I will say that, like, something that people who don't go camping much might not be aware of. There's almost nowhere in the United States that you can be confidently drink wild water without it, without risking something like Giardia.

There are places where you can directly from a spring is the most likely to be good. People used to say that you can drink high elevation water if you're up in an Alpine area because there's like no cows or whatever. Because like Giardia and I believe also crypto, but the other poop transferred crypto, the Cryptosporodia, not the multi-level marketing scam.

It's passed in the fecal oral tradition. What's the word here? fecal-oral tradition. What's the word here? Fecal-oral tradition. There's a word here I'm forgetting. Ask a mouse pathway. Yeah, pathway, yeah. And so because it's passed that way,

it's like basically the fact that there's livestock everywhere is the reason that it's not safe to drink the water. And so people are like, oh, if you go up high enough, you're safe. But there's still animals up there. And there's also like more and more hikers up there almost anywhere you're going to be hiking someone else has hiked and someone else has hiked and they have drank the water without filtering it because they're not thinking properly and then they've shit in not in a hole but just shit somewhere on the ground because they're also a bad person in that way. Yeah. And so they've like tested a while ago in the high Sierras that there's Giardia everywhere,

which doesn't necessarily mean it's going to make you sick, but it can make you sick. So it's just like worth knowing that this is the reason that backpackers know so much about water filtration. Although again, they don't know as much about chemical filtration, which is why I had to go and learn more about that. because i'm a backpacker more because i used to live off grid

but um yeah they're different like uh like there are there are definitely a lot of products out there that are very affordable that work for like that specific specifically the giardia concern right which is one that most people have and that's probably if you're like if you're in a place where you hear there's industrial water contamination and you go to rei and you buy a soya make a tap filter for instance um it clamps onto your tap it probably won't work for the stuff that you're concerned about um but it will work if you're yeah off a well and you have giardia or something yeah and it also won't work for like lead which is one of the reasons why the carbon filters are the more common ones at home because uh city water that is a a higher you know if you live in

some cities you're gonna have lead in your water right yeah because we used it in pipes for decades yeah but i don't know um oh let's talk shit on burkies really quick yeah let's do it what's up with burky why are they bad so i was like I posted the other day after this thing because that's my fun joy of being a prepper is going to Twitter and being like here's what I know about that thing you know whenever a thing happens um while like safe on my mountaintop and uh drinking out of my well, which whatever has its own problems. I'll take those problems anyway. Okay. So, so I posted about this and then I pointed out that like overall, there's like the different filters that you can have at home. And then the only one that seems to sort of do it all is the Berkey. It's this very expensive brand. You've probably seen them in your hippie

friend's house or you're the hippie and there's one in your house there's one in my house and it's a big silver canister that looks like it comes from the 50s or whatever and uh and it's a filter and it somehow filters more than everything else and the way that it does that is by line um or rather i don't know what i uh using marketing the way it yeah the way it does it is it says it can do these things and it is not certified to the what is it a nsf slash ansi standard that all of your other filters are testing themselves too so everyone else is saying we have passed this following certification and berkey is saying oh we tested and it does all this stuff all the other ones probably do kind of all this stuff too but the only things that they're actually certified to do they are what they say they do and so berkey basically charges a mint in exchange for uh using their

own testing standards instead of the testing standards of other people. Independent testers. Google Berkey wire cutter, and you'll find a good article where people conducted a bunch of tests. And it's a shame because it would be nice to have this sort of all-in-one filter

because it's very annoying. If you want to filter something out of your water, you have to go, okay, what's in my water that I don't want and then you have to go find the filter for that and it's not going to be the same as the other filter it's not gonna be same as the other filter like oh you live somewhere with lead in your pipes you can't buy a regular brita you gotta buy the the lead pipe montreal special brita you know um and like you know you want an under sink water filter well do you want this one or this one or this one?

It would be nice if there was a buy once, cry once. Yeah, go to Amazon. Two days later, you're fine kind of situation. Yeah, but there isn't one. No. I was going to go over, just in case people are curious more about the backcountry stuff, I guess. I have three different levels of stuff that i use for backcountry if i'm just going out and i don't

think i'm going to filter water i just take a stainless steel single wall water bottle and some iodine or another chemical purifier and iodine works pretty well but you don't want to be using it long term it's not good for you long term for your thyroid and then i'll filter it through like a buff or a kefir or something to get the turbidity out and use that um if it's a trip where i'm just in the back country in america i take a squeezy uh filtration system catadine b3 is the one i tend to use um and you want to have a dirty bag and a clean bottle, right? So you're squeezing from the dirty water into the clean water. And then if I'm going somewhere for work where there are virus risks and where it might be like what you'd call like a non-permissive environment,

a place where you don't want to hang around near a water source for a long time in case it's dangerous. I have this thing called an MSR Guardian, which is not cheap and you probably don't need it for what you're doing. But if you are concerned about viruses, it has a dirty bag and a clean bag and it's a hang filter so you can fill up three liters of water bugger off to somewhere safe hang it up and let that filter from the dirty bag into the clean bag and then uh you're not standing by the water filtering or pumping um and i've used that in some pretty fetid situations have been fine and i'll say though the thing that

i used off-grid was I used a Sawyer, just a regular Sawyer water filter. They're like $30. And I attached it to a five-gallon bucket with some hoses, and then I gravity-fed it, and I just left it dripping from one five-gallon bucket to another. And that's for a stationary place in the United States. That worked for me.

Yeah, I can see that working really well. Margaret, I'm starting to think, where can people learn more about prepping? Would there be a podcast they could listen to? You mean one that just went weekly? Live Like the World is Dying. I am one of the hosts of Live Like the World is Dying. The reason it went weekly is now there's more hosts. And you can listen to that wherever you listen to podcasts,

every Friday. And soon you'll be able to hear James on it. But I don't know when. Ooh, you just have to listen to all of them where can people see you gloating on Twitter from your mountaintop? Magpie Killjoy until I finally get sick of Twitter which is increasingly

likely every single day the hell so yeah well thank you very much Margaret that was very informative you are welcome bye everyone it could happen here is a production of You are welcome. All right. Bye, everyone. Bye. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com,

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