Several years ago I was driving between Omaha and Lincoln when a radio announcement caught my notice.  Apparently raw sewage was being dumped into the Missouri River from the sewage facility in Omaha.  The announcer advised people to avoid boating or swimming in the Missouri River for several hours until the spill had time to dissipate.  I was curious as to what would be announced in the newspapers so I looked and all I could find was one small announcement buried in the center of the paper.

If a business had made such a spill rather than a government utility I speculated the publicity would have been earth-shattering and big fines would be sure to follow.

What struck me though was just how many communities downstream used the Missouri River as their drinking water source.  I assume they likely treated the water before calling it drinking water but this whole episode leaves a nasty taste in your mouth (no pun intended)

This weekend I read of a sewage spill into the Saginaw River in Michigan.  This time it was 10 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage due to an overflow following very heavy rains.

How often does this sort of thing happen I asked myself.  I decided to Google “Sewage Spill River”  

I was amazed at what I found.  Seems like this is not uncommon at all. Recently 270,000 gallons of raw sewage were released into the James River, Virginia.  And 100,000 gallons into the San Antonio River. And 4 million gallons of sewage spilled into the Ohio River near Louisville, Ky.  I could write pages of these incidents.

All of this makes me so glad all my family members have a Pure Water distiller.  We steam-distill the city water before drinking it.  By boiling the water, converting it to steam and then condensing the steam to fresh, clean and biologically pure water, we don’t have to worry about all these “sewage accidents”.  Do you have a distiller?  Maybe you should think about getting one for your loved ones.  What better Christmas present could you give than the “Gift of Health”.