As I write this, the Missouri River is at flood stage with worse to come. It is a tragedy for many small towns along the River. In Hamburg, Iowa, they’re racing to raise the level of the second levee as the primary levee already has a large breach in it. If the second levee does not hold, the town will be under 10 feet of water.
The water is coming from the tremendous snow-pack and heavy rains that have occurred in the Missouri catchment area that, one new report said, covered an area 1/6 the size of the USA.
We have already seen and heard about the Mississippi River flooding and the towns and farms in Louisiana that were sacrificed to save New Orleans and other big cities. The Missouri flows into the Mississippi River so there’s much more to come. In fact in the “heartland” here they are saying the flooding will occur through much of the summer.
While all this is going on there are other things happening as well. A number of sewage plants have stopped operations due to the flooding and they are allowing raw sewage flow in to the Missouri River. In Omaha, more than 6 million gallon of raw sewage a day is being released into the Missouri and a few miles downstream the city of Plattsmouth, NE has been by-passing their sewage treatment plant and allowing raw sewage into the river.
But that just the start of it. Imagine the waste and chemicals from farms that has been washed away and are now part of the river system. And the river system is the source of drinking water for millions downstream. It’s not a pretty thought.
That’s why I’m glad our family has a water distiller. In these circumstances a water distiller is like insurance. It’s “peace of mind”. Why so? Well, distillation is the only water treatment process to boil the water. It’s part of its “thermal phase-change” purification process. The boiling kills the biological contaminants. When the raw water is boiled the vapor-phase (steam) rises and leaves behind the “bad-stuff in the raw water. Need proof? Look inside the boiling chamber and you’ll see what I mean. Distillation is the only process where you actually get to see what is removed from your water. It’s not a pretty sight in one respect. It’s a beautiful sight in another respect. That’s why you’ll never separate our family from a distiller.
Great article. You make some very good points, as usual