Woman Poisoned Because Of EPA Negligence?

January 19, 2017

CherylJosie

Dear Jordan,

There is no standard for lead or any other contaminant in water heater drain sludge.

Please stop spreading disinformation by implying that the standard of 15ppm in domestic water applies to water heater drain sludge.

The fact is that no standard can ever be set on pollutants in the water coming from a coincidental concentrator of pollutants such as a water heater because the concentration ratio is a direct product of the conditions within the plumbing system.

Water heaters increase the precipitation of at least one element that has an inverted solubility function as well as employing gravity to deliberately separate the hot water at the top from the colder water at the bottom. The result of complex electrochemical reactions and physical/thermal gradients is that all sorts of gunk collects in the bottom of the water heater, particularly after the sacrificial anode has dissolved and the tank begins to rust from the inside out.

If you want to publish the truth of the matter, flush the water heater before testing anything that comes out of it. Put a hose on the drain and run a full tank’s worth of water down the sewer before testing anything, or even better, limit your testing to the cold water as sampled as close to the utility as possible.

If you insist on testing the water heater then test only the water coming from the hot out port at the top of the tank. By the time you are done flushing, the precipitate will already have been stirred up so much that the reading may be slightly elevated despite the flushing. It would represent a true worst case reading from a properly maintained tank as opposed to a poorly maintained tank.

Utilities cannot take any responsibility for the homeowner’s failure to apply best practices.

Draining a water heater is required maintenance that most home owners fail to do, ever. Water heaters can concentrate contaminants from any source, including even the pipes that are inside of the house, including lead that is the major component in the solder that was used in older homes. That solder can come into prolonged contact with the water when it sits in the pipes for an extended period. Not just lead but all sorts of metals can leach from the pipe in the home during times of low use such as at night when people are sleeping.

This is the reason why people typically flush some water first thing in the morning before drinking from the tap. The water tastes better when it has not sat stagnant in the household pipes. This is also the reason why utilities also flush water from the tap before sampling. They do not want to be measuring the homeowner’s pipes, they want to directly sample the water they are sending INTO the home, as close to its state at the utility connection as they can get it, to avoid conflating issues having nothing to do with the utility water.

Flushing the tank will protect the drain from becoming clogged and it will also prevent accumulated sediment from getting stirred up and discharged from the hot out on the top of the tank during periods of high flow rate. This flush should be done at least once per year depending on the specific conditions such as flow rate and ph balance of the water, mineral content, age of the tank, etc.

Another good practice is to replace the tank or at least the sacrificial anode once the anode has dissolved. Excessive milkiness and orange tinge in the appearance of the sludge combined with calcium chips coming from the drain port is an indication that the anode may have already dissolved. In that case the tank should be depressurized and drained, and either the anode replaced or the tank replaced, to prevent a leaking water heater causing a flood and damaging the property.

Avoiding drinking or cooking with water from the water heater is good hygiene that everyone should be educated about, especially when intermittent large discharges are possible from a tank that has never been flushed as is so often the case.

Water heaters actually help remove contaminants from the water supply on average when they are properly maintained yet your coverage does not mention this.

You are not even telling people what they can do to protect themselves from poorly maintained water heaters let alone how to maintain them. This is completely irresponsible and may be leading to even more poisonings than would otherwise occur when clouds of precipitate become stirred up and discharged. At least you could take advantage of the opportunity to spread a little bit of awareness about solutions rather than just problems.

By simultaneously spreading panic about water quality based on unscientific methods, and also neglecting to inform people of ways they can mitigate problems that arise from their own failure to maintain and intelligently use their own property, you are completely discrediting your investigative credentials as impartial and enlightened.

You just seem like an agitator.

Please stop. Please stick to the facts and stop doing the same thing that Dubya did when he used ‘Saddam Hussein’ and ‘9/11’ in the same sentence time and again in the prosecution of an illegal invasion.

That is called ‘neurolinguistic programming’ and it is an indoctrination technique used by authoritarians to subvert independent thought.

You need to stop, Please.

Cheryl

Comments

January 19, 2017 Log in to Reply
CherylJosie

Dear Jordan,

There is no standard for lead or any other contaminant in water heater drain sludge.

Please stop spreading disinformation by implying that the standard of 15ppm in domestic water applies to water heater drain sludge.

The fact is that no standard can ever be set on pollutants in the water coming from a coincidental concentrator of pollutants such as a water heater because the concentration ratio is a direct product of the conditions within the plumbing system.

Water heaters increase the precipitation of at least one element that has an inverted solubility function as well as employing gravity to deliberately separate the hot water at the top from the colder water at the bottom. The result of complex electrochemical reactions and physical/thermal gradients is that all sorts of gunk collects in the bottom of the water heater, particularly after the sacrificial anode has dissolved and the tank begins to rust from the inside out.

If you want to publish the truth of the matter, flush the water heater before testing anything that comes out of it. Put a hose on the drain and run a full tank’s worth of water down the sewer before testing anything, or even better, limit your testing to the cold water as sampled as close to the utility as possible.

If you insist on testing the water heater then test only the water coming from the hot out port at the top of the tank. By the time you are done flushing, the precipitate will already have been stirred up so much that the reading may be slightly elevated despite the flushing. It would represent a true worst case reading from a properly maintained tank as opposed to a poorly maintained tank.

Utilities cannot take any responsibility for the homeowner’s failure to apply best practices.

Draining a water heater is required maintenance that most home owners fail to do, ever. Water heaters can concentrate contaminants from any source, including even the pipes that are inside of the house, including lead that is the major component in the solder that was used in older homes. That solder can come into prolonged contact with the water when it sits in the pipes for an extended period. Not just lead but all sorts of metals can leach from the pipe in the home during times of low use such as at night when people are sleeping.

This is the reason why people typically flush some water first thing in the morning before drinking from the tap. The water tastes better when it has not sat stagnant in the household pipes. This is also the reason why utilities also flush water from the tap before sampling. They do not want to be measuring the homeowner’s pipes, they want to directly sample the water they are sending INTO the home, as close to its state at the utility connection as they can get it, to avoid conflating issues having nothing to do with the utility water.

Flushing the tank will protect the drain from becoming clogged and it will also prevent accumulated sediment from getting stirred up and discharged from the hot out on the top of the tank during periods of high flow rate. This flush should be done at least once per year depending on the specific conditions such as flow rate and ph balance of the water, mineral content, age of the tank, etc.

Another good practice is to replace the tank or at least the sacrificial anode once the anode has dissolved. Excessive milkiness and orange tinge in the appearance of the sludge combined with calcium chips coming from the drain port is an indication that the anode may have already dissolved. In that case the tank should be depressurized and drained, and either the anode replaced or the tank replaced, to prevent a leaking water heater causing a flood and damaging the property.

Avoiding drinking or cooking with water from the water heater is good hygiene that everyone should be educated about, especially when intermittent large discharges are possible from a tank that has never been flushed as is so often the case.

Water heaters actually help remove contaminants from the water supply on average when they are properly maintained yet your coverage does not mention this.

You are not even telling people what they can do to protect themselves from poorly maintained water heaters let alone how to maintain them. This is completely irresponsible and may be leading to even more poisonings than would otherwise occur when clouds of precipitate become stirred up and discharged. At least you could take advantage of the opportunity to spread a little bit of awareness about solutions rather than just problems.

By simultaneously spreading panic about water quality based on unscientific methods, and also neglecting to inform people of ways they can mitigate problems that arise from their own failure to maintain and intelligently use their own property, you are completely discrediting your investigative credentials as impartial and enlightened.

You just seem like an agitator.

Please stop. Please stick to the facts and stop doing the same thing that Dubya did when he used ‘Saddam Hussein’ and ‘9/11’ in the same sentence time and again in the prosecution of an illegal invasion.

That is called ‘neurolinguistic programming’ and it is an indoctrination technique used by authoritarians to subvert independent thought.

You need to stop, Please.

Cheryl

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