The Truth of Water - Answers

Jessica from Australia asks:

I remember… it would have been about 2001. Queensland was suffering with massive floods while the rest of the country was parched. I remember asking my Grade 5 teacher why they didn’t just ship all that water further down the continent. He seemed to think it wasn’t feasible.  Is that true?

Thanks for the question, Jessica.

Because of geology, terrain, the hydrological cycle, and many other factors, it is true that there are some geographic locals that have more water than others.  Typically, human civilization has sprung up around vast sources of fresh water.  Farming, drinking, shipping - these are but some of the uses of a local and large fresh water supply, and most cities that are near one tend to be better off than those who’s water supplies are short.

Water supplies are in high demand, and there’s no doubt as our supplies dwindle wars will be fought over them, as they are now over fossil fuels.

It may not seem like it, but water is a very heavy substance.  It may surprise you to learn that on average, a full ten percent of all electricity used by any particular city is consumed just to move potable water around water mains.  That is a lot of electricity.

The average person in a first world nation, considering the high and low, uses about four hundred liters of water a day.  This includes bathing, cooking, drinking, cleaning, laundry, gardening and other miscellaneous activities.

Then a typical family of four would use 1,600 liters a day, and 11,200 liters a week.  The typical water truck carries 6,000 liters, so for just one family it would cost two water trucks to make a round trip to wherever it is that has the water.

Consider then a city of 100,000 people.  In one week, a city of that size would require a visit by the equivalent of 46,666 water trucks just to keep the reservoirs full of water.

Considering the needs of the rest of the cities that may be low on water, and you can see that the task of hauling or piping water from long distances is just not feasible. There aren’t enough trucks, diesel fuel, pipeline, or electricity to meet the demand of today’s water consumer.

This would, however be feasible for a short duration of emergency, say after war or natural disaster, when water would be used only for drinking and medical purposes.

The above model also does not take into consideration industrial water use, water wastage during the treatment process, and the inefficiencies of infrastructure (small losses from water mains are typical).

As you can see, your teacher is correct. It is indeed not feasible to transport water over large distances at the current rate of consumption and at the current population.

Better alternatives would be desalination if you live near an ocean. However, because of the current technologies available to remove salt from water, producing a liter of drinkable ocean water costs thousands of times more than a liter of fresh water.

A more realistic approach would be to drastically change the way we as a society uses and wastes water in general.  This combined with proper recycling techniques, rain water collection and more efficient treatment practices would solve many problems.

I hope I’ve answered your question. If you would like further clarification, don’t hesitate to ask.

Mike from Salem writes:

If water is composed of both Hydrogen and Oxygen, both explosive elements, why is water not only not explosive but fire retardant as well?

Hi Mike, thanks for the question.

That is a very good question.  That type of molecular chemistry is a bit out of my expertise, but I’ll answer it as to how I understand it.

Hydrogen exists normally in what’s called a diatomic state.  That is, it likes to pair up with another hydrogen atom. In this state, it’s quite inert.

However, when energy is added, such as a spark or a flame, the following happens:

H2 —>(spark)—-> 2H

H, or H* (* represents the excited state) is now an energetic and can react with a number of things.

Then you add oxygen to this excited hydrogen, and the following happens:

H* + O2 —> HO* + O*; O* + H2 —> HO* + H*; HO* + H2 —> H2O + H*

As you can see the end result of these equations is more H* atoms. The H* atom will find more oxygen and repeat the cycle until all the immediate available hydrogen is used up.  This is a chain reaction and why hydrogen and oxygen burn.

That reaction also produces water.  In the absence of a spark, H2 and O2 can produce water without any burning reactions like so:

2 H2 + 02 = 2 H2O

Water does not burn because the hydrogen and oxygen are bound together and must be separated first before the first reactions I showed you above can happen. In order to break those bonds, a lot of energy is required, much more than a spark or open flame is able to deliver.

When you throw water on a flame then, it denies the flame oxygen and that is why it stops burning.

I hope this answers your question.  If you would like further clarification or have another question please do not hesitate to contact me at any time

Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.  It may not feel like it now, to you and me. It may feel like water is cheap, and plentiful, and we’ll never run out. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Water is the planets most precious resource, and we are running out of fresh water faster than the planet can replenish it.  As such, more and more people with power and authority are tightening their grip on this most precious recourse, at the cost of the people.

Nobody knows this better than Irina Salina, who produced an award winning documentary on the topic. From the website:

Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?”

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround. - Source

I urge all of you who are reading this to watch this movie. Check out Irina’s website, participate in her blog, and take action.

People like Irina and others who speak out on the water crisis are speaking the truth. We all must take action to protect the resource for ourselves and future generations.  Please check out this movie, and do your part to help.

Ais from Sydney, Australia writes:

I have been living in a building which was built in the 20’s o r 30’s. Our tap water is sometimes very milky/cloudy looking when it is first poured and then settles down to normal appearance when left to sit in a glass for awhile. My partner seems to think that it is just air bubbles, but I am concerned that it may be something else as we live in such an old building.

Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Ais, thank you for your question.

Your partner is correct. This is indeed air.

There could be many reasons for a milky/cloudy appearance to water, but if it disappears without leaving any sediment than air is the reason.  This milky appearance is caused by extremely tiny air bubbles and lots of them.

Many people don’t know this but air plays a very important part in the complex dynamics of a water distribution system. It is impossible to keep air out of water mains, and without the appropriate air vent/intake valves placed along that main, the main would constantly break or collapse.

It is possible that your building is located at a high point along the main where air can collect, introducing air into the apartmant buildings service lines on occasion.

But more likely the air in your water is due to occasional changes in water pressure due to increased demands else where in the distribution system.

Water naturally contains 2%-3% air by volume, being held in the water.  The higher the pressure you put in the water, the more air it can hold.  When the pressure is lowered, water can no longer dissolve as much air and the air is released from the water, forming air bubbles.  The same is true for temperature. Changes in temperature can effect how much air water can hold.

You may want to pay attention to when this is happening. Perhaps it’s first thing in the morning, when most people are taking showers and getting ready for work. Or maybe it’s later in the evening, when some industry ramps up it’s use of water, filling storage tanks for the next day’s processes. It could be seasonal, or the water pipes in the building could run parallel to heating/cooling duct work, changing the temperature.

Regardless, air in your water is normal and will not cause you any harm.

I hope I’ve helped answer your question. If you have any other questions or require further clarifications, please don’t hesitate to write in again.

Mark from California Writes:

For many years I’ve used a sediment/carbon/ro/DI filter, to take my 390 PPM city water to zero PPM for drinking. Been drinking it for a decade, water indoor plants with it, feed it to pets, cook and drink with it, and have no problems. Now i read all over the net, the dangers of drinking ultra-pure RO/DI water.  We like the taste, and have had no health problems we know of.  Is ultra pure water safe - if one has a multivitamin daily?

Hi Mark, thank you for the question.

I’m not a health professional so I cannot tell you specifically how it’s affecting you, based on the amount you drink, your multivitamins or your current diet.  I am a water professional, and I can tell you the properties of DI/R.O. water and why it is considered dangerous to your health.

For many years, DI/R.O. was considered the best water for you.  The rational was that if nothing was in the water except water itself, then this must be the best for you.  Nothing but water and nothing could hurt you.

Today we know this is not true for two reasons:

1. Natural water is a perfect source for vitamin and mineral absorption by the body
2. Ultra pure water is actually a very aggressive chemical.

I’d like to deal with the first point, of course, first.  One of my areas of expertise is the precise addition of chemicals to water.  If a dosage is called for, I get it there down to the tenth of a mg/L.  In order to precisely dose a chemical, to have it best integrate, mix, and dissolve in the water, it must be in a liquid format.  This is true to the point where if I have to deal with a powder or other solid chemical or a gaseous chemical, I dissolved it into a liquid solution with make up water before dosing it into the process.

In the same way, the minerals already dissolved in natural water supplies integrate far better into the body than do your multivitamins in pill form, and that is because of point two.

Water is called a universal solvent for very good reason.  It will dissolve just about anything over time. That’s why it has needed minerals dissolved in it like calcium, magnesium and Iron.  By removing those minerals and bringing it to an ultra pure state, you are creating a corrosive chemical.

Think of ultrapure water like a sponge. This water needs and craves minerals, and will get them from wherever it can.  Water likes to be in whats known as an “ion balance”.  The ions in the water that is in your body will move to fill the void by the new water without ions in it.  The result will be a lower amount of ions in the water in your body as a whole.  This works just like heat, which will move from higher heat to lower heat, leaving the whole reduced in temperature as a whole.

This also works in reverse. If your body has a lower concentration of dissolved ions, water with a higher concentration will impart some of it’s ions by this ion balancing process.

What all this means is that DI/R.O. water can be a problem, but it is not an acute problem, like high doses of arsenic in your water or certain pathogens would be. It is a chronic problem and can affect you when taken regularly over longer periods of time.  This is especially true for women who are at risk for or are suffering from osteoperosis.

I hope I’ve helped you understand why DI/R.O. water is considered a chronic risk.  I understand your liking of the taste, that is a personal preference that you share with many people. I encourage you to seek a medical professional to discuss this with them, and to see if your multivitamins and diet can help you keep the proper amount of minerals in your body.

If you need further clarification or want to ask another question, please don’t hesitate to write in again.