The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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I have a peony bush that has never flowered. I feel it is poignant that this month, this year it did so (following the demise of my mother last November - it brings me comfort).

Today I am grateful to be blessed with the blossoming of a deep red peony bush - for the first time.
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They scare the living daylights out of it. Kills all known life, dead!
I wish they'd do that to our water. It comes directly from the local sewage works.... I mean, water treatment works, and it is foul. It stings my skin and makes me go all pink, and makes my throat swell up to the point of nearly closing if I drink even the tiniest bit, but apparently it is "within legal limits". Once a week, usually Wednesday, it smells like bleach coming out of the taps, and the day before it smells like ......
 
What does? I am missing the start of this discussion and the previous page does not give a clue...
Shocking the water.
Active sulfur-reducing bacteria can be located anywhere within the plumbing system, well casing or in the aquifer. Many laboratories conclude that sulfurreducing bacteria are present if the water tests positive for coliform bacteria and has a "rotten egg" smell. If well water has a rotten egg smell due to sulfurreducing bacteria, shock chlorination can eliminate the problem. Place a single high dose of ordinary household bleach (5.25 percent hypochlorite) in the well, circulate it within the plumbing system, allow 12 to 24 hours contact time for the bleach (chlorine) to kill the bacteria, and finally flush the added bleach out. The concentration of chlorine used in shock chlorination is 100 to 400 times higher than the amount found in treated "city water." If the concentration and contact time are adequate, chlorine is an excellent disinfectant that kills most disease-causing bacteria, viruses and cysts of protozoa as well as iron, manganese and sulfur bacteria. For performing this task, refer to University of Georgia Circular 858-4,"Disinfecting Your Well Water: Shock Chlorination." Occasionally, iron and sulfur bacteria are difficult to kill because they occur in thick layers and are protected by a slimy secretion. If two attempts of shock chlorination fail to eliminate the hydrogen sulfide problem, continuous chlorination or other methods may be required.
http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=C858-15

"Kills all known germs. Dead." ring a bell? Similar treatment on a larger scale.

Sodium hypochlorite is used on a large scale. For example in agriculture, chemical industries, paint- and lime industries, food industries, glass industries, paper industries, pharmaceutical industries, synthetics industries and waste disposal industries. In the textile industry sodium hypochlorite is used to bleach textile. It is sometimes added to industrial waste water. This is done to reduce odors. Hypochlorite neutralizes sulphur hydrogen gas (SH) and ammonia (NH3). It is also used to detoxify cyanide baths in metal industries. Hypochlorite can be used to prevent algae and shellfish growth in cooling towers. In water treatment, hypochlorite is used to disinfect water. In households, hypochlorite is used frequently for the purification and disinfection of the house.

http://www.lenntech.com/processes/disinfection/chemical/disinfectants-sodium-hypochlorite.htm
 
If you've ever had a pool turn green due to improper chlorination and pH, you've seen the effects of hyperchlorination, or shock for treating it. The gross part is all of the green creepy crawlies get bleached and fall to the bottom, making a cloudy mess to be vacuumed out through a very fine filter like diatomaceous earth.

I wonder what happens to the "cloudy stuff" in drinking water?
 
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About once a year the water treatment plant goes from their usual chlorine/ammonia treatment to a free chlorine treatment. (They call it free chlorine. ) It usually lasts about a month but this year (I called today) they will be doing it for 2 months. This is a procedure ordered by the state to make sure there are no nasties in our water.
 
About once a year the water treatment plant goes from their usual chlorine/ammonia treatment to a free chlorine treatment. (They call it free chlorine. ) It usually lasts about a month but this year (I called today) they will be doing it for 2 months. This is a procedure ordered by the state to make sure there are no nasties in our water.
Oh I see. Thanks for explaining. Why don't they just have good, treated water in the first place I wonder?
 
Oh I see. Thanks for explaining. Why don't they just have good, treated water in the first place I wonder?
Because I live in a desert region. As to the good part, well let's just say not many people drink the water.
There are at least 3 bottled water stations within about a half a kilometer of my house.
Bottled water typically sells for .25 cents a gallon or $1 for 5 gallons.
 
If you've ever had a pool turn green due to improper chlorination and pH, you've seen the effects of hyperchlorination, or shock for treating it. The gross part is all of the green creepy crawlies get bleached and fall to the bottom, making a cloudy mess to be vacuumed out through a very fine filter like diatomaceous earth.

I wonder what happens to the "cloudy stuff" in drinking water?
It'd depend on where it appears, sedimentation as in home brewing, at the home end. Or it may be air or other gases that clear in time.
 
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