Salt from sea water, the stove-top version

[Dace]

I would love to try it but I am fairly confident that our water is too polluted.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

That is wonderful freemotion!

PCB's?? Say it isn't so DM! :/ But the water looks so pretty!

Yep, there was a documentary on Puget Sound and how the orcas are dying because of the PCBs that have collected from past industrial uses of the waterways. Ever heard of a superfund site? It is basically a highly polluted area. I think there is more than one in the area, but there is at least one on a large waterway leading into Puget Sound (in Seattle).

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Puget Sound is steeped in toxics from pulp and paper mills, oil refineries, ports, boatyards and storm-water runoff. Salmon and other fish store in their bodies toxic pollutants they absorb from this environment. As a result of eating these contaminated fish, Puget Sound killer whales have some of the highest concentrations of highly carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) of any marine mammal in the world, says Gary Wiles, a wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They also have high levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, which are toxic fire retardants.

From this article .

I've heard that all the roadway run-off from when it rains dumps into the bottom of the Sound and it is apparently pretty nasty. Oh, plus when it rains really hard, they often have to let the sewer water drain into the Sound, because they can't keep up with processing all that water. So we are getting meds, cleaning products, and laboratory wastes getting dumped in fairly regularly too.

 

[big brown horse]

That is a bummer!



Now you know why I get so mad when dum-dums burn couches etc.!!! Just sayin'.

ETA: wrong smilie. And thanks for the article DM.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Now you know why I get so mad when dum-dums burn couches etc.!!! Just sayin'.

You aren't the only one!

 

[Damummis]

I noticed you are in MA. I would have a hairy eyeball with any water right now there. There has been serious rain and the sewage treatment plants are overflowing and it is going right into the ocean. They just can't keep up with the water.

 

[freemotion]

Thanks for the head's up. I made it in the winter, and probably will only collect water then. Although, bacteria will not be an issue since it boils for hours and hours. I'm mostly concerned with what will be concentrated along with the salt!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I live in the San Francisco Bay area. There are saltwater flats in the bay! That bay is so polluted, I refused the free fish a friend caught in there!! But they make salt from the water.
I don't know who makes the salt. Or what it's intended use is.
You can see the salt flats from the air and as you drive the freeways in the area.
I'll go to the ocean and get my water, far from the river outlet! I want to try this too. I think the waters flow south along the coast, so if I go north, I hope I'll be ok.

 

[freemotion]

You can probably find a report similar to the one the research librarian found for me. It was an article obviously meant for experts in some field and contained a detailed map of the shorline with different areas marked off as to what pollutants could be found there, and how the natural flow of the water could be expected to change the levels in certain areas. I found that the area I got my water from was far from any chemical sources of pollution, and the closest, many miles away, was bacterial.

And I found out that pollutants will mix throughout the entire earth via the oceans in an expected 100 years, but there are already pcb's in polar bears. There is no longer such thing as pure ocean water anywhere on the planet. I will take the least of the evil that I am aware of and hope for the best.....

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Yep we are all bathing in everyone's waste. A good reason to stop contributing to the waste stream as much as possible. OK, sorry, I'll get off my soapbox.