Don't drink the water

Got an email this morning at work concerning the water in our building and its color. Brown. There's a little construction going on and the hot water needed to be temporarily shut off for some plumbing work. The email notified us about this and that a mineral build-up has caused brown water. I went to use the restroom a couple hours later and upon turning the fawcett handle there was a pause, a slight shudder, then a spat of brownish-red water came flying out. I let it run but it didn't completely clear up. Can I just ask: what kind of concentration of minerals in a plumbing system does it take to create this sort of build-up over night? Thankfully I fill a water bottle from a cooler of delivered H₂O in the basement so aren't exposed to whatever levels of whatever are running through this building's pipes.

What is it about the term "brown water" anyway? My guess is that it's not nearly as threatening as "black water" just like and electrical "brownout" isn't somehow as bad as a "blackout". I guess a blackout is more permanant than a brownout so, somehow, there's an element of time implied in the color choice within these terms. Shouldn't the color help denote, in the case of water quality, the contents of that water? Brown or any color of water other than crystal is bad in my opinion. Nevertheless, the warning was certainly sufficient. Good thing I wasn't getting ready to practice splashing my face with warm water for a facial wash commercial that I might dream of starring in. I would've had brown all over it.

Back to work!

Comments (4) | To Top

3/24/2005 @ 5:51am

No before you go name calling coloured water, an example of good brown/golden water is the water that flows through the streams (burns) and faucets in Scotland. Our water is naturally tinged by peat, and therefore has added minerals and nice things. It is also exceptable and preferred to your American method which would probably be to add bleach to the water in order for it to look like 'proper' water. I happily bath in my decidedly yellow-tinged water regularly.

by Toni

3/24/2005 @ 6:36am

Maybe there's some theory of liberalism to be had somewhere in there... Since European water isn't as pure as over here they link that with their own souls and have become resigned to the fact that purity isn't always a quality that should define them. Or something.

by KevinFreitas

3/24/2005 @ 11:47am

Wow, this is a recent thing, right? Cuz I've totally drank a LOT of the Library's water... :|

by Dave

3/25/2005 @ 8:01am

Yeah, it only happened for part of today after they shut the hot water off for a while. I don't think it even effected the cold stuff. Still, buildings like this always have some interesting flavors floating around in their water and I'd be willing to bet it comes directly from where ever that stuff built up.

by KevinFreitas