Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Saturday in Barstow after samples of the city's water supply were found to be contaminated with a chemical used in rocket fuel and defense manufacturing. The water samples showed levels of perchlorate above the maximum level of 6 parts per billion. Golden State Water identified and shit down three wells out of 20 that show elevated levels of the chemical. One of the wells was located near the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow. The base's Nebo Annex Thursday showed levels of perchlorate up to three times the normal amount. Officials asked residents and employees at the base to refrain from drinking tap water. About 40,000 people were affected and hotels, cafes and restaurants had closed a a result. Bottled water was being distributed around the clock at Barstow Community College.
Perchlorate is an inorganic chemical used in solid rocket propellant, fireworks, and explosives. It has been shown to interfere with the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland, reducing the production of thyroid hormones which could lead to adverse effects associated with inadequate hormone levels. Boiling, freezing, filtering or letting the water stand, does not reduce the perchlorate level. This news comes after watching in class the movie "Flow" which I found very interesting. The beginning of this article states that perchlorate was found above the maximum contaminant level of 6 parts per billion. The movie mentions that water is never really free from contaminants so it makes me wonder how much perchlorate is in the water that we don't know of and only when all these contaminants rise above the maximum level do we get alarmed. What can we do as a society though? Even bottled water seems to be contaminated and boiling the water doesn't do a thing to get rid of contaminants. We need water to survive so for now we will continue to drink it and ingest all the chemicals and hope that no long-term effects will be visible in the next 30-50 years.
Link to site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40291658/ns/us_news-environment/
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