The town of Burney in northern California has suffered a recent bout of vomiting and stomach illness due to an outbreak of e. coli in the water supply. The LA Times fills us in:
Everyone is struggling to get through their days without potable water as the local water district works to treat the source of the problem. Restaurants that rely on tourists have shut their doors.
It is yet another example of the vulnerability of rural California’s water systems. Many of the state’s failing water systems are in the Central Valley, where water is drawn from wells that are contaminated with nitrates, or that have run dry because of years of drought and overpumping of groundwater.
According to the CDC, here is how California's water systems have fared over the past half century:
Until Burney, there hasn't been a single waterborne disease outbreak in California since 2017. How hard is it to look this up and realize that California's water systems apparently aren't all that vulnerable after all?
Kevin, how hard is it to realize that waterborne disease outbreaks are only one facet of the vulnerability of rural water systems? Anyone who pays any attention to the water situation in the Central Valley knows there are significant issues there, even if they're not due to infectious outbreaks, and you even quote that. I don't get it, Kevin. You really like to minimize some issues, and sometimes you are dead-ass wrong.
Those "significant issues" go to the heart of Western water rights practice. The "fix" will cost tens of billions of dollars.
Right. I know that I’ve read several articles in the LA Times in the past year about towns with failing water systems, and you’d have to actively misread the quoted paragraph to understand them to be talking about waterborne diseases only.
Really poor take by Kevin.
Because every opportunity to portray California as a socialist hellscape must be maximally leveraged.
This. All the western states have water problems. But California’s needs to be broadcast far and wide so the rest of the country views it as a basket case, lest they elect too many Democrats elsewhere.
Are all the western states touting how they are the Nth largest economy in the world et al? We have that brought-up up with some regularity. The most recent example being, I suspect, https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/10/24/icymi-california-poised-to-become-worlds-4th-biggest-economy/
So tired of this bogus statistic. California is not the anythingth largest economy in the world. Reason: It's not a country so it can't be on a list of world economies. Everyone from the Governor on down (or up) who pushes this nonsense needs to stop it.
Ahh, yes, the 'let's deny how large the Californian economy is, nevemind being on the west coast has it isolated from much of the country and essentially operates on its own.'
And what's the chance that city's government is Democratic? Or county?
The LA Times is the plaything of Yet Another Libertarian Billionaire. One who'd like to add "Governor" to his long list of accomplishments. [President is out, because he's an immigrant.]
So, in the Evergreen Trumpie way that Libertarians all seem to follow, he's using his newspaper to slag the bureaucrats and current elected officers in order to "soften up" the establishment for his coup.
What's not to like?
Real on the web home based work to make more than $14k. Last month I made $15738 from this home job. Very simple and easy to do and procuring from this are just awesome.
For more detail visit the given interface.. http://incomebyus.blogspot.com
very VERY off topic
Rest in Peace Tony Bennett !!!
A guy who had no problem with rockers, country western stars, opera singers etc all singing with him..
His voice, in his prime, was probably one of the best in the business.
He will be missed
I'm guessing Kevin got his data from: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/norsdashboard/ with suitable filters - careful - at first it is listing more than just water born disease outbreaks. Probably grist for all to be found therein. 30% more outbreaks than Texas, 64% fewer than Florida and others all over the map...
That also has the reporting problem... if they're not reported, doesn't mean they didn't happen.
And NYC last water warning? Never. So 6 years between water events isn’t so great. Especially if you drank the sh it!
Well... if you want to tout NYC, then you need to compare with one or two select California cities. Presumably San Francisco and Los Angeles.
At the state level, per that link I posted elsewhere in the comments, the state of New York has had 187 outbreaks to California's 88.
You don't measure vulnerability by the number of failures. That penalizes places that actually do what needs to be done to avoid problems. Failures are a measure of whether those measures are sufficient. There's a trade off between inherent risk and vigilance, and it is likely that rural water systems are riskier. I rise in the number of incidents could be related to changing risks, for example, the recent rains in California washing more sediment into supplies, and/or it could have to do with relaxed vigilance due to cutbacks or loss of expertise.
Anyone also reminded of cannibalism in the British Navy?
Vulnerable ≠ Outbreaks.
A glass sitting on the edge of a shelf is vulnerable to falling off. It could sit there for years, tho.
An interesting side-effect of chlorination of water is the creation of haloacetic acids in your drinking water.
Thoughts?