Polluted cisterns

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Someone told me today, that water runoff from asphalt roofs into cisterns for drinking was banned in Maryland a few years back. Beware.

-- Arthur Rambo (buriedtreasure@webtv.net), September 03, 1998

Answers

Wouldn't a good filter filter out any chemicals, etc?

-- Bardou (bardou@baloney.com), September 03, 1998.

Asphalt contains a lot of nasty carcinogens and some will get into the runoff. Drinking them for a lifetime is probably as bad for your digestive tract as a cigarette habit is for your lungs, but on the other hand real coffee is probably also rich in them and they haven't banned that (yet?!)

In a survival situation for a few months the risk is probably small. After all there were generations who DID rely on that sort of water for a lifetime.

These sorts of carcinogens (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are removed with very high efficiency by activated charcoal filters, so that may be another answer.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), September 04, 1998.


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