Friday, February 17, 2012

Flush twice....Houston needs the water

That was the news headline today regarding the drought all across Texas.  Technically the Dallas area is no longer in a drought.  In fact, so far this year we're 5" above normal in our rainfall.   Our area lakes have been largely replenished and it's not even spring yet, traditionally our "wet" season.



Houston, however, isn't so lucky.  Their population is growing, but their water supply due to the drought is shrinking.  Eventually the two lines on the graph will cross and they'll be in deep doo-doo.  Which....umm....brings me to the title of this post.


The Trinity River, the nasty 'ol Trinity River that runs through Dallas, the river that has signs posted along it's banks telling us to not eat any fish we catch there, is Houston's drinking water.  Dallas processes 135-145 million gallons of raw sewage every day, separates....well....you know, and sends it on downstream via the Trinity, ultimately to Lake Livingston.  From there Houston puts their Good Housekeeping Seal on it and pumps it right to their residents.  While this is probably pretty normal in the water biz, it just sounds so....Ewwwwww!


But then Houston is used to it.  You know how the beer brewers always brag in their commercials about their "perfect water", the ingredient that makes their beer the best in the world, blah blah blah?  Last time I looked there was a Budweiser brewery in Houston.  Right on the Houston ship channel.  So am I to infer the water for Budweiser's Houston brewery comes from....Ewwwwww!


All this reminds me of the time years ago listening to the radio as they reported a massive recall of Payday candy bars.  It seems the department that oversees health at food processing plants (FDA?) found an unacceptably high level of "rodent droppings" in the finished product.  A certain amount of rat poop is within tolerance it explained, but this batch was waaaaay off the chart.  At the moment I heard that report I was eating a Payday candy bar....Ewwwwww!


Some things you just don't want to know.  Who's with me?  I wonder if this is where the old saying "Ignorance is bliss" came from?  


Now forget about everything I just wrote and go have a nice weekend.  :)


S

7 comments:

  1. LOL - I don't drink beer, but my husband would say that this explains a lot about Budweiser Beer.

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  2. Are you a fan of Tom Lehrer? If not, you should be (everybody should be.) He once wrote a song called "Pollution" that comes readily to mind. Great line from it...

    "The breakfast garbage that you throw into the bay,
    They drink at lunch in San Jose."

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  3. That song must have been a long time ago because I don't think San Jose touches on San Francisco Bay anymore. Maybe a Bay Area expert will let us know. I learned a long time ago that if a grocery story were to be suddenly abandoned most of the cereals, flour and rices would start hatching insect eggs, many of which are too small to detect with the naked eye or eliminate by machine. It doesn't help to have a sensitive stomach, which obviously I don't have.

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  4. One of my favorite beers is from a local brewery. Yes, it IS the water, as they also say here. I heard a "rumor" that the water for this brewery gets "nicely" filtered.... it flows through a cemetary! Nice.....

    Just the in the past days a couple of BIG bakeries around here got closed down because of mouse droppings and other stuff found. geeeez soon we have nothing left to eat!

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  5. Agreed, some things I don't want to know. However, if something wrong is put right smack in front of me, I WILL share. Loudly. I once shouted to my husband who was in a long, long line at a very busy fast food hamburger joint, "Honey, let's not eat here - an employee was just in the bathroom and went back to the kitchen without washing her hands."

    Dorrie - I just read about the Müller-Brot bakery. Yes, eeeewwww.

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  6. I have a friend in Houston I think I'll tip to your blog!

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