Water

One of Britain’s biggest water companies was fined £90m ($126m) today for deliberate dumping of “billions of litres” of sewage into the North Sea over a 5 year period. But no Directors or other staff were implicated in the proceedings, and none were bound over to ensure that they would receive prison sentences if/when it happens again.
“These offences show a shocking and wholesale disregard for the environment, for precious and delicate ecosystems and coastlines, for human health, and for fisheries and other legitimate businesses that operate in the coastal waters,” said the judge. But the £90m fine compares to annual profits of well over £200m.

The judge said the company had a history of criminal activity for its “previous and persistent pollution of the environment”. It had 168 previous offences and cautions but had ignored these and not altered its behaviour. “There is no evidence the company took any notice of the penalties imposed or the remarks of the courts. Its offending simply continued,” he said.

In 2019, three employees were convicted of obstructing the collection of data by the government-owned Environment Agency, which was investigating raw sewage spilled into rivers and on beaches in south-east England, but none spent a single day in jail.

The case between the environmental regulator and Southern Water, which the company tried to suppress, raised questions about the Southern Water’s corporate governance and why employees would obstruct the agency.

It also puts the spotlight on the regulator’s monitoring of sewage treatment plants and water companies and the extent to which the public can trust assessments of water cleanliness.

Southern Water, which supplies 4.6m customers in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight with water and sewage services, was charged at the same time as the employees but the company was found to be not “criminally liable” for obstruction of the investigation.

Five staff members were convicted in 2018 of obstructing EA investigations between July 11 and 13, 2016 although two of the convictions were overturned on appeal. Several of the employees argued that they were acting under the instruction of the company solicitor not to give data to the regulator, even though the agency is dependent on information supplied by the water companies for its monitoring of sewage outflows.

The court documents cite a “lack of co-operation . . . and in some cases . . . conduct which was clearly calculated to frustrate the inspection”.

In one example, a management scientist said she was instructed by a lawyer to refuse to allow the EA to take documents that would have provided data on sewage outflows from a waste water treatment works.

In another example, a colleague was instructed by a superior “to remove the bagged diaries from the officers’ possession and lock them in his van”.

Marie Bourke, a senior associate at law firm Russell Cooke who was not involved in …

By Richard Douglas

Water helps everything grow and thrive – including bacteria, viruses,
and parasites!
Water-related illness is a huge concern, especially for the young and the old, killing
nearly 3.4 million people each year. And once you’re sick, staying hydrated while you’re
“getting sick” is a massive challenge as-is, which becomes that much greater when
SHTF.
Common symptoms from drinking contaminated water are “Montezuma’s Revenge,”
diarrhea, vomiting, cramps. An E coli infection can be fatal and kills here in the US each
year (usually through uncooked meat).
Staying hydrated while your body deals with these contaminants is a real challenge
because you’re pooping and puking all your water up. When SHTF and water supplies
are in limited, dehydration is a serious threat to your health.
For example, I visited Egypt a couple years back to tour the country. Did a bit of hunting with my .338 Lapua rifle which was equipped with a nice long range scope. But while I was there, I got REALLY sick from contaminated water.”

But while I was there, I got REALLY
sick from contaminated water. The only way I can describe the feeling is to imagine
eating broken shards of glass. And then setting the shards of glass on fire. It felt like my guts were being cut apart, and nothing helped. It lasted several days – even though I
was taking a very strong antibiotic for it – and basically took me out of commission; I
needed a bathroom OFTEN!
In a SHTF scenario without an antibiotic, good hydration, and a bathroom, I’d have been in some serious trouble. Knowing how to purify water adds to the confident mindset
needed to survive. Here’s a list of what you need to treat, and how. Below this list are
more detailed instructions on how to use these treatment methods to purify water most effectively.
The Bad Guys
The greatest source of water contaminants is a fecal waste. Everybody poops, and it
takes very little fecal waste to make water undrinkable. All of these microbes come from
human and/or animal fecal waste:

Protozoa – several types, including:
● Cryptosporidium
● Giardia lamblia
Boiling kills these bugs. Iodine or chlorine does not. Filtration must have a “cyst
reduction” rated filter, and then is effective.
Bacteria – including:
● Campylobacter
● Salmonella
● Shigella
● E. coli
Boil these bugs to death! Iodine or chlorine will kill these too. Filtration only has
“moderate” success with removing these.
Viruses – including:
● Enterovirus
● Hepatitis A
● Norovirus
● Rotavirus
Filtration will NOT kill viruses! Iodine or chlorine is effective at killing viruses. Here’s a
list of how to use these treatment methods most effectively.
Method #1: Boiling
The oldest method for making water safe to drink is by boiling.
Keeping water at 165 …

It’s called water consciousness – a movement of people who drink unfiltered, unsterilised spring water and even rain water.

Why? Well, for the supposed health benefits. Devotees of bottled ‘raw’ water claim it has salubrious benefits that are lacking from fluoridated tap water and regular bottled water.

Plus, they say, it’s the H20 version of farm to fork. Call it spring to glass.

Such is the growing popularity of the raw wet stuff in the US that Oregon startup Live Water is able to charge a whopping $36.99 (£26.70) for a 2.5-gallon glass bottle – and then $14.99 per refill.

While grocery stores love the idea of 500% profit margin, a growing number of critics are springing up appalled at the hipsters, splurging cash on what they see as a barefaced con. Aren’t people donating millions of dollars to projects all around the world to make sure people aren’t drinking raw water? said one comment on Reddit

The brand is particularly popular with hipsters in San Francisco, where a grocer describes it as having “vaguely mild sweetness” and “a nice smooth mouthfeel”, according to a New York Times report earlier this year.

Devotees of raw water insist it fills them with health-giving bacteria and minerals not found in treated water, while Live Water is confident its product “has all the healthy minerals and probiotics fully unobstructed” and that “no one has ever gotten sick” from drinking it, not even expectant mums.
However, health and hygiene experts have warned untreated water may contain all sorts of nasty bacteria and parasites that can cause illness – especially if it isn’t protected from contamination by bird droppings or cattle dung. That can mean risk of food poisoning, dysentery and infectious diseases such as cholera. And then there’s the arsenic and radon in some types of rocks found in water sources.
Nevertheless, the de facto leader of the water consciousness crusade, Live Water founder Mukhande Singh (formerly Christopher Sanborn), is adamant raw water is the real thing – not the “dead” liquid that comes from our taps, he told the NYT.

“Tap water? You’re drinking toilet water with birth control drugs in them,” he said. “Chloramine, and on top of that they’re putting in fluoride. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it’s a mind-control drug that has no benefit to our dental health.” (There is no scientific evidence that fluoride is a mind-control drug, but plenty to show that it aids dental health.)

Another prominent proponent of raw water is Doug Evans, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. After his juicing company, Juicero, collapsed last September, he went on a 10-day cleanse, drinking nothing but Live Water. “I haven’t tasted tap water in a long time,” he said.

Before he could order raw water on demand, Mr. Evans went “spring hunting” with friends. This has become more challenging lately: The closest spring around San Francisco has …