Recycled water

Wednesday, July 20th
El Centro, CA

On paper, the town has everything I could ask for. A Walmart, a Costco, a Lowe's, a bike shop, a Golden Corral buffet, a 24 hr dining area Jack in the Box, and Holiday Inn breakfast, and a community college. I should love it here. But it's out in the desert, and that changes things a bit.

McDonald's

No need to mention the heat or the amount of insects. This place has the unpleasant smell of recycled water everywhere. Now for those who live in regions of plentiful water, you may never have experienced the product of water reclamation. It's sewage that had solids removed, chlorine added, and been repeatedly filtered. The end result is far from pristine. Recycled water smells to me like dirt farm and diluted pee.

I'm at IVC. Irvine Valley College. Stole a nice much-needed shower. Now I smell like soap and recycled water.

The drinking water tastes wrong. It's got a black taste like potting soil. I drank from three places, and each time I felt ill. Walmart, Jack-in-the-Box, and the college. I hope I wasn't drinking recycled water. And I hope restaurants don't cook with it! I can drink bottled water if necessary, but I can't replace clean meals!

Looks like there are fertilizer and aluminum plants in the area. El Centro water report 2015.

Turbidity (cloudiness of drinking water) exceeds the MCL limit. Odor is at the threshold. Coloration is high.

Excess aluminum violates safety standards.

I am skeptical of the report saying the sources of these contaminants are 'natural'. Arizona and New Mexico are reliant on fresh water flowing down from the Colorado River. When I was living in Colorado in December, a librarian there told me how big companies near Colorado Springs would pollute the water and leave it to local governments downstream to clean up their waste. Here's a 2008 article related to that. They got away with it by bribing politicians and getting people to look the other way. And they continue to flush their shit where other people live.

August, 2015: States downstream from contaminated river upset that EPA didn't alert them

"Officials for New Mexico’s San Juan County Office of Emergency Management said they learned of the oncoming rush of wastewater laden with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals not from the EPA, but in a newspaper in nearby Durango, Colo."

It incited resentment that I feel is much deserved. The water down here is bad.