Breaking Oil Emulsion

[JohnnyO]

I actually researched this a TON (had to - paper for a health class I had to take in college even though I tested out past Bio 2 and my major was math)..... anyhow 30 years ago this was true so it might not be anymore, but mining tail-ings (like gold, silver, copper, lead mines from the 1850's-modern) contain all kinds of nastiness. They processed that stuff with acids and bases and they also just exposed tons of locked up minerals out on the surface... That crap goes into the water table and rivers ends up in the drinking water (stuff like antimony and zinc). At least in Colorado (a big mining state) the laws on 'acceptable levels' of a bunch of those are so low that what the sewer treatment plants expel is far far lower than what comes in to most people's drinking pipes. When I was researching I found that states like KY (coal), WV (coal), CA (gold) had as bad a problem if not worse, and of course by extension the states downstream of them in the river basin. Name a state and it has drinking water problems.

Most recently (in TX not more than 5 years ago) a buddy of mine worked for the water treatment plant for the city of Austin. He said repeatedly that bottled water was way worse than the drinking water (at least from Austin's pre-treatment plant) because there is no laws regulating bottled water and they just take that out of "clean" sources (like a Colorado spring up in the mountains).
Not to mention the BPA and other such toxic stuff that leaches out of the plastic that that water is bottled into.

The cleanest water (coming from him - they guy who worked for the City of Austin) was the water that big beer (think Coors for example) bottled to give to FEMA for emergency use. Those breweries use a reverse osmosis system before putting it into the beer/emergency canned water and monitor it as good or usually better than most cities.

Like I said, this could have changed and it could be way different - that was 30 years ago. But I can tell you the water I drink tastes horrific of Calcium (a big problem of eastern CO, we sit on a limestone plate...) Old wells draw from the shallow water above the plate - and taste like raw sewage. New wells draw from below it and taste like "hard water" cause that's what it is.

Where I live most towns and cities get their water from rivers or underground rivers. The only folks with wells and septic live out in the country off the water and sewer lines.
The quality of the water depends on the source though. Tap water at my house is fine but at my office the tap water is so horrible that it doesn't even make good coffee and we use bottled water in the coffeemaker.
The wife and I like to go on cruises and got a tour of the inner workings of the ship last year. They use reverse osmosis on the ships to filter the seawater and told us the tap water is better quality than most bottled water. Sewage is treated before being released into the ocean and food waste is kept separate and goes though a big garbage disposal before being released into the ocean to feed the fish.

 

[broncc]

At this point 90% of my water consumption comes through reverse osmosis. I'm working to reduce the amount of plastic that touches my food next.

It kind of seems that for a home gamer I'm screwed on the degreaser front. I can probably switch to less effective biodegradable stuff. The "short term emulsion" stuff seems to exist but I have no idea how to get a hold of it in an economical quantity.l

I guess "reusable" solvents is what I should try to go for. I should work to minimize how much I put down the drain to start instead of treating the symptoms. I would prefer a tub of gasoline. MA has a special low-benzene formula so its not even that carcinogenic. (N RFG is a crazy rabbit hole to research, its diluted with butane 9 months out of the year!) Its too scary to store in a useful container. I'm more comfortable with diesel but I don't like the film left behind.

 

[JohnnyO]

At this point 90% of my water consumption comes through reverse osmosis. I'm working to reduce the amount of plastic that touches my food next.

It kind of seems that for a home gamer I'm screwed on the degreaser front. I can probably switch to less effective biodegradable stuff. The "short term emulsion" stuff seems to exist but I have no idea how to get a hold of it in an economical quantity.l

I guess "reusable" solvents is what I should try to go for. I should work to minimize how much I put down the drain to start instead of treating the symptoms. I would prefer a tub of gasoline. MA has a special low-benzene formula so its not even that carcinogenic. (N RFG is a crazy rabbit hole to research, its diluted with butane 9 months out of the year!) Its too scary to store in a useful container. I'm more comfortable with diesel but I don't like the film left behind.

Lately I've had some minor drain issues in the kitchen and I'm putting things like bacon grease and (from the George Foreman grill) breakfast sausage grease in the trash instead of down the drain.
I'm hearing that food packaged or stored in plastic can over the long-term mess with your testosterone levels.

 

[sgtsandman]

Water treatment plants clean what they can but there is a limit. Thing of all the pharmaceuticals that get into the water system as an example. I doubt they can clean all of that out.

 

[Brain75]

I have seen headlines about meth monsters...

Fish are getting hooked on meth and it's messing with their brains

Methamphetamines in our water supply could be getting fish addicted, new research shows.

www.cnet.com

 

[broncc]

Recently I purchased a pressure washer. It works really well for blasting greasy residue off parts. Now the chunks of grease end up in the dirt next to my driveway... It probably is more stable in the top layer of dirt than down the drain.

I looked into the city's sewer system and its only 85% effective at removing stuff. You're not really supposed to go in the water at the beach where it dumps.