Ugggghhhh!!! NaOH
This is killing me. A local town water supply was corrupted by the release of too much Soduim Hydroxide from the treatment plant into the water. NaOH is a caustic base commonly called 'lye' in the US. After a few days they have it under control and the official word was 'People should flush their lines and boil the tap water before drinking.'
Does anyone else see the problem with this. Hmmmm... lye was a common ingredient in soaps not to long ago. People made it at home. They boiled down an ingredient set to get concentrated lye. Wait--- they what? BOILED DOWN
The boiling point of NaOH is 1390 Celcius well below the boiling point of water. Boiling water containing NaOH doesn't get rid of NaOH it concentrates it!!!!!
Ok. I just had to get that off my chest.
UPDATE! Happily the Spencer 'officials' are now (and maybe always were) saying the boiling is only for killing any bacteria and is not a replacement for flushing (good thing). In fact, they have lifted the 'boil ban'. Long as they were or are saying to boil for bioligical contaminants then I rescind my criticism... but I'm a bit skepticle that was the original intent. Let's give them the benfit of the doubt.