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Old February 28th, 2006, 09:57 AM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing,misc.rural,misc.consumers
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Default Fish Down Stream 3M Ssite On Mississippi River Unsafe

In article ,
says...

THAT'S A HELL OF A LOT OF IRON! We're talking 1/16th deep LAYER of
this *stuff.* If it is human feces, it is _dead_ human feces, but
feces none the less.

I will need a biology microscope to investigate the exact nature of
the material collected as *precipitate,* or it can be removed, dried,
then burned and its' color spectrum analyzed for materials present. I
will never have enough $ for the spectrum analyzer, but I might be
able to borrow a bio microscope.



Ever consider taking a properly-bottled sample to a competent testing
lab that already owns the necessary equipment for a far more accurate
analysis than you're likely to achieve at home?

Did that at a previous hom because of exactly this sort of brown
precipitate issue, and it was indeed simply a very high iron
concentration. Turned out that beautiful light-gray sand our aquifer
ran through was so high in iron that the sand would rust and turn
brown if exposed to air for a few weeks.

Also, the presence of bacteria in general won't confirm fecal
origins, there are bacteria that thrive on dissolved iron in wells
like that. A water district on the same aquifer had to repeatedly
hoist and clean their well filters because the iron-loving bacteria
would plug the intake filters. Zero coliform count, just lots of
bacteria, and lots of iron.

--
is Joshua Putnam
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
Braze your own bicycle frames. See
http://www.phred.org/~josh/build/build.html