Knowing Nature with Denny

Rude awakening - tsunami hits Chili

"It was like 10 guys were on both sides of the truck rocking it as hard as they could. I sat up and tried to hang on to the side of the truck rail and braced against the roof as the quake went on and on"

At 3:34 am local time, Saturday, February 27th, a devastating magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The epicenter was just off the coastal town of Constitucion . An 8.8 earthquake has more energy than 1.2 million atomic bombs, of the size dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. It has been calculated that the quake even shortened the earth's day by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

Time in hours for the tsunami to travel 

 

If the earthquake wasn't enough of a problem, anyone near the coast was awaken with the nightmare of a tsunami bearing down on them. How can we really know what that feels like if we were not there to experience the quake?

I was not there, but my friend Bud Andersen was sleeping in his truck, parked just yards from the ocean. You may recall that Bud is the director of the Falcon Research Group (FRG)and was trapping peregine falcons on the Chilian beach as part of his Southern Cross Peregine project. He was approx. 55 mi./90 km. north of the epicenter when the quake hit.

Just the day before the quake, life was quite normal. Bud had just recorded the return of 'Island Girl' who flew 243 km. (151 mi.) in one day to return to the Putu dune fields along the coast near Talca, Chile, where she was first tagged nearly a year ago. Her migration from Baffin Island in the Canadian artic lasted 60 days and covered 13250 km. (8233 mi.), averaging 221 km. (137 mi.) per day.

Lets pick up Bud's rude awakening told in his own words:

"We had driven south all day from Santiago. There were three of us, Kathy Gunther, myself and Steve Gibby, a producer friend from California. We had arrived at the Putu dunes a couple of days prior to Saturday and were staying at the beach restaurant/hotel of our friend, Paul Paredes and his girlfriend, Jacquelina. We had just started trapping the day before and had seen one peregrine flying over the extensive dunes.

On Thursday afternoon, Kathy and I had to drive into the town of Constitucion to finish up on some errands for our colleague, Christian Gonzalez. Little did we know then that this would be one of the locations hit hardest by the tsunami less than 48 hours later. In fact. we have been told that there were more fatalities in Constitucion than at any other single place on the coast. And we were camped about 7 miles north of there, right on the beach. In fact, as luck would have it, we were in one of the two hardest hit locations in Chile.

On the morning of the quake, I was sleeping soundly in back of Lula Belle, the project pick-up truck, right out back of Paul's cement and log structure. Kathy was asleep in one of the small rooms and Steve was in the other. Both were on the lee side of the building and about 15 feet away from the truck.

Around 0332, the truck started rocking and I woke up, knowing it was an earthquake. I had experienced these several times before on our previous expeditions and knew exactly what was going on. As I was laying there, assessing the quake to see if I should get up (not really wanting to leave my warm bag), the gentle rocking started to increase in intensity and rapidly got seriously strong. It was like 10 guys were on both sides of the truck rocking it as hard as they could. I sat up and tried to hang on to the side of the truck rail and braced against the roof as the quake went on and on.

Water, water everywhere… is it fit to drink?

Do you know two things you are consistently exposed to everyday of your life? The air you breathe and the water you drink. Most folks never consider that water is your most personal link to the natural world. Each of us is made up of 2/3 water. A 150 pound person contains 100 pounds of water!

The US has one of the safest water delivery systems in the world. A world in which a billion folks lack access to safe drinking water. Even with such relatively safe water, one in ten Americans is exposed to some level of toxic drinking water. Many of us are conditioned to drink bottled water even though we seldom know the source of that water. We trade one source of pollution for another as 1.5 million water bottles are discarded each HOUR!

Contaminated water is produced by agriculture, manufacturing, energy production and ordinary household activity. Much runoff ends up in our rivers and lakes, sometimes seeping into our groundwater. Water treatment technology was established prior to this influx of highly toxic chemicals. Most treatment plants do not remove them from your drinking water.

In the 1970s you could pour a glass of water and see, smell or taste most pollutants. During the last 30 years more chemicals have been created than in all the time prior. Now you can’t see or smell most water pollutants. This new breed of chemicals is very toxic and reach dangerous levels measured in ppb (parts per billion). That’s like a thimble full in a large swimming pool or one drop in 50 drums of water.

Politics play a significant role in the management of water. Treatment systems are required to test for only a small number of contaminants, yet over 10,000 chemicals are present in our world. Many are totally unregulated. Others can exist in your water at legal levels and still be considered unsafe by scientists.

Terry Gross interviewed Charles Duhigg on NPR’s Fresh Air. He has written a series of excellent articles for the New York Times on the topic of water. You can listen to the October19, 2009 or the December 12, 2009 podcast at the Fresh Air archives. Read Charles’ series for many good yet scary examples of toxic chemicals that swim in our water.

We recently reached a tipping point. More than 50% of the world’s population now live in cities and must rely on municipal water sources. In the US we have 54,000 municipal water treatment systems. Each glass of water from these 54,000 systems is different.

I decided to get to know my glass of Seattle drinking water. Do you know yours?

First, I poured a glass of water from the tap and then a glass which went through my PUR water filter. The cloudy one on the left is the unfiltered glass. Perhaps that sediment is from the old pipes in my Seattle neighborhood or house and not from the ‘official’ water treatment plant. Nevertheless, it is the glass I would drink right out of the tap.

Most people in Seattle get their water from two major sources, the Cedar River Watershed and the Tolt River Watershed. How good is the water from these sources?

I went online to look at the annual Consumer Report of Confidence for Seattle. This report is a slick graphic presentation. It highlights a few facts about my water and, on the surface, makes me feel good about the water I drink. But when you dive in, the report does not go into much detail about toxic chemical contaminants. Each municipal water system must make such an annual report available. You can find yours online or request a copy.

As an end user of my tap water there is no easy way to know what that water really contains.  But there is an easy solution to water purity peace of mind. Experts recommend that you install a water filter at the tap you drink from and a filter on your shower head to eliminate chlorinated byproducts. I also use my filter to create my own bottled water, one from a source for which I can vouch.

If your water comes from a private well, experts recommend that you have your water treated annually. This spring I plan to have my eastern Washington well tested. I will get back to you with the results. Cheers!

 Be amazed, Denny