Is the Water Truck your shower?

[SilkenTofu]

Last year and maybe the year before while running out to rinse off behind the water truck I saw a few folks running with soap and shampooing their hair (mostly guys). Is this okay? I though that unless the soap was some kind of biodegradable camp soap this kind of stuff shouldn't be hitting the ground. I some people they don't have the luxury of an RV shower or access to a sun shower with an evap. pool. But has any one else seen this and what do you think?
I wouldn't even try this. Lord knows I'd get soap in my eye and I have a hard enough time slipping and sliding around with 30 or so other folks trying to cool /rinse off.

[Bob]

Is this okay?

No.

[technopatra]

Right, your instincts are correct. No soapy water should ever hit the playa, biodegradable or not.

Plus, up until this year, that water came from Frog Pond. Yep, the pond where the frogs are. Hence the big sign on the trucks that says "Non-Potable".

This year, it is coming from another hot springs, but I forget which one. Still, not what you want to be washing yourself with.

The recommended 2.5 gallons a day per person includes an estimate of bathing water. Stick with the good clean fresh stuff, and be sure to either get your evap pond going, bring home your greywater yourself, or have your waste water pumped by JOTP - excellent resource for larger camps with showers that service lots of people.

[Icepack]

Plus, up until this year, that water came from Frog Pond. Yep, the pond where the frogs are. Hence the big sign on the trucks that says "Non-Potable".

This year, it is coming from another hot springs, but I forget which one. Still, not what you want to be washing yourself with.

Oh wow! Either people didn't know that or they didn't care. I saw lots of people behind the water trucks last year. Bet they had no idea the water was filled with frog poo.

[ness]

we soak in hot springs all over NV,ID, and OR and they are a lot cleaner than the rivers we swim in......but I wouldnt drink anything from a hot spr. or a river

[Isotopia]

Non-potable can mean many things. Personally I try not to ever swallow the stuff because of the high level of heavy metals that are found in many of the springs. It's NOT gonna kill ya but I'm just not crazy about the idea knowing what I do about the waters around the area.

[dman]

I love hot springs - seek them out regularly. But the water quality varies greatly.

Best story along these lines for me: Visited Yellowstone in the Summer of 86. Nice place. Asked the rangers about hot springs; "Too dangerous. None around here. Stay away"; yeah, uh, right....geysers, geysers everywhere and no pools in which a butt can sink?

Then I found it; back of a liquor store outside the south entrance; old map..."Huckeberry Hot Springs". Yay! So I drive down this dirt road a ways and park in front of a sign that says, "Danger! Area Closed! No Entry!" Normally this would give me pause, but seeing as how there were a half dozen other cars parked nearby and no one in sight, this must be the place.

A 1/4 mile in turns up a ghost town - old buildings, roads, power poles - all vintage 1930's or so, in reasonably good condition, but completely empty. A couple comes in the opposite direction. "This the hot springs?" "Yeah, just over that rise there." "Sweet!"

I find a nice spot where the hot & cold water mix to my taste and settle in for the afternoon. A few other folk come & go, we share stories, and then, as if in a dream, this guy walks up carrying a six-pack of beerski's. "Want one?" "Hell yeah!" We chit-chat for awhile and it turns out he's a local; fishes & hunts the area, so I ask, "Why the Danger signs?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" "No, what?" "This whole place is a radiation hazard!" DAMN! My twenty-something testicles tightened teenier than rabbit turds as I lifted my bare-ass butt out of the water. "Relax", said Beer Man, "Not enough to fizzle your fecundity unless you live here year-round. They had to close it because the employees were over exposed."

Still, being a properly proselytized pupil of the eighties anti-nuclear movement gave me pause and the scientist in me awoke from an alchohol and dehydration induced stupor; "I don't know, man, seems like rad counts are more about odds than safety levels, you know? But, thanks for the beer!" "Sure, see ya."

I went back in 2002 with the wife & two seemingly normal children. The liquor store and the ghost town are gone, but the springs are still there.

Water meets rock & gets superheated under lots of pressure. Some of the rock dissolves into the water and gets brought back up to the surface. Sometimes what gets dissolved isn't all that healthy.

[Bob]

...."This whole place is a radiation hazard!"....

Which is only one reason a simple "No" should suffice, among many.

[SilkenTofu]

so I gather that running behind the water trucks with your mouth open is not the best idea. Kinda goes with that ticket thing about risks taken by participants and BMORG'S "told ya so" policy.

Maybe the water over time will give people super powers like the Fantastic Four or Benny Hinn...

[Badger]

Maybe the water over time will give people super powers like the Fantastic Four or Benny Hinn...

Or not.

http://healthandenergy.com/images/mercury_minamata.jpg

[pokiedot]

Right, your instincts are correct. No soapy water should ever hit the playa, biodegradable or not.

thank you. this is one of my pet peeves out there (although i try to retain the patient education approach, this is one of those issues that tries that patience). everytime i see a person covered in body paint and glitter, all i can think of is 'they are going to go back to their camp and wash that onto the playa'. i think it bugs me because it just seams really obvious to me.... stuff cannot biodegrade out there, period.

Plus, up until this year, that water came from Frog Pond. Yep, the pond where the frogs are. Hence the big sign on the trucks that says "Non-Potable".

and, um, ew. i like the froggies and long live the froggy pond. but ew.

i think people mainly run after the water truck for the refreshing aspect of it, but knowing the froggy poo fact will make me rely on super soakers and such for sure.

[Captain Goddammit]

So don't fill your bong from the water truck. Or dispose of your bongwater on the playa. Even if you're smoking the purest, most biodegradable, free-range marijuana available.

[DVD Burner]

I gotta tell ya,

When TP stated where the water came from I cracked my side laughing and had that pic from the pic gallery (I think) of everyone running behind that truck.




I'm still laughing.




Come on now, ya know it's funny.

[G.W.B.]

Will anyone need for me to kiss them to turn them into a knockout?

[stuart]

i've always fealt that way about folks covered in glitter. There's no way, unless it's crazy-glued to their skin, that they aint shedding piles of that shit all over the place.

[blyslv]

Last year toward the end of the week I saw a water truck approaching. I got of my bike and stripped down. As it passed I just stepped under and walked with it for a few steps, then stepped out, shook off and put on my cloths. What I like best was the elgance of the operation. No running or huffing and puffing. It was at the end of a long day and it made me feel like a new person. I kept my mouth closed so i didn't get sick.

[antron]

who drinks shower water anyway?

[Bob]

Do you close your mouth in the ocean so you don't get salty?

[samdu]

i heard about this girl? at BM 2003? she ran behind the water truck, to take a shower? and about a month later, she got a really bad stomach ache? and she went to the hospital? and they x-rayed her stomach? and they found a whole bunch of tadpoles, swimming around in her belly? it turns put that she had swallowed a bunch of frog eggs, when she ran behind the water truck? and they hatched in her belly?

i'm not sure where i heard this, but my hairdresser's brother's best friend's aunt said that it was the girlfriend of one of her student's cousins that it happened to.

sam-the-girl-sam

[Simply Joel]

i've always fealt that way about folks covered in glitter. There's no way, unless it's crazy-glued to their skin, that they aint shedding piles of that shit all over the place.

You would be correct, sir.

You know, if the hot springs were filled with tapioca pudding, I still don't think I would eat it.... sit in it, yeah, probably, but eat it? nope.

[Tiara]

be sure to either get your evap pond going, bring home your greywater yourself, or have your waste water pumped by JOTP - excellent resource for larger camps with showers that service lots of people.

Technopatra, can you give further info on how people can contact the service to have waste water pumped?

[DVD Burner]

i heard about this girl? at BM 2003?

Now that's really funny.

[unjonharley]

Bout 7:30 one morning last year. Was on my way for some early photos. Along the 8:30 street the big camp up front was throwing it's gray water out. There were three 55gal. drums. The guy looked a little pissed that he had gotten the job. Guess if you are one of the big camps you can dump as/when you please

[samdu]

i heard about this girl? at BM 2003?

Now that's really funny.

thanks. i love urban legends! my brother-in-law actually told me not to go to mardi gras, because a friend of one of his fraternity brother's brothers went, and hooked up with a girl, and woke up in a bathtub full of ice, with stitches in his back and a note on the mirror that said "you have had a kidney removed. call 911 as soon as you wake up!" laughed my @$$ off!

sam

[Simply Joel]

Bout 7:30 one morning last year. Was on my way for some early photos. Along the 8:30 street the big camp up front was throwing it's gray water out. There were three 55gal. drums. The guy looked a little pissed that he had gotten the job. Guess if you are one of the big camps you can dump as/when you please

our camp used a water sprayer... heck I think I am more concerned with air pollution from China's polluting industries than gray water on the playa...

i guess we aren't supposed to pee on the open playa as well, eh?

[Bob]

Tadpoles?

ITYM candiru.

[samdu]

Tadpoles?

ITYM candiru.

keee-rist! if those live in the frog pond, there's NO WAY i'm going near the water truck!!!!!

[unjonharley]

Bout 7:30 one morning last year. Was on my way for some early photos. Along the 8:30 street the big camp up front was throwing it's gray water out. There were three 55gal. drums. The guy looked a little pissed that he had gotten the job. Guess if you are one of the big camps you can dump as/when you please

our camp used a water sprayer... heck I think I am more concerned with air pollution from China's polluting industries than gray water on the playa...

i guess we aren't supposed to pee on the open playa as well, eh?

/\
This guy was useing a bucket over the fence. Spraying is the same. The soap,scum,scabs,pee,cum.hair, nose blow,dingal berrys.spitand what else. As for peeig on the playa. It is agin the law to pee in public. The playa is public land. You can if you wanna. If you get a ticket don't come crying to Eplaya like the junkies do.

[unjonharley]

Tadpoles?

ITYM candiru.

keee-rist! if those live in the frog pond, there's NO WAY i'm going near the water truck!!!!!

/\
Now guess what the frogs do to make little tads i your water

[G.W.B.]

Tadpoles?

ITYM candiru.

Eeeewwwww! <shrudder>