Houston-area water may be tainted with brain-eating microbe

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

LAKE JACKSON, Texas (AP) — Texas officials have warned residents of some communities near Houston to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the Brazosport Water Authority late Friday of the potential contamination of its water supply by naegleria fowleri.

The commission issued an advisory warning people not to use tap water for any reason except to flush toilets in Lake Jackson, Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute and Rosenberg. Those communities are home to about 120,000 people. Also affected are the Dow Chemical works in Freeport, which has 4,200 employees, and the Clemens and Wayne Scott state prison units, which have 2,345 inmates and 655 employees.

It said the advisory will remain in place until the Brazosport authority’s water system has been thoroughly flushed and tests on water samples show the system’s water is again safe to use. It said in a statement that it was unclear how long it would be before the tap water was again safe.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/environment-houston-archive-texas-lakes-e3507c338cd766461c470d3a38ce0d69

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Is that where Texas' governor and lt. governor have been getting their drinking water?

[redwitch]

2. That would explain things.

They need to check Florida. And the White House water supply too.

[machoneman]

6. Nah to the WH as Trumpy already is fully brain addled now isn't he?

[Lock him up.]

10. Like the virus, donny "hannibal" dRumpf plans to spread it to all 50 states...

before he gives CONey the go ahead on killing Obamacare (then Social Security, Medicare, and the Constitution).

MILLIONS could die for his BBF vlad's content.

[George II]

5. I was going to say (insensitively) "that explains a lot." You save me!

[Yavin4]

19. Bush II, Perry, Abbott, and Patrick

Must all be drinking from the same water fountain.

OT. My god TX. Look at that list. Y'all can do better than that. Come on now.

[machoneman]

3. Maybe every Republiscum majority county? Might explain so, so many stupid R's that run TX.

[yaesu]

4. oh crap, now we have to worry about a microbe that mimics fox news, nt

[PatSeg]

15. Ha, ha, ha!!!

[catbyte]

7. But of course, why not? It's 2020.

[Mr.Bill]

8. Texas has a commission on environmental quality?

Amazing.

[walkingman]

22. Your right, it is a joke. They are firmly in the grip of the fossil fuel industry and mostly any

big business.

Amazingly most of the water suppliers in Texas show contaminants on the very highest scale for everything but strangely enough beat the restrictions by usually .001% and are declared legal.

BTW - MD Anderson and Texas Medical Center, the largest Med center in the world, is in the Houston area for a reason. The SOB's have been poisoning us for decades.

[niyad]

29. Is that the board that one of the younger bushes runs? Or is he ag?

[Maxheader]

9. The news should read;

Brain eating microbs in houston!!...Starving!!

[Duppers]

33. ... 😅

[hatrack]

11. Nothing that more tax cuts and deregulation won't cure!

Have faith!!!!

[mjvpi]

21. What you said.

[soothsayer]

12. So 2020

[Chainfire]

13. OH my goodness

Tallahassee should be testing their water too!

[justgamma]

14. Alright, who had

Brain eating microbs on their bingo card?

[Yeehah]

16. I heard it died of starvation

[I_UndergroundPanther]

17. That is horrible and

Scary..another effect of climate change and deregulation.

Tell the republicans it's a hoax. Then they'll be chugging ameboas!!

[usaf-vet]

18. Is that the red Texas who doesn't believe science, climate change 200,000+ Covid dead?

Well, keep voting red one way or the other you will likely find yourself or someone you love dead before the end of the year.

[Traildogbob]

20. Do not be alarmed.

That microbe will starve itself out of existence in Texas. Life a fish seeking water in a desert.

[dalton99a]

23. Kick

The authority’s water source is the Brazos River.

Naegleria fowleri is a free-living microscopic amoeba, or single-celled living organism commonly found in warm freshwater and soil, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose, from where it travels to the brain and can cause a rare and debilitating disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

The infection is usually fatal and typically occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater places such as lakes and rivers. In very rare instances, naegleria infections may also occur when contaminated water from other sources (such as inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or heated and contaminated tap water) enters the nose.

The contamination of U.S. treated public water systems by the microbe is rare but not unheard of. According to the CDC website, the first deaths from naegleria fowleri found in tap water from treated U.S. public drinking water systems occurred in southern Louisiana in 2011 and 2013. The microbe was also found in 2003 in an untreated geothermal well-supplied drinking water system in Arizona, as well as in disinfected public drinking water supplies in Australia in the 1970s and ’80s and in 2008 in Pakistan.

[Rural_Progressive]

24. An amoeba that's surviving in a chlorinated water supply?

WFT??!!??

[texasfiddler]

25. Maybe Ron Paul drank some of the water.

Who needs regulations Mr. Libertarian.

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. It's in part of his old district n/t

[texasfiddler]

28. yeah I knew that

[KY_EnviroGuy]

30. Warning lifted today (Sat.) but with proper caution in Lake Jackson

See: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/houston/article/Brazosport-Water-Authority-issues-Do-not-use-15599288.php

Snip....

The Brazosport Water Authority has lifted its "Do not use" advisory for all areas, except for Lake Jackson, according to a news release issued Saturday.

"After extensive conversations with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as well as ensuring that Brazosport Water Authority has an adequate disinfectant residual, a determination has been made that there is no safety issue for BWA’s distribution system," the release said.

Lake Jackson residents are still encouraged to not use the water until the water system has been flushed and samples show that it is safe to use.

The Brazosport Water Authority issued a "Do not use" advisory Friday night for portions of Brazoria County due to a brain-eating amoeba in the water supply, officials said. The advisory was originally issued for all areas "out of an abundance of caution." TCEQ and the Brazosport Water Authority are currently working with Lake Jackson officials to fix the issue, according to the release.

Meanwhile, global fresh water supplies are increasingly at risk.

KY............

[tblue37]

31. Oh, great. My brother lives in Angleton. nt

[TexasBushwhacker]

32. Lake Jackson is the only place that still has a warning n/t

[tblue37]

34. Thanks. nt

[lastlib]

35. Send in Ted Cruz--he won't be in any danger.......

[Totally Tunsie]

36. A 6-year-old boy died from the amoeba

after spending time at Lake Jackson.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/houston-area-water-may-be-tainted-brain-eating-microbe-n1241185

The death of a 6-year-old boy who officials said was hospitalized with brain-eating amoeba sparked warnings about a possibly tainted water supply in a suburban Houston community.

Maria Castillo, the mother of Josiah McIntyre, said Saturday her son died Sept. 8 at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston and that doctors told her the cause was brain-eating amoeba.

Hospital spokeswoman Jenn Jacome confirmed his death there but said privacy laws prevented her from discussing the cause.

The city of Lake Jackson, Texas, said in a statement Saturday that an unnamed 6-year-old boy had been hospitalized for "a rare and often fatal brain eating amoeba" it identified as naegleria fowleri.