Mar 29
Water Scare
A stranger cuts barbed wire to enter the water supply facility for a small American town. Once inside, he cuts the lines that would activate an alarm, damages an electrical panel and a vent at the top of a 1.3-million gallon water tank.
And apparently, he empties the contents of a 5-gallon container into the tank.
It sounds like the beginning of a movie about a terror attack, or perhaps the prologue to a novel about biological warfare.
But in Blackstone, Massachusetts, a town of about 9,000, someone did break into a water supply facility, and investigators did find a 5-gallon container, empty as if it had been dumped into the water supply tank. The container had a strange odor and was being tested.
Residents were alerted about possible contamination and ordered to not drink, bathe, or cook with the water until definitive tests could be completed. The results are due later today.
Authorities have ruled out terrorism, but that was little comfort to a town whose residents began buying up bottled water, and cancelled school classes over fears of what might be in the water.
MSNBC is now reporting that two teens have been arrested in connection with the incident. It sounds — at this point — like a simple prank, but it makes me want to go buy a few more gallons of bottled water to have on hand.
Just in case.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:15 am
Hey Patrick,
better check the link in this entry. It goes to a blogger sign-in page.
March 29th, 2006 at 7:16 am
Thanks, Paul.
It’s fixed and new info about a pair of arrests has been added as well.
Patrick
March 29th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
That is some seriously creepy news. There was a town in PA that recently was able to go back to drinking ‘town’ water after years of pollution from a haphazard industrial waste accident.
Fifty bucks says the next global war is over clean water.
Charley
http://journals.aol.com/cdittric77/courage
March 30th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
You should always have 10 gallons per person on hand. I have those refillable 5-gallon bottles and we just rotate the supply once a month.