In my previous column, I discussed the water furnished by Fairfax Water to Loudoun Water and the complex treatment that the water receives to become safe for human consumption. We know intuitively that the raw water from the Potomac River is not safe for drinking until it undergoes treatment. Not only does raw water of the Potomac and other surface water sources of drinking water receive animal waste (and, perhaps, human waste as well), but it also receives snowmelt runoff from salted streets, and runoff from fertilizer and pesticide treated fields among many other nasty things. Treatment is absolutely necessary to remove these nasties.

More recently I have seen articles about how some localities in the U. S. and elsewhere (for example, Singapore) have the technology in place to treat sewage water and make it safe for human consumption. In a recent survey in the U. S., about 60 percent of people questioned indicated that considering the source (sewage), they would refuse to drink such water, a major "yuck" factor.

But wait! Do you think it can't get worse?

Yes, it can!

In a recently published book, The Big Thirst, Author Charles Fishman suggests that we are drinking dinosaur pee because the molecules of the water of today have been around for several hundred million years because "no water is being created or destroyed on Earth."

So are we really drinking dinosaur pee, even treated dinosaur pee?

Let's examine the question a bit more closely. In a recent blog commenting on this somewhat far-fetched question, Michael Campana, President of the American Water Resources Association, says "Yes and no." He goes on to say that if we accept the statement that we are drinking dinosaur pee, we must believe two critical elements, first, that the amount of water in the hydrologic cycle has remained constant since the era of the dinosaurs as Fishman states, and second, that water molecules last forever.

Personally, Campana believes the first element is true, but rejects the second. Water molecules are continually changing. Chemical, physical, and biological reactions continually break down (the chemical term is dissociate) water into its components, oxygen and hydrogen, and when this happens it is not water anymore even though the elements eventually recombine back into water.

So why does Campana answer the question, "Yes and no?" It depends on your individual point of view. If you acknowledge that the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are exactly the same even though they may break down and then recombine, the answer is YES. If, like Campana, you believe that the process of breaking down and recombining of water molecules has occurred many (thousands, millions?) times, and that the water has undergone many changes, the answer is NO.

This is neither a question that I've thought about excessively nor lost sleep over since reading Fishman's comments and Campana's discussion. You shouldn't either. But hummmm, since I live in Virginia and because George Washington lived here, well,… now now.