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Lech waste update?

PostPosted: Apr 20, 2007 11:51 pm
by Bobatnathrop
http://forums.caves.org/viewtopic.php?t ... c&start=45

Moved, becuase I am a newb that shouldnt be posting at 1 in the morning when I am tired.

PostPosted: Apr 21, 2007 8:16 am
by bill fish
Well....I dont know HOW contaminated the water pools are...have been outa the lech loop for awhile now...or in other words the bad bugs have been detected...but at what level and is that level bad enough to be problem I have no idea...

AND OF COURSE IFF the water pools are too close to dump sites that could cause the problem

But in reality....I'd say if you have closed "stagnant" pools like in lech....with cavers running around.....sooner or later...the pools are gonna get contaminated....urine dumping or not...

If there is some else alive in the pools to kill the nasty bacteria...probably no major problem....if the pools just arent a nice place for them to live (wrong PH, certain dissolved chemicals/minerals or just not much for the bad bugs to live)..again probably no problem...

Otherwise who knows...

Just remember...like just about every other environment problem...its not whether it exist or not ...its how bad is it?

BLLL

PostPosted: Apr 21, 2007 9:39 am
by Bobatnathrop
Moved

PostPosted: Apr 21, 2007 8:16 pm
by Hazel
All,

In addition to the Lechuguilla contamination article in the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, there was also a follow up article questioning some of the original techniques and whether they demonstrated contamination. The real problem appeared to be plastic hosing in the pools that was leading to microbial growth, these were removed and replaced by the park with tubing that did not support such growth.

There are NO stagnant pools in Lechuguilla.

The original posting regarding the urine issue in Lech was only posted a couple of months ago - this has been an issue for the park for almost two decades, so I doubt it will be resolved in a fairly short timeframe. None of the options proposed by posters was technically feasible or chemically possible. Nonetheless, all ideas are welcome.

Many thanks,

Hazel

PostPosted: Apr 21, 2007 9:14 pm
by Bobatnathrop
Moved to the orignal thread that I somehow missed.

PostPosted: Apr 21, 2007 9:19 pm
by Bobatnathrop
Wow now I really feel like an idiot... I was reading through the archive about the lech thing and was reading a thread from like two years ago, but somehow I missed the topic only two threads down from mine....

My bad..Sorry peoples..I need to starting paying atention.

PostPosted: Apr 22, 2007 6:27 am
by bill fish
Hazel

Regarding "stagnant" pools in lech....yeah you are right


That was a poor word choice...which is why I put in quotes in the first place....

I was trying to describe the typical lech pools of water....or at least the handful of ones I seen

For those who havent seen em.....they are pretty isolated.....are not feed by any source of water that is putting out large amounts

And if I seem to recall that water in them is actually pretty old...ie it got in the cave a good while ago and has been sitting there awhile...though my memory may be bad on this one...

I guess what I was trying to say...Lech pools are significanty different than your typical cave pool...and it would not surpise me that they are both easier to contaminate and more likely to stay contaminated if they got that way...

Any yeah...I seem to remember the tubing thing as well....

Maybe "old still " waters is a better description :)

Blll