"Jean B." wrote:
>
> Dan Abel wrote:
> > In article >,
> > Janet Baraclough > wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Jean, if you have a hot shower, or draw piping hot bath/basin water
> >> from the hot tap and let it cool, the heating of the water will
> >> have killed any bacterial contamination.
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portabl...cation#Boiling
> >
> > This does not sound like a good idea. Temperatures sufficient to kill
> > the contaminants will also destroy your skin. The above cite says 70C
> > (158F) for one half hour. Then you've got the contaminated water in
> > your pipes. The warning notice on the side of my water heater says that
> > 160F water will cause 2nd and 3rd degree burns on adult skin in .5
> > seconds. If you let it cool to 150F, you get all of 1.5 seconds. I
> > don't want 40 gallons of water sitting around that will burn people.
> > The water heater is simply not designed for water heat treatment.
> >
> >> So will boiling your drinking
> >> water. Use boiled water for cleaning teeth.
> >
> > This is a good idea.
> >
> I am wondering about the pipes. Even use of the toilets obviously
> brings that water into the pipes.... So when one can use the tap
> water again, I imagine one would have to somehow deal with that.
> Shoulda just camped at the other house, I guess, although that
> would be hard with the workers there wreaking havoc.
>
> --
> Jean B.

For bathing, you can use the tap water to fill the bath tub and just add
1/4c of bleach to the full tub. It will certainly kill whatever
contaminants may be in the untreated tap water. It's also not unusual or
untested, it's used to treat recurrent staph infections. The residual
chlorine in the city water will sanitize your plumbing once they get the
water supply normalized, and they typically boost the chlorine level to
the maximum "safe" level for a bit after such an event.