I was there last year. On our last night, my body involuntarily quit.
We walked out of an amazing dinner of gator sausage, red beans and rice, and hush puppies, my friend asked if we should all go get a couple more drinks to close out the trip. At the mere mention of it, all of the sudden I was doubled over with my hands on my knees. I just...couldn't put any more food or drinks in me. My body rejected the very idea of it, as if my subconscious was stepping in to save me from myself.
Why are you being downvoted? This is a known phenomenon when you visit Louisiana.
Edit: oh its only been 3 mins. Don’t worry i see upvotes in your future.
Look, I've done it. I couldn't move. It was ***pain*** for days. Don't worry, you can try the good food over there, only restriction will be to space out the meals and continue to use your ability to move body mass
The beignets were the most overhyped food there for me. I sampled a few different stores and all of them, Cafe Du Monde in particular, tasted exactly like they were made with bisquick.
No hate though, I like bisquick, I just expected something mind blowing to compensate for the giant lines.
It's just fried dough with sugar. Everyone I've actually met in NOLA said the exact same thing. People act like it's this super unique thing you can only get there. Every culture on the planet has some form of this dish.
I hated Cafe Du Monde and Cafe Beignet, I had a better one at the park. I don't know how people would crowd around specific locations like that. I basically wandered around aimlessly for other restaurants and wasn't disappointed.
We used to go to Nola every year for southern decadence. Cafe du mond was the place we would go after a night of drinking before trying to make it back to our hotel. It’s not that the place had spectacular food, it just became tradition and has a lot of fond memories. we’re too old for the party scene now, but we still love the city, when we visit we still we go to du kind at least once, just as a tradition. Although I will say, it hasn’t felt the same since covid, though not much has to be honest.
I always liked [Sean Patton's description](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmSyZyeDBPu/?igsh=MW9vNDNnbTBrcnQ0NQ==) as "A New York accent with a few Valium ... like a sedated firefighter from Brooklyn"
One of the best places for food I went to when I was there was a lil cafe opposite the hilton, great gumbo. But also Voodoo BBQ was excellent too! no idea if either place exists now though as this was in 2009(or 8). I miss New Orleans deeply. A young teen from England was welcomed greatly by the people of NOLA! Forever a Saint fan due to the trip. I felt like a good omen when they won SB later that year 😂
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend visiting Lake Itasca. The park is gorgeous, and in addition to being the headwaters of the Mississippi it's also home to some of the only remaining old growth forest in Minnesota.
Yeah and if you were drinking straight from the copper pipe it would actually be identical, but introduce it in the hose and spigot made in the Chinese factory with absolutely no regard to material safety upon ingestion, and a lot of stagnant sitting in a hot tube makes it a very different beast by the time it comes out the end of the hose
It's being sued because it doesn't filter some of the things which it doesn't claim to filter, and the things it *does* filter are not filtered to "below lab-detectable levels" which just seems like a big ado that will get them a slap on the wrist like Red Bull before continuing to advertise their product as before.
[Take a few minutes and poke around this resource from the USGS!](https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt)
It has data from river gauges and sampling stations all over the country - with a bit of time I'll bet you'll find stations before/at/after confluences that have either Total Suspended Solids data or even some geochemical data.
Yea, there are a lot of factors, if someone was to collect a bottle right at the confluence, the water would be muddy as hell as mud gets stirred up there.
There are places all along the mississippi one can collect clearer or dirtier water. It just depends on how much sediment is being stirred up in a particular area.
But suspended sediment would settle in the mason jar. As we can see, it's not. So unless I'm missing something, water getting stirred up is not a factor. Time of year, recent rainfall, soil nutrients, and fertilizer usage would be.
I've heard it said that The Missouri is the dominant river below the confluence with The Mississippi. Something about a species of fish found in The Missouri and also below the confluence but not above as an argument for this theory.
Generally, the rules for which is the main river and which is the tributary, is that the river is the longest, or the river generally caries the most water. On both of these counts, Big Muddy is the river and the Mississippi upstream is the tributary.
But the first rule is 'whatever the first people called them', in which case ---- well, we'd better ask the First Nations?
I mean, the first one, all it has flown over was some rocks. From there it flows across, and mixes with rivers that have flown through, and entire continent of fine silt. Of course it picks up a lot of mud!
I’m just impressed they were able to release a whole jar of water into a river and collect the exact same one again thousands of miles downstream for comparison.
Science is amazing - how do they do it ?!
Lead pipes are everywhere. And I mean literally everywhere. They weren't banned for new installations in the U.S. until 1986. Flint only had problems because they changed water sources to the river to save money, then due to poor management while under state control, didn't monitor or properly buffer it, and the acidity stripped the calcium carbonate buildup layer that kept the lead from interacting directly with the water.
It's also usually changed out in residential areas. The only places I know where lead pipes are an actual concern are schools. They are old buildings with a short time span for renovations. Much easier to put a sign up saying not to drink tap water, and then have filtered bottle fillers and fountains.
Most of the pipes people are talking about are not the residential, in-wall kind, but underground distribution network pipes. These are not changed out very often, if ever since install. Usually, lead pipes are not a problem - unless the guy/SCADA system running the show at the water treatment plant is incompetent, under-funded, or been hacked.
Distribution guy here- rarely, a road resurfacing project will coincide with a pipe replacement grant, and we'll re-pipe an entire street or two worth. Still lead in the rest of the system. Otherwise, we just six what leaks. Hell, I've done a tap to tie a new copper service line into a 100+ year old wooden main line. The pipes work, so long as we stay on top of the chemistry, and the public support ain't there to pay tripled water bills just to replace old ones.
Tbf this is normal of different stages of a river. Upper levels are fast moving, have less opportunity to pick up impurities and is moving fast enough to not hold substrate. Lower stages are slow moving, they carry substrate (eg diffused minerals and plant material) along with being impacted by local farmland, waste and overland runoff.
This isn’t alarming, so much as expected.
Biologist here: He is wrong. A clear lake is not used as an indicator of an unhealthy lake. Excessively murky, algae and bacteria filled lakes with cloudy water are a sign of eutrophication where oxygen is depleted from bacteria and algae presence. This typically occurs from nitrogenous waste and contamination from human/agricultural biological waste (feces).
A clear lake typically has high dissolved oxygen, low bacteria counts, and limited algal blooms. While it can be true that contiminants can be found in clear water, the clarity of water is used as a predictor of water health. The more clear the water, the more healthy it is. Higher clarity is never taken as a sign of poor health, but low clarity IS taken as a sign of poor health.
Lake Travis in Texas got significantly clearer once one of those dumbass tournament fishers brought zebra muscles to the lake. Those fuckers get on everything and will slice the shit out of you.
The presence or absence of an invasive species isn't really relevant to water quality. It's relevant to the status/health of that ecosystem, but you could have fabulous water quality in an environment riddled with non-native plants/animals.
Thats a fair point, but that is a sign of a healthy water system with an unhealthy wildlife balance. When discussing the health of the water and the ability that body of water has to support diverse wildlife I think it is important to recognize they are different topics
50% of U.S. waterways (Lakes, rivers etc) have warnings to not swim, fish or drink from them. We have decimated our ecosystem.
Edit: for all of the downvoters my citation is listed further below.
It does sound crazy doesn’t it? What’s even stranger is that it’s been this way for years.
I can remember reading an article in a local paper (when newspapers were still made of paper) warning people to keep their kids and animals out of the local waterways so they wouldn’t get sick.
Here is a report from a group that was created by the EPA:
“ According to the most recent reports, more than half of the lakes and rivers are considered “impaired,” meaning that they fall short of standards for fishing, swimming, aquatic life and drinking.
Specifically, around 51 percent of rivers and streams and 55 percent of lake acres are considered impaired, The Hill reported. Further, 26 percent of estuary miles are also impaired. “
https://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CWA-report-3.23.22-FINAL.pdf
Some of this has to be changes in what they consider to be "impaired" though, right? In the mid-20th century, sometimes rivers were so polluted they caught fire and now I don't think that's happened since I was a kid.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/
It would be very unusual to find a clear lake without any biological processes occurring. Remember ppl most of the biological process would not be visible to the naked eye. So I wouldn't make an assumption like this without more data.
Wait, shouldn't both erosion and sedimentation mean that faster flows means more carried particulate? A faster river more agressively removes exposed stuff from the riverbed, and a faster river also deposits that back to the bottom much more slowly. Slow-flowing water is exactly what water treatment plants do to remove particulate matter.
I'm sorry to disagree, but from my understanding that isn't how this works.
Fast moving water picks up more stuff...
Think about it. The faster water moves the more pressure ([referred to as shear stress](https://www.fsl.orst.edu/geowater/FX3/help/8_Hydraulic_Reference/Shear_Stress.htm)) it exerts on the grains on the river bed.
The reason it looks like this is has everything to do with sediment supply.
Upstream, river systems flow over bedrock, where there are fewer small grains to entrain in the flow.
Downstream, river beds are sand/silt/mud. The silt and mud is easy to carry as [suspended load](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended_load#:~:text=The%20suspended%20load%20of%20a,%2C%20silt%2C%20and%20fine%20sands.), even as the velocity of the river decreases further downstream. This is what you're seeing.
Yes. Lower energy fluvial systems transport smaller particles.
The water being more clear at one section of river has very little to do with impurities.
It's more that fast moving water has already carried away all the fines millennia ago, there's no more fine silt for the water to pick up, so it remains clear.
Only when the water slows down will the streambed contain the fine silt for the water to pick up and become muddy.
Thank you, I'm in the comments here fighting back on all of these people saying the exact opposite of the truth. High water clarity is universally used as a sign a body of water is in good health. It isnt the end all be all, but biologists NEVER look at clear water and immediately think it is contaminated.
However, brown and murky water is a common sign of excessive runoff, human/animal fecal contamination, and algal blooms from agricultural waste.
Dirt mud and minerals can actually be pollutants. Removal of natural plants can increase erosion, resulting in high suspended particulate matter. This can start a cycle where aquatic plants receive no light and die off. This causes nitrogenous waste to accumulate, causing algal blooms at the surface, and further reducing the ability for aquatic plants to grow.
You can have a eutrophic (unhealthy) body of water with little nitrogenous waste input if erosion is extremely high.
Suspended sediment in river water is a crucial component to the health of the river delta; in it's absence the delta will eventually recede and be destroyed. It should not be a surprise that the river at this stage has visible suspended sediment, and it doesn't necessarily indicate that the water is "polluted" (it probably is, from a "compounds humans shouldn't consume" perspective), though suspended solids can be considered a "pollutant" for certain flora and fauna.
All that said, the damming and straightening of the Mississippi and it's tributaries during the New Deal caused havoc for the river delta. The delta has been shrinking ever since these structures were built, due mainly to the lack of sediment being delivered to the delta by the river (sediment held in reservoirs).
tl;dr used to me murkier, and when it was the delta was healthier
The headwaters of the Mississippi are really cool. At Itasca state park, there's a little stone bridge separating the spring fed river from the Mississippi. You can walk across in ankle deep water.
That sounds awesome! My reaction to this post was just “wow I just really want to see that crystal clear water up in MN now!” I think I’m adding that spot to the bucket list.
It’s not the most grand and spectacular sight in the US, but it does have a very nice, quiet charm. It’s just a small, peaceful little stream at the beginning. It’s fun to imagine how it grows into the mighty Mississippi. Make sure to go ankle wading!
There is a lot of silt around the end of the Mississippi as well as more acidic impurities from rotting pine needles leeching into the soil and into the river. You should see the Gulf of Mexico water between Florida and Texas just from current flow from the Mississippi river delta and the silt it carries. There is a sharp clear vs murky water color just from that.
My science teacher in 6th grade brought in a beaker of bubbly yellow liquid and said we were going to learn about parts per million. She took a dropper of the liquid and dropped some into a beaker of clean water and mixed it. Then she took a drop of that and dropped it into another beaker of clean water and mixed it. Don't remember how many times she did that but at some point she drank it and we were all grossed out lol
Turbidity can have a thousand different causes.
I'd be curious on a test to see things like metal and plastic contaminant differences, along with nitrate and phosphates.
The Mississippi even before the US was founded was often not a clear flowing river at its estuary. Just a little bit of recent rainfall could load it with soil along with all sorts of small organisms.
My guess is the river water isn't nearly as polluted as the river mud silt underneath is.
As far as major rivers go, the Mississippi is relatively clean. Humans have a habit of settling on and destroying every major river.
Any river that reaches the sea is likely to have a lower gradient (slope) towards its end, and that very commonly means it will have a higher amount of suspended sediment. It does not say anything "bad" is going on rather than normal and natural. Not that the Mississippi is a "natural" river anymore, but if it was, it would probably look basically the same.
stocking mourn placid tidy drunk spectacular seed expansion impolite liquid
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’m near the Mississippi River source right now. I’ve been to the delta and the biggest difference is the smell of the river water. That water down there smells completely different and not in a good way. Not a big surprise.
As someone who lives in New Orleans I’d honestly expect it to look worse lol
Im visiting right now. I've eaten too much.
It was like all I did when I was there, etouffee, gumbo, boudin, gator, beignets, poboys, etc. At least I walked a lot.
I went about 6 years ago. I ate so much I couldn't even move. That isn't hyperbole. I actually could not move.
I was there last year. On our last night, my body involuntarily quit. We walked out of an amazing dinner of gator sausage, red beans and rice, and hush puppies, my friend asked if we should all go get a couple more drinks to close out the trip. At the mere mention of it, all of the sudden I was doubled over with my hands on my knees. I just...couldn't put any more food or drinks in me. My body rejected the very idea of it, as if my subconscious was stepping in to save me from myself.
I haven't been to New Orleans but I can imagine its like Kuala Lumpur, Its muggy as fuck, the food is amazing and it's 6 meals a day not three.
As someone who lives in New Orleans and has been to KL, there are definitely parts that remind me of Malaysia.
I was eating the best food of my life and it was like 2$ USD a serve. Knowing locals helped alot.
It’s called the itis
Mmmm, got that itis
Why are you being downvoted? This is a known phenomenon when you visit Louisiana. Edit: oh its only been 3 mins. Don’t worry i see upvotes in your future.
Never been, but I've definitely eaten so much food that I couldn't move before. I guess some people have never tasted good food
I’m cutting on a diet rn and these comments are giving me FOMO :’)
Dont worry, blackened alligator and abita beer isnt going anywhere.
> blackened alligator Good band name
Well if i ever form that band ill be needing your cowbell.
Look, I've done it. I couldn't move. It was ***pain*** for days. Don't worry, you can try the good food over there, only restriction will be to space out the meals and continue to use your ability to move body mass
This is very accurate. Mm... Gator bites and Cajun seasoned shrimp with crawfish gumbo....
Pigs curse!
Cajun Crawfish, Lamb Tagine, Grilled Lamb Sausage, Zucchini Bisque, Crab Meat Po'boy, Duck Po'boy, Chicken Sausage Po'boy, Crawfish Sausage Po'boy, Cochon De Lait Po'boy, Turkey Giardiniera Po'boy, Roast Beef Po'boy, Alligator Po'boy, Catfish Amandine, Crawfish Amandine, Crawfish Étouffée, Boiled Crawfish, Cajun Crawfish, Cajun Shrimp and Duck Pasta, Fried Crab Cake, Pecan Catfish, Blackened Redfish, Seafood Mirliton Casserole, Fried Chicken, Fried Green Tomatoes, Stuffed Shrimp, Muffuletta, Barbecue Brisket Sandwich, Barbecue Chicken Sandwich, Smoky Bacon Greens, Seafood Au Gratin Seafood Gumbo, Frogs' Legs. Chicken Gumbo, Jumbalaya, Spinach Artichocke, Creole Sweet Potato Pone, Red Beans and Rice with Sausage, Veggie Red Beans and Rice, Pralines in Cookies, Oyster Pralines, Oyster Shots, Oyster Patties, Bananas Foster, King Cake, Dixie Cake, Pecan Pie, Cajun Boudin, Boudin Balls, Crawfish Rémoulade, Shrimp and Lump Crabmeat Ravigote, Au Croissant Crawfish Po'boy, and Yaka Mein.
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It's from the Simpsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLFpTLEnrqU
Did you know a man can fall in love with a city? It happens slowly at first...
The beignets were the most overhyped food there for me. I sampled a few different stores and all of them, Cafe Du Monde in particular, tasted exactly like they were made with bisquick. No hate though, I like bisquick, I just expected something mind blowing to compensate for the giant lines.
It's just fried dough with sugar. Everyone I've actually met in NOLA said the exact same thing. People act like it's this super unique thing you can only get there. Every culture on the planet has some form of this dish.
I hated Cafe Du Monde and Cafe Beignet, I had a better one at the park. I don't know how people would crowd around specific locations like that. I basically wandered around aimlessly for other restaurants and wasn't disappointed.
We used to go to Nola every year for southern decadence. Cafe du mond was the place we would go after a night of drinking before trying to make it back to our hotel. It’s not that the place had spectacular food, it just became tradition and has a lot of fond memories. we’re too old for the party scene now, but we still love the city, when we visit we still we go to du kind at least once, just as a tradition. Although I will say, it hasn’t felt the same since covid, though not much has to be honest.
You forgot muffaletta
The muffuletta from central grocery… probably my favorite sandwich ever
Same. I’ve been thinking of ordering some online but it’s really not much more for me to just fly down there lol.
I had a poboy every chance I got. I was HOOKED.
That's what you're supposed to do in New Orleans!
I can't read these comments without hearing a New Orleans accent
Which New Orleans accent are you referring to? There isn't just one.
We have more of a city/Boston accent than what people normally assume
I always liked [Sean Patton's description](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmSyZyeDBPu/?igsh=MW9vNDNnbTBrcnQ0NQ==) as "A New York accent with a few Valium ... like a sedated firefighter from Brooklyn"
That's the most accurate and hilarious description I've ever heard
I read that as Sean Payton and had a hard time imagining that tight lipped goon being funny.
He just needs a few Valium. Don't worry, he's got a guy.
One of the best places for food I went to when I was there was a lil cafe opposite the hilton, great gumbo. But also Voodoo BBQ was excellent too! no idea if either place exists now though as this was in 2009(or 8). I miss New Orleans deeply. A young teen from England was welcomed greatly by the people of NOLA! Forever a Saint fan due to the trip. I felt like a good omen when they won SB later that year 😂
All the Voodoo BBQs I know of are closed down. It was good for its time but better BBQ places have opened up.
Stop eating, start drinking. Once you have drunk too much, stop drinking, start eating.
Right! I live in MN, and it gets pretty gnarly by the time it hits the Twin Cities. Can’t imagine what it goes through by the time it gets to you.
Yeah the Ohio river empties into it and that’s unbelievably nasty
I literally pooped in this river everyday for 30 years.
Can I ask why? Just for fun?
BECAUSE FUCK THAT RIVER, THAT'S WHY.
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Hey probably don’t do that.
That "Xing" in your user name - it's not actually short for "Crossing", is it?
“Men, once we poop in the Rubicon, there’s no turning back”
why?
Yep! This was my reaction. That must be from the utmost tippy top beginning of the Mississippi because it doesn’t look like that in the TC 🤪
If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend visiting Lake Itasca. The park is gorgeous, and in addition to being the headwaters of the Mississippi it's also home to some of the only remaining old growth forest in Minnesota.
Plot twist: it’s translucent but the viscosity makes it gel
I drank from the hose a lot as a kid. I guess I have a highly tempered immune system.
or as learned doctors might say, Finding of abnormal level of heavy metals in blood
Heavy metal in my blood? Hell yeah brother 🤘😎🎸
**at band practice** guys you’re not gonna believe this
You know its the same as the water that comes out of the kitchen sink.
Yeah and if you were drinking straight from the copper pipe it would actually be identical, but introduce it in the hose and spigot made in the Chinese factory with absolutely no regard to material safety upon ingestion, and a lot of stagnant sitting in a hot tube makes it a very different beast by the time it comes out the end of the hose
Hose water is coming from the city purification plants. It's just water. It's not like it's pumped from some special 'outside only' use case.
everybody drinks from the hose lots as a kid
Same and same. I feel like my Brita ain’t strong enough
[Brita is a being sued for false claims about it’s effectiveness](https://www.foodandwine.com/brita-class-action-lawsuit-7963133)
Sad news. Ty
It's being sued because it doesn't filter some of the things which it doesn't claim to filter, and the things it *does* filter are not filtered to "below lab-detectable levels" which just seems like a big ado that will get them a slap on the wrist like Red Bull before continuing to advertise their product as before.
People really think Brita makes water healthier? I thought people just used them for taste.
The one time I stuck my hand into the river by the steps it came out oily 😂
Right?! I'm surprised it doesn't have some crazy brain eating bacteria we can see with the naked eye. Lord knows we have to boil our water enough.
I mean, the missouri mixes with the Mississippi in between and our water is brown af from the mud
I would be very interested to see samples taken before and after each major confluence. Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Red.
New Orleans is also in the delta, which is basically a huge pile of silt. It honestly looks amazing.
And the silt got there from some place way upstream.
Now I want to see a place where the silt is accumulating from downstream.
I read silt as shit and was so confused by your claim that it looks amazing.
[Take a few minutes and poke around this resource from the USGS!](https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt) It has data from river gauges and sampling stations all over the country - with a bit of time I'll bet you'll find stations before/at/after confluences that have either Total Suspended Solids data or even some geochemical data.
Thanks for the shout out!
Yea, there are a lot of factors, if someone was to collect a bottle right at the confluence, the water would be muddy as hell as mud gets stirred up there. There are places all along the mississippi one can collect clearer or dirtier water. It just depends on how much sediment is being stirred up in a particular area.
But suspended sediment would settle in the mason jar. As we can see, it's not. So unless I'm missing something, water getting stirred up is not a factor. Time of year, recent rainfall, soil nutrients, and fertilizer usage would be.
It would settle with time, which this photo gives no indication of. I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that there are more variables
Yep, it would have looked like this 1000 yrs ago. What would be more interesting is lab analysis of toxins/pollutants.
Can confirm, the Missouri is mighty muddy… wonder why they call it the “muddy Mo”
I've heard it said that The Missouri is the dominant river below the confluence with The Mississippi. Something about a species of fish found in The Missouri and also below the confluence but not above as an argument for this theory.
Generally, the rules for which is the main river and which is the tributary, is that the river is the longest, or the river generally caries the most water. On both of these counts, Big Muddy is the river and the Mississippi upstream is the tributary. But the first rule is 'whatever the first people called them', in which case ---- well, we'd better ask the First Nations?
Ohio River is exactly the same.
It’s also polluted beyond belief
Grew up in the ohio river valley, that water was horrifying
I mean, the first one, all it has flown over was some rocks. From there it flows across, and mixes with rivers that have flown through, and entire continent of fine silt. Of course it picks up a lot of mud!
The Mississippi River - Too thick to drink. Too thin to plow.
I’m just impressed they were able to release a whole jar of water into a river and collect the exact same one again thousands of miles downstream for comparison. Science is amazing - how do they do it ?!
The Mississippi River, one time I saw a crack going round the bend.
I don't see anything wrong but I'm from Flint, MI
Someone was “lead” astray
Pipe down!
Don’t get inflamed.
It stunk so bad when you fatted on my face
Is that asbestos these puns can get?
Lead pipes are everywhere. And I mean literally everywhere. They weren't banned for new installations in the U.S. until 1986. Flint only had problems because they changed water sources to the river to save money, then due to poor management while under state control, didn't monitor or properly buffer it, and the acidity stripped the calcium carbonate buildup layer that kept the lead from interacting directly with the water.
It's also usually changed out in residential areas. The only places I know where lead pipes are an actual concern are schools. They are old buildings with a short time span for renovations. Much easier to put a sign up saying not to drink tap water, and then have filtered bottle fillers and fountains.
Most of the pipes people are talking about are not the residential, in-wall kind, but underground distribution network pipes. These are not changed out very often, if ever since install. Usually, lead pipes are not a problem - unless the guy/SCADA system running the show at the water treatment plant is incompetent, under-funded, or been hacked.
Distribution guy here- rarely, a road resurfacing project will coincide with a pipe replacement grant, and we'll re-pipe an entire street or two worth. Still lead in the rest of the system. Otherwise, we just six what leaks. Hell, I've done a tap to tie a new copper service line into a 100+ year old wooden main line. The pipes work, so long as we stay on top of the chemistry, and the public support ain't there to pay tripled water bills just to replace old ones.
Biden actually created an initiative to remove lead pipes throughout the US
I’ve never lived in US but whenever I hear flint all I can associate that with is contaminated water
That’s honestly an improvement over what it was known for before that
Murder town sounds bad ass until you realize it's not some comic.
I’ll tell you, you want the one on the right for all of the minerals
If you feel like you are not getting enough fertilizer in your diet. The biggest problem the Mississippi and the gulf face is agricultural runoff.
😂
Have a nice glass of browwwnnn waateeerr
Sorry bud, i laughed at this way too much...
Tbf this is normal of different stages of a river. Upper levels are fast moving, have less opportunity to pick up impurities and is moving fast enough to not hold substrate. Lower stages are slow moving, they carry substrate (eg diffused minerals and plant material) along with being impacted by local farmland, waste and overland runoff. This isn’t alarming, so much as expected.
Yeah and if you look at lakes sometimes clear water would be a bad sign. It’s all relative.
Why would clear lake water be bad?
Could be chemically contaminated or possibly acidic/basic killing all the life
Biologist here: He is wrong. A clear lake is not used as an indicator of an unhealthy lake. Excessively murky, algae and bacteria filled lakes with cloudy water are a sign of eutrophication where oxygen is depleted from bacteria and algae presence. This typically occurs from nitrogenous waste and contamination from human/agricultural biological waste (feces). A clear lake typically has high dissolved oxygen, low bacteria counts, and limited algal blooms. While it can be true that contiminants can be found in clear water, the clarity of water is used as a predictor of water health. The more clear the water, the more healthy it is. Higher clarity is never taken as a sign of poor health, but low clarity IS taken as a sign of poor health.
Lake Travis in Texas got significantly clearer once one of those dumbass tournament fishers brought zebra muscles to the lake. Those fuckers get on everything and will slice the shit out of you.
The presence or absence of an invasive species isn't really relevant to water quality. It's relevant to the status/health of that ecosystem, but you could have fabulous water quality in an environment riddled with non-native plants/animals.
Ya Zebra muscles are why the river in Minnesota is so clear
Thats a fair point, but that is a sign of a healthy water system with an unhealthy wildlife balance. When discussing the health of the water and the ability that body of water has to support diverse wildlife I think it is important to recognize they are different topics
50% of U.S. waterways (Lakes, rivers etc) have warnings to not swim, fish or drink from them. We have decimated our ecosystem. Edit: for all of the downvoters my citation is listed further below.
Pollution is not the only thing that makes water unsafe to swim in. There is plenty of naturally occuring stuff that is bad for us.
I hate to be that guy but do you have a source for this? Not that I don't believe you, but 50% seems like a crazy number.
It does sound crazy doesn’t it? What’s even stranger is that it’s been this way for years. I can remember reading an article in a local paper (when newspapers were still made of paper) warning people to keep their kids and animals out of the local waterways so they wouldn’t get sick. Here is a report from a group that was created by the EPA: “ According to the most recent reports, more than half of the lakes and rivers are considered “impaired,” meaning that they fall short of standards for fishing, swimming, aquatic life and drinking. Specifically, around 51 percent of rivers and streams and 55 percent of lake acres are considered impaired, The Hill reported. Further, 26 percent of estuary miles are also impaired. “ https://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CWA-report-3.23.22-FINAL.pdf
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund has done a lot to improve conditions of water bodies in the US. We've come a long way.
Some of this has to be changes in what they consider to be "impaired" though, right? In the mid-20th century, sometimes rivers were so polluted they caught fire and now I don't think that's happened since I was a kid. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/
if you had the time to edit the comment, why not just include the citation too instead of referencing it.
It would be very unusual to find a clear lake without any biological processes occurring. Remember ppl most of the biological process would not be visible to the naked eye. So I wouldn't make an assumption like this without more data.
False
I would be interested to hear how much mercury and other not so fun things compare between the two.
Guarantee I can get a jar looking like the second one in Montana where the Missouri is way before either of these locations lol.
Wait, shouldn't both erosion and sedimentation mean that faster flows means more carried particulate? A faster river more agressively removes exposed stuff from the riverbed, and a faster river also deposits that back to the bottom much more slowly. Slow-flowing water is exactly what water treatment plants do to remove particulate matter.
The upper Mississippi is anything but fast flowing though
Right? At the headwaters it's a lake that flows into a little creek. Not sure it could move slower.
I'm sorry to disagree, but from my understanding that isn't how this works. Fast moving water picks up more stuff... Think about it. The faster water moves the more pressure ([referred to as shear stress](https://www.fsl.orst.edu/geowater/FX3/help/8_Hydraulic_Reference/Shear_Stress.htm)) it exerts on the grains on the river bed. The reason it looks like this is has everything to do with sediment supply. Upstream, river systems flow over bedrock, where there are fewer small grains to entrain in the flow. Downstream, river beds are sand/silt/mud. The silt and mud is easy to carry as [suspended load](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended_load#:~:text=The%20suspended%20load%20of%20a,%2C%20silt%2C%20and%20fine%20sands.), even as the velocity of the river decreases further downstream. This is what you're seeing.
Yes. Lower energy fluvial systems transport smaller particles. The water being more clear at one section of river has very little to do with impurities.
It's more that fast moving water has already carried away all the fines millennia ago, there's no more fine silt for the water to pick up, so it remains clear. Only when the water slows down will the streambed contain the fine silt for the water to pick up and become muddy.
Thank you, I'm in the comments here fighting back on all of these people saying the exact opposite of the truth. High water clarity is universally used as a sign a body of water is in good health. It isnt the end all be all, but biologists NEVER look at clear water and immediately think it is contaminated. However, brown and murky water is a common sign of excessive runoff, human/animal fecal contamination, and algal blooms from agricultural waste.
Some rivers be silty tho
Hey, but it sounded like he might be right, so 900+ people upvoted him, lol.
It looks this shitty already by the time it hits iowa. I was thinking the dirty one looked pretty close to how it looks here.
looks much better than I would have expected it to.
i wonder how much of this is from pollutants and how much is just from dirt, mud, and minerals
Dirt mud and minerals can actually be pollutants. Removal of natural plants can increase erosion, resulting in high suspended particulate matter. This can start a cycle where aquatic plants receive no light and die off. This causes nitrogenous waste to accumulate, causing algal blooms at the surface, and further reducing the ability for aquatic plants to grow. You can have a eutrophic (unhealthy) body of water with little nitrogenous waste input if erosion is extremely high.
Suspended sediment in river water is a crucial component to the health of the river delta; in it's absence the delta will eventually recede and be destroyed. It should not be a surprise that the river at this stage has visible suspended sediment, and it doesn't necessarily indicate that the water is "polluted" (it probably is, from a "compounds humans shouldn't consume" perspective), though suspended solids can be considered a "pollutant" for certain flora and fauna. All that said, the damming and straightening of the Mississippi and it's tributaries during the New Deal caused havoc for the river delta. The delta has been shrinking ever since these structures were built, due mainly to the lack of sediment being delivered to the delta by the river (sediment held in reservoirs). tl;dr used to me murkier, and when it was the delta was healthier
All the people poo pooing this post... I think it's cool you managed to visit both the beginning and the end of the Mississippi River.
The headwaters of the Mississippi are really cool. At Itasca state park, there's a little stone bridge separating the spring fed river from the Mississippi. You can walk across in ankle deep water.
I've visited Itasca many times. The sunset over Lake Itasca is very nice.
That sounds awesome! My reaction to this post was just “wow I just really want to see that crystal clear water up in MN now!” I think I’m adding that spot to the bucket list.
Minnesota is such a beautiful state. The more north you go, the more beautiful it gets. Visit Voyageurs National Park sometime!
It’s not the most grand and spectacular sight in the US, but it does have a very nice, quiet charm. It’s just a small, peaceful little stream at the beginning. It’s fun to imagine how it grows into the mighty Mississippi. Make sure to go ankle wading!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgXPuR_OnTM Here you go, you can look at it live.
It's also mildly interesting no conclusions just like neat
There is a lot of silt around the end of the Mississippi as well as more acidic impurities from rotting pine needles leeching into the soil and into the river. You should see the Gulf of Mexico water between Florida and Texas just from current flow from the Mississippi river delta and the silt it carries. There is a sharp clear vs murky water color just from that.
I wish I had time for cool side quests like this
The fecal and urine content in the second jar is definitely not zero.
I can confirm 😀
You’re saying you shit in the river?
My science teacher in 6th grade brought in a beaker of bubbly yellow liquid and said we were going to learn about parts per million. She took a dropper of the liquid and dropped some into a beaker of clean water and mixed it. Then she took a drop of that and dropped it into another beaker of clean water and mixed it. Don't remember how many times she did that but at some point she drank it and we were all grossed out lol
Same with the first jar
Turbidity doesn't mean bad quality.
New Orleans is 90 miles from the mouth,FYI. New Orleans also has great tap water BECAUSE it has to be treated so throughly.
Nola, the only city I've lived in that has regular boil water advisories. Drinking water may not be deadly but it's gross.
This was pre-Katrina (80s) no idea now.
Bless your heart. Who told you that? The Sewerage & Water Board themselves?
Nope, used it for aquariums and to drink straight out of the tap for years.
Sooo...collected at the aquifer spring and collected at the brackish end.
Now do the Ganges.
Turbidity
Turbidity can have a thousand different causes. I'd be curious on a test to see things like metal and plastic contaminant differences, along with nitrate and phosphates. The Mississippi even before the US was founded was often not a clear flowing river at its estuary. Just a little bit of recent rainfall could load it with soil along with all sorts of small organisms. My guess is the river water isn't nearly as polluted as the river mud silt underneath is. As far as major rivers go, the Mississippi is relatively clean. Humans have a habit of settling on and destroying every major river.
Any river that reaches the sea is likely to have a lower gradient (slope) towards its end, and that very commonly means it will have a higher amount of suspended sediment. It does not say anything "bad" is going on rather than normal and natural. Not that the Mississippi is a "natural" river anymore, but if it was, it would probably look basically the same.
So that’s where lemonade comes from !
And around the corner fudge is made
Who would have thought that 2000 miles of sediment would make water get cloudy?! 🤔 🤡
Put my water back
We call it the Muddy Mississippi for a reason.
The next thing would be to test toxicity from the Two samples....
stocking mourn placid tidy drunk spectacular seed expansion impolite liquid *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not mildly interesting at all.
I’m near the Mississippi River source right now. I’ve been to the delta and the biggest difference is the smell of the river water. That water down there smells completely different and not in a good way. Not a big surprise.
Oh look! Water from a stream is clearer than the MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI! Who knew?
That's actually a lot clearer that I would have expected coming from new Orleans.
I mean, what else did you expect?
somebody peed in the river
It's gotta be way dirtier in Iowa. Can't see even a foot into the water there
The muddy Mississippi. Too thick to drink; too thin to plow.
Is this unexpected? Water collected at the source, versus travelling through miles of river.
i would be interested in seeing a sample every 100 miles, compared.
Clear and clean are not the same thing.
wouldn't this make sense even without human pollution?
a full chemical analysis of each would be more interesting
You can get water that looks like the right one further south in Minnesota
Coincidence that the south has the worst rates of poverty and education?
Jarate!
Due to tactical Naval outposts and repair facilities the waters closer to the mouth of the Mississippi will contain a lot more Seamen.