Oh No, Crypto!

"With a Purposeful Grimace and a Terrible Sound
He Pulls the Spitting High Tension Wires Down

Helpless People On a Subway Train
Scream Bug-eyed As He Looks in On Them

He Picks Up a House and He Throws It Back Down
As He Wades Through the Buildings Toward the Center of Town

Oh No, They Say He's Got to Go, Go Go Godzilla
Oh No, There Goes Tokyo, Go Go Go Crypto"

The whimsical lyrics to Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" spring immediately to mind as I read on and on about the dreaded Cryptosporidium! These lyrics take on a somewhat profound yet intentionally humorous meaning as the words "Go Crypto" are substituted for "Godzilla".

Regrettably, crypto is no laughing matter. In fact, it is a very real and menacing "intruder" when it finds it's way into our drinking or recreational waters. It wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting intestinal system in much the same way Godzilla did (on film) in the streets of Tokyo. And like Godzilla, crypto is tough to kill. As a result, practitioners within our industry have found themselves in a precarious situation, grasping for an effective weapon to eliminate this foe. The notorious "creature" is loose in the "streets" of our swimming pools and as the minister of defense we've got to decide if, and/or when to call out the heavy artillery.

Just when it seemed that Godzilla would bring utter and complete devastation, the inhabitants of Tokyo would turn up the defensive heat, driving him back into the sea from which he came. We can, and must do the same thing with Crypto. That is, turn up the "heat"! In our case, the "heat" is ORP. Yes, Oxidation Reduction Potential, or qualitative kill power. True heavy artillery in the on-going pathogen battle!

Crypto is a formidable opponent, but it is not the nearly indestructible "monster" it is portrayed as by some. There is well documented scholarly research giving evidence to the fact that it is readily and fully deactivated in as little as 30 to 120 minutes when exposed to a sustained ORP level of 800 to 865 mV. Kent Williams, Executive Director of the PPOA has long been hailing us with this fact from his "soap box", the Pumproom Press (please see PrP Issue 4, Fecal Water Balance: It Happens Every Day; PrP Extra Summer 1998, The Dreaded E. Coli bacterium; PrP Issue 6, Tech Talk: Crypto Update; PrP, Crypto Makes the News Again!).

When you're making a choice from the available water treatment arsenal, which would you rather; a weapon of mass destruction with a timely result, or a "fixed" weapon which kills only passers-by one at the time? I'm talkin' 30 minutes to 2 hours Contact Time (CT) with a system that is capable of delivering continuous ORP elevation (i.e. high capacity venturi feed) as opposed to 6 to 24 hours with "outboard" treatment systems (i.e. Ozone, UV). It's all good, but those of you with "The Solution" know what I mean!

"Godzilla's" lyrics repetitively finish...

"History Shows Again and Again
How Nature Points Out the Folly of Men"

Folly can be defined as a costly and foolish undertaking; an unwise investment or expenditure. Let's not let history prove nature right with this sobering indictment! We're not looking down the barrel at Godzilla here, right?!

(Click on title at top for BOC's Godzilla Live!)