When Mother Nature unleashes her fury during events such as a flood, often times our drinking water become compromised; hence, a boil order notice is announced through the local media outlets. Although this addresses part of the problem, it doesn't resolve the problem entirely.

When water is boiled for purposes of consumption, the boiling process kills the biological contaminants and vaporizes contaminants that have a lower boiling temperature than that of water. If there are other contaminants in the water that don't meet these two conditions, the process of boiling only concentrates these contaminants in the boiling container. Although the boiling process kills the biological contaminants, it doesn't remove the skeletal remains of these micro-sized contaminants from the potable water.

Filtration and reverse-osmosis (RO) are not good choices for this situation either. Any barrier method of treating water contaminated with bacteria creates a potential breeding ground for the bacteria to colonize and ultimately penetrate the membrane or filter. The desired effect of removing these biological contaminants can actually reverse itself and create a more serious and potentially dangerous situation. It is for this same reason these barrier methods of treating drinking water are not recommended for those on well water.

Distillation is the safest and most reliable method of handling these crisis situations, or for those on well water. Distillation not only boils the water, but it captures the water vapor generated from the boiling process and condenses it back to liquid form leaving all the skeletal remains and harmful contaminants behind in the boiling chamber -- the end result is pure H₂O!