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Chimney soot in roof drinking water?
Haironyourchest posted a question in Homeowners Tree Advice Forum
Situation: I have a tin roof, low pitch (box profile). Stove flu pipe extends 2 feet from roof, near the ridge. Rainwater runs into gutters and then into my storage tanks, 6000lt capacity. I drink this. Have been for a decade and all my life before that have drunk mountain water runoff. No filters, never have filtered, bar a cheese cloth at the tank mouth to catch big particles and save the plumbing. Now, I've just swept the flue pipe, from the inside with a flexible drill brush. It's left a scattering of soot/creosote particles on the roof, around the chimney. It's raining now, and I've disconnected the gutters from feeding the tanks, so hopefully the rain will wash it into the gutters, where it will probably lodge. I'll get up there with a hose and brush sometime and flush them out. In previous years, I've taken a blower up on the roof after and blown most of it away, or brushed the roof. Some years I remove the whole flue and break it down for a super cleaning. I'm just wondering, if soot particles make it into my drinking water, how much of a health impact could it be? It's a creosote type substance after all, and it's somewhat soluble in water. I'm not the least concerned with biological stuff in the water but chemicals are another thing. If it's a hot week in summer and heavy rain is forecast, I decouple the gutters an let the roof flush for a few hours before filling the tanks.
