I've been reading about all the contamination of water in California and i saw a story about water being unfit to drink near billings Montana. This prompted me to wonder. How is the water in your area?

Here ours is well water. Tastes pretty good has some minerals but no sulful or metals. Comes through 350' of blue marble before hitting our tank.

Tell me about the water in your area. If not to personal will you identify state and general area?

Thanks.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), January 02, 2001

Answers

I live in the foothills below Mt. Lassen. My water is well water, but we have to filter due to iron sediment. It's real orange and stains everything. There's a bit of a taste to it that took some getting use to. The iron bacteria is also very corrosive to the metal pipes, so pvc is the only way to go. The local well guy says it's that way all along our side of the highway, buy not on the other side. Don't know that that is a hard and fast rule. I use to live in a small town, near Mt. Shasta and the water there was the best I've ever had in my life! I really miss that sometimes.

-- Nancy in CA (sonflower35@icqmail.com), January 02, 2001.

We get our water from a well in Riverside County, CA. That's southern California -not desert, not coast, but in between, near the mountains. The water quality is very good, and the output is very good, but we must always be conscious of how much we use because it affects the water table, along with seasonal rain. Sometimes (ok, OFTEN) I think how wonderful it would be to have abundant rainfall, but then I check my thinking with the thought that in that case our environment would not be the dry-summer chaparral that I love so much. I just wish the number of people drawing from MY ground water would stop increasing! I realize I'm selfish in that way, but there you have it.

Once, when I was young and working as a cook and living in train stations in Europe, someone told me about the great water in Bolzano, Italy. (That may actually be the German name for it, I don't remember). But that recommendation left my head for a good long time until much later when I found myself, for some reason or other, in Bolzano of all places. I was in a small pensione, with a room looking over the garbage alley, and it was SO hot! I took a drink of water from the tap and was absolutely blown away by how incredibly delicious it was! I had always thought that the best water was such that no off flavors were present -like bottled water, I guess- but THIS water floored me! It was close to 20 years ago, and I still remember. It tasted like water, but.... I don't know how to describe it except that even after my thirst was slaked I kept drinking it because it was so delicious. And no bacterial ork-orks, either.

Well I guess that little diversion was a teeny bit off-topic, but the memory was a fine one, I must say.

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@home.com), January 03, 2001.

Deep well 265' and low flow, and some sediment,but good otherwise.We're upstream from everybody else, so OK for bacteria.Our farm is at the highect point on our side of the river.

Most of the neighbors have cisterns instead bc the groundwater just runs out the cliffs that I live on.So you had to go pretty deep to get even a little.In another part of the county it is readily available.

Surface water here is polluted from straightline pipes primarily,and this is a very rural part of the country.The move up from outhouses caused problems.

Eastern KY

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 03, 2001.

My water comes straight out of a spring. No filtration at all. Tastes fine to me, but probably wouldn't pass a County Health test. I drink so little 'city' water, I can taste even a trace of chorine, which is only one of a number of things added to city water.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 03, 2001.

Hi neighbor, we live at the base of the Smokies. When we lived in our older home, right down below us now, we had alot of iron in our water. The well was only 100 feet or so deep. People sy you have to drill through the limestone to get good water. So, when we moved to the top of the hill, we had our well drillled 450 feet or so. Went through the limestone and have good water, but it is pretty hard. My parents live closer to the mountains and their water is the best I've ever tasted and their well isn't very deep. What a difference a few miles make!!!

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), January 03, 2001.

After it goes through Big Berky, it's great. There's lots and lots of lime in our water here in SE In. And oh, what the water company does to it. There's so much chlorine in our water, it's a wonder it doesn't ruin our clothes. Nasty tasting water.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 03, 2001.

We have a very deep well and it is clear and very cold and tastes very good. We are up on a hill. Lots of underground water here. We are south of Louisville about 50 miles.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 03, 2001.

Our water in western AR is full of clay sediment, iron and manganese. We have six string filters and a Pur counter filter in the house to get it clear enough to drink. The worst part is the clay sediment, which can become a problem at any point. We are looking seriously at some sort of whole house sand filter, and also at bottled water for drinking and cooking.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001.

Well right now here in the Ozarks, most people's water is frozen. I don't suspect that's what you wanted to know though.

This area is buit on limestone and gets lots of rain. That means lots of springs, sink holes, caves and other interesting underground features. One of the consequences of that is you can't trust the water. They have poured special dyes in 'losing streams' and had it turn up in springs 30 miles away weeks later. (A losing stream is a stream where at least a significant portion of the water soaks back into the ground. There are fair-sized creeks that dissapear in all but the wettest weather.)

The water coming out of a deep well or spring may have been surface water in a cow lot only a few weeks ago. For the most part, the water is OK, but even deep wells should be checked periodically.

Other than that, the water is very hard. My water cans (I don't have a well and have to cary water from in town) get a layer of lime on the bottom fairly quickly.

==>paul

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), January 03, 2001.

Don't let the taste and clearness cloud your thinking in that your water is fine... please run a sample into your county health department or local university for a basic check into the "real" aspect of your water...

Mine's looks and tastes fine too... however, my nitrate level is borderline to unacceptable.... and the atrazine level is climbing too... thanks to fertizler run off...

Neighbors within one mile of me are having their wells put lower because of the nitrate and atrazine levels are so high... and their water looks and tastes good too...

A test in central Wisconsin cost about $30.00... I do it about every 18 months as the levels are effected due to seasons and other natural factors....

-- Mary Ann (peanut@wi-net.com), January 03, 2001.

Here in SE NM we get our water from the huge underground acquifer that runs clear up to Iowa. The water is "hard" with lots of minerals. The city chlorinates and treats it. I think it tastes Ok, but I grew up here and am used to it. Most who move here do not like it and ALOT of bottled water is sold here. My family prefers bottled for drinking.

-- connie in Nm (karrelandconnie@juno.com), January 03, 2001.

wow thats a big difference in water. Ours I have recently learned has some iron in it that causes the switch on the pump to rust. We'll have to keep a better eye on that. My wife and I used to get the urge to move, but as we learn more about the crime, water and school systems I guess this rural town ain't so bad. Crime here is escalating with the lay-offs and plant closings. Maybe its time to get back involved in locale politics.

Thanks a lot for sharing info.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001.

our water in the foothills of NC is pretty good. Our well went dry 2 years ago and it was only 90ft we had to drill another one and we had to go 800ft. There is so much sediment we have had to replace pipes and our washing machine gets clogged all the time. I hate all the sediment so we drink and cook with bottled water. We are looking for a whole house filter. Does anyone no of a good filtering system? Sarah in NC

-- Sarah from NC (Caswell995@cs.com), January 03, 2001.

We have two houses, the water at the house in tacoma washington tastes wonderfull, no bad or clorine taste at all. The one here in antioch calif the water is horrible. It is pulled out of the delta and tastes like clorine.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), January 03, 2001.

I have two wells, One at 50' and one at 100'. They both taste great, too much iron without the filter though and don't drink it out of the garden hose of the hose is warm! :-{ I am in Western Wa at the Southernmost part of Puget Sound

-- Laura (LauraLeekis@home.com), January 04, 2001.

Our well here in central NH is over 400 feet deep, and has some iron in it but otherwise is pretty good. We did have a peculiar odor for a couple of years after the neighbors drilled three wells trying to get water -- their activity disturbed the water table, I guess. But the water is back to good again, though hubby still puts his drinking water in a Brita pitcher. The best water I've had is where I grew up, in the Tanana River Valley in Alaska. Not too much pollution to worry about there (1-200 miles from Fairbanks), the water is mostly runoff from the mountains and filtered through miles of gravel substrate. The water is good in the part of the Oregon Coast where I've lived, too, but parts of the Willamette Valley have nasty water, even from wells. (My father said it was because the valley used to be a lake a long time ago, and there are still things decomposing down there -- don't know if that is true, but the water sure tasted awful!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 04, 2001.

Alaska is one of the places I want to visit. WE love traveling.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), January 05, 2001.

When I was 20 yrs old I moved out of my parents house to my grandmothers place 1 mile away. You would not believe the difference in the water. I got so sick of it, I bought a 10 gal tank and 5 gal tank for the fridge to fill up at my folks' house for my drinkin' water. The iron level was so much higher it was unbelievable. The only thing I could think of was that my folks' well was at the top of a valley that had a river running through it and it was next to a natural spring. Whereas my house sat out in the flatlands (YUCK). I had a lot of sediment in my water and the only thing I could find to get rid of it and the rust was a Kinetico water softener that cost $1000, but it did the job. When I was 18 and 19 I went on wheat harvest from Texas to Montana, and it was quite interesting how much the water changed. The Best----Kansas. The Worst-----Rapid City, SD ACK, BARF!!

-- dave (IA) (tidman@midiowa.net), January 07, 2001.

I live in East Central Illinois. Our water if untreated runs out of the tap a dark reddish-brown rust color (that's the best way to describe it. We have iron, iron bacteria, nitrates and a host of other contaminates from chemicals applied to the fields surrounding our farm. The test samples we sent to the state came back with a strong warning not to drink this water before having it treated. So $5000.00 later we have a new pump, a chlorine injection tank and pump, a 250 gal. holding tank (for the water and chlorine to mix in allowing the rust to settle out), a sediment filter to block large particles, a water softener and an iron filter. This water is only used for washing clothes and bathing. Then we have a Reverse Osmosis drinking water system that makes about 2 gal. per day (this takes out all the stuff we put in the water to use for washing, etc. and makes it safe to drink. I guess the only bad thing about that is the water is nutritionally void and really really DRY. This system requires a lot of maintenance on our part and 4 or 5 service calls per year from our local dealer. The service calls are usually to replace the plastic metering parts in the softener and iron filter because the chlorine eats them. This system works well when it is maintained but I sure would like any alternative ideas anyone has. I have wondered if a large sand filter would take out a lot of the rust (Iron).

Thanks, Dan Krabel

-- Dan Krabel (dk@comwares.net), January 08, 2001.

I am on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula in WA. My well is 56' and the water is great. The builder installed a water softened which I used for a year or two, then got tired buying and lifting the bags of salt. Have not used it for years and don't know why it was ever installed. My dau. has the acreage next to me, and her well is about the same depth, but she has some iron in hers. I would say most of the water in this area is good, have never really heard anyone that has distastefull water here.

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), January 08, 2001.

WE live in Billings Mt. Home of the contaminated water. WE have a well and the water tastes very good. However, it is unreliable for purity. Off and on we have trouble with bacteria. Don't know why ,but suspect a deteriorating well casing. CAn that do it? We haven't looked into it as much as we should because of dollars. Our temporary solution is to haul drinking water or distill it. Most of this valley has water that is so alkaline that you wouldn't want to drink it. The contaminated wells are in an industrial area that is outside the city limits and was not very well regulated for years. It also has a severe smog problem. High levels of SO2. I think our water tastes better because we live much higher, on the bluff and not in the valley.

-- Kari (prettyhere@truevine.net), January 09, 2001.

We live near Dundas, Ontario, Canada and have 4 wells ranging from 20 ft to 250 ft (have them tested twice per yr) 50 ft of sandy loam over 150 ft limestone. The 20 ft has too much coliform, the 100ft is great and clean, the 150 ft has too much sulphate and the 250 is too hard with too much sulphate. they all fow about 20 gal/min

-- Harold Stahl (stahl@bestnet.org), January 09, 2001.

We are located in WNY, at or near the Great lakes Ridge,a geographical separation between the rolling hills/farmland and the lower flatlands surrounding Lake Ontario. This is important only because of how it affects soil , subsoil and bedrock layers. The crux here being you never quite know what to expect. the 1/3 acre in front of our home is 9+ ft. of pure sand, making septic install a breeze. The 3/4 acre to rear is virtually pure clay with little topsoil( @ 10' change in elevation). Our well is relatively deep for around here ( more on that) at @48'. We acheived good flow at 35' with no problem but because the hour was paid and unused had the driller continue and hit sulphur at 45' #$*&^(%^$%$#@. Because of heating with boiler, with plans for an exterior boiler eventually, all copper plumbing was a must, hence so was a softening and filtration system to protect the copper investment from damage from the sulphur. (oh well?!?!?) . Needless to say our water is pretty good with the proper maintenance. There are concerns about a capped landfill several miles away that damaged some wells in a neighboring town, but so far testing has proved negative here.Because of concerns over this the township we're in wants to force"city water" down everyones throat( no pun intended), but that will never happen in my house.I'll fill drinking water at the nearest spring first.Wow , did ya' get more than ya' bargained for out of this answer; sorry. Happy drinkin' !!

-- dan (dcbaker@2ki.net), January 09, 2001.

We live in the California Desert, in North Palm Springs, in a Country Club called Mission Lakes. Our water is not city owned or run, and we have our own tank or whatever.

Not only does this cloudy, chalky-tasting water smell like a sewer, but it is that if we accidently drink from the tap, or the kids happen to, check out the list of symptoms we have to live with for the next 24 hours:

Headacke, nausea, cramps in stomach, fatigue, flulike symptoms, lethargy, unable to sleep fully, and foul smelling gas and feces...

I'm sure there are more symptoms. So what do you do in a state where nobody really cares much and half the population is suffering from brain decomposure here in the desert heat of sometimes over 130F in the summer? You can't do anything. Or get anything done. Or get anyone to care enough to do anything about it.

It's more fun here for this mentality to pass the problem on to some other agency (that doesn't handle this), turn their heads and ignore the problem so they don't have to lift their buttocks out of the seat and earn their paychecks, and to ignore the problem by cutting you off the phone line with their statewide rudeness.

Mankind has done it to himself.

I say I have seen cleaner states in Mexico, cleaner bathrooms, cleaner areas, and cleaner water, THAT's FOR SURE! Tijuana tap water does NOT make us sick. But California water always has at least 50 different fungus cultures growing in it.

What more can I say?

-- Hello (iraqi786a@yahoo.com), May 18, 2001.

I don't have anyhing nearly as exciting as some of your tales! I've got several wells, for the several properties I've developed as rentals, plus my own. I live in Jumpoff Joe Creek valley, in SW Orygun.

All of them are excellent, and have similar sweet taste, except one, which developed a strong sufphur smell about ten years ago. I had to install a chlorinator, with a charcoal filter to take out the residual chlorine.

That eventually imploded, and I tried the water without it. No prob.

A while back a geologist from water resources and I were talking; he showed me the printout from a well he's been monitoring about six miles from my place This well has been equipped with a water level recording device. Strangely, the water in this well rises and falls twice a day, just like the tides (we're 1200 feet above sea level, and fifty or so miles by crow from the beach). The water in the well is higher when the tide is lower, and vice versa.

Equally interesting, this well will get a big fluctuation when there is a strong earthquake, even if the earthquake is in Asia, Australia, Europe, it doesn't matter. The water may jump up as much as a foot or foot and a half higher (or sometimes lower, I think), continuing to show diurnal fluctuations, then gradually get back to normal over a period of a day to a week or so.

The geologist thinks that the tides squeeze the rocks, causing the fluctuation, and that the quakes do the same, only more abruptly, squeezing water out of the formation and into the well.

That's when I got the idea that maybe the sulphur in my well came from a big quake. As it happens, we did have a big quake over in Klamath Falls area at about the time the sulphur appeared. I wish I would have made a note of the exact day my renter started noticing the smell, but I didn't.

I'll always wonder.

JOJ

BTW, for the last three years now, there has been no chlorinator, no carbon filter, and no sulphur.

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), May 18, 2001.