No Municipal (City) Water, No Problem
So you think City water will improve your life? Maybe you should look for a less expensive and safer alternative. City water is safe right? That is what they tell you. When city water fails, it can kill. When it is at its best, it may harm your health if it is not filtered. This is not speculation, this is fact, unfortunately.
I have been asked if I consumed lead paint chips when I was a kid (jokingly, of course), because I continue drilling wells when everyone seems to think that we are going to be put out of business by city water! I tell them “no, I drank deep well water, thanks for asking”, and I get a little pushy with my opinion (of how bad city water is) because I know I am usually right!
I have personally always lived in the country where there was no municipal supply close by. Municipal (or also referred to as City Water) Supplies are creeping ever closer to me, and it bothers me on some levels knowing that “long line” is going to spur unwanted development. Sewer is usually right behind it, along with apartment complexes and “city” folks who think their way is better.
Now before you get mad at me, I do have my opinions about those folks “from off” who don’t understand this rural area in Charleston County. We live in a unique place. If I wanted Charlotte type development, I would move to Charlotte. What I prefer, is being surrounded by good people who talk to each other regularly. When someone dies or gets married or has a new baby, we get together. It’s a community out here, not just rural people who want to be left alone. What we don’t want, is where a neighbor is a stone throw away, and the only time you see them is when they cut their manicured, over-fertilized lawn and take their trash out to the curb! No disrespect, if that is what you like.
I remember, in the small community where I grew up, there being a vote on whether to allow cable to come into the town. They promised some incentives to get the town to vote on allowing it in. At that time, they voted it down because they argued that cable has a lot of trashy entertainment that would affect our young people! I was just a teenager, and I knew they couldn’t really stop cable from eventually coming…after all, the sattelite systems had already been out for years. I didn’t understand their line of thinking as a young man, but now I do. They didn’t care to have people sitting around a TV all day, watching who knows what, when there was so much more to life. Today, I hardly watch TV. Who has time, when you have kids? Cable eventually found its way into the town. People are probably watching who knows what, but that’s progress ain’t it! I still see some of those town leaders, who are in their elder years, but I still respect them for trying to “look out” for the young folks. They just wanted what they thought was the best.
It is the same for city water. Some well drillers are diametrically opposed to city water, mainly because they perceive it to be the death of an era. I personally say that city water is good when it pays for itself. When precious tax dollars are used to serve 10 customers out in some rural area to allow each family to have city water, it is wasteful. Almost always the old wells were too shallow and needed to be re-drilled and new casings installed to deeper depths in order to obtain good water. Most usually a well can be installed for a fraction of the cost of city water “long line”.
Instead of wasting tax dollars and giving customers water that most would consider to be chemically saturated with cancer causing additives, why not employ a small business to obtain a better, less costly, and safer alternative to municipal water. Why can’t society admit that, for the most part, deep wells are better? It boggles my mind how most folks hear about a well and they immediately think of the brick lined, big diameter type of thing with the wooden bucket…Uh, as a professional who sees almost every type of working well, I have only seen that type of well once! It was modernized with a chlorination system and a sealed lid.
Above is a picture of a “fake” water well. People put these as decorations that represent a bygone era. I have one in my yard too!
Modern wells are, well, modern! Sealed, safe, and usually inspected by a health department for proper construction. Once sealed, bacteria has no way of entering the well. When a pump is changed out, the well should again be sterilized and re-sealed. That is why a pump contractor/well driller is critical in the repair business. Homeowners should never attempt a well repair for this reason.
What it boils down to, is that the local, state and federal government does not trust you as an individual to make correct choices when it comes to your families safe drinking water. They actually believe that their chlorinated (amongst other nasty chemicals) water is best overall, since one well out of a thousand may be “contaminated”.
Twenty years ago, I came across a government backed group who were utilizing college kids to collect water samples to have them tested at a non-state certified lab, using non-preferred testing methods for bacteria samples. They were using coke bottles to pull samples to take to their lab. They told well owners that their wells were “contaminated” and that they should sign up for state funding for a water line to be constructed. The tap fees were in excess of $2000 and initially they said it was mandatory. The town folk got together and found out that since federal funding was not involved, there was no way to force them to tap in. They were trying to scare them into tapping into the line so that they could better fund the line. The real reason that line was desired was a business at the end of the line wanted the water to expand their operations! That, right there, proved to me that the government is looking out for themselves, not your best interest. In all of the cases, where we had drilled a well for the client who had a condemned well, we had it tested at Trident Labs (a state certified lab) and all of the results came back negative for bacteria. Turns out that the business had been built on top of old marshland and could only obtain salty water and actually needed that city water to satisfy its demands, but rather than pay for all of the expense, they put pressure on the government to “force” people to tie in and be able to fund it better. Another case of the general public being extorted and lied to.
I know that “city” water is coming. I don’t like it, but not for financial reasons. In fact, I will make a lot of money drilling wells for irrigation supply, and geothermal energy since all those city folks like those manicured yards and their air conditioners turned down to 72 degrees! It’s what they call progress. I have always wanted a brand new Corvette, but with kids and a house, it has been difficult to justify. City water coming this way will probably buy me that Corvette! So I win either way. You see, well drillers are smart too. When someone needs and depends on water for their home, we are sympathetic and we give a price that is very reasonable, sometimes we go “in the hole” (no pun intended) because we are protective of those who depend on their water, but when some city slicker demands water to irrigate his freshly fertilized lawn, well that’s a different ball game. I once knew a driller who would price an irrigation well the same as what the tap in fee for a second meter would cost plus five years of average water usage (this varies from town to town). I personally base it on actual costs using a higher multiplier, since I consider this usage to be frivolous.
The Romans thought they were very progressive since they had a municipal supply coming into their city. Little did they know they were poisoning themselves with lead that was used to line the water pipes (and mostly wine jugs). I personally believe that this may have had something to do with the crazy actions of their leaders. To this day, the scientific term for lead is Pb which is Latin for plumbum, the origin of our word for plumbing or plumber. We know that Lead is bad today. They tell us that chlorine or Chloramine is OK today. In a thousand years it may be determined that it was the death knell to our society. I do know that Chlorine has saved a lot of lives when you are drinking surface water from a lake or stream. Deep wells are naturally safe from contamination (99.9% of the time) and less of a health risk over consuming municipal water that has not only chlorine, but ammonia and possible unknown pharmaceuticals left over from recycled water . Who wants to drink that?
So when some know-it-all tells me that city water is a better choice, I always ask him “Did your Mama let you eat lead paint chips or what”… Wake up people! Don’t let the pencil pushers in the “Guvment” tell you what to do. Think for yourselves.
Jody Anderson/owner