Water Troubles

I remember vividly the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was 1979, and we had just had the sand filter installed at our new house just northeast of Booneville, and the water had been hooked up. I knelt down and pushed the float to taste the water. It was as salty as sea water. All that money and all that trouble – and the water tasted like that. There was nothing I could do at the time to remedy the problem, so I did nothing, and thankfully the taste eventually went away. Don't ask me how or why.

But, of course, most water in this part of the country is going to be irony. Very irony. We had the sand filter, which helped, but having to skim off the layer of iron from the top of the sand was a constant problem. Even with the sand filter, there was so much iron in the water that it sometimes would stain the clothes when Pam washed them. So, we added a small tank filter in the pumphouse to double up our defense against the water. That helped some against the iron.  

But we had another problem. Our water would be black. If I’m lyin’, I’m dyin’. Black as soot. I can remember times when Pam would run water for her bath and we could not see the bottom of the tub. We never did figure out what caused it. We wondered if maybe the well driller had gone through some sort of vein of slate or something, but that was purely speculation. 

Eventually, we were blessed to get on city water, and have been ever since. I don’t particularly care for it when the chlorine taste gets a little strong, but still it beats having to fight those other problems. At least we can wash clothes. At least Pam can take a bath in clear water. 

I have known of people who had sulphur in their water, which gives off a terrible odor and tastes bad. That would be a problem. Thankfully, at least we did not have to fight that one. Black and red were enough, without having to add yellow into the mix.