Water

[Canadian]

Hi,

My city is under a boil-water order and it got me thinking. Before chlorination and all those lovely chemicals they add to the water, what did people do when the water was simply, "bad". I don't seem to recall stories about stockpiling Perrier or stuff (except maybe at the height of the cold war) but what did people drink in times where the water was unreliable. I don't mean out of the well out back, but in the big cities where one is reliant on the city water.

What was the 30s answer to bottled water? Did we just drink what was available, or were the cook stoves busy getting water ready for meals, or did people just drink out of cisterns and lots of Coke?

C.

 

[Stearmen]

During the Dust Bowl, they had to move, or die!

 

[Tomasso]

People have been boiling impure water for centuries.

 

[Shangas]

People have been boiling impure water for centuries.

Or they drank beer.

 

[scotrace]

Or died of typhoid.

 

[LizzieMaine]

City water has been chlorinated in the US since the first decade of the 20th Century. Rural and farm families with wells might run it thru a sand filter if impurities were noted, but it was usually consumed straight as it came from the ground.

In emergency situations, the Lister Bag and water-purification tablets came out of World War 1.

Bottled spring water existed -- Poland Spring and Saratoga Water have been available in bottles since the 19th Century -- but was considered a luxury product, not something you could buy in any grocery store. Bottled mineral waters were more common, but were consumed more for their laxative properties than as an ordinary beverage. "If Nature Won't -- Pluto Will!"

Bottling tap water and selling it to the rubes was unthinkable -- or at best, something Squire Skimp might do on "Lum and Abner."

 

[HudsonHawk]

City water has been chlorinated in the US since the first decade of the 20th Century. Rural and farm families with wells might run it thru a sand filter if impurities were noted, but it was usually consumed straight as it came from the ground.

I drink straight out of the well at the ranch. It's a little irony (as in high in iron, not as in opposite of what you'd expect), but other than that it's potable, if not downright palatable. Stains the porcelain though.

 

[scotrace]

My city was the last one east of the Mississippi to treat it's drinking water, in 1994- some thirty two years after being ordered to by the state.

 

[Tomasso]

Chicago reversed the flow of the polluted Chicago River after a number of typhoid, cholera, and dysentery epidemics took the lives of thousands of citizens. The feat was an engineering marvel which begat the Panama Canal.


http://www2.apwa.net/about/awards/toptencentury/chica.htm

 

[Nobert]

My city was the last one east of the Mississippi to treat it's drinking water, in 1994- some thirty two years after being ordered to by the state.

A bit frightening, considering you're not that far from where the river is mostly famous for catching on fire.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A bit frightening, considering you're not that far from where the river is mostly famous for catching on fire.

Once you start with chlorine it's just a short step to flouride, and as everybody knew in the sixties, that's a Communist plot.

 

[hatsRme]

My town (pop. approx. 30,000) water supply here in progressive Massachusetts isn't fluoridated. It's just dated.

 

[sheeplady]

My grandmother used to can water for if the well went out. She used quart jars, boiled the water, and then processed it in a water bath to make sure the seals took. She probably had 40 or so quarts of boiled water in the basement. Given the fact that they were rural without a nearby water supply (no creeks, etc.), I always thought this was smart.

I will likely do this when we move to our new place. I've noticed that the gallon jugs I keep in the basement must have tiny leaks in the seals, as some of them after a couple of years have started to decrease the fluid level. Not very sanitary. I'd likely use the types of jugs they use to make homemade wine though, rather than quarts.

They still advise people on the news here that if a storm comes (and you think you might lose water), to fill your bathtub so you'll have water. You have to boil it in order to drink it, but at least you've got water. We also keep iodine on hand for wounds (and have bleach too) which can be used to treat water in a pinch.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Sanitary water supplies for cities have been a priority since the 1850s. The Croton aquaduct and reservoir were a source of pride as well as ample pure, fresh water for New Yorkers in the late 1800s.

The usual method of getting pure water was from a deep well, or by piping it from some river far from the city. I don't know when they started adding chlorine.

On the farm they just drank what came from the well and got used to it. A lot of my friends and relatives were farmers who had old fashioned dug wells. Usually the water was OK. There was one friend where I could be sure of having an upset stomach the next day if I drank his well water. But it didn't hurt him or his family, he and his wife lived well past 80.

Today they have drilled wells.

I live in an 1880 farm house with dug well to match, lined with the same bricks the house is made of. There is plenty of water but it is hard, and sometimes smells. I use it for washing but for drinking and making coffee and tea, I buy reverse osmosis water in glass jugs, $3 for 18.9L (5 gallons).

You can have your well water tested free by the county and this service has been available as far back as I remember, at least 50 years.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I buy my water from a store where they sell water conditioners, hot tubs etc. They have their own reverse osmosis water on tap. I bring my own jugs and fill them up, as I said, $3 for 5 gallons. The glass jugs I buy at yard sales and thrift stores for $5. The kind they sell for making wine. I don't trust the plastic jugs. In fact the old ones I used years ago have been discontinued because they contain Bisphenol A. Glad I switched to glass.

There should be such a business near you where you can get pure water. If you want to spend the money you can get systems that will make pure water out of anything for $3000 to $5000. Thorough filtration plus ultraviolet light, no chemicals involved. This is for a system big enough to supply your house, smaller emergency systems are a lot cheaper.

In the past I have boiled water in a pressure cooker to purify it. It seems to precipitate out all the sediment as well as killing germs and parasites.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Around here if someone's well runs dry in the summer they get a tank truck load of water delivered. They put it in the well or cistern. The water comes from the nearest town's water purification plant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was a kid there was a public pump in the next town, a town famous for its "clean, pure spring water," and we'd go over there now and then with a trunk full of glass gallon jugs that Coke syrup came in from the drug store, and fill those up from the pump. Best tasting water I've ever had, and it was absolutely free except for the time it took you to go get it.

We did this for many years until one day the pump was gone. We opened the paper the next day to find that the water was full of benzene, leaked over the decades from a gas station two miles away, and that was the end of Famous Clean Pure Spring Water in that town.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Around here everyone...well, everyone with a thimble full of sense...has a "hurricane box" during hurricane season. Bottled potable water is a key component of that. A gallon per day per person is a good rule of thumb, and you need to have 3-5 days worth on hand. Last big storm in '08 we had a "boil water" notice for a few days, though we were without power for three weeks. Did I mention propane is also part of the emergency kit?

 

[Atticus Finch]

When I bought my house my water came from a shallow well in the side yard...only 14 ft. deep. I lived here for a few months before I realized that my well was located only about 75 feet from my septic tank. Thankfully, I was young then and drank more beer than water. But I still abandoned my well changed over to county water PDQ.

AF

 

[Tomasso]

my well was located only about 75 feet from my septic tank.

:eeek: