Towers, Tanks, and Bad Water

I don't know why some towns have water towers and some don't, but it might have something to do with fire protection. We had a big water tower at the paper mill, and it was strictly for fire protection. The intent was that, if we lost electric power during a fire, we could use the water in the tower to continue fighting the fire. That's probably what those tanks on top of buildings were for too. We also had two big diesel pumps located in a little building by the river bank. If the water pressure in our sprinkler and fire hose system fell below a certain point, the diesel pumps would automatically kick in to make up the difference. At some point, our insurance people told us that we didn't need the tower anymore, and it was dismantled and removed. I don't know what changed, maybe it was that the pumps became more reliable like you said.

When you live in Chicago you get used to city water and don't notice the chlorine taste, but out of town visitors will notice it and wonder how you can drink that stuff. When my parents moved to Palos Park they had a well, and the water was terrible. I guess it was safe enough, but it tasted bad, like rotten eggs, and soap wouldn't make suds in it. They had a water softener system that cured the soap suds problem, but now the water tasted like chemicals instead of rotten eggs. They soon got a water cooler, like the ones that office workers gather round to gossip. Distilled water came in five gallon jugs, and when the one on top the cooler ran out, they would remove it and put a full one in its place. The jugs were delivered by a guy who also picked up the empties. They just used the cooler water for drinking and cooking, the softener water was fine for everything else except watering the plants. For that they had one faucet that came directly out of the pressure tank in the garage and didn't go through the water softener. They eventually got city water, but they kept their well for watering the plants, and their water cooler for drinking.

With all the uproar about Flint, our local TV news has been interviewing water people in various area towns. Traverse City gets its water from Lake Michigan, but some of the other towns have municipal wells like Cheboygan. Traverse City treats its war with chlorine like Chicago does, but I don't think any of the well water around here requires any kind of treatment. Cheboygan had some water problems for years, but they finally replaced all their hundred year old pipes with plastic, which seems to have solved it. Cheboygan water always tested safe, but there were complaints about the taste and the smell from some neighborhoods. Part of the problem was the pipes. I don't think they had any lead ones, they were mostly cast iron, but they did find a few old pipes that were made of wood, believe it or not. Another problem was that some of the lines dead ended, and the closer people lived to the dead end, the worse their water was. When they laid the new pipes, they made them all run in loops so the water can circulate and not get stagnant. Some of the towns on the TV news reported that they have been replacing their old pipes in stages for years, and will continue to do so till they're all new. One guy said that their old pipes were supposed to last a hundred years, and they did, but the hundred years are up now, and the new pipes are supposed to last twice that long.

Last I heard, Flint was not planning to replace their pipes, they are still trying that chemical thing that is supposed to seal them up and prevent further leaching. I also heard that, like you said, people in high places knew about the problem long before it was announced to the public. What were they thinking, that if they just ignored the problem it would go away by itself? Heads should roll over this!