July 02, 2007
Monday

I appreciate the return viewpoint comments on my hauled water situation. Having been born and raised in Ketchikan, I understand the measures one should take to keep your water catch system clean. Our gutters have been pressure washed and are cleared of any debris, we clean our water tank each year. I know what my water looks and tastes like when it has tank sediment in it. My water does not look or taste rusty, in fact it is very clean appearing - not murky. The bottom of my tank has no sediment or debris. My water does not taste like rust or dirty sediment water. My water does have a very musty or odd flavor - after the water delivery and still does! If the problem was sediment, the sediment would have settled by now and be visible at the bottom of the tank (it has been over two weeks since delivery) and the bad flavor would have gone away. If it was a rust problem it would be an ongoing problem with flavor and discoloration, not just after a water delivery. Both of the men that checked the water several days ago - one from the city, one from R & M Engineering spit the water out because they too thought it was not so good tasting (they both described it as having the flavor of water sitting in an old hose in the warm sun).

I agree with the other writers' views regarding the service provider - all the water haulers are as prompt as possible in delivery of the water, all of them are working very hard to keep up with the community's water demands in times of dry weather, all of the haulers we have dealt with are very pleasant when delivering the water.

But when and if I have a problem with the water delivered - which I do this time, I would expect someone else besides me would want to get to the bottom of the problem. The water hauling company may want to make certain that the City's water collection site does not have a problem - the City should make sure the collection sites do not have a problem. Currently due to construction the water is being collected from hydrants, someone told me that they should not collect from hydrants because they are dry lines and it would take a lot of flushing before the water would be any good.

All I know is that I am very confident that the problem is not with my tank or gutters, and would like the haulers and the City to make sure that community consumers are receiving decent water.

Meanwhile I am very thankful I have water to shower and do laundry! Maybe we should give up on drinking water from our tank anyways and purchase purified water as it is probably safer anyway! We probably shouldn't rely on quality rain water because it could carry the contaminants of pollution from various sources.

We have all been warned of the problems the City has had with its system... Maybe this was just the universe's way of telling us we should start buying purified water!

Penny Eubanks
Ketchikan, AK

Received June 30, 2007 - Published July 02, 2007

About: "As nature's child it saddens me that the world has become so polluted, I believe there is no return - it is too late, and we cannot stop the process of global warming."

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