Water

 Remember the days when you could drink from a mountain stream?   That probably came to an end sometime in the 1960’s, except for a few good springs that had not been touched by the hand of man.   Thereafter it became necessary to use a filter, water purification pills or boil it to save yourself from having dysentery.    My first case of giardia was in the 1980’s while living near Gold Beach where the city water source was from the Rogue River.   Many others got sick too.  They increased the amount of chorine hoping to put an end to it, sure did not improve the taste.   It took about 10 days of pills to get the lower tract back in working order where we felt safe enough to leave home without having an accident.  As the last community on the Rogue River who knows what was coming down stream, could have been the winter rains flushing out all those camp sites in the Wild River section or brown trout escaping from the Grants Pass sewage system.

We use to take for granted the water coming from the tap and thought it was an endless supply, not any more.   With no well water we are at the mercy of rain water collected off our shop roof in the winter and truck water delivered during the dry season from the Oakland municipal water facility.    This water is taken from Calapooya Creek and infused with much chorine because of the many ranches and pastures where the livestock roams freely as it all flows downstream toward Oakland.   We use it for everything but drinking.  For drinking water we rely on a local distributor for bottled water.   The total price for the truck water and the bottled water is about what we paid for city water when we lived in Cottage Grove 14 years ago and I am sure the rates there have gone up with time.  

Having a good water source today is a blessing.    Most the wells around us go dry in the summer or have poor quality water due to sulfur, arsenic or some other unpleasant element.   One thing for sure is we don’t take water for granted anymore, but will always have the memory of drinking from that mountain stream.