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“Water, water everywhere; nor any drop to drink ...” The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
OK, PRETTY MUCH everyone knows that you don’t drink salt water. As we recognize the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I’m sure that even a century ago those surviving passengers realized that.
But how much do you know about the water you drink right now? For example: How many readers drive to one of the roadside springs in Pennsylvania and fill jugs?
I’ve seen cars lined up along the road at some of them. I even drank spring water a couple of times years ago. But I guarantee you, I’ll never do it again!
“One-hundred percent of the roadside springs failed bacteria testing and are often unsafe,” said Bryan Swistock of Penn State University in speaking at a Drinking Water Clinic hosted by Gary W. Micsky, Penn State Extension educator, at the Mercer County office recently.
Swistock pointed out that the water tastes great because it has lots of minerals that you don’t get in public water systems. But guess what, it also contains coliform and E. coli bacteria that you don’t find there either. And both can be harmful to your health.
They are caused by decaying dead animals and insects as well as animal waste that gets into the water. Since only dogs seem to enjoy drinking toilet water, I think I’ll avoid roadside springs in the future.
One of the major concerns we read about constantly today are that the natural gas drilling process of fracking will contaminate well water. Really? According to Swistock that hasn’t proven out yet. “There are very few problems with wells around fracking from testing we’ve done,” said Swistock.
But he points out that it doesn’t mean people shouldn’t have their wells tested regularly, especially in areas where there could be some kind of contamination.
I was shocked to learn that Pennsylvania is second in the nation behind Michigan for the number of drilled wells, yet the state is only one of two in the country that doesn’t have regulations for wells. Either for drilling or for testing.
Now that is scary considering that 40 percent of homeowners in Mercer County are on private water systems, including 20,655 homes in the year 2000. But even scarier, about 45 percent of people who drink well water have never had their wells tested. That could be like playing Russian roulette, especially if you have young children or pregnant women in the household.
I’m not a big fan of bottled water, although I wish I were the first to think of it. But in the future I may have to carry a few bottles with me if I visit someone who has well water and hasn’t had it tested.
The Herald’s Lynn Saternow writes this column each week for the Opinion Page.
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Lynn Saternow
Be careful: That clear, tasty spring water might be filthy
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