47.9 F
Wrightsville Beach
Friday, March 29, 2024

My thoughts

Must read

Wrightsville’s residents learned this week something they probably have long known: drinking the tap water at Wrightsville is not wise. Letters arrived in mailboxes explaining the news, which leaked out at the end of the last week. The town failed water testing of its drinking water back at the end of September.

Long on the defense over the tenuous tap water, the story the town is just a tad belatedly releasing is the organic compounds in the water are reacting negatively to all that chlorine bleach the town uses attempting to make the water potable.

The official language of the notice with the memorandum sent to residents could be frightening if read all the way through: “ . . . some people who drink the water containing trihalomethanes in excess of the MCL over many years may experience problems with their liver, kidneys, or central nervous system, and, may have an increased risk of getting cancer.”

Anyone living on the beach for any length of time could have told you they suspected this already.

Chlorine bleach need not be added to white loads of wash, because there is already enough chlorine in the wash water to keep clothes white.

Just the chlorine fumes coming from the bath faucet when brushing teeth some days can be overwhelming.

Icemakers clog and fail after a few years of use. First-time guests for dinner or a weekend invariably go to the fridge to get ice or water, and then being told, we don’t drink the water or use the ice, want to argue, how bad can it be?

Having back-to-back dogs diagnosed with cancer before age 2, I examined everything for a possible cause, but always came back to a suspicion of the water. Mentioning to the public works director one time that something in the water was eating the finish off of my dog’s water bowls, he asked me to describe what I meant. I responded with the details that the finish inside the bowls goes from glassy smooth to rough and bumpy, believing it eaten away. He said, try a more powerful cleanser; it is a buildup of materials.  Sure enough, it worked. Put a dishwasher detergent packet in the bowl for a day and all that crud dissolved.

That was the day my current pug, Bella, and my cat, Audrey, went on bottled water.

About a year ago, my hairdresser noticed something was turning my hair a lovely shade of green. Heavy-duty filters for the showerheads cured that abnormality in my uncolored hair.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Years and years ago, someone gave me a small African violet plant. You know the ones, $9.99 in the little plastic pot with purple paper that make a good favorite-teacher gift.

Despite loving them, in my short life, I have killed off numerous violets, always chalking it up to my inability to properly care for any plant more needy than a cactus.

Regardless, this one I dutifully repotted and placed in the sunniest window of my living room. To my surprise it grew and grew, loving that location and my inattention except for an occasional “oh my gosh, I am sorry” watering.

Over the years I repotted it, until it was absolutely huge, its leaf span the size of a dinner plate charger. All year round it put out huge bouquets of lovely violets. My pride in it grew, especially when the previous spring I got overeager and put all my outdoor plants back outside before the final freeze and killed all of them across the board, even my 20-year-old jade plant.

The only green life I had left was the violet in its window, thriving.

It grew so big, newcomers to my home would remark how real it looked as they unknowingly rubbed a leaf. Violets are not touchy-feely, I would quickly remove the offending hands and say, it is real.

But at some point in my busyness, I began watering it with tap water, rather than the rainwater previously collected for it. Then unexpectedly, last summer the violet’s leaves began to wither. Panicking, I adjusted the blinds and plied it with more water from the tap, not realizing my error.

When all of the leaves on the violet died, I took its loss hard. And in my disgust with myself, I left the dead plant in the window.

About this time, my staff and I photographed a magazine food spread at Mayor Bill Blair’s house. Conversing with him over his luxuriant oceanfront yard and foliage, he commented he had almost killed the flowering bushes at the edge of the deck with tap water. Blair actually told me on the days when we had no rain for an extended time, he used bottled water on these outside plants, because the town water would kill them. Right then and there I knew what had killed my violet.

Having left the dead plant in the pot, I went home and collected rainwater. Day by day I pulled away dead leaves, speaking life, praying for a miracle. Imagine my delight when a microgreen leaf appeared among all the dried up stuff. Using a tablespoon and rainwater, my new plant began to grow.

So, no, the town’s announcement of what I already knew to be true but couldn’t prove was not a surprise. Hopefully it will not have caught too many off guard.

The town, however, must pony up and correct the problems, and it will not be easy. It’s no secret the town’s aging water lines are fraught with issues that do not bode well for those who actually drink the water. One option would be to adopt the home cistern rainwater collection method used on islands where there is no municipal water. Reverse osmoses is another. The time to embrace this common technology is now.

A concern does exist for out-of-towners however, and those who eat in area restaurants, who in ignorance may not know, like all good really exotic vacation destinations, it is not smart to drink the water.

- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest articles