The other day, Luna the Big Dog™ and I took a late afternoon walk. When we got home, there was no running water at the compound. That happens sometimes, as we’re actually above the level of the nearest water tank and we rely on the pressure from water being pumped to the tank to supply the compound. If the power fails at the pumping station, for example, our water will stop until the emergency power cuts in.
Our neighbors and nearby towns are gravity-fed from the water tank below us, so their supply isn’t as fragile. I put in a catchment water system for backup, but it only serves the washing machine and laundry sink in the garage and the water is not filtered and thus not safe to drink.
After about an hour, there was still no water. I checked on the water department’s web site, but there were no alerts. I called, and they first asked if I’d paid my bill. Pretty sure I had, yeah. There was some difficulty explaining where my property is (even locals have problems with my address!) but eventually they told me that they had had no other complaints, but they would have the on-call technician call me.
Sure enough, I got a call. He wanted me to check my water meter, saying that sometimes people will turn off random meters as a prank. I explained that I’d be glad to check, but that my meter was quite a ways away so it would probably be twenty minutes or so. I trudged out in the dark (black moon, even!) and down to the meter. It was still on, as were the valves on the anti-backflow device we recently replaced. I trudged back up (and up and up and up, I think the grade is close to 20%) to the house and called back. I could tell he was reluctant and skeptical. Not surprising as I think the water office is about 40 rural miles away, but he was friendly and said he would come check the pressure at my meter.
About an hour later, I got a call back. He said the problem was, indeed, at their end and that the big water tank only had about three feet of water in it. All my neighbors who don’t have catchment and the three nearby towns were about to run out of water! The department had to start bringing big tanker trucks of water up the mountain to refill the tank while they tried to figure out what was amiss at the pumping station.
The tanker trucks didn’t do me any good since the water won’t flow uphill from the tank to the compound, but kept at least trickles of water flowing to the towns. My friendly technician intimated that I was something of a hero for reporting the problem, as otherwise the department wouldn’t have known about it until the towns ran dry and the phones started ringing off the hook.
As it turns out, there was a break in the water main between the pumping station and our area, and it was in rugged, remote country. They didn’t even find the break until the sun came up the next morning. They estimated it would take seven hours to fix, but they got it done in four. Great job, water department heros! In the mean time, I had stashes of potable water and could tote jugs of non-potable water (oh, my aching back) for washing dishes, bathing, and flushing the toilet. Alas, that didn’t make the bidet seat work, as it requires water pressure.
You might be wondering what good it does to have a backup water supply if it only goes to the laundry. Well, I did in fact do a load of laundry, which felt weird knowing that I couldn’t bathe or wash dishes but I could run the washing machine. I can, actually, tag out the municipal water and connect my catchment system to the house, but I’m reluctant to do that since it renders all the house water non-potable until it can be flushed and tested. It’s on my emergency preparedness list to get a filtration system for the catchment, but it’s just one of those things that hasn’t been done yet. Or hadn’t. Doing the CERT training has made me a bit paranoid about disasters. I immediately ordered a reverse-osmosis/UV water filtration system in addition to some random survival and first-aid supplies to replenish my kits.
Next time, we’ll be even better prepared.
—2p