Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
My
morning shower had me asking the question yet again to myself:
What’s up with the water here in
Florida?
The
rain cascading out of the brand-new shower head in the brand-new bathroom has a
smell. In my experience, water isn’t supposed to smell. And I quickly learned
on my first 2 a.m. bathroom run and
drink of water to a) let the faucet run for a bit and b) to breathe through my
mouth. The tap water here is pretty
nasty.
On
the surface, Floridians appear to have water harnessed.
I’ve
always avoided buying water if I can. I’m old enough that the idea still seems
a bit absurd, akin to going to the store for a tank of air. Living in Massachusetts
with our own sweet well water is probably also a factor. Still, we work hard
for that water; back home we pay attention to predictions of possible drought,
dealing as we do with a shallow well thanks to the granite ledge of our small
mountain. If we can manage to pull tasty H20 from the rocky soil of New
England, why can’t Florida,
with its abundance of the stuff, provide a product suitable for something other
than washing your feet after a day at the beach?
I grew up near a little town that had a lot of sulphur in the water so it smelled like rotten eggs. The good thing about it was several sanatoriums (I think that's what they called them) were built that took advantage of this nasty smelling water and began to advertise healing baths thus turning a lemon into lemonade.
ReplyDeleteWater is a precious resource. A precious resource which tastes MUCH better in some places than others...
ReplyDeleteWE live in a swamp and our water tastes like a swamp. We tried for years to drink it but finally started buying water. Good luck with yours.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound like sulfur water or possibly an over zealous water plant that uses a lot of chlorine. If I were you, I'd check with your neighbors and see how they handle the situation.
ReplyDeleteI could never drink the water at any of the NC or SC beach homes, or even make coffee with the water there. I just always figured it had something to do with being near the ocean. I know very little about these things...being the world traveler that I am. :) Bet you are loving your home in Florida!
ReplyDeleteVery few places have nice water. We are now looking at water shortages so the quality could get worse. You may end up back in Mass. However, I think you'll get used to the Florida water.
ReplyDeleteI think you've answered your own question: "swamp land". You may be drinking swampy water. You may need to purchase and install a purifying water filter. (OR, maybe your pipes have just become stale if the place was empty a long time before you moved in?)
ReplyDeleteOur Adelaide water is much better than it was when I was very young, back then it made me sick to drink it and even now I don't drink tap water, but buy bottled water. I do drink coffee and tea made with the boiled tap water, but I'm not willing to risk the intense bellyaches I used to get if I want a glass of plain water.
I'd run right out and get a filter for my drinking water. Yecch. I am so used to the wonderful tasting water we have here in Bellingham. Or you could switch to beer and wine. :-)
ReplyDeleteit's that swamp you mentioned. when I lived in the city we used to buy spring water but then we got one of those containers that filter the water. out here in the country people have wells but not us. we're on city water. the previous owners had them run a line when they were putting in a fire hydrant and they were going to have to drill a new well because of the new septic system they were having put in. the water here has a high sulfur content and so we still filter it. the grandkids won't even drink the filtered water so they bring bottled water with them.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I did bring the old Britta water pitcher and filter with us. I never needed it at home with our sparkling mountain water, but it does an amazing job for drinking water here.
DeleteIn Florida, most of the groundwater comes through the Floridan Acquifer, a limestone network of underground caverns beneath the state. But shallow groundwater, and very deep water, can both contain trace minerals that make it taste funny. Ironically, Venice used to be known for having excellent-tasting water, because they had a water plant that relied on reverse osmosis rather than chlorination for treatment -- maybe that's changed, or maybe you're not on city water where you are?
ReplyDeleteWhere I grew up, just north of Tampa, we had well water that was so iron-rich it stained our sinks and dishes. Not pretty! Then we got a water softener and solved that problem.
Trust you, Steve, to send these fascinating details about Florida from, of all places, the heart of London. Now you have me wondering about the source of our water. We are in Venice proper (3 miles from Old Venice), not an outlying suburb of it, but I don't know if that means we're on city water. Time to do some detective work!
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