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Friday 5 January 2018

Raw Water

I never fail to get a chuckle here when I describe my old drinking water supply in London; through a series of sewage treatment works and reservoirs from Oxford to Heathrow, down the Thames Valley to the Great Wen. "They say" I usually conclude "that London tap water is very pure, having been filtered through the kidneys of seven people before one drinks it". Not only pre-owned, London's drinking water also bears the traces of nitrate fertilizers, and of the Oestrogens used as cattle growth promoters as well as the ubiquitous Flouride. Many folk are suspicious of Flouride, including a very sane econometrist of my acquaintance. 

Well, in the US the public revolt against the chemical soup of urban tap water has lead to a craze for 'Raw Water' - and with all the attendant health industry shouting crazed warnings that everyone will die of Cholera

Well, to a point, Lord Copper. Here water and sewerage are managed by the local council. We have our own little sewage treatment plant that deals with the output of some 2,500 souls and our water comes from the 'moss slopes' collected in two small concrete tanks with sand filters half way up the mountain. No further treatment. It comes out of the taps at about 9 bar with no pumping. It is pure Raw Water, absorbed from winter snowfall by the moss layers and slowly released. 

However, things get even better. Our valley is a geological anomaly. On the south side, where the water comes from, are acidic schists, giving the wonderfully soft 'gemeindewasser' excellent for washing and brewing. On the north side, where we live in the Sun, is magnesian limestone, giving me hard water from the two sources or quellen on my land which is better for watering plants and fine for livestock. This can also be drunk raw, as it runs from the earth pipe. So not only do I have running Raw Water, but a choice of hard or soft. Knowing that septics are paying €6 a litre for it makes me feel all the luckier. 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's "fluoride", not "flouride".

Don Cox

Anonymous said...

All well and good Raedwald, but I still live in London, and "raw" water is still very much a "good thing" as Sellars and Yeatman would have it.

I bought a water softener around 30 years ago under the mistaken belief that my then skin condition was caused by hard London water, I later realised that there was a different cause. However the softener salesman was persuasive and he managed to up-sell me a new fangled device called a reverse osmosis system. I think this is what you mean by raw water, and I haven't had even a smidgen of cholera or typhoid.

I would rather be drinking mountain water, hard or soft, but things aren't always how you want them to be.

right-writes

Poisonedchalice said...

I have an Aquaphore filter and it works a treat. All that nasty Chlorine taste and whatever other junk they put in it is now filtered out. The difference in smell and taste between filtered and unfiltered is remarkable.

I remember well my first home near Todmorden Lancashire, up on a hillside near the Pennine Way. I had only moved in a week when a knock came at the door and there was a little old chap, replete with flat cap, asking me for this year's contribution to the Henshaw Water Board. The what? The Henshaw Water Board - yep, my first home was not on mains water, it was connected, along with only 166 other homes, to the Henshaw Water Board, who supplied us all with fresh untreated water from the Pennine hills, through a 3600 gallon settling tank. And the cost per annum? A princely £10! Having handed over my tenner for the best water ever, I was given a set of accounts to read what they spent the money on (all £1670 of it) including postage stamps and asked if i would like to become a director of said water board. "We need some new blood" said the little old man! So I joined as an unpaid director and remained there for the 4 years I lived in that wonderful 250 year old Yorkshire stone house.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like your valley could do with some 'enrichment' Raedwald:

‘Muhammed’ Is Third Most Popular Baby Name in Austria in 2017

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/05/muhammed-is-third-most-popular-baby-name-in-austria-in-2017/

Enjoy.

Steve

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, in many world shitholes, the water is only safe if it stinks of Chlorine.

Dave_G said...


Shame there isn't a 'smug' icon on here..... we are on our local villages private water system, 'sand' filter and 6bar at the tap, no processing, no problems.

We also have a 'totally private' system deeded to our property that we're re-commissioning this coming spring - just to run through the fish pond!

Anonymous said...

Todmorden in Lancashire? For shame!

Poisonedchalice said...

@ Anon 02:49

Yes, parts of Tod are in Lancashire; in fact the Lancs / West Yorks boundary runs through the town and through the cricket ground. I lived in Walsden on the Lancs side.

anon 2 said...

@Poisonedchalice 11:55

Amused that the boundary divides the cricket ground!
Oh those Wars of the Roses - though please don't think I side with Margaret of Anjou, etc.

Steven_L said...

What's the difference between raw water and mineral water? Are you honestly telling me if I start bottling Aberdeenshire's famous rivers paranoid yanks will buy it for 10 times the price of Evian? Will the FDA confiscate it at customs?