How, you might ask, would this even be a problem for us? Unfortunately, the answer is all too simple and complex at once.
PFAS.
If you've never heard of it before, I recommend taking a moment to just Google PFAS and Teflon and watching some of the videos that come up. It's a scary thing, but yet it isn't well known. I'm not going to get into all of the stories of it here, you'll be able to find them in videos with no problem. Just know, it's a scary thing that once you've learned about you cannot unlearn it.
So where did this all begin? Sadly a few years back, PFAS was apparently leaked into body of water about a quart of a mile from where we are located. We got notification that the state would start testing everyone's wells (Stow is well not town water) only a few months ago. Prior to that (though nearly two years after the incident!), we were more or less in th dark about the fact that our water supply could be contaminated.
PFAS, in short, is something that is unfortunately widely used in manufacturing and takes a long time to break down (if ever, which is why it's referred to as a forever chemical). It's common enough that it has been found in our bodies. It has been linked to being harmful to both humans and animals and is in some cases linked to cancers. We were notified that unhealthy levels were found to have been dumped into this running body of water and that the state would systematically be testing properties spreading from the initial site. As of now, we're still waiting for our turn to be tested.
After talks with the people working on the testing, we decided the safest thing to do would be to truck in water we know is clean until the proper filtration can be put in place (which is in the works!). And so, as a result, we struggle with water every day.
I must say, it could be worse. I am grateful I have access to clean, safe water at home to use to fill the jugs up every day to bring with me. I am grateful I have enough room in my car that I can fit 10 jugs everyday if needed (though normally it's not that many right now). While breaking ice out of the jugs isn't all that fun, it is pretty soothing to hear the ice floating in the jugs as I'm driving. Almost like a cozy white noise machine.
We don't have an end date in sight unfortunately for this water saga. In the mean time, I strongly encourage you to look into PFAS and Teflon so that you too can begin to see how something as awful as this could be so down played in our society. All we can do for now is keep trucking in waters and continue to enducate ourselves on this wild situation.