#113 Thanksgiving for Drinking Water
November 27, 2008
Walking through the South Fork Rivanna Water Treatment Plant brings a new appreciation for what it takes to turn river water into potable, safe drinking water.
This show originally aired on November 27, 2007 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.
In late 1620, the God-fearing and intrepid band of Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, first stepped on the outer shores of Cape Cod – close, but not quite there, in their search for a home and religious freedom in the New World. After an arduous 2-month voyage across the Atlantic, their stores of fresh water – and more importantly, the cider and beer on which most people relied for drink — were precariously low.
It took several forays down the sandy arm of the Cape to find rivers that spilled fresh water … and eventually, when they moved the Mayflower to what is now known as Plymouth Harbor, it was chosen as much for its protection from Cape Cod Bay as for the fresh water flowing in to it from the Jones River and a “very sweet brook” that flowed beside the landing rock, a brook that William Bradford wrote had as “good water as can be drunk.” He describe the water as “sweet,” perhaps an adjective hard for us to appreciate in our modern day, unless we remember that by the 1600s, many rivers – and city streets in the Old World – were already fouled by sewage and what we would today call gray-water from bathing and laundering — and were anything but sweet or safe to drink.
For our Thanksgiving gatherings today, perhaps the one thing on the table that costs little in money or time to prepare is the water that fills our drinking glasses.
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