...but you'd better not drink it without bringing it to a rolling boil for one minute first. Welcome to Monmouth County, NJ, the newest member of the Third World. Since yesterday, we have had no potable water, and periodically have just a dribble coming out of the faucet when you bother to turn it on. I'm generally not bothering.
Seems a shaky part of the infrastructure broke, taking out water service to most of the county. This piece of piping, or at least the structure that supports it (a wooden bridge, if you can believe that), had been damaged by (hurricane or tropical storm, depending on who you talk to) Irene last August. Apparently NJ American Water used bubblegum and baling wire to fix that damage, so now when it's 90-something degrees out, the thing collapsed entirely, taking the water supply out with it.
What's with the utilities around here? Is it this bad in other parts of the US? How about the rest of the world? Do they all wait to maintain anything until a catastrophic failure occurs?
I remember when I first moved to this area, I wanted to get a new electric line dropped from the pole to my house, because the old one was frayed and didn't look like it could withstand a strong wind gust (which we have all the time). The electric company told me they wouldn't do it, they were waiting for "the big one" (meaning a hurricane or equivalent storm) to take everything down, then they would replace what broke.
Looks like the water company practices the same policy.
Meanwhile, I am sure the company's executives have had astronomical pay raises and bonuses every year, and I know our water rates keep going up and up with no end in sight. They recently made the water undrinkable in any event, by changing the chemicals they use to make it potable. So now what used to be good water is close to unpalatable. I guess the next logical step was this debacle.
When I was out doing errands this morning I checked out one of the sites where the county is giving out bottled water for free to anyone who says they live in the affected areas. The line wasn't too long (yet), but it was very early. I got my free case of bottled water, one per customer, and wondered what someone with a large family might do, send every family member to wait in line in a separate vehicle so they could get multiples? At least they gave out bottled water, we weren't required to bring our own containers. I can imagine the local residents with their Mercedes' and Porsches loaded with empty jugs, going for a fill-up.
I assume NJ American Water is paying for the handouts. I sure hope so, though I wouldn't be surprised if Shop Rite, whose label is on the bottles and whose truck and personnel are at least in part manning the local line, was footing the bill. Shop Rite is good people.
A lot of people were buying a lot of water at Shop Rite, too. Good for Shop Rite, they'll make some extra sales this week. Like a blizzard warning, always good for business. I imagine beer sales ought to be good as well. Not just the holiday upcoming, but a man-made disaster to boot. We're tough here in Jersey, we'll drink our way out of this mess.
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