'All the water's bad': In McDowell County, you have to get creative to find safe drinking water (Welch: homes)

[mattec]

'All the water's bad': In McDowell County, you have to get creative to find safe drinking water

June 17, 2021, 3:01 PM CDT
By Hannah Rappleye and Adiel Kaplan

BRADSHAW, W.Va. — Every week, Burlyn Cooper parks on the edge of a winding two-lane road, unloads a dozen plastic jugs from the trunk of his car, and uses a hose to fill them with the spring water that drips from a mountain's exposed rock face. For Cooper and many of his neighbors, the mountain's runoff is their most reliable, and trusted, source of drinking water.

"I've got so used to it, I wouldn't know how to act, to turn the faucet on and have good water," he said. "I can't imagine it."

Cooper and his wife, Hazel, once depended on wells for water. More than 43 million Americans use wells, which can be a plentiful source of clean water. Today, however, the Coopers' two wells are too polluted to drink from — the result, they suspect, of nearby natural gas extraction. The once-clear water, which they now only use to wash themselves and water their animals, is orange and sour-smelling. It leaves a thick sludge in their sinks, rust-colored stains on their taps and clothes, and an itchy, red rash on Burlyn's skin.

...

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/envi...ative-n1270405

[hunterseat]

I did a search for my topic and this came pretty close.

I was excited about properties I was seeing in WV. Then I remembered there was a problem with the water.

And how is a border county bad and the neighboring state isn't?

Is there an up-to-date Guide on water quality?

You can't raise crops on the land there if the water's Bad? And forget having livestock!

[WouldLoveTo]

I did the canyon drive tour (New River Gorge bridge) and one of the things the recording said was you will often see people gathering water from side of the road springs, and that you couldn't count on that water to be good! I see people doing this every time I visit. Do they treat the water after getting it?

(full disclosure - I have gotten spring water here in my home state of CT, but not in WV)

[hunterseat]

I lived in CT before here (CA). Might have seen you in the CT forums.
I can't see running a farm, collecting spring water for animals & a garden.

[WouldLoveTo]

Originally Posted by hunterseat

I lived in CT before here (CA). Might have seen you in the CT forums.
I can't see running a farm, collecting spring water for animals & a garden.

Yes, that’s where we “met”.

And yes. Rainwater maybe?

[Serious Conversation]

My girlfriend and I drove from Bishop to Welch yesterday on Highway 16. Conditions are even more abysmal than the last time I was over there. I saw very few livable homes, much less businesses that would clearly have potable water.