Growing up on a farm in North Dakota, we had the best water in the country from our well.  My father had dug into an underground stream.  You could follow the stream by tasting the water on the various farms.  In fact when the home town needed a new well for the town water, they dug into the same stream.  It was one of the few places where it was not necessary to treat or filter the water.

Most farmers had either iron or alkali in their water.  My sister’s place in Montana had so much alkali in the water, it tasted like carbonated water.  In fact when it was pumped out of the well it spit and crackled as it entered the container.  If you made coffee with it you had to drink it while it was hot.  After it cooled it was terrible.  However it did make wonderful cool aid.

In our area there has been considerable controversy over fluoridation for drinking water.  Here in Washington and Idaho we have good tasting water, but the cities treat it.

One place I remember distinctly.  It was an old time café.  The man who ran it was a WWII veteran.  He had come back from the war and started running the place for his mother.  It was a very popular café for sportsmen, hunters, and fishermen.

The owner was always cautioning his customers about the quantity of water they used, as he had to purchase it.  When he took over the café from his mother they were using well water.  It tasted O.K. but had a strong odor.

One of his regular customers advised him to send a sample of the water to Washington State University.  The idea was that the University would be able to assist him in treating the water, or even just telling him if it was a health concern.

It is said that the results of the testing was a one sentence caution;

“Sir, if you don’t get your horse treated by a veterinarian soon, it will die.”