People on my street were without water for eight hours earlier this week. In the 30 years I’ve lived here, my house and my hose have never been without water. Water has been as reliable as the sun in the sky.
My water-dependence is so deeply ingrained that, even though I knew the water was off, I came inside, turned on the faucet to wash my hands, and was startled when it was empty.
Our eight-hour drought was caused by the need to repair a fire hydrant on the corner. A City of Olympia Public Works crew informed us of this work a couple of days earlier, so the outage wasn’t a surprise.
But the drama of the project was eye-opening: huge trucks, mysterious equipment, deafening noise, and a whole crew of people choreographing the work of digging, pipe-cutting, and hauling and installing heavy parts.
Mostly it seemed wise to stay away and not gawk all day. But during the few times I did venture out to watch from across the street, it was clear these people knew what they were doing and were good at it.
They kept their promise to have the water back on in eight hours, and came back the next morning to finish up and refill the enormous hole around the refurbished hydrant.
This drama was a reminder of an obvious fact: Water is a gift of the earth, but it’s delivery to our gardens and to us is a gift from people who go to work every day to take care of our basic need for it. The crew that fixed the fire hydrant was one impressive but small part of a much larger network of people. Mostly, we don’t witness their work.
Getting water from the ground to our faucets is complex and expensive. It requires an immense amount of planning, expertise and skill.
Watching our noisy fire hydrant repair — and finally being able to wash my hands — gave me a great wave of gratitude to all of them. It made me especially grateful to the crew that worked so hard to fix the hydrant that helps protect us from fire.
All this was a remedial lesson about the obvious: My garden is not entirely of my own making. It wouldn’t survive without the water that comes out of my hose, and I depend on the Public Works people for every drop of it. My tomatoes will bear fruit and my flowers will bloom because of their work.
And that’s part of an even larger obvious lesson: We all depend on public services in myriad ways we often don’t acknowledge or appreciate. The longer we think about this, the longer the list of them becomes.
So to amplify that wave of gratitude I felt when the water came back on, I want to say this:
Thank you to the crew that fixed the fire hydrant to keep us safe, and to all the people who get water out of the ground and into my garden hose.
Thank you to the garbage/recycling truck driver who gives me a friendly wave when he comes by. During the pandemic it was more important than you know.
Thank you, people of the City of Olympia Public Works Department.
Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at jill@theJOLTnews.com
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Acadian04
A great reminder in this era of putting public services "in the wood chipper."
Saturday, April 26 Report this
joycetogden
Jill, a few years ago we were without water for SIX DAYS. A giant tree root had opened a hole in the water line that runs from the street into our house. Of course it had to be on the Friday morning just ahead of a holiday weekend. Nobody could come until Tuesday, then when the hole was located it took another worker to come on Wednesday to fix it. We were filling up water jugs from a helpful neighbor's outside faucet. The city refuses to move our connection to the other side of the driveway. We were out $4,000 for all the workers, huge city water bills, etc.
Saturday, April 26 Report this
Georgewalter
To joycetogden: I'm truly sorry that you had to experience the unfortunate problem you describe. Maintaining ones property can at times be expensive.
Usually we think of maintenance as referring to the parts we can see - a new roof, for example. Your account reminds us all that some of our maintenance responsibilities might be invisible.
Saturday, April 26 Report this
cvandaalen
Thank you to the line women and men who risk their lives during power outages to keep us warm and lit. While I would prefer a public power system, I also appreciate PSE for being a good community partner and helping us all save energy. I couldn't live if it weren't for the workers' diligent, courageous efforts, day in and day out. I couldn't garden or speak truth to power if I didn't have electricity.
While I'm at it, thank you to the amazing young leaders at Olympia Community Solar (www.OlySol.org) and all of the solar installers helping Olympia and communities around Washington Solarize! to be more energy independent and energy secure with distributed generation!
11 hours ago Report this