Teresa Santoski

If you live in a small town in New Hampshire, chances are you that you get your water from a well on your property rather than through a public water system.

Since you don’t receive a bill that’s specifically for your water usage – the electric bill that includes the cost of operating the well pump is a different story – you might not really think about the water that much. It’s just always there, and you may even take it for granted.

Until, that is, you find yourself living every well-owner’s worst nightmare and something goes wrong with the well.

Our misadventure began in mid-March while Mom and I were visiting family in upstate New York. Dad called to let us know that we were having issues with the water pressure back home. He had done some troubleshooting on his own and attempted to resolve the issue, but the pressure remained unusually low.

The well people – that’s their proper technical title, I’m sure – came out to examine the water heater, the pump and the well itself. Since everything looked fine, they recommended that we have our well fracked to remove debris from different levels underground and restore the water flow and that we have the pump lowered further into the well to access the reservoir below the original pump location.

If you happen to be a fellow well-owner, you may have just shuddered in sympathy. No one ever wants to have their well fracked because of how incredibly expensive the process is. It requires a specialized truck and equipment and technicians with specific skills.

All of that adds up. When that bill arrives in the mail, you have to open it lying down and with smelling salts handy, just in case.

At the time, there was significant construction going on in our neighborhood. There was a possibility that this had caused something to shift underground, resulting in our water flow issues.

We therefore decided to wait until these construction projects had been completed before proceeding with fracking.

And so, our five-person household spent the next four months living with minimal water. The pressure was so low that you could only use water in one place in the house at a time, so we had to learn how to adapt.

For example, if there was a load of laundry going through the washing machine, you couldn’t run the dishwasher. That would take water away from the washing machine, and if the washing machine doesn’t have enough water, it registers an error and stops mid-cycle.

If the dishwasher doesn’t have enough water, it can’t wash the dishes properly, and then you’ve wasted all that water and you still have dirty dishes.

Showers were the trickiest, as they had to be scheduled so that there was enough time for the water tank to refill before the next person went in. With five people in the house, we had to get rather creative.

Dad would take his shower in the early morning before he left for work, and Mom would shower a few hours later. Youngest Brother and Younger Sister would take their showers before bed, after they had returned home from their respective gyms and workplaces.

Since they tended to come home around the same time, this often resulted in congestion in the evenings, with Youngest Brother, Younger Sister or both electing to endure the quickest of showers under a cold trickle of water. They both wanted to get to bed as soon as possible, so they didn’t want to spend an hour or so waiting for the water tank to refill.

Since my schedule is the most flexible, I tended to shower at the more unusual times, such as in the middle of the afternoon and late at night. I didn’t mind, though, since I ended up getting the best possible water pressure and even some of that rarest of commodities – hot water.

And don’t even think about flushing the toilet or washing your hands while someone is in the shower, much less running the dishwasher or the washing machine. Such actions fall under the category of cruel and unusual punishment and are therefore illegal.

Once the construction in our neighborhood began winding down, Mom called the well people – a highly technical term, I know – to schedule the fracking. Miracle of miracles, they had had a cancellation and were able to fit us in that same week.

Just as we had had to adjust to low water pressure, we now had to readjust to normal pressure. Younger Sister was the first to take a shower after the fracking had been completed, and she marveled at how much more pleasant a shower is with hot water and enough water pressure to get all the conditioner out of her hair.

As for me, the first time I washed my hands, they nearly flailed out of the sink due to the force of the water coming out of the faucet. I was so accustomed to dealing with a thin stream of water that normal water pressure felt like a hot tub jet in comparison.

It’s been about a month since the resolution of our well issues, and I am pleased to say that we have fully reacclimated. Our lawn, regrettably, will probably never recover since they had to drive the truck across it to reach the well, and our soil is better at growing moss and weeds than grass.

But if we do manage to get any grass to grow, at least we’ll be able to water it. And that’s a trade-off we’re more than willing to make.

Tete-a-tete is published monthly. Teresa Santoski can be reached at tsantoski@gmail.com or via www.teresasantoski.com.