Drawn to the water

To some, it's a pure gift from nature, but others advise caution in using it.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Like bees seeking nectar, the water gatherers walk the dirt path, laden with vessels to collect what the earth freely gives.
The natural spring pours from a pipe protruding from the grassy flank of a tiny hill in a neighborhood just off Arch Street and trickles into a shaded brook so narrow a child could step across it.
People gather water from several of the natural springs in Columbiana County, whose hilly terrain and rocky substructure combine to create them.
But the Arch Street spring, on the city's west side, may be the most popular, judging from the number of visitors it receives.
"It's soooo cold and soooo good," said Debbie Mellon of North Georgetown, as she bent to put the mouth of a 5-gallon container to the running water.
"Get a jug and take some home," Mellon advised. "Make a pot of coffee." This water makes the best coffee in the world, she said.
Not worried
"Long as it tastes good, I don't worry about it," said B. Bailey of Sebring, when asked about warnings against drinking spring water.
"I'm 81 years old, and I was raised on spring water. You don't have the chemicals in it," he said as he filled containers at the spring. Bailey, a former Tennessean, noted that people often mistake him for a man in his 60s.
When he finished gathering water, he slipped a quarter into the slot of a metal donation box attached to a post. Nearby is a hand-painted sign that asks visitors to limit their water collecting to day time.
Most people abide by the request, said Dorothy Fritzman, who owns the spring. Her small house sits within a few dozen feet of it.
The spring has been running for at least a century, maybe longer, as evidenced by the arrowheads found near it, said Fritzman, who added that she loves the water.
Warning
Not everyone is ready to sing the praises of spring water, however.
If you're going to drink it, boil it first to kill any contaminants, "no matter how good it tastes," said Mike Sabbato, director of the Columbiana County Health Department's water lab in Leetonia.
Sabbato is a microbiologist and the tongue-twisting words of his trade tumble from his mouth as easily as someone else might say their own name.
The county lab routinely tests drinking water. But when it comes to spring water, the law says Sabbato can examine it only if the spring's owner asks.
He hasn't tested the Arch Street spring, but Sabbato expressed concern about any such water.
Springs are too easily tainted with bacteria because they're in the open, and subjected to runoff and to fouling by animals, he said.
"The chances are very good" you could get sick drinking spring water, Sabbato added.
How does he account for those who drink it regularly without boiling it and say they've escaped harm?
"They're lucky," Sabbato said.
State official
Jim Raab, a hydrogeologist with the state's department of natural resources, agreed with Sabbato's warning about boiling spring water.
Raab estimated there are thousands of natural springs in the state.
Generally, they're formed one of two ways. Gravity springs appear when rainwater soaks into a rocky hill and spills from a fault at the bottom.
Or, as may be the case with the Arch Street spring, water beneath the ground is pressurized by rock and slips to the surface through a fracture, Raab said. These are known as artesian springs.
At the Arch Street spring, Henry Richards of Salem didn't seem interested in microbiology or hydrogeology, or how the water he was collecting came to be there.
Each week, he draws about two dozen gallon jugs.
"It's good water," Richards said as he finished filling one container and reached for another.
leigh@vindy.com