Culture, beliefs attest to the power of water wells

Nadine Romero - Other Voices

Human belief systems surrounding water wells are powerful constructions in society/Wells repre­sent places on earth where people not only extract a seemingfy "mysterious" resource, but they are a physical opening into the earth where one obtains a basic need. Consciously or subconsciously, people establish a relationship and deeper level pf connection with the well. Culture begins at places of water and the loss of water is about "a loss of place."

Water rights are contentious because human belief systems about water ditches, for example, are a cornerstone of New Mexican society today. Keeping the acequia free from obstructs and managing the water drop by drop is one of the most important and fundamental tasks in life. Neglecting the acequia is neglecting the community and life.

As a groundwater scientist, I have made the slow discovery that the meaning of water is more than a set of calculations about flow rate and volume, it is about culture and belief systems. The phenomena of the Fourth Avenue artesian well is not only about saving a flowing artesian well, it is about preserving cultural ties to "a place." It is part of the community ego.

After studying the well this past month and observing people's belief systems about the well, I am concerned that people have not yet become educated in the language of the 21st century: groundwater and sustainability; that the water does not come from Mount Rainier in a lava tube; that it is not an endless supply; that flowing wells in most instances are not "good" things, but wasteful practices that can diminish water supplies. The well represents a place where we can shape and change society, too. Our state is grappling with large-scale water issues. Educating the public about groundwater is central to eliminating barriers in the protection of groundwater resources, Remarkably, the Fourth Avenue well comes from a lower aquifer of Olympia that does not appear to have been tainted by our industrial imprint, at least not yet. We need to educate the public that while our aquifer systems in the Puget Sound transmit water readily, they are also very vulnerable. In Thurston County, we rely almost exclusively groundwater environment. We can't afford a cupful of dry cleaning fluid. A can of oil. Pesticide. All of those are familiar causes of groundwater contamination in our locale.

Finally I must share with you my own spiritual-scientific journey down the well. We spent several days trying to find the actual well beneath the Diamond parking lot. We finally found it some 40 feet south of where the water was flowing to the surface pipe. When we opened the fill, early Olympia history presented itself to us at the old train station site; a blue antique Brono-Seltzer bottle, a bone, shells and some ashes.

Descending into the well with the camera and something called a gamma-logger, we were elated to find the well depth at 91 feet and a series of silt and clay units overlying the sandy aquifer. The well was in one of the lower-most aquifers of Thurston County. Based on the water chemistry I had taken a few months earlier and geology, I was able to discern that the aquifer's chemistry matched that of other wells in the region and that the water was probably in the "undifferentiated" deposits of Olympia.

Scientists know very little about these sediments, and they appear to be older than 35,000 years. However, the water, of course, has had a much shorter history, perhaps on the order of 10,50 or even 100 years. The neat thing is that no one had ever seen this aquifer before. No one except for you! I hope to air the footage on TCTV in the next month, "Journey to the Bottom of an Old Artesian Well."

Come and explore the human and geologic timelines the well represents.

Nadine Romero is a hydrogeologist with the Department of Ecology and has been studying the artesian well for the group "Friends of Artesians." She is a member of The Olympian's Diversity Panel.