Purity and Water Quality Testing in Minnesota

This story was collected as part of a collaborative effort to record the state of American lakes, rivers, and waterways as well an attempt to uncover what water means to Americans. Listen to other stories recorded for the Be Here: Main Street project, a collaboration with the MuseWeb Foundation to record stories from rural America. 

"Back in the early '60s, when I was in high school in Preston, Minnesota, a science lesson was on purity of water. And we went to a metropolitan Preston, Minnesota, and we got some from the river, and we got some from somebody's farm pond, and we got some from the faucet, and when we checked it all out, what had come from the river to Preston's water treatment plant to our faucet had the most extra things in it. And, we gasped, but we made it through and we went off to the wide world."

Asset ID #3938