Over at River District News, John Murden points us toward a TD retrospective on the James River's stinkiest year -- in 1981 when low water levels and a massive algae bloom ruined Richmond's water supply.
I remember going with my dad and stepmom to the spring on New Kent Avenue in Westover Hills to bottle water, and standing in long lines. But my favorite memory was going to dinner with my mom and sisters at the old Pizza Inn in Westover Hills and realizing that they had used tap water for the pizza dough...
Here's some more from the TD piece:
Local restaurant owners said customers complained. "People wonder, when they order a salad, why it smells like a swamp," one owner said.
Some Richmonders frequented the area's natural springs for water they could use without holding their noses. By 11 a.m. Oct. 1, a line had formed at the Byrd Park spring, and early that evening about 75 people still waited. A sense of camaraderie developed in the line as residents swapped tales of water woes. Some said they smelled like a sewer after showering. Others complained that the water's stench permeated their homes.
"I'll stand in line as long as I have to -- the city water tastes terrible," a woman told The Times-Dispatch. Despite assurances that the city's water was safe, she refused to drink it. "It tastes earthy, like dirt -- not that I've tasted dirt." She said she planned to use the spring's water for drinking, cooking and brushing her teeth.
