Affluent suburban families were forced to haul drinking water when suds tainted their wells.

Evidence

Occasionally, the problem was the subject of black humor. “One of the more familiar beverages in suburban areas is the ‘detergent cocktail’ – a glass of tap water foaming with suds,” wrote one critic of septic-tank subdivisions. The author of a pioneering book about water pollution titled a chapter on detergents “white beer.” But the jokes always led to sober tabulations of the number of homes with contaminated wells. Often, the exposés of detergent pollution painted a picture of well-to-do families forced to rely on elaborate expedients to ensure a supply of sound water: “In the spring of this year two-year-old Gerald Colpas toddled into the kitchen of his new Lindenhurst, Long Island, home and asked for a drink of water. His mother drew it from a two-gallon camping jug that had been filled in another community. Beside the jug a covered fish tank held the reserve supply. Gerald’s thirst quenched, Mrs. Colpas started to fill a cooking pot from the tap in the sink. Thick suds foamed up over the edge before it was half full.” — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 417

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Detergents contaminated a third or more of tested suburban drinking wells by 1960. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 413; Postwar septic-tank homes contaminated their own wells with synthetic detergent suds. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 412; Suds from household detergents in suburban wells nationalized water pollution concern — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 1530

Broader Connections

• Suds from household detergents in suburban wells nationalized water pollution concern #expands (0.90) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1530