Contaminated tap water corrodes metal plumbing and appliances.

Evidence

“The water and the air were the two things we all shared,” she said in a deposition some years later. “And the water was bad. I thought there was a virus that might have been transmitted through the water, some kind of a leukemia virus. The water had never tasted right, it never looked right, and it never smelled right. There were times when it was worse than others, usually during the summer, and then it was almost impossible to drink. My mother would bring some water from Somerville to the house on weekends, probably about three quarts, which we used as drinking water. The rest of the time, when we could mask the flavor of it with Zarex or orange juice or coffee or whatever, then we used water from the tap. But you couldn’t even mask it. It ruined the dishwasher. The door corroded to such a degree that it had to be replaced. The prongs that hold the dishes just gave way and broke off. On a regular basis, the pipes under the kitchen sink would leak, and under the bathroom sink. The faucets had to be replaced. The bathroom faucet dripped constantly. It seemed like no sooner would I get everything fixed and we’d have another problem.” — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 62

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the household appliance as a citizen’s forensic instrument — dishwashers and faucets as the earliest detectors of industrial contamination, before any lab test.
• XREF: Mirrors the design-failure-as-evidence logic of material-failure forensics (a corroded part tells you the chemistry it met). — connects to: Industrial waste pits can contaminate drinking water wells with carcinogens. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 144; A trivial illegal dumping incident triggered discovery of a major water contamination case — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 131; Suds from household detergents in suburban wells nationalized water pollution concern — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 1530 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Rainwater passing through Solvay waste becomes corrosive leachate at pH 11 #corroborates (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1152
• Industrial waste pits can contaminate drinking water wells with carcinogens. #complicates (0.75) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 144
• A trivial illegal dumping incident triggered discovery of a major water contamination case #complicates (0.75) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 131
• Suds from household detergents in suburban wells nationalized water pollution concern #complicates (0.75) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1530
• Local news framed a toxic well closure as a water-supply inconvenience #complicates (0.75) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 135