Postwar septic-tank homes contaminated their own wells with synthetic detergent suds.

Evidence

In the late 1950s, public health boards in a number of communities began to receive complaints from homeowners about foul odors and tastes in their drinking water. In many cases, people also noted a strange sudsing when they turned on their taps. When the authorities investigated, they found that most of the complaints came from people who lived in neighborhoods built after World War II with no public water supplies or sewers. Instead, the homes relied on backyard wells and septic tanks, and the wells were contaminated with septic-tank effluents. Though the foul odors and tastes might be attributable to the presence of unbroken-down sewage, the suds were something new. As chemical tests revealed, they were caused by synthetic detergents which had followed a liquid path from washing machines through septic tanks to drinking wells. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 412

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Detergents contaminated a third or more of tested suburban drinking wells by 1960. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 413; Suds from household detergents in suburban wells nationalized water pollution concern — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 1530; Affluent suburban families were forced to haul drinking water when suds tainted their wells. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 417

Broader Connections

• Affluent suburban families were forced to haul drinking water when suds tainted their wells. #exemplifies (0.90) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 417
• Suds from household detergents in suburban wells nationalized water pollution concern #expands (0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1530