Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994 TAG: 9406080054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VILLAMONT LENGTH: Long
Elsie Reeves doesn't care.
``I don't worry about it. I just can't drink that other kind of water,'' said Reeves, who often stops to get water from this natural roadside spigot, known locally as Villamont spring. ``It tastes better,'' she said.
``Water never hurt anybody,'' said Floyd Kay of Blacksburg - who stopped by a few minutes after Reeves left, along with his dog, Fred.
Kay said he has been drinking water from the spring all his life. He declined to say how long that was.
For years, perhaps for eons, this spring beside U.S. 460 in Bedford County has spewed water down the slope.
And for generations, people have been ladling it up and hauling it home.
This went on long before the Health Department saw fit to have a warning sign erected, which happened in 1979.
It goes on still.
``You can't pay no attention to signs,'' explained retired Virginia Department of Transportation worker Ruben Bramlett, 70. ``You see signs everywhere. People have been drinking water from there all their lives, and they just keep on doing it.''
``There's nothing wrong with that water. I guarantee it,'' said Wayne Watson, who currently works for VDOT. ``We stop and fill our water coolers and everything.''
It is perhaps worth noting that it was VDOT, which, at the Health Department's request, erected the warning sign beside the spring in 1979.
So what's wrong with this stuff?
It is hard to say with certainty, since the recipe can change from day to day.
But samples of Villamont spring water tested recently by Water Chemistry Inc. of Roanoke were found to be remarkably free of such contaminants as pesticides, PCBs, cadmium and lead.
Unfortunately, the samples did contain coliform bacteria.
Coliform bacteria is produced in the intestines of warm-blooded animals, said Lynn Pearson, a microbiologist with Water Chemistry Inc.
And although not necessarily harmful in itself, its presence could mean that other, more sinister bacteria are lurking in the spring water, too.
``We use it as an indicator organism,'' Pearson explained. ``Overall, I wouldn't suggest it for drinking.''
``I personally wouldn't drink this water,'' echoed Mike Williams, a technical sales representative for Water Chemistry Inc.
Plenty of others would.
In fact, it was the discovery of coliform bacteria in the spring water in 1979 that prompted the Health Department to ask VDOT to put up the sign that people now ignore. (Health department officials say they know of no cases of people becoming ill from drinking water from the spring.)
Part of the spring's appeal is the stories told about it; even before the eco generation, it enjoyed a certain cachet.
Early visitors, old-timers recall, once marveled at the way the water arced out out clear and cold from the trunk, or roots (the legend is a little vague) of an oak tree.
It was a little marvel, at best. According to Bramlett, the retired highway worker, someone had simply run a pipe from the spring out to the oak.
Result: Water-in-a-tree.
Trickery aside, Bramlett said people have always enjoyed the water's lime flavor. Some people also claim it makes flowers grow better, he said.
Eventually, U.S. 460 was expanded to four lanes - and the pipeline to the tree was removed. Water now pours straight from the hillside.
As scenic places go, it isn't.
Yes, there is authentic mountain spring water trickling down a hillside.
Comparisons with ``The Sound of Music'' end there, however. Water from Villamont spring drains down a brambly slope, then disappears into a swampy ditch.
Slope and ditch are both impressively littered with beer bottles, fast-food drink cups, plastic milk jugs, empty packs of cigarettes and containers of motor oil. Trucks roar by on the highway a few feet away.
Bambi would not like it here.
The sad truth, health officials say, is that natural springs seldom live up to their reputations as pristine sources of water.
``Some people have the mistaken idea that spring water is chemical-free and is much healthier than city water that has been chlorinated,'' said Joanna Harris, director of the Central Virginia Health District in Lynchburg. ``Of course, that's not so.''
Harris said problems occur because the world is more populous than it once was, and because of agricultural runoff and other pollution.
Still, ``It's not illegal to drink it,'' Harris said of spring water. ``This is not a police state.''
She also said some people in Bedford County have no source of drinking water at home - though she added those people should boil the water from Villamont spring before drinking it.
There are plenty of people, however, who just stop here because they like it.
``You just don't have the chlorine taste,'' explained Kay, as his dog, Fred, lapped spring water from a cup with obvious gusto. ``It's a good pure clean water.''
Does Fred prefer Villamont spring water to tap water, too?
Kay believes that would be stretching it some.
``I don't want to pop your balloon,'' he said, ``but right now he'd drink about anything that was wet.''
by CNB