BUCHTEL, Ohio — Every year, thousands of people stop at the Buchtel spring to enjoy the free cold water that pours continuously from three pipes into a concrete trough. It’s been around for as long as any resident can remember; according to legend, Morgan’s Raiders watered their horses at the trough during the Civil War.
The spring is nestled between two houses on Franklin Avenue, just off SR 78, with three parking spots for people who come to collect water. It’s public property and free for anyone to use; Mayor Tom Taggart estimates at least 25 to 30 cars stop at the spring every day.
Taggart, who moved to Buchtel in 1959, says he doesn’t drink the public water that comes from Nelsonville, which uses a Hocking River aquifer. All of his drinking water comes from the spring. Taggart said the water from the spring “just tastes a lot better.”
“A lot of people you talk to in Buchtel, that’s the only water they drink,” Taggart said.
The spring is fed by an underground lake — which is linked to the Jobs Mine No. 2 that Jobs Coal Co. abandoned in 1925. Over time, the water from the underground lake infiltrated the abandoned mine, said Natalie Kruse Daniels, director of the environmental studies program at Ohio University.
Unlike the city of Nelsonville’s service, the Buchtel spring is not an approved public water source, which would subject it to monitoring by the health department and Environmental Protection Agency.
“Nobody in the history of the spring’s existence has ever approached us to try to actually get that spring approved as a water source,” said Jack Pepper, administrator of the Athens City-County Health Department.
Pepper said that on rare occasions people were admitted to the hospital with the same non-fatal waterborne illness, all of whom reported drinking from the spring. Pepper said those were the only times the health department tested the water. The health department must investigate certain diseases to identify a possible public health issue. These illnesses did not occur within the past 5 years.
But Pepper said that in the 20 years he has worked for the health department, it has only tested the water “two, maybe three times.” Even after testing the water from the spring, the department could not make a definitive connection between the illnesses and the water.
“There are lots and lots of people that use it, and they use it consistently and they don’t get sick,” Pepper, a lifelong Athens resident, said.
Pepper said the health department keeps records of the tests for 5 years before they are removed from the system, so the results of testing before 2019 are unavailable.
What’s in the water?
Buchtel is a small village spanning just above 300 acres with 518 residents, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Taggart describes Buchtel as an easygoing, retired community and a place where you know your neighbors. Prior to the 2000s, Buchtel residents generally did not have municipally provided water and sewer, rather relying on cisterns and septic.
“I won’t drink out of the tap — I don’t know if I ever drank out of the tap,” said Libby Watkins, 74. “We didn’t have running water when I was young, city water didn’t come up the street until I was in high school. So, we would go to the trough and get our water.”
Some Buchtel residents are more worried about the water they get from the city of Nelsonville than from the spring. Bruce said he doesn’t drink Buchtel’s tap water because he believes there are too many chemicals in it.
“I hate to even shower in it,” said Rodney Galentin, a former Buchtel postmaster and local historian who cares for artifacts in the village’s Coal Miner’s Museum.
They’re not wrong to worry. Annual consumer confidence reports indicate that the city of Nelsonville struggles to maintain acceptable levels of trihalomethanes, or TTHMs — by-products of drinking water disinfection.
Consuming water with extremely high levels of TTHMs over a long period of time can cause liver, kidney, reproductive and central nervous system problems as well as an increased risk of getting cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But is the spring water any safer?
As an unapproved water source, the spring is not tested for contaminants by the Environmental Protection Agency. However, the area is part of the Monday Creek watershed. The Ohio Watershed Data, a project of the environmental studies program at OU’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, monitors the watershed.
Kruse Daniels said that the test results from 2010 and 2011 show that the water had high levels of sulfate and elevated specific conductivity, or the water’s ability to carry an electric current — indicating a high level of dissolved materials, which can affect potability. It also had a pH value below 6.5, making it slightly acidic. Together, she said, the results indicate that the water has been affected by mining.
But every water test is a snapshot in time, reflecting the season, the weather, size of the water pool and flow, Kruse Daniels said — OWD’s data is more than 10 years old.
To get more recent data, I collected four samples of the water between November 2023 and January, and tested them for pH and specific conductivity levels at OU’s environmental science lab.
There is no enforceable health department standard for specific conductivity, but higher specific conductivity levels may cause water to have an unpleasant taste or smell, or aesthetic issues — but health implications are uncommon, according to The Ohio State University. In the case of this water source, a higher specific conductivity indicates the presence of nitrate, sulfate and/or other ions.
Edward Abbiw, the lab’s coordinator, reported that the test results were consistent with mine-influenced water, just like the older ones from OWD.
Abbiw noted that two of the water samples were collected after heavy rain, which likely infiltrated the water source and diluted the sulfate levels. If all samples were collected during dry weather, he said, sulfate levels may be higher.
Kruse Daniels said those results do not indicate any health risks from consuming the spring water — but she didn’t give the water a clean bill of health.
“My biggest concern with that is that we don’t measure for things like E. coli or fecal coliforms,” Kruse Daniels said. She said bacteria, such as E. coli, are regularly tested for and treated in approved water sources. E. coli indicates water contaminated by animal or human fecal matter and it can cause severe gastrointestinal illness.
“Without having data on the waterborne pathogens, it’s really hard to say anything about the safety,” Kruse Daniels said. She added that mines, especially shallower ones, have a connection to the surface and bacteria could infiltrate the water.
New water line project
In May 2023, the Ohio EPA approved Nelsonville’s application for funds from the Water Supply Revolving Loan program for water system improvements. Part of the project aims to resolve the ongoing issues with TTHMs. Another aim is installing new water lines to Buchtel, which until recently was served by a single outdated water line, with no backup supply. Outages left residents with no access to public water and occasionally caused the Nelsonville-York High School to close, according to the Ohio EPA’s Limited Environmental Review.
Construction on the new service line has yet to be announced, but the Ohio EPA expects construction to be completed by July 2024.
But while the new service lines will provide improved water quality and distribution, some residents likely still won’t drink from the tap. For Buchtel residents like Libby Watkins, the spring is more than a water source; it’s part of their community’s identity.
“I hope it’s always there,” Watkins said.
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