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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Life We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Century

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 3:43 PM

Congratulations to the good people of Vader, Washington (pop. 590), whose "boil-water" advisory ended today! Just in time for Thanksgiving. And congratulations to the state's water system for working most of the time.

OLYMPIA A boil-water advisory ended today for the City of Vader and Enchanted Valley water systems in Lewis County.

People served by the Vader and Enchanted Valley water systems no longer need to boil their drinking water.

The advisory was issued last week because of broken water pipes and a failed control system at the water treatment plant that forced the plant to be operated manually. Those factors created water quality concerns.

The pipes have been repaired and the control system has been fixed. Samples taken on Monday and Tuesday show the water is free of coliform bacteria and meets safe drinking water standards.

Tomorrow, when everyone does that go-around-the-table-and-tell-us-what-you're-thankful-for game, the people of Vader will know exactly what they're thankful for.

And me? I'm thankful for the town history of Vader on wikipedia.

Vader was originally named Little Falls and incorporated as such on Jaunary 12, 1906. The name was changed to Sopenah by the Northern Pacific Railway because there was already a Little Falls on their rail lines, Little Falls, Minnesota. The townspeople did not like the new name and petitioned the state legislature to change it to Toronto. A dispute then arose which was resolved by a compromise agreement to name the town after a German resident named Vader. The town name was changed to Vader by the legislature on March 25, 1913.

Mr. Vader later moved to Florida.

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Would have been funny if Mr. Vader later moved to Toronto.

Posted by Hyzenthlayk9

on November 25, 2009 at 3:58 PM

In almost the entire Congo, you have to boil your water.

That's this century.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 25, 2009 at 4:06 PM

It would be even funnier if Vader's name was Darth.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on November 25, 2009 at 4:20 PM

i don't understand how having to boil water is funny, ironic, or really very uncommon.

Posted by Josh Bomb

on November 25, 2009 at 4:28 PM

It's not ironic. It's not funny. But it is uncommon. Around here, at least.

Posted by Brendan Kiley on November 25, 2009 at 4:32 PM

@5 - so, you've never been hiking or stayed at a cabin, Brendan?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 25, 2009 at 4:39 PM

Jesus Christ, people.

The joke here isn't about boiling water, it's "Mr. Vader later moved to Florida." After they NAMED THE TOWN FOR HIM.

Every day I name my shits after Will in Seattle. Goodbye-e!

Posted by Fnarf

on November 25, 2009 at 5:19 PM

@1,
It would have been even funnier if Mr. Vader moved to Little Falls, MN.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on November 25, 2009 at 5:53 PM

Fnarf is just pissed because if they named a town after him, no one would leave their basement and little boys would get raped daily for free.

Posted by Sloggers against Fnarf on November 25, 2009 at 6:12 PM

Vader is also the town that voted its school district out of existence in 2006, the most recent school district in the state to fail.

Posted by TheRain on November 25, 2009 at 7:45 PM

I live in Illinois so I don't know about Seattle's water supply, but I know that we occasionally get boil orders here. We had one a couple weeks ago when some dumb@ss contractor digging a foundation for a clinic broke a water line. Before that we've had them when the storm sewers flooded or the water tower ran low (public pool was refilled or hydrants were flushed). It's common practice if the city's water pressure drops below a certain level for the city to issue a boil order, due to the possibility that pipes may back up and someone's sewage could get into the system. They wait a day, test all the main pipes' water, and then lift the order when everything turns out to be okay. Maybe it's because we're not on a coast; maybe it's an ocean thing making it so you never have boil orders?

Posted by charlie on November 25, 2009 at 8:26 PM

Brendan, the "state" doesn't have "a" water system. Water is provided locally in an incredible number of ways, from Seattle's huge system that provides retail water to Seattle residents and wholesale water to residents all over King County, to individual wells, to privately owned small water systems (both for-profit and nonprofit), to small public systems, to neighborhood "six-packs" (so named because a developer can drill a well to supply up to six houses without obtaining a water right certificate).

The State does regulate the quality of most of these water systems through the Department of Health.

Small communities in Lewis County such as Pe Ell and Vader simply do not have the resources to maintain and update their water systems--their residents cannot afford to pay hundreds of dollars each month in water rates. The State used to make a lot of money available in the form of low-cost loans from the Public Works Trust Fund, but that fund is basically broke since the Legislature has stopped funding it.

Posted by kk in seattle on November 25, 2009 at 8:37 PM