C6
OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 13, 2019
CAUGHT OVGARD
Florida water an assault on the senses
storms keep the ground sat-
urated and the ponds and
canals full of water.
Much of this water flows
at the speed of government,
but the silent swill makes
me long for the babbling
brooks of my home.
The sound, ambient in
some of my best memories,
has raw emotional power.
By LUKE OVGARD
For the East Oregonian
Traveling opens your
eyes to realities other than
your own. You expect cul-
ture shock to come with
different customs, dialects,
foods and behaviors, so it’s
easy to overlook some of the
simpler disparities.
Coming from the Pacific
Northwest to the swampy
collective known as Florida
this summer, all five senses
realized one glaring differ-
ence: water.
Touch
As a kid, I saw “The Mir-
acle Worker” for the first
time. The gripping scene
in which Annie Sullivan
repeatedly places Helen
Keller’s hands in the water
and says “Water. It has a
name,” stayed with me.
It, too, had raw emotional
power.
Water is supposed to feel
a certain way. It’s supposed
to be fluid with no residue
and a texture all its own.
This is the water I’m used
to.
The water in Florida is
so often polluted, brackish
and full of whatever solu-
ble debris is carried in from
the gutters that it doesn’t
feel like water. It’s sticky,
it’s thicker than it should be
and, so often, it’s soft.
I hate soft water, and the
feeling you get when you
wash yourself but don’t feel
clean? That is quintessential
Florida.
Sight
The Pacific Northwest
gets a reputation for being
a perpetually soaked rain-
forest, but that’s not the case
for most of Washington,
Oregon and Idaho. In real-
ity, most of these states are
comprised of savannah and
high desert where water is
precious.
Even the deserts host
rivers and streams, fed by
snowmelt, springs or both,
these waterways are flow-
ing, clear, clean and —
whether or not it’s always
the case — seem like a tes-
tament to the purity of the
wild.
Water may be hard to
find in parts of the PNW,
but it’s typically quite pal-
atable. The Columbia drain-
age may flow through cities
and wend through civiliza-
tion, but it’s still fairly clean.
You look at it and
instantly want to wet wade,
swim or float in it.
This is a stark contrast
to Florida. Though water
is everywhere, the ponds,
canals, channelized rivers
and ocean itself are gross.
The agricultural runoff,
high mineral content, tan-
nic coloration and swill of
garbage from the burgeon-
ing population make Flor-
ida water that much less
appealing.
Taste
Photo contributed by Luke Ovgard
Tannic water is common in Florida. With all of the flooding, water saps tannic acid from the trees it floods and gives it a sepia
tone.
Smell
Though you usually see
the water in Florida first, on
occasion, you follow your
nose. The high sulfur con-
tent in Florida’s waterways
is natural, but the human-as-
sisted smells are not.
Few things smell worse
than the Florida swamp, and
with each breath I take, I
long for the crisp mountain
air and water that doesn’t
take on the smell of its
impurities.
Just this week I snagged a
floating diaper while throw-
ing topwater for bass. I dry
heaved but realized it was a
new normal, and I’d have to
go with the flow.
Sound
After all, flowing water
is the norm back home.
Sure, there are lakes, but
rivers and streams support
our hydrology in the PNW.
Rainwater is the driver in
Florida, where a vicious
cycle of heat and thunder-
Photo contributed by Luke Ovgard
An invasive muscovy duck escapes to the polluted waters of a Miami canal.
The
artesian
wells,
springs and snowmelt we
drink is delightful. Water
doesn’t have a taste, not
really, but it certainly
shouldn’t be bitter or sour
or taste like sweat. Unfor-
tunately, nobody told that to
Florida, where the tap water
is — at best — terrible.
People buy half a dozen
cases of water at a time, and
I’ve bought more plastic bot-
tled water this summer than
in 5 years prior. I’m used
to refilling a water bottle
for weeks at a time, but it’s
just not a viable option here.
Even the Florida brand of
bottled water, Zephyrhill’s,
itself bottled in Florida, is
foul.
Further, recycling is lim-
ited, and there is no deposit,
so that same plastic we
drink because the water is
bad ends up floating in that
same water we don’t drink,
making it just that much
worse.
The bottles float by, a
visual reminder of how it
smells and tastes, the tacky
feeling it leaves on your
skin, and the only sound you
hear near the water is trash
scraping against the culvert
on its way to my watershed
moment in which I realize I
miss my water.
———
Order
CaughtOv-
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@lukeovgard; contact luke.
ovgard@gmail.com.
Yellowstone’s tallest geyser has been erupting more often
always variable. Last July,
Steamboat went 20 days
before erupting.
“Steamboat clearly has
a mind of its own,” he said,
“and right now it’s putting its
independence on display.”
Manga added that it
“should trouble everyone”
that scientists can’t better
explain geysers, since they
are similar in many respects
to their much more danger-
ous cousin, the volcano.
By BRETT FRENCH
Billings (Montana) Gazette
BILLINGS, Montana —
Yellowstone National Park’s
Steamboat Geyser sped up
its eruption cycle earlier in
June, setting a new mark for
recorded intervals between
eruptions.
The geyser’s shortest
rest between noted erup-
tions occurred June 15 when
it blasted steam and water
into the air only three days,
3 hours and 48 minutes after
its previous spouting June
12.
Earlier quick recharges
included a 1982 eruption
after only four days, 19
hours and 43 minutes. On
June 15, 2018, it went off
after four days, 15 hours, 49
minutes. And on Sept. 12,
2018, it gushed forth after
four days, 18 hours and 3
minutes.
Analysis
Why have the eruptions
sped up?
“I wish I could tell you,”
said Michael Manga, of the
‘Very tall’
AP Photo/Tracey Patterson
Steamboat Geyser erupting in Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. The geyser
sped up its eruption cycle earlier in June, setting a new mark for recorded intervals between
eruptions.
University of California,
Berkeley, who studies gey-
sers. “I think this is what
makes Steamboat, and gey-
sers in general, so fascinat-
ing is that there are these
questions we can’t answer.”
Michael Poland, scientist
in charge of the Yellowstone
Volcano Observatory, said
the irregularity of Steam-
boat is just “a geyser being a
geyser.” Looking back at the
record of recent eruptions,
he noted that its intervals are
Geyser observers Bill and
Carol Beverly posted on the
Geyser Times website mark-
ing the precedent-setting
June 15 eruption by noting,
“Unbelievably heard and felt
from bookstore during thun-
derstorm.” They added that
the geyser was “Very tall
and muddy” when it spouted
to life close to 5 p.m.
“Also of note, Steamboat
has been pausing for a sec-
ond and restarting water
phase, which I’ve been told
is a rare occurrence,” said
Big Sky photographer Ryan
Molde in an email. “In addi-
tion, it’s been going off for
more time recently than
it had been, and one of the
park employees said the
June 15 event was also quite
high.”
He also said one of the
rocks ejected by the geyser
struck a sign near the view-
ing platform, shattering the
wooden post.
Seemingly unfazed by its
new distinction, Steamboat
quickly recharged again and
followed up on June 18 —
three days, nine hours and
40 minutes later — with
its 55th eruption since last
March. Number 56 came
Sunday, June 23, only four
days, 10 hours and 26 min-
utes later.
Footnote
Steamboat’s feat should
be noted with an asterisk.
Although the geyser was
first reported exploding in
1878, eruption records only
go back to 1982. That’s a
pretty short period consider-
ing geysers have been active
since the end of the last ice
age about 14,000 years ago.