"WATER"

A documentary feature film by Gary Beeber

 

Like most people living in Ohio I never thought much about water because there’s so much of it here.   All I knew was that Ohio has large aquifers, but had no idea how we get our drinking water.  I thought that the aquifer was a huge body of water underground, but it’s not. 

 

On a blazing hot summer day I toured the water purification facility in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where water is pumped directly from the aquifer.  I thought how nice it must be to work here because it was pleasantly cool, but there was no air conditioning. The entire facility is cooled by the ice cold water that’s being pumped up from the aquifer.

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I interviewed very knowledgeable people for this film, most of whom work in Ohio's water industry.  I learned how the aquifers were created and about the history of the region.  I also learned about contamination, conservation, and what should be done to protect our water for future generations.

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Ohio is blessed with an abundance of water, and under the right circumstances could become an economic powerhouse, but only if this valuable resource is cared for and not squandered.  As environmentalist Hope Taft says:  “We have water, if we take care of it and we don’t pollute it, and keep the quantity up high we will be very attractive to businesses because businesses need water in order to produce all the things that we need.”
 
With massive flooding going on throughout the world I thought that I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Dayton, Ohio’s devastating 1913 flood.  At the time it was one of the worst environmental disasters in Ohio's history, but the City of Dayton did something about it.   Perhaps other communities can learn from Dayton before it’s too late.  I am very grateful to the University of Dayton for allowing me to use their vintage 1913 footage of the flood.

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I enjoyed working on this film.  I learned a great deal about water, and hopefully you will too.

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– Gary Beeber, 2024

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