Farmer Notices Town’s Water Is Poisoned, Decides to Punish the Guilty and Save Folks— Story of the Day

A farmer realizes that the water that supplies his town has been contaminated and immediately sets out to help make things right and find the guilty.

Frank Langley was a farmer, the son, and grandson of farmers, and he loved the land. He farmed the same land that had come to him through his father on the outskirts of a small Iowa town and it was a good life.

It was good land, and it produced good people. Most of the townfolk Frank knew from way back when he was in school and he understood them and the small patterns of their days. One day, that pattern broke. and it almost killed the town.

Frank Langley was a farmer, the son and grandson of farmers, and he loved the land. | Source: Unsplash

Frank was out plowing, preparing the fields for the spring planting. He walked along the neat rows and he picked up a clod of earth. It crumbled in his hand, dry as chalk, and Frank frowned. It had been a dry winter, and spring was proving dry too.

Thank goodness, Frank, like most of the local farmers, had an irrigation system connected to the lake. It wasn't always necessary, but it looked like this year they'd need the lake water if they were to bring in the corn.

Just then, Frank heard his wife, Mindy, calling him from the house. He walked over and asked, "Isn't it a little early for lunch?"

The water coming out of the town's taps was polluted. | Source: Unsplash

Mindy looked worried. "Frank, Teresa just called and she said the water from the taps is dark and smelly!" she said. Teresa was Frank and Mindy's daughter and she'd married a local boy and moved into town.

Frank walked into the house and opened the tap. The water flowed out cold and crystal clear. "Nothing wrong with our well!" he exclaimed. "Let's go into town and see what's happening."

Over at Teresa's house, Frank looked at the strange, dark liquid flowing from the taps and shook his head. "Is it just your house, Teresa?" he asked, and his daughter immediately ran next door.

The water from the lake was full of chemicals from fertilizers. | Source: Unsplash

They quickly discovered that the dirty water was everywhere, even in the fountain in the center of the town square! The mayor was called and he looked very worried. He brought with him a city engineer.

"As you all know," the mayor said, "we draw most of our water from the lake. But I've asked the city engineers to reroute our supply. We'll have clean water until we figure this out."

"Wait!" cried one of the people in the crowd that had gathered in the town square. "What about us farmers? We can't afford to use the city water and it hasn't rained. Our crops and our cattle will die!"

Frank allowed everyone to get water from his well. | Source: Unsplash

Frank stepped forward. "I've got good, clean water in my well, and I'm willing to share!" he said. "But the truth is this sludge in the water is because some of us have been dumping chemicals in the fields and the runoff had polluted the lake. That has to stop. We have to find alternative means of fertilizing, and we have to plant a barrier of trees and greenery between the cultivated lands and the lake, or this is going to happen again and again."

The next day, when the local farmers came over to Frank's farm with their water tankers, they were surprised to see a sign: "1 Metric Ton of Water = 1 tree." The farmers were stunned until Frank explained. For every ton of water, they had to plant one tree around the lake to protect their most vital resource.

Two years later, everything was back to normal, and the local farmer's association was happy to announce a bumper crop. Frank solved the long-term problem by providing for the farmers' immediate needs.

In exchange for Frank's water, the people planted trees. | Source: Unsplash

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