Eleven Days in Wildersett: A Longform Narrative Project

Driving question

How do you tell eleven days in one town through three people who never meet?

Scenario and document set

Wildersett, its water department, its people, and every document in the set are fictional. They were written for this project. Wildersett is a town of about nineteen thousand people. On Tuesday, March 3, a sixty-year-old main under Sallowmere Street failed. Pressure in the north zone fell, and the department issued a boil-water advisory just before midnight. The advisory covered eleven days, from March 4 through the morning of March 14.

Your document set holds seven items, all printed below. Read every one before the end of session 1, and keep the set beside you while you draft.

• Document 1. Incident timeline kept by the Wildersett Water Department, with clock times and pressure readings.
• Document 2. The night operator's log for the shifts that began on March 3 and March 4, copied from the handwritten original.
• Document 3. The advisory notice mailed to every customer in the north zone.
• Document 4. County health department memo explaining why the advisory stayed on after the main was repaired.
• Document 5. Transcript of the eleven minutes of public comment at the March 12 town meeting.
• Document 6. A bakery owner's daily ledger of lost sales and bottled water purchases.
• Document 7. A letter from a dialysis clinic to its patients about the change in its water treatment.

Document 1. Incident timeline, Wildersett Water Department

Pressure readings at the north zone gauge on the night of March 3. Normal pressure in the north zone is 60 to 65 psi. The state does not allow pressure anywhere in the system to fall below 20 psi.

Time on March 3	Pressure at the north zone gauge
10:40 p.m.	62 psi
11:05 p.m.	34 psi
11:20 p.m.	11 psi
11:55 p.m.	26 psi

Events from the break to the end of the advisory. The north zone serves about 2,900 accounts.

Date	Time	Event
March 3	10:52 p.m.	Police report water coming up through the pavement on Sallowmere Street at Kell Avenue.
March 3	11:48 p.m.	Crew closes the fourth of four valves around the break. 212 accounts on Sallowmere Street and Kell Avenue are without water.
March 3	11:58 p.m.	Director Marcus Feld issues a boil-water advisory for the whole north zone and notifies the county health department.
March 4	12:20 a.m.	Automated phone calls go to every phone number on file for the north zone. Advisory posted on the town website.
March 4	4:15 a.m.	North zone pressure back to 58 psi.
March 4	12:00 p.m.	Printed advisory notice (Document 3) mailed to all north zone addresses.
March 4	6:10 p.m.	Repair clamp fails to hold. Crew begins cutting out an 18-foot section of pipe to replace it.
March 5	3:40 p.m.	New section passes its pressure test. Valves reopened by 4:15 p.m., and water returns to the 212 accounts.
March 5	evening	Crews begin flushing mains across the north zone.
March 6	morning	Sample set 1 collected at eight sites. All negative for total coliform.
March 7	morning	Sample set 2 collected. Site N-6, the hydrant at Sallowmere Street and Kell Avenue, positive for total coliform and negative for E. coli.
March 8-9	all day	Second round of flushing near the repair.
March 9		County health memo (Document 4) sent to the department.
March 11	morning	Sample set 3 collected.
March 12	morning	Sample set 4 collected.
March 12	2:30 p.m.	Results for sample set 3 reported. All negative.
March 12	7:04 p.m.	Public comment period opens at the town meeting (Document 5).
March 13	8:00 a.m.	Free bottled water pickup opens at the north fire station.
March 13	4:30 p.m.	Results for sample set 4 reported. All negative.
March 14	8:45 a.m.	County approves lifting the advisory.
March 14	10:00 a.m.	Advisory lifted by automated call and website notice.

Document 2. Night operator's log, Wildersett Water Department control room

Typed from the handwritten log of operator T. Brisco, who works the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. "N" is the north zone gauge.

Shift	Time	Entry
Began 3/3	19:00	On. Relieved K. Amos. N 62. All normal.
	22:40	Rounds done. N 62.
	22:52	PD call. Water up through pavement, Sallowmere at Kell.
	22:58	N dropping fast. Hollis Rd booster running both pumps.
	23:05	N 34. Called on-call crew (Dacey).
	23:20	N 11. Under 20. Called Feld at home.
	23:31	Crew on site. Water curb to curb on Sallowmere.
	23:48	4th valve shut. Break isolated. Sallowmere + Kell between Corvel and Linfield out of water, approx. 212 accts.
	23:55	N 26. Coming back.
	23:58	Feld: boil advisory, whole N zone. Called county on-call.
	00:20	Auto-call and website out (Feld).
	01:10	N 41.
	02:30	Crew: 8-in. cast iron, original 1960s pipe, split about 3 ft along the top. Clamp ordered.
	04:15	N 58.
	05:40	3 calls, cloudy water, N zone. Told air in lines, run cold tap, still boil.
	06:20	Call from a business on Corvel Ave. Asked if dough mixed at 4 a.m. with tap water is OK to bake. Told no, advisory covers food prep.
	07:00	Off. Handed to day op.
Began 3/4	19:00	On. Day op says clamp failed 18:10. Crew cutting out 18 ft to replace.
	21:15	N 60.
	23:40	Kidney clinic, Dunmore Rd. Asked when flushing starts and whether chlorine will go up. Told after repair, prob. tomorrow night. Gave Feld's cell.
	03:30	Older woman, upper Kell Ave (has water). Asked where to get bottled water now. Nothing open. Told boil and cool, call back in the morning.
	06:45	N 61. Crew: new section in, pressure test this afternoon.
	07:00	Off.

Document 3. Advisory notice mailed to north zone customers

Boil Water Advisory for the North Pressure Zone

Wildersett Water Department. Issued March 4.

On the night of March 3, a water main broke under Sallowmere Street. Water pressure in the north zone fell below 20 psi, the lowest pressure the state allows anywhere in the system. When pressure drops that low, water from the soil around a break can be drawn into the pipes. No contamination has been found. We are issuing this advisory as a precaution until tests show that the water is safe.

Who is affected. Every address north of Wren Creek, including Sallowmere Street, Corvel Avenue, Kell Avenue, Linfield Lane, and Dunmore Road.

What to do. Do not drink tap water without boiling it first. Bring the water to a rolling boil for one minute and let it cool before you drink it, make ice, brush your teeth, prepare food, or mix baby formula. Bottled water may be used instead. Throw away any ice made since the evening of March 3. You may bathe or shower, but do not swallow the water, and give young children sponge baths.

How long. We expect the advisory to last two to three days, until the main is repaired and water samples confirm that the water is safe. We will tell you when it ends by automated phone call and on the town website.

Questions: Wildersett Water Department, 555-0148.

Document 4. Memo from the Brannock County Health Department

To: Marcus Feld, Director, Wildersett Water Department

Copy: Ruth Penhallow, Chair, Wildersett Select Board

From: Anita Rhee, Supervisor, Drinking Water Program

Date: March 9

Subject: Why the north zone boil-water advisory remains in effect

The Sallowmere Street main was repaired on March 5, and pressure has been normal across the north zone since then. Repairing the pipe removes the cause of the advisory, but it does not show that the water in the pipes is safe. While pressure was low on the night of March 3, water from the soil around the break could have entered the mains, and anything drawn in may still be in the system.

Before this department will approve lifting an advisory, three conditions must be met. First, the affected mains must be flushed until the chlorine level at the far ends of the zone is back to normal. Second, two sets of water samples must be collected on consecutive days from the eight sampling sites in the zone. Third, every sample in both sets must test negative for total coliform bacteria. Each set takes about a day to test.

The first set, collected March 6, was negative at all eight sites. In the second set, collected March 7, the sample from site N-6, a hydrant near the repair, tested positive for total coliform. It tested negative for E. coli. Total coliform bacteria live in soil and on surfaces, and most kinds do not cause illness, yet finding them in a sample means the water may have been exposed to the outside of the pipe. A single positive result does not prove that the water is unsafe, and it does not allow us to say that it is safe. The count of clean sample sets therefore starts again.

Your crews flushed the mains near the repair again yesterday and are continuing today. Sampling should resume once the chlorine level at site N-6 is back to normal. If two consecutive sets then test negative, we expect to approve lifting the advisory once we have reviewed the results of the second set. We recognize what this delay costs residents and businesses, and we will not shorten the testing for that reason.

Document 5. Public comment at the Wildersett town meeting, March 12

Transcribed by the town clerk. The public comment period ran from 7:04 to 7:15 p.m.

7:04, Chair Ruth Penhallow: Public comment is open. Each speaker has two minutes. Mr. Feld from the water department is here and will answer questions at the end.

7:04, Gil Varga, Linfield Lane: My daughter is four months old, and we mix her formula with water. We don't have a landline, and our cell numbers were never on file with the water department, so we never got the phone call. I found out on the morning of March 6 when the notice came in the mail. By then she'd had two days of formula made with tap water. She is fine. But nobody knocked on a single door on my street, and I want to know why a warning like this comes by mail.

7:06, Bea Halloran, Halloran's Bakery, Corvel Avenue: I mixed three batches of dough at four in the morning on March 4 with water from my tap, because nobody had told me anything. I found out from a customer at the door. Since then I have bought more than three hundred gallons of bottled water, and I have lost more than six thousand dollars in sales. The notice in the mail said two or three days. Today is day nine. I am not asking anyone to make the water unsafe. I am asking someone to tell us the truth about how long this will last.

7:08, Owen Trask, Dunmore Road: I heard at the hardware store that they found E. coli in the water. If that's true, why weren't we told?

7:09, Chair Penhallow: Mr. Feld, would you answer that one now, briefly.

7:09, Director Marcus Feld: No E. coli has been found. On March 7, one of eight samples showed total coliform bacteria, at a hydrant near the repair. Those are bacteria that live in soil. That result is a warning sign that something from outside the pipe may have gotten in, and it's the reason we flushed again and started the testing over. We sampled yesterday, and that set came back clean this afternoon. We sampled again this morning, and if that set is clean too, the county expects to approve lifting the advisory this weekend.

7:11, Gil Varga: Then why did the notice say two or three days?

7:11, Director Feld: Because that's how long we expected the repair to take. The repair took two days. The testing has taken the rest. We should have said so in the notice, and that is our mistake.

7:12, Margaret Oyelaran, Kell Avenue: I'm seventy-eight and I live alone. I can't lift a case of water, and I can't stand at the stove boiling pots all day. My neighbor has been bringing me water. What happens to the people who don't have a neighbor?

7:14, Director Feld: Starting tomorrow at 8 a.m., there will be free bottled water at the north fire station, and we'll deliver to anyone who calls the department and asks.

7:15, Chair Penhallow: Thank you. Public comment is closed.

Document 6. Daily ledger, Halloran's Bakery, Corvel Avenue

Kept by the owner, Bea Halloran. The bakery is closed on Sundays. "Usual" is her average sales for that day of the week. Bottled water is gallon jugs at $1.30 each.

Date	Sales	Usual	Bottled water bought	Notes
Tue, Mar 3	$1,140	$1,150	none	Normal day.
Wed, Mar 4	$0	$1,100	none	Closed. Customer at the door told me about the advisory at 6:15 a.m. Called the water dept. Threw out 3 batches mixed at 4 a.m. with tap water. Sign on door.
Thu, Mar 5	$410	$1,150	40 gal, $52.00	Opened with bread only, all dough mixed with bottled water. Coffee machine off.
Fri, Mar 6	$520	$1,400	60 gal, $78.00	Boiling water for the hand sink in the big stockpot.
Sat, Mar 7	$690	$1,900	60 gal, $78.00	Corvel Market sold out of gallons by 11. Drove to Pell City.
Sun, Mar 8	closed	closed	none
Mon, Mar 9	$380	$950	40 gal, $52.00	County inspector came by. OK to stay open on bottled water. Paper cups only.
Tue, Mar 10	$440	$1,150	40 gal, $52.00	Regulars asking when the coffee comes back.
Wed, Mar 11	$460	$1,100	50 gal, $65.00
Thu, Mar 12	$500	$1,150	40 gal, $52.00	Closed at 5:30 for the town meeting. Spoke.
Fri, Mar 13	$610	$1,400	60 gal, $78.00
Sat, Mar 14	$1,320	$1,900	20 gal, $26.00	Advisory lifted at 10. Flushed lines, dumped ice, ran the coffee machine through. Coffee back at 1 p.m.

Document 7. Letter from Wildersett Kidney Care to its patients

Wildersett Kidney Care, 40 Dunmore Road

March 5

Dear patients and families,

You may have heard that the north part of Wildersett is under a boil-water advisory. Our clinic is inside that zone. Your dialysis treatments will continue on their normal schedule.

The water used for dialysis does not go straight from the tap to the machine. It first passes through our own treatment room, which has filters, carbon tanks that remove chlorine, and a reverse osmosis unit that removes bacteria and dissolved minerals. Boiling plays no part in that process, and the advisory does not stop it from working.

The advisory does change two things in the clinic. First, once the main is repaired, the water department will flush its pipes, and the water reaching us may carry more chlorine than usual. Chlorine keeps tap water safe to drink, but it must be removed completely before water is used for dialysis, because chlorine that reaches the blood can damage red blood cells. Our technicians already test the treated water for chlorine before every treatment shift. Starting today, they will also test it every two hours during each shift, and we have replaced the carbon in both of our carbon tanks. Second, the drinking fountain and ice machine in the waiting room are turned off. Bottled water is at the front desk.

Because of the extra testing, some shifts may start up to thirty minutes late. Please still arrive at your usual time.

At home, follow the advisory and drink only boiled or bottled water. If you are on a fluid limit, count boiled and bottled water the same way you count tap water.

Lena Marsh, RN, Nurse Manager

Constraints

• The finished narrative runs 1,800 to 2,200 words. Pieces outside that range lose credit.
• Three narrators carry the piece. One must be the night operator. The other two are yours to choose from the document set.
• At least two passages are rendered scenes, written in real time with dialogue or physical detail. At least two passages are summary that compresses a day or more into a few sentences.
• Every section opens with a time signature, such as a date, a clock time, or a phrase like "the fourth morning."
• The narrators never meet. The braid is built by the reader, not by a scene that gathers them.
• An appendix of eight to twelve entries follows the piece. Each entry names a detail, names the document it came from, and marks any invented detail with the word "invented."

Deliverable and audience

Each student submits the narrative and the appendix to a class anthology titled after the street. Four pieces are chosen by peer vote for a public reading, and every writer prepares a ninety-second introduction naming the choice they made about time.

1. Session 1, read and sort. Each student submits a one-page reading sheet listing, for each of the seven documents, one detail that could become a scene and one that could only be summary. The sheet ends with the narrator the student will not use and a reason.
2. Session 2, build the timeline. Each student submits a card timeline of at least eighteen events drawn from the documents, with the source noted on each card and the four events chosen for scenes marked. Cards that hold an inference rather than a documented event are flagged with a question mark.
3. Session 3, draft the braid. Each student submits a draft of at least 1,200 words with all three narrators present, every section carrying a time signature, and the two rendered scenes complete. Drafts are traded for a response that names the point where the reader lost track of the date.
4. Session 4, revise for scene and summary. Each student submits a revised full draft with the appendix started, and a one-paragraph note explaining one passage that was cut from scene to summary and what the cut bought the piece.
5. Session 5, finish and read. Each student submits the final narrative and the complete appendix, then delivers the ninety-second introduction. The class votes on four pieces for the public reading.