The Paradise Ranch Water Filter

#68, May 30, 2001

Louise and Bud bought the place 35 years ago. They loved it, raised 5 kids, called it Paradise Ranch. They grew vegetables mostly as a hobby. Two of the boys had moved into houses close by, and were raising vegetables commercially. The ranch's well water, due to a unique geological formation, was contaminated by mineral deposits. But the original builder, a Russian pioneer, had fashioned a unique water filter. Somehow, it delivered clear, sweet water, year after year.

Let's go back 30 years. Bud was working for a new company that made paint. As a research chemist, Bud was naturally curious, and early on it occurred to him that his water filter was a remarkable thing. Bringing out his plumbing tools, he managed to loosen the fasteners that held the big galvanized steel lid to the tall cylinder. It was full of what would have looked like sand if sand was clear as glass.

Bud took a sample into work for analysis. It seemed to be biological in origin, with a distinct cellular pattern, yet it didn't match any known substance. The senior chemist examined it, and concluded there was no way to re-create it. "Act of God", he said with a smile. Louise called it "levargo", an Italian slang term for "sweet."

Levargo also had incredible emulsification properties. Bud found that just a few grains could treat an entire batch of paint. Not only did it reduce production costs by 10%, but it gave his paint a smoothness that helped improve sales by an equal amount.

The owners of Bud's company smelled a good thing, and Bud, not being much of a businessman, sold them unlimited rights to use the levargo as needed. Bud used the cash to buy the adjacent farm. Per the contract, Bud continued to remove small amounts of the levargo, month after month, year after year. Hardly put a dent in it, thought Bud. And the water's as good as ever.

Meanwhile, the paint company's revenues soared, though poor Bud didn't see more than an occasional raise. As the company grew, levargo was removed at ever higher rates. When the kid's houses were built, Bud had to triple the filter's throughput. Still no problem. But when the grandkids were born, Bud began to worry about the filter. It still delivered water as pure as ever. But half the levargo was gone.

Then his sons learned that using untreated water was slowly killing their grapevines. They installed all the latest water saving equipment, but the filter was now processing five times the original volume. Though paint sales had slowed, the levergo level continued to decline. Bud knew this couldn't last. He inquired into getting a conventional filter system. "Nasty stuff in this water," said the filtration engineer. "Three quarter million bucks, minimum."

Bud was desperate to save his filter, and keep his family on Paradise Ranch. He invited the paint company CEO Paul T. Michaels, whom Bud knew from the company's early days, out to the ranch for barbecue. "Paul, there's no way for me to replace this levargo stuff," Bud told his old boss. "Sooner or later, I'm out of water. Can't we go back to using the old emulsifier?"

"Relax, Bud, we've got plenty of levargo in here," said Paul, slapping the side of the tank. "Skimming a little off every now and then won't hurt your water supply." That was the end of their conversation, and the end of this story.

You and I are Bud and his family, Sonoma County is our Paradise Ranch. Levargo is the threatened and irreplaceable Russian River gravel bed system that still filters our water (see pictures of the destruction at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/RiverGuardians) Paul Timothy Michaels is our County Board of Supervisors. Right now the County is deciding whether to allow gravel companies another ten years of strip mining our Russian River water filter. Call 782-1038 for details, and see www.envirocentersoco.org/forr/news/index.html#gravel

Petalumans, are you getting thirsty for some common sense? Our Supervisor Mike Kerns says he supports gravel mining. His phone number is 565-2241. Go have a drink of water, then call him.