普鲁登斯岛结束长达8年的“烧水令”，居民重获放心水
据《普罗维登斯日报》报道，罗得岛州卫生部10月6日通知普鲁登斯岛水区，可以解除一项已持续8年的长期烧水警报。这是该岛约250名常住居民和旺季约1500名人口八年来首次被告知无需再烧开自来水，为自2018年以来定义岛上日常生活的一章画上句号。
据报道，该警报始于2018年10月5日，当时岛上主储水罐的水样检出总大肠菌群与大肠杆菌；此后水区每90天续发一次烧水警报，这种官僚节奏成了岛上生活的一部分。
走到今天用了数年时间与投入。除要求对整个系统加氯处理外，卫生部还要求对印第安泉（Indian Spring）水井增加除铁除锰处理——该水井是水区两处饮用水源之一，铁含量历来偏高，也是岛北端居民家中水呈泥棕色的可能来源。
常住居民乔迪·拉马尼亚（Jodi Lamagna）说：“我们的浴缸和马桶总会有一圈黄色水垢，有时水龙头流出的水带着锈红色。现在不会了，水看起来很干净。我希望能重新穿上我的白衣服。”
普鲁登斯岛在行政上属于朴茨茅斯镇的一个村庄，只能乘渡轮抵达；其小而坚韧的常住社区一向以自力更生为荣。居民表示，警报解除像是姗姗来迟的回归正常，也提醒人们：拧开水龙头这样天经地义的小事，背后是多少年的功夫。
Prudence Island Ends 8-Year Boil-Water Advisory After System Upgrades
PRUDENCE ISLAND, R.I. — For the first time in eight years, residents of the Prudence Island Water District have been told they no longer need to boil their tap water, closing a chapter that defined daily life on the Narragansett Bay island since 2018, the Providence Journal reported.
On Oct. 6, the Rhode Island Department of Health told the water district it could lift the long-standing boil-water advisory affecting most of the 5.5-square-mile island's roughly 250 year-round residents and about 1,500 people during peak summer season. The advisory dated to Oct. 5, 2018, when a water sample from the island's main storage tank tested positive for total coliform and E. coli bacteria; the district had reissued boil-water advisories every 90 days since, a bureaucratic drumbeat that became part of island life.
Getting to this point required years of work and investment. In addition to requiring chlorination for the whole system, the health department mandated iron and manganese treatment at the district's Indian Spring wells, one of its two drinking water sources, which had traditionally high iron concentrations — the likely source of the muddy-brown water residents on the island's north end had long experienced.
"Our tubs and toilets would be ringed with this yellow tinge," said year-round resident Jodi Lamagna. "Sometimes you could see the water coming out of the faucet with a rusty red discoloration. Now, that is not happening, and the water seems clean. I'm hoping that I can reclaim some of my white laundry."
Prudence Island is technically a village belonging to Portsmouth, accessible by ferry, and its small year-round community has long prided itself on self-reliance. Residents said the end of the advisory felt like a long-delayed return to normal — and a reminder of how much work goes into something as basic as turning on the tap.
图片来源：图：普鲁登斯岛一带纳拉甘西特湾航拍。公有领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons
