Is this the norm?

I just got back from a week in Louisville, KY where I attended the Together for the Gospel conference at the KFC Yum Center. Since I did not want to pay a huge hotel bill, I towed our Rpod and camped at Grandma's RV Camping in Shepherdsville, which was about a 25 minute drive to the conference.

While we were traveling, it began to rain. The rain was pretty heavy. We arrived after it had been raining for several hours, after dark. The first thing I did after getting the trailer leveled and stabilized was to connect the power, followed by attaching the slide-out cover I had made on and extending the slide-out. In spite of the rain, I wanted to connect up the water and sewer lines. This is where I encountered a situation which I had not encountered.

There was a rectangular concrete slab with two circular covers. These were located about a foot apart on the slab. One was the sewer drain, which was just above the level of the concrete slab. The second was recessed and had a standard twist-valve faucet about a foot or so down inside. This hole was also filled with nasty-looking water. I thought, "this can't be the fresh water connection." Unfortunately, it was. I gave up on connecting the fresh water and sewer since as fast as I tried to bail the nasty water out of the hole, it was filling up again. At this point, I was getting soaked and cold, so I gave up. I was glad I had at least put some water in the fresh water tank before leaving home.

The next day, I stopped by a store and picked up some bleach. I was not about to connect my fresh water hose to that faucet without making sure it was sanitized. Since the rain had ceased, the water had gone down in the hole to below the faucet connection. I flushed the faucet and poured bleach over it and into the remaining water in the hole. I also added some to the hose. After connecting it, I flushed the bleach through the hose before attaching my filter and connecting the city water hookup.  After that, I connected the sewer hose to the gray water valve.

When I spoke with the man in the office the morning we left, I asked about the setup and explained about the nasty water. He said that the faucets are recessed for freeze protection since the facility is open year-round. He also said that they had put down several feet of shale under the gravel, and this prevents water from draining. That explained why there was water in the hole. However, there were also lots of dead leaves and trash down there, which made it a very unsanitary condition.

I also think that there must be something against having the fresh water connection right next to the sewer connection. That can't be sanitary. This is the first time I have ever seen water and sewer connections so close and the fresh water connector recessed and not elevated. Is this something that others have encountered? I can't understand how any inspector would sign off on such an arrangement. I doubt there is a backflow prevention device, so if there were to be a sewer leak into the faucet sump, the whole fresh water system would have the potential of being contaminated.

Am I being paranoid? Is this a common type of setup at RV parks? I have NEVER seen this before, and hope never to see it again.

I just finished an email to the health department outlining the situation. I will be interested to hear what the reply will be. When I do hear something, I will post it here.

 cousin to the owner!!

We were in site #15. I was looking for the water hookup as I could not believe initially that it would be so close to the sewer connection. I saw some of the other RVs connected, plus I asked someone I saw nearby to confirm that it was the water connection. No response so far from the health department. However, it has not even been a day since I wrote, so I expect it will not be an immediate reply.

If Bullitt County's health department does not respond, I will go up the ladder to the state health department. I would expect that the state department head and the owner are less likely to be related.

Originally posted by furpod It's Bullitt County.. writing won't do anything. If there is anyone there that can read, they are cousins to the owners.

If they are cousins, then there is a likelihood that they are also married!

Disclaimer: My parents are from Gatlff - Whitley County....about 10 miles NE from Jellico, TN. Last I heard, Whitley was still the poorest county in KY.

Hoosier by birth certificate...raised hillbilly!

(I know you are wondering.....NO, all of my cousins were "spoken for")