I read it beside the running truck. It identified me as the operator of record, referred to the chlorine residual recorded Tuesday at 4:12 p.m., and stated that the required formal notice of suspected contamination had not been completed within the applicable period. The letter warned that continued noncompliance could affect my certification and directed me to provide a full incident report. It did not say that my valve closure was wrong, that the water was safe, or that Cedar Hollow owned the tower.
That distinction did not make the letter less painful. I had spent Tuesday night visiting houses, Wednesday arranging water, and Thursday locating a dangerous connection, yet the formal reporting requirement had still been mine. I explained that I had left a message on a duty line and had been trying to obtain a verified contact, but the officer showed me the record of what had been received. A telephone message without the required incident information was not the completed report I had believed it to be.
"The report is late, Mr. Wilson," he said, not unkindly. "I can't change the time you recorded in your own log."
"I wouldn't ask you to change it."
He looked down at the papers in my hand. "Then make sure the next thing you send us includes the whole timeline, not just the part that makes you look good."
I nodded, because he was telling me something my father would have told me himself. Pride had no place in an operator's log, especially when omissions could make investigators doubt everything else. The officer drove away without visiting the trench. I remained in the driveway with the envelope and the unpleasant knowledge that I could be right about the contamination and wrong about how I had reported it.
Less than an hour later, the association's lawyer called. He introduced himself as Martin Ellery, spoke in the calm language of a man who had never had to carry bottled water up a dark front porch, and said Cedar Hollow had obtained emergency relief requiring restoration of service within seventy-two hours. A hearing on the underlying dispute was scheduled for the following Friday at one o'clock. He recommended that I comply rather than risk contempt proceedings and further financial liability.
"The water may be contaminated," I said. "I have documented an unprotected connection to a nonpotable irrigation source."
"The association has instructed me that you are withholding service because of an outstanding account," Ellery replied. "The court has issued an order based on the materials before it. You should review the signed document with counsel."
I requested a copy and asked whether the court had received my water-quality readings. He said he could not advise me on the association's filings. That careful answer frightened me more than an insult. In court, the problem could look exactly as Diane wanted it to look if nobody placed the other half of the evidence in front of the judge.