Water & Waste

Water & Waste is the second book in the EATMS Productions Infrastructure series, a practical water safety and sanitation survival guide for women trying to understand drinking water, private wells, municipal water systems, sewage, septic systems, flooding, mold, water shutoffs, water bills, and the systems that keep clean water coming into a home and waste leaving it safely. Written by Alice Horton and Helena Hemmings, with an introduction by Esme Mees, this book begins with ordinary household moments: a tap that runs, a toilet that flushes, a drain that clears, laundry that gets done, a glass of water filled without thought. Then it moves outward to explain what happens when those systems stop being invisible. Water & Waste covers drinking water safety, water testing, private wells, city water, water contamination, PFAS, lead, nitrates, bacteria, boil water notices, sewer backups, septic tanks, trash, stormwater, basement flooding, mold risk, landlord delay, utility shutoffs, unaffordable water bills, documentation, caregiving risk, and household planning. This is not a plumbing manual, municipal engineering guide, prepper handbook, or lifestyle book about home maintenance. It is a women-centered infrastructure survival guide for authoritarian America: a field guide to what happens when water systems age, public works departments are underfunded, utilities become harder to trust, landlords defer repairs, contamination is minimized, bills rise, and sanitation failure becomes a private household emergency. As part of the EATMS Productions catalog of survival guides, systems analysis, and social criticism, this volume gives readers a practical method for identifying water dependencies, locating responsibility, documenting problems, and refusing shame for failures built far above the household level. For readers interested in drinking water safety, private well testing, municipal water systems, boil water notices, water contamination, PFAS in water, lead in drinking water, bacteria and nitrates in well water, septic systems, sewer backups, water shutoffs, water bill assistance, flooding, mold after water damage, stormwater, public health, renters’ rights, landlord plumbing responsibility, caregiving risk, AI data centers, data center water use, women’s survival guides, authoritarian America, and practical infrastructure analysis, Water & Waste offers a clear, blunt, women-centered guide. It does not promise total control. It gives readers a clearer map of where water comes from, where waste goes, what to check before crisis, what to document when systems fail, and what not to waste energy blaming themselves for.