Water- the stuff of life

It never really occurred to me how essential fresh clean water is really the cornerstone of life.  In Delta Junction, there is no 'city' water system. This means that everyone is either on well water or has to 'import' their water from somewhere else. I've lived in Illinois, Colorado, Washington, and South Carolina and travelled extensively throughout the lower 48 and water has never been such a concern as it is here. I mark this up to the fact that here water not stored underground freezes pretty solid for half the year making it hard to get to without some serios effort. This is why most peoples throughout history have chosen to live on lakes and rivers. That particular solution can be difficult here in that ice isn't that easy to drink. Go figure. And expending energy to melt the ice without electricity or petro fuels is time and calorie consuming. Think wood heat and a pot. Felling, sawing, splitting, hauling, and then fire building and maintaining, just to get a hot pot to sponge bath. This is a far cry from the normal, turn the knob and voila 'hot' water appears like magic. We are soooo pampered. Well since we have petro and electric, most homes up here are good to go. The question is, what if? What if the electric goes out for months? What if your well relies on it? Where will you get your water? What if Diesel or Propane jump to $5, $10 or more per gallon? What is affordable? What if supply runs low? Sure we have a processing plant for petrol 80 miles north at North Pole, but what happens when China starts paying top dollar, where will the American oil companies loyalties lie, with Americans, Alaskans, or the Chinese willing to pay absolute top dollar to keep their industry running?! I know which one I think they will be backing. Back to fresh water. Whenever you build in Delta Junction, the depth of the water table can be an issue.  If you are down on the flat, water is maybe 20' deep, not too bad except its called a delta for a reason, it lies between two rivers that can and do occassionally flood. But if you go up on one of the beautiful ridges with a killer view the water depths for  well drop to 200' or even 300'. This translates into a $30K price tag to get the liquid gold into your house. Not a small price to pay. Moreover, its delivery relies on electricity for the pumps. Dependency. Electricity junkies. All of us.