Copyright The Boston Globe
“This is the worst year ever,” said Lamontagne, a 71-year-old retiree, one of thousands who rely on a backyard well for water. Nearly half of the state’s residents get their water from a private well, according to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. This past summer was the driest the state has seen since it started collecting that data in 1895. The drought has decimated certain crops, sparked higher-than-usual wildfire activity, and led dozens of communities to impose water restrictions. State officials said they have received reports of more than 200 wells going dry around the state since July — but reporting is voluntary, which means many more residents could be dealing with water issues the state doesn’t know about. Neighboring states have been impacted by drought, too. There are about 500,000 residents in Massachusetts who rely on private wells for drinking water, according to an estimate published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. So far, the drought has not affected private wells in Massachusetts as badly as it has those in New Hampshire. In the past three months, a voluntary reporting portal only received one report of a low or dry well in Franklin County in Western Massachusetts, according to state officials. Officials in Vermont and Maine have also warned residents about the likelihood of their private wells going dry. When a private well runs dry, it can be a major disruption to basic, everyday life. Faucets run dry leaving residents without drinking water, toilets won’t flush, and showering, washing the dishes, or doing the laundry becomes impossible. The forecast shows little sign of relief, with indications the drought could drag on into next year. While New Hampshire state officials said recent rain has decreased wildfire risk, it didn’t replenish surface waters or aquifers. Lisa Bechok, the health officer and welfare overseer for the town of Pittsburg, N.H., — the northernmost town in New Hampshire — said she’s received several calls about dry wells in the past few months. That’s left some people weighing how long to hold out hope for rain or whether to make the expensive investment in a new well now. While dug wells are less expensive than drilled wells, they’re more susceptible to drought conditions. Drilled wells have a much more consistent water supply because they are deeper, according to Bechok. But, she said, drilling a well is not an option for everyone. “We live in a very rural area, and a lot of people don’t have the means,” she said. Lamontagne is on a fixed income and said she can’t afford to pay for a drilled well, after hearing neighbors quote prices ranging from $15,000 to $30,000 to drill hundreds of feet into the bedrock. Instead, over the past three months, she’s been taking measures to adapt to her well’s extremely limited capacity, learning that there’s just enough water for a frigid, one-minute shower each morning and to flush the toilet a few times a day. To adapt, she said she lugs around 7-gallon jugs wherever she goes, refilling them with water at a neighbor’s or her son’s house. She uses that water for cooking and washing up in the morning, and she keeps her fridge stocked with bottled water. For laundry, she alternates between a laundromat and a friend’s house. She’s started cleaning her floors with pre-moistened wipes and eating off of paper plates to avoid doing dishes. In Pittsburg, Bechok said, the public water supply is only available right in the middle of the town. Anyone living beyond that area depends on well water. “It’s very tough because you need water to wash your dishes, to get a shower, to flush your toilet,” she said. “It impacts every aspect of someone’s daily life.” The northernmost portion of New Hampshire has reported the highest number of wells going dry, according to data from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. “We’re seeing the extreme north right now is in the worst place,” said Commissioner Robert R. Scott during a recent meeting of New Hampshire’s Executive Council. Drought conditions are expected to improve starting in the southern part of the state first, and then moving north, he said. The communities reporting the most dried-out wells include Colebrook (nine), Stewartstown (seven), Lyman (six), Conway (six), Goffstown (six), and Pittsburg (five), according to state data. “I think that the numbers in the north country are due to the severity and duration of this event,” said Ted Diers, assistant water division director at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. In Columbia, Lamontagne’s daughter-in-law, Jessica Frizzell, 37, faced the same predicament: At the end of August, her dug well went dry. With two children at home, Frizzell’s family eventually decided to take out a loan and pay $20,000 to install a drilled well. That was after making do with a dried-out well for two months, she said. Every other day, Frizzell’s father delivered 250 gallons of water from a local spring into their well to keep the water running in the house, she said. “We just didn’t think this was ever going to happen,” said Frizzell, a stay-at-home mom and Columbia native. But even for those willing to pay, Frizzell said she’s heard from some neighbors facing waitlists for a drilled well 100 people long. And, she said, if the drilling companies can’t reach them before the ground freezes, they’ll have to wait until it thaws in the spring, which could leave them without water for months on end. “We’ve never seen it like this,” Frizzell said.
