Are well worries warranted in drought?

FAIRLAND, Ind. (WISH) - Thursday’s spotty rain showers brought much needed moisture, but little long-term drought relief, and that's left some local homeowners increasingly worried that their well water supply is running out.

Outside Louise Hensley's rural Shelby County home, things have been a little different this summer.

“It’s been a little different not having to mow the lawn,” she said with a laugh.

Unfortunately, it's different underneath her lawn too.

“We've never seen it like this before,” she said, pointing to the cap on her well in her front yard. “We just don't know how much water we have left.”

That's left Hensley and many of the other 1.6 million Indiana residents — or about 500,000 households — who depend on well water taking new action. Despite the fact that local watering bans don’t apply to private wells, Hensley said she’s conserving as much as she can.

“We’ve been conserving how much water we use, because it’s worrying. You don’t think about it until something like this happens. We’re taking the cars to be washed at the drive-in [car wash], instead of using the water here. We’ve stopped watering the lawn and the plants. I only water my three tomato plants now. And we’re only doing loads of laundry when we have to. I’ve even considered going to the laundromat,” Hensley said.

But she also wonders if she really needs to.

“The majority of wells can provide plenty for domestic users,” said Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesman Mark Basch. “But there are some areas, particularly in the southern part of the state, where groundwater availability is much less. And you might be worried about it there. More shallow wells and what we call bucket wells can be the first to be impacted.”

But without having the well measured, it can be nearly impossible to tell.

“It is tough to tell if there’s been a change in it, but you can look for some symptoms,” Basch said. “Symptoms like low water pressure consistently, when that’s not normal. If you turn on the faucet and get a sudden surge of air spitting, that can be a sign. And you can also see sediment, though that’s not quite as common.”

In some cases, the fix can be as simple.

“A common first step is to lower the pump in the existing well. A lot of drillers and pump installers are staying very busy doing that,” Basch said.

If that doesn’t work, there may be no other option but to drill a new well.

“If the well goes dry, that’s going to cost me a lot to get another one done,” Hensley said of her 20-year-old well. “So I’m hoping we get rain quickly. It rained for about 10 minutes [Thursday]. It’s not enough, but we’ll take it. We’ll take every bit we can get.”