The stress from the drought is really seeping into everyone's lives around here. There are people with wells drying up now. Last night at the library board meeting one of the members said she has a couple of students whose wells have been dry for a couple of months now. Those families have no choice but to have a new well drilled or pay a tap fee to the county to be added to county water and sewer. I read in the paper yesterday that many older wells have pipes that are only 2 inches in diameter and don't go down more than 100 feet. Current wells average 200 to 300 feet and use 6-inch pipe. New wells can cost $6,000 or more to drill and tap fees to be added to city or county water can cost a couple thousand, as well.
So even the folks with wells are into the water conservation habit now. I'm glad to hear that. But concerned for them. We may face fines and even the prospect of having our water turned off if we don't comply, but at least we will probably have some water.
But it's also darkening our day-to-day thoughts at times. A friend told me the other day that when he woke up in the morning and heard the [very very light] rain falling, he caught himself saying, "God! If you're going to send us rain, at least do it right!" Or something to that effect. He felt so guilty after that.
Last night the teacher library board member also said that when her class had their prayer time yesterday, a little girl prayed "Lord. We'd really like to go out to recess today, but if you want to let it rain instead, that would be okay."
We are now 20-24 inches behind in our rainfall here.
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