Been reading more and more articles about current and future water shortages due to the latest drought and am curious to hear from you about how it has affected you directly, ESPECIALLY THOSE USING SPRING-FED WATER SOURCES. I have some mountain property that I am hoping to retire on someday that has a spring that develops "rather high" in the side of the mountain, but a year ago I was disappointed to find that the flow was reduced to a trickle in early spring when the aquifer should have been at its highest (this is in western NC). I am scared to go see hos low the flow is this year! May have to sell it and look elsewhere. What have you experienced? THanks in advance for your responses. Jack

-- jack (atl.jack@excite.com), March 04, 2002

Answers

Jack, I don't live in the East, but in the West, West Oregon. I think that springs must be very individual. I know some of the engineers on the forum could give us more info on this. I don't pretend to understand it. When we moved here it was at the end of an 8 year drought here in the Northwest. Also, last year was a "drought" year for us. During all this time I never saw a reduction in the flow from our springs up on the hill to our place. That was one of the deciding factors in buying our place. Our little river was mighty low but the springs were flowing like gangbusters. So, I don't know what this means. Could a local engineer maybe give you some input? Hope all works out for you, it is unsettling. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), March 04, 2002.

hello Jack my well continues to produce but I've been watching the drought trends and wondering too. we are not spring fed but personal experience in this area (West of the Rockies) amounts to a nail- biting fire season during the dry summers. here's an interesting site I found just today:

http://enso.unl.edu/monitor/2002/drmon0226.htm

-- B. Lackie Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), March 04, 2002.

In Central Texas many springs dried up because water hungry juniper and mesquite trees were allowed to consume open range land. In other areas, over-population and increased well-drilling led to springs drying up.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), March 05, 2002.

Hello Jack,

We have plenty of water here in the Ozarks! There has been three years of drought and one of the springs in my valley dried up but, over all there is still plenty of water.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), March 05, 2002.