"Drought" in upstate NY

[check]

Not a heckuva lot of rain north of Lake Ontario, either. Nor in cottage country, a couple of hours north of Toronto.

 

[rswyan]

Getting dry here in Northeast Ohio right where I'm at ... had thunderstorms predicted for the last four days and got nada, though there were showers all around us.

Since June 1st we are 2.34" below normal according to the NWS ... and that is at the local airport, could even be drier here at the house.

 

[nybirdman]

Around here;Northern NY the fire departments will refill your well with their tankers..may get you by for a while.

 

[msb1766]

Try calling water companies that fill pools, I know the guy I use to top off my pool delivers water to many homes that run into dry well problems.
They will pump the water into your well. He has few people that have swimming pool in there basements that they use for water only, he delivers water weekly to them. I topped off my poll this year with 8000 gallons of water it cost around $400.

 

[CalG]

It was mighty dry here in S. Vt,..... Until a day ago. Now we have enjoyed a steady drizzle with scattered rain showers that are supposed to continue on until tomorrow morning.

Whew! My wife was starting to fret over the gardens.

I hope you others got some of it, but not the flooding as in VA.

 

[JamesHW]

Upper Hudson Valley July rainfall totals were at about half normal, same as previous months. Our shallow well (point at about 20 foot) is always a worry during dry spells. Suppose one day we'll have to drill a proper deep well. Unfortunately most deep wells of neighbors require treatment for various issues, while our shallow well provides sweet, tasty water that tests out pure.

 

[mark02tj]

They will pump the water into your well.

I'm no expert (which never stops me from commenting or asking questions!), but wouldn't water poured into your well just dissipate into the ground around the well? So you might only end up getting a fraction of the water poured down the hole.

Also wouldn't the action of pouring the water down into a deep hole stir up all sorts of sediment which could clog the filters at the intake?

I'd look seriously at a storage tank. Around here we have varying degrees of water availability. My area has a really high water table. There's one old property about 300 yards from me that was still using a hand dug well with a hand pump in their yard as their only water source until the 3rd generation occupant sold the property and moved into a retirement community. But, in other parts of the Township people have to rely on water delivery and collection systems. There's one outfit that sells a system that basically "trickle pumps" water from slow producing wells into holding tanks. Then the water is pumped from the holding tanks into a pressure tank when needed. The theory is that the water can trickle into the holding tank around the clock and it's there when you need it.

 

[GLyford]

We just had a band of showers blow through last night and this morning, but it's not near enough, everything is still so dry. Half my maples are turning brown and curling up after putting in all that extra work recovering from the gypsy moths. I hope I don't loose them, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have to start a few off again from stump sprouts next year.

 

[Turbys_1700]

We had a severe drought here about 9 years ago. Most municipalities were on strict rations. Ended up with ordinances that fined you for washing cars, watering lawns, etc... Took a year to get 1/2 the state out of the immediate drought and another year to back up to normal levels.

I have a spring that and kept water throughout the drought. Many dug wells and springs went dry during this period. Several years ago Catawba County ran water by my house. I would have hooked up but they wanted over 2K just to hook up. I was still responsible for the line up to the meter. Thought that was too high so I didn't do it. 30 years ago Lincoln County ran it past my fathers house and did not charge to hook up.

If I was in your shoes I would try to get that drilled well up and running. At least see if you can use the water. If not you're gonna probably have to truck it in.

 

[dickfoster]

So despite living in Oswego County, darn near Lake Ontario almost my entire life, this is the first time I can recall being told we have a "drought". I'm not very agricultural, so I was wondering if anyone knew what the long term precipitation forecast is like for August and September, if such a thing can even really be predicted. Is the almanac real? Can I look in there? I get a feeling it isn't too good for things like weather, but I've been wrong before.

My well ran dry today. There is a drilled well on the property I've never used, that isn't plumbed to the house. I was thinking about dropping a submersible in there and pumping into the dug well that is plumbed into the house. It's not ideal, but it would be a short term solution if it's only needed every few days or so until some rain shows up. In fact, I wonder if that is why the previous owners drilled the well in the first place. Seems silly to drill a well and not use it.

I'm a little panicked, to be honest. Even as a child, we've never, ever had water issues, and I have no clue how to handle this.

I live in an area that sees a lot of drought. You may have heard of it, California. LOL
Some of my neighbors have had their wells go dry lately so I got antsy and put in 5K gallons of tanks last summer. The well pumps to the tanks and the tanks feed the house. Granted this isn't going to keep the well from going dry but it well reduce the impact from short term high demands and it will also tide me over should my well ever go dry because I can buy water if needed. It turns out around here you pay for 4K gallons whether or not you take all of it therefore the choice to go with 5K gallons worth of tanks. I placed the tanks uphill from the house which is a good thing in case the power goes out and my generator isn't running for some reason. If you have the terran, go that way. I get 10PSI of house pressure from gravity alone which is enough to take a navy shower, flush toilets and wash dishes with no pumps running. Another aspect to having water storage on hand is that you can't fight much of a fire with a well pump, especially as the power is likely to be out in the event of a forest fire. If you watch the news, forest fires are not uncommon in my neck of the woods either. 5K gallons is enough to run for a while, enough time to service and address any well issues without having to move out of the house and into a motel somewhere. When I put the tanks in, I also put a fire hydrant type of connection right on the side of one of the tanks so a fire truck can tap right into the 5K gallon water supply. I also added a smaller 2" outlet to the bottom of one tank so I can attach a gasoline powered pump if I ever need it to do a little fire fighting on my own. The two tanks are interconnected at the bottom with a 4" or 5" line so it looks like one 5K gallon tank. The cost is in the installation, pressure pump, trenching and such as the tanks are the minor part of the cost about $1500 for each 2500 gallon tank I think it was. I think it ran me something like $8K in total to get it all setup but on the whole, it's cheap insurance. Cheaper than a new well, I do know that much.