01:00 AM EST on Friday, December 21, 2007

By Randal Edgar

Journal Staff Writer

Rod Geldart says it happened without warning. The pump sputtered. The faucets provided only bursts of water. Then, nothing.

When the water system didn’t recharge and the repairman said the pump was OK, Geldart accepted the inevitable: The well was dry.

“It was kind of weird,” the Richmond resident said. “We’ve been in the house since ’89 and one time we had a problem for like a day or something when there was a severe drought.”

But this was November.

Most years, there aren’t a lot of wells going dry in November or December.

This year is turning out different, thanks to a summer drought that is still affecting shallow “dug wells” in South County and across the state.

For some homeowners, the lack of water has meant anteing up to install deeper wells to address a problem that is more likely to show up in late summer or early fall.

Thomas Angelone, an environmental scientist at the state Department of Environmental Management, said he did not have figures on how many wells have run dry in recent weeks. But he said it is unusual to be getting calls this late in the year.

“The frequency of calls isn’t like it was in August and September and October, but they’re more than typical for December,” he said. “We really don’t get any in December.”

Homeowners who find themselves with a dry well can choose from among 42 certified drillers, according to the DEM’s Web site. Typical costs can range from $4,000 to about $10,000.

For what is typically a down time of year, some drillers are in demand.

Larry Casey, downer of Aqua Science, in Richmond, said he has a backlog of seven or eight customers with dry wells, which means people are waiting days and sometimes weeks.

“The shallow wells are keeping us very busy,” he said. “They can dry at any time, you’re totally reliant on rain for recharging.”

Yesterday, Aqua Science driller John Jaswell was on Old Post Road (Route 1), in Charlestown, at the home of a customer whose dug well went dry. Jaswell, 35, and his helper, Bruce MacLeod, 54, drilled down about 200 feet — deep enough to find water, but they planned to go further to get better pressure.

Sometimes, finding water means going a lot farther.

“I’ve hit it at eight, nine hundred, a thousand feet. It’s there,” Jaswell said.

A typical dug well, by contrast, goes down about 30 feet.

ACCORDING TO THE STATE Water Resources Board, Rhode Island is in the midst of a drought advisory, which comes before a drought watch, a drought warning or drought emergency. As of Wednesday, 41.29 inches of precipitation was recorded this year at T.F. Green Airport — 3.56 inches below normal, said Charles Foley, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Angelone said even though the recent rain and snow is gradually replenishing depleted wells, it’s happening slowly because the ground is frozen and it has been so cold. When all the ice and snow melts it will help because unlike rain, which often runs off into lakes and streams, it will seep into the ground, he said.

With or without adequate rain, Casey said people need to recognize water as a precious resource and be wiser about how they use it. Lawn-sprinkler systems are one of the biggest problems, he said, because they can use thousands of gallons in one night. A typical person, meanwhile, uses about 75 gallons of water a day, he said.

One of Casey’s customers, Virginia Brear, on Richmond Townhouse Road, in Richmond, said she has a new appreciation for the importance of water. Brear said she had no problems with her shallow well for more than 40 years. Then, last year, for no apparent reason, it went dry. A second dug well didn’t fix the problem, so this year she had a 300-foot drilled well installed.

Not having water was “quite a shock,” said Brear and her son, John.

“People talk about oil,” she said. “Water is going to be more precious than oil on this planet, I’ll tell you.”

Geldart said that in his case, he moved his wife, son and daughter to Swansea, where they own a second home, for a few weeks until the new well was installed.

It meant for some long commutes, but at least they had water.

He said he has since learned that other people in the area have also needed new wells.

“I guess there’s other activity around but you never hear about it,” he said.

redgar@projo.com