Time, rain needed to bring up water table

If you think the substantial amount of snow we had this past winter will alleviate the low water conditions in the district in the near future, think again.
That was the opinion of at least one person who has some experience in these matters.
Mel Jack, who owns and operates Mel’s Well Drilling in Emo, said Monday that although the abundant snowfall this past winter was a welcome respite from the almost drought-like conditions that have plagued the district for the past few years, and even though lake and river levels are both up, it will be some time before we see a difference where it really counts—below ground.
“We won’t see the effects for at least a couple of years,” Jack remarked. “They say it takes 15 years for a drop of water to move 100 feet through the clay.”
Jack, who was born in the district and has been drilling wells for 35 years, said he has seen some wells go dry while others seem to be unaffected thus far.
“Every well is different,” he explained. “Some have dropped quite a ways while some are as good as ever.”
Jack said it’s difficult to predict exactly where the water table will be in any given point within the district. His own personal well was drilled 200 feet into rock and the water flow appears to be unchanged.
In other locations, people are experiencing reduced flow, although that is not necessarily a result of the water table dropping. Other factors, such as sediment build-up, also can reduce water flow and pump efficiency.
However welcome the run-off from the winter may be, it won’t in itself restore things to their previous levels. The only thing that will do that is rain—and there has been precious little of that here so far this spring.
“This [snow] will help, but we still need the rain,” Jack stressed.
And not just any kind of rain. The massive downpour of two years ago—and the flooding that came with it—did little good in the long run.
“A flood doesn’t help,” Jack remarked. “It just runs off. What we need is a good two- or three-day soaker.”