Unincorporated homes with dry wells look to Merced for help

As the wait to get a new well drilled in Merced County continues to be about 18 months, a higher than normal number of people are seeking to hook up to city water sources, officials say.

In the fourth year of the state’s severe drought, domestic wells in the unincorporated parts of the county are drying up quickly. That leaves some homeowners looking to cities for help.

In recent months, the city of Merced’s Development Services Office has reported an average of one request a week to connect to city wells. During a typical year, the office would see one or two requests every three months, according to David Gonzalves, the department’s director.

“It’s getting to the point where there’s so many requests (that) it’s a drain on staff because of the process,” he said. “This is not meant to be a normal request.”

He said it’s a struggle to keep up with the demand as people are “desperate” for water.

To hook up to a city well, officials said, the home with a dry well typically has to be within a city’s sphere of influence, which is larger than the actual city limits. The homeowner would need approval from Merced County Local Agency Formation Commission and the respective City Council.

In Atwater, the requests to hook up to city water are fewer, because the unincorporated communities are farther away, according to Brian Shaw, the city’s water division director.

He said the city has seen requests, but the homeowners were too remote. “They were so far out, we didn’t have anything close to him,” he said.

Meeting the demand for new wells continues to keep drillers busy.

Jim Nemitz, a supervisor with Calwater Drilling Co. of Turlock, recently drilled a few wells just outside Atwater. He said he gets calls daily from people who want a new well drilled. On average, those people are going to have to wait 18 months.

The company, which primarily drills domestic and irrigation wells in Merced and Stanislaus counties, has four rigs running nearly every day. He and the company’s other employees are working 12-hour days to try to meet the demand for wells.

Merced County also saw a higher than normal number of requests for well permits before its groundwater ordinance went into effect this year. The new groundwater ordinance added rules to drilling new wells and moving water out of the county to attempt to regulate how much is being pumped out of the ground.

Between mid-April, when it became law, and June, there were 80 requests for permits filed, according to the county’s Environmental Health Division.

The ordinance placed stricter constraints around who would be given a permit for a new well. But in the two months before the groundwater ordinance took hold, the county saw 512 requests for permits.

Many of the awarded permits are out there floating around as they are good for at least six months.

To try to help out the homeowners with dry wells, the Merced County Board of Supervisors this month approved an Emergency Water Distribution Program, which is scheduled to be implemented in August.

This story was originally published July 16, 2015 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Unincorporated homes with dry wells look to Merced for help."