A little more than a week after Gov. Angus King asked the president for federal disaster assistance to help cope with drought conditions, the state’s water situation appears markedly improved.

Several recent heavy rainstorms have refilled some lakes and streams, while many wells are returning to normal levels.

Still, experts caution, if hot, dry weather returns, the recent gains could evaporate quickly.

“Maine is actually fairing well compared to other states,” said Douglas LeComte, a drought specialist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center in Maryland.

“The core of the drought is south of Maine,” he said.

The hardest-hit states now range from southern Connecticut to South Carolina. Many of these states have instituted mandatory water conservation measures, such as bans on lawn watering and car washing and prohibitions on serving water to restaurant patrons unless they request it.

In Maine, the governor declared a drought emergency last month, but that was only to allow a law exempting well-drilling trucks from road posting restrictions to go into effect.

“Next month, the drought might be over and we’ll all move on,” said Evan Richert, director of the State Planning Office.

Last year was the driest in Maine in the 107 years records have been kept. The 29 inches of rain that fell was 2 inches below the previous record low in 1965.

But things have improved. In Bangor, for example, the amount of rain that has fallen so far this year is more than 3 inches above normal. So far in April, more than 41/2 inches of rain has fallen, more than twice the normal amount.

Stream flows are normal to above normal and wells are filling with water, except in some parts of southern Maine, said Greg Stewart, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Augusta.

However, he cautioned, the state is now in a transition phase between when the ground thawed, allowing water to seep into the soil, and the time when plants come into their full foliage, soaking up all the available moisture.

“Just because we had a normal spring doesn’t always mean you’re going to have a good year,” Stewart said.

The precipitation situation doesn’t look too bad for the next couple of weeks, said LeComte of NOAA, with average rainfall predicted.

Precipitation levels for the last six months are 3 inches to 6 inches below normal across the state, LeComte said.

But, he added, “it would be easy to make up that deficit” with a couple of more big rainstorms. South of here, some states are facing precipitation deficits of up to 12 inches for the last six months.

But, LeComte and others caution, if the rain stops and temperatures rise, Maine could find itself lacking water again.

“Nobody is saying the problem has vanished,” he said.

The spring rain has made a huge difference for Bangor’s water supply. At the start of the year, the amount of water in Floods Pond – the water supply for Bangor and Hampden – in Otis was near record-low levels. By mid-April, the water level had returned to normal for this time of year.

“We’re in really good shape,” said Wayne Rogalski, general manager of the district. Even if it doesn’t rain again, the pond holds more than enough water to supply Bangor and Hampden for the next three years.

In fact, the pond is full to capacity with extra water simply flowing over a dam at its southern end.

The same appears to be true for the state’s other large water utilities, all of which rely on groundwater. In other words, they get water from lakes and ponds, not underground wells.

The water level of Sebago Lake, Portland’s water supply, reportedly has been very low. The Department of Environmental Protection, however, recently reported that the water level in the lake is actually the same as it was last year at this time.

“Overall, the condition of [water] utilities is improving,” said Ray Hammond of the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

Utilities still reporting water supply problems tend to be systems that have had chronic problems that have little to do with rainfall amounts.

Half of Maine’s residents get their water from public water systems. Most of them get their water from surface sources such as ponds and lakes as opposed to wells.

With surface water conditions improving, the outlook for many public water systems also is improving, said Jeff McNelly, executive director of the Maine Water Utilities Association.

“None are still in dire straits,” he said of his group’s 125 member utilities.

Problems, however, remain with groundwater supplies that are tapped by wells, especially private dug wells that tend to be shallow and unreliable.

More than half the population of nonmetropolitan areas in Maine – 54 percent – use private wells for their drinking water supply.

According to a recent poll paid for by the Maine Emergency Management Agency, 15 percent of those surveyed who had dug wells said they had gone dry in the past nine months, compared to 7 percent of drilled-well owners. Of the total number of private wells in the state, 18 percent are dug and 71 percent are drilled.

The water supply problems some communities are experiencing likely are exacerbated by growth patterns. Many of the communities that are reporting shortages have added a lot of new residents in recent years. The town of York, where the population grew 31 percent between 1990 and 2000, is considering building a pipeline to bring drinking water from nearby Kittery. Kennebunkport, which long has bought water from Biddeford and Saco, grew by the same amount.

“We’ve got all kinds of water in the state, but it’s not always where the people are,” said Hammond of the PUC.

To this end, officials in the southern Maine town of Windham announced last week that they were considering restricting development in areas where groundwater supplies are low. Measures under consideration include requiring developers to drill test wells to ensure adequate water supplies before new homes are built or requiring a hookup to the municipal water supply.

Although Windham is not the first town to consider such measures, it is a departure from normal practice in Maine where towns typically consider water quality, not quantity, when considering new development.

Even if this drought ends soon, it makes sense to look for ways to hedge against future water shortage problems, State Planning Office Director Richert said. One approach would be for communities to identify in their comprehensive plans the areas that are best suited for growth because they offer proven water reserves or because they can be connected easily to municipal water supplies.

Current growth patterns, which encourage people to spread out, have “boxed people into a corner” because it is very expensive to build connections to municipal water supplies, Richert said.