Drought conditions continue around state Wet fall doesn’t replenish groundwater levels

Despite normal precipitation over the last few months, Maine’s drought is continuing into its 19 month.

Although the drought isn’t as bad as it was a year ago, experts at the U.S. Geological Survey are predicting groundwater levels in most of the state will be below normal once the November’s data is compiled next week.

Greg Stewart, USGS data section chief, said two of the agency’s seven real-time wells – in Madison and Sanford -show all-time record lows for November. In addition, he said, four wells elsewhere show groundwater in the below-normal range.

Officials at the USGS, the National Weather Service and the Maine Emergency Management Agency remain concerned about low groundwater levels, which received little recharge this spring because of the small snowpack and so little rainfall. Typically, groundwater recharges during spring runoff and autumn rains.

Precipitation doesn’t go into the groundwater instantly, he said. It can take hours, days or weeks, depending on the range of geological materials, USGS officials point out. This time of year, groundwater levels typically drop anyway.

Tom Hawley, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said precipitation this fall was better than a year ago, but the state still needs a few consecutive months of above-normal precipitation.

The statewide average precipitation this fall was 4.23 inches in September compared with 3.7 inches last year; and 2.93 inches in October compared with 1.81 inches a year ago.

Hawley said precipitation this month appeared to be above normal in most areas, some receiving close to four inches of rain. Last year, the November average was 3.96 inches.

A few weeks ago, Bob Lent, district chief of the U.S. Geological Survey in Augusta, said he was concerned the state would see a repeat of last winter, when thousands of homes statewide were left without water.

“The rain we had in recent weeks helped avoid that situation,” he said.

Lynnette Miller and Gene Maxim, officials at the Maine Emergency Management Agency, said the agency was still receiving calls from people who ran out of water. But the volume of those calls has diminished, he said.

“We just haven’t been able to get a good scientific sense of the overall problem,” said Miller, MEMA’s spokeswoman.

Miller said between 16,000 and 17,000 families had been without water at some point since June 2001.

Officials said it was hard to know how many families were still affected.

“I think a lot of people are still struggling,” said Maxim. “Some [people] aren’t calling because they feel there is no help available. Some are toughing it out and some have had some corrective action taken so they no longer have a problem.”

What the state needs to come out of the 19-month drought is a lot of snow this winter, which officials say will help to recharge low groundwater levels next spring as well.

“We could get out of the drought with above-normal precipitation for another couple of months, but it might not do anything to help groundwater,” said Hawley. “We really need groundwater to be normal or above before we feel we are out of the drought.”

Technically, the state is still in a drought because precipitation for the past 12 months has been 85 percent or less of normal, Hawley said.

Lent said he would love to see two or three feet of snow statewide with a nice slow steady rain next spring to melt it.

“There is nothing better for groundwater than a big snowpack and a long mud season,” he said. “That is what we really need.” Hawley agreed.

As for surface water levels, Stewart said most of the sites monitored by the agency would make it into the normal range this month, with the exception of the St. John River at Fort Kent. He said that area received a lot of precipitation, but in the form of snow, which created very little runoff.

On the West Branch of the Penobscot River, Great Lakes Hydro America’s 56.1 billion cubic foot water storage system never filled this year. Currently the system is at 32 billion cubic feet, or 34 percent below its historic average for this time of the year.

Dave Preble, Great Lakes’ hydro manager, said last week’s rains helped, but he does not expect to see an inflow as long as it remains cold.

But water levels at Ripogenus Dam are 6.4 feet higher and at North Twin impoundment are 3.7 feet higher than they were a year ago.

Great Lakes has been able to maintain more normal flows at Rip Dam than it could a year ago. Flows this month average 2,025 cubic feet per second compared with about 800 cubic feet per second at the same time last year, he said.