Well-grounded fears

 

By Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer, October 20, 2008

 

Future generations could face a very real crisis if water wells continue to run dry in Upper Bucks.

 

Retired engineer Robert Stanfield has watched water levels in private wells and the well that supplies Palisades High School significantly drop during the past 10 years.

 

But this year, as Palisades' well dropped to its lowest level, as housing and commercial development expanded, as quarry production continued and as natural gas drilling stood on the horizon in Nockamixon, Stanfield said homeowners should start taking notice.

 

Stanfield, who volunteers as vice chairman of the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Management Committee, said in the several years he has monitored water levels, the high school's well is at the highest variation he has seen — with the water level rising and falling.

 

“It suggests that the aquifer they are drawing from is seriously stressed and there needs to be a review of how to respond to this,” he said.

 

Communities in Upper Bucks are not connected to public water and sewer service; each home and business must rely on private wells and septic systems.

 

Nockamixon resident Dave Wolfinger knows all too well that the region's groundwater supply is in trouble.

 

The fourth-generation farmer of Wo-Bo Farm was sent scrambling to drill a new well last fall when he turned on the tap for his 150 dairy cows and water barely trickled out.

 

Wolfinger, who farms 640 acres in Nockamixon, said area wells, once commonly drilled at about 150 feet, have been stretched to beyond 300 feet.

 

The average well depth in Pennsylvania is 180 feet, but most Nockamixon wells are now double that.

 

Palisades High School's well stretches down 500 feet, and the pump is positioned at 280 feet.

 

Wolfinger attributes water depletion to an increase in development and Nockamixon quarry production.

 

“I believe that development is taking that much more and I believe the quarry isn't helping anything, but I really don't think you can put your finger on any one thing,” said Wolfinger, who has committed his property to state and county open space preservation. “As the future goes, the more people you put here the less water you're going to have.”

 

Wolfinger also serves as chairman of the zoning hearing board, which is hearing a case by Hanson Aggregates Quarry in Ottsville. Attorneys for the quarry are challenging township zoning laws in an effort to expand quarry operations.

 

The quarry draws 190,000 gallons of water out of the ground in Nockamixon each day, according to the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Management Committee. The company is permitted by the state Department of Environmental Protection to draw 940,000 gallons per day, according to David Hill, area operations manager for Hanson.

 

Hill says he has not heard of any complaints and says the company reports groundwater levels each month to the DEP. He says he relies on the DEP to contact quarry managers if they notice a trend in water reduction.

 

DEP district mining manager Tom Callaghan says staff geologists are currently investigating the quarry's effect on Nockamixon's groundwater in response to complaints filed by residents and members of an area watershed group a few months ago.

 

Nockamixon Supervisor Chairwoman Nancy Janyszeski agrees with Wolfinger that increased development and quarry production could be straining groundwater supplies.

 

“I don't know that there is any one answer,” said Janyszeski. “Water is an issue up here. There's no question and we just need to respect it. You have to respect the water source.”

 

She's worried that any natural gas drilling could seriously harm the quality and the quantity of the groundwater, considered to be of the highest quality in Bucks County.

 

Janyszeski is co-chairwoman of the Lower Delaware River Wild and Scenic Management Committee, a group of governmental representatives from Pennsylvania and New Jersey who work to preserve the water quality and wildlife habitats in regions surrounding the Delaware River.

 

The group voted last week to begin random water quality testing in Upper Bucks, a move they say is needed to provide comparison data should pending gas drilling contaminate the waterways.

 

“We are trying to monitor the barn door before the horse is stolen,” said Stanfield, who holds a doctorate from MIT and worked for 35 years in the petroleum industry.

 

Nockamixon and Tinicum have already passed well protection ordinances regulating development's impact on current water resources.

 

“Something's got to happen here,” said Wolfinger, the Nockamixon farmer. “I don't know what, but somebody's got to come up with something before it's too late.”

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