Drought causing Teller County wells to dry up
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, all of Colorado is classified as drought-stricken. The intensity of the drought varies from severe to extreme and exceptional, the three most intense categories.
The drought has caused several Teller County wells to run dry, including the Lansford family’s well in Florissant.
Lynn Lansford said they believed the lack of water to be a result of a broken pipe, which cost the family $2,500. They learned that the real source of the problem was a lack of water in the well itself.
“We’re just not getting the moisture, and it’s not filling our wells,” said Lynn Lansford.
She said the well is 700 feet deep, and they have already explored the option of looking deeper.
“It’s already been fracked once, just to see if it could expand into the aquifer more, but they didn’t find anything. There wasn’t anything,” said Lansford.
Lansford said the quoted price to construct a new well in a different location on their property would be $20,000 to $30,000.
So the Lansfords have resorted to having water delivered to them, which they store in two cisterns on their property. They are able to house 2,500 gallons, which has to last them about three weeks.
“Every drop we get is from the cisterns. Now, we have to watch our water very carefully,” she said.
Lansford told KRDO Newschannel 13 that they have made several changes to become more water efficient.
These changes include installing water-efficient shower heads, laundry machines and toilets, limiting their shower time, turning off their ice machines, doing dishes only once a week, doing laundry only once a month and collecting leaking hose water and water bottles that still have a bit of water left in them for plants and pets to use.
Lansford said they are not the only family suffering from a lack of water.
“Whenever we call to have our water delivered, we have to make an appointment several days in advance because he’s so busy delivering water to people whose wells have dried,” Lansford said.
Lansford said they are lucky to have access to cisterns. She said many families must drive tanks and other containers to the nearest water facility weekly to get their water.
“When your life is water-driven, which ours is, it makes a big difference in how you view things and what we used to take for granted. Just going in and turning on the faucet, we don’t do that anymore,” said Lansford.
