My Well Went Dry Today

Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure  ~~~ (Camus “The Stranger” (1942))

And so have the streams in the area (shown below as of Sunday 9/5/10).

I live on top of the hill at the headwaters of the Alexauken Creek in West Amwell.

The Alexauken is a Delaware River tributary that meets the river at the northern end of Lambertville. Most of the land in the watershed is farmland, with pockets of old hamlets and new sprawl. All are reliant on wells.

I went for an unusual hike on Sunday – in the stream bed of the Wichecheoke Creek. The Wichecheoke is just north of the Alexauken, and meets the river at Prallsville Mills.

Both creeks are Category One waters on the basis of exceptional ecological significance.

Just think about all the plants and critters that rely on that stream flow to survive (that’s what those long awaited DEP “Eco-Flow Goals“ are all about. )

And then think about how important that well watered green lawn is – or the totally unregulated water pumping to support those irrigated crops.

No farms no food – but no water no farms.

Alexauken Creek, West Amwell (9/5/10). Reduced to a pocket of puddles, no flow. Heron has even less water in same location shot back in July

Alexauken Creek, just upsream from heron location. Zero flow, no pools either. This stretch is surrounded by farms.

Tributary to Alexauken, just downstream of heron location. We wrote previously about need to get the cows out of this Category One stream.

Wickecheoke Creek stream bed. No flow. Delaware tributary just north of Alexauken. Enters Delaware at Prallsville Mills

Wickecheoche – stagnant pools were pretty nasty. Other than algae, not much aquatic life living in them.

Wickecheoke – one benefit of no stream flow: it allows one to see the serious bank erosion.

Wickecheoke – heron has some slim pickings from those stagnant pools.

This is where the Alexauken meets the D&R Canal, just east of the river. Hit the first link above (for “Alexauken Creek”) and compare the no flow in the stream on 9/5/10 with the October 2009 flood stage.

See, that in the weeds wonkism on water policy wasn’t so hard to write about and communicate, was it?

So why is this story not in the news?

[Update 3 – well back on line – replenished overnight. I wonder though: do reprters have wells? Do they have eyes and go outside and see the kind of conditions depicted above? If so, why don’t they take some initiaitve and write about them? Why do they always wait for DEP to make it “official” with a press release? Is it now impossible for there to be news without a government press release?

Update 2: 9/8/10 – by golly, either my crystal ball is working overtime or WolfeNotes posts are having an impact. Looks like scientists are growing some stones. See today’s Asbury Park Press story by Kirk Moore: “Experts, report link NJ’s weather extremes to global warming“.

My goodness, I studied this stuff as a freshman in college in 1975, have been trying to get DEP to focus on it for many years, and have been writing about it here for over 3 years now. But still glad our friends at Environment NJ wrote the report].

Update 1: 9/8/10: I think Commissioner Martin reads WolfeNotes – DEP just issued an expanded statewide drought watch, but it’s still not close to enough. As you can imagine, this quote from the DEP press release particularly galls me:

Stream flow levels also declined to the severely dry category in the coastal north region. Only in the coastal south region are stream flows moderately dry. Hot, dry weather continues to stress shallow groundwater and is beginning to impact some private wells.

End Update]