Some California wells run dry amid drought (7 photos)

By Scott Smith, Associated Press

In this Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 photo, Yolanda Serrato, 54, and her family of five bathe with water from this tank in front of her house in East Porterville, Calif. About two months ago, the well where Serrato and her husband have lived for 21 years dried up. They drink bottled water and wash with water from the 300-gallon tank filled up once a week. Hundreds of domestic wells in California’s drought-parched Central Valley farming region have run dry, leaving many residents to rely on donated bottles of drinking water to get by. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

In this Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 photo, residents whose wells have run dry can draw water from this 5,000-gallon water tank in East Porterville, Calif. Amid the state’s historic drought, some 290 domestic wells have dried up, leaving residents to drink from bottled water. A sign on the tank warns people in English and Spanish that this water isn’t for drinking. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

In this Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 photo, volunteer Fred Beltran of the Porterville Area Coordinating Council explains in Porterville, Calif., how the charity is distributing donated buckets to families whose wells are empty. In the neighboring town of East Porterville, 290 domestic wells have run dry in California’s historic drought. Hundreds of domestic wells in California’s drought-parched Central Valley farming region have run dry, leaving many residents to rely on donated bottles of drinking water to get by. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

In this Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 photo,Kathy Findley, 51, leans over her kitchen sink inside a rental home in East Porterville, Calif., that she shares with her two daughters and five grandchildren. Their well dried up earlier this year, and the home’s water comes from a garden hose connected to a neighbor’s house, which she says isn’t safe to drink. Hundreds of domestic wells in California’s drought-parched Central Valley farming region have run dry, leaving many residents to rely on donated bottles of drinking water to get by. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

** HOLD FOR MOVEMENT ** In this photo taken Monday, Sept. 15, 2014, Vickie Yorba, 94, stands next to a water tank in front of her home in East Porterville, Calif., where she has lived for 66 years. Hers is one of 290 East Porterville wells that ran dry in the state’s historic drought. Since February, she has had to rely on friends, relatives and charities for water to drink and bathe. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

In this Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 photo, Elva Beltran, director of the Porterville Area Coordinating Council, is shown in the charity’s warehouse filled with donated water in Porterville, Calif. Beltran normally works part time helping poor residents pay their power bill or fill up their car with gas so they can make it to a doctor’s appointment. But now Beltran says she is working full time to help people of East Porterville whose wells have run dry amid the state’s historic drought. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

In this Monday, Sept. 15, 2014 photo, the Tule River in Porterville, Calif., is dry except for a few pools of water. Residents in neighboring unincorporated town of East Porterville depend on the river flowing to supply their wells with water. Officials say they know of 290 domestic wells in East Porterville that are empty, forcing residents to search for other sources for drinking and bathing. (Scott Smith, Associated Press)

California Drought: Wells Run Dry in Central Valley Towns

Weather.com

Porta-potties are popping up outside homes. Drinking water is being trucked in from faraway places. Girl Scouts are setting up collection points for residents to donate bottled water.

This is the reality of life in East Porterville – a central California town where the wells are beginning to run dry. Gripped by a severe drought, water sources for residents aren’t replenishing, and that spells big problems for the future.

In the Central Valley town of roughly 7,000 residents, some 290 families say their wells are already out of water. The town mostly consists of poor, Hispanic residents – people who simply can’t afford another setback. Elsewhere in Tulare County, many other homes are suffering dry wells, too, and the problem has expanded sporadically all over the Central Valley, though the data isn’t quite as precise as in East Porterville.

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“When you have water running in your house, everything is OK,” said East Porterville resident Yolanda Serrato. “Once you don’t have water, oh my goodness.”

With California locked in its third year of drought and groundwater levels dropping, residents and farmers have been forced to drill deeper and deeper to find water. Lawmakers in Sacramento passed legislation to regulate groundwater pumping, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law this past week.

Three days later, Brown signed an executive order that provides money to buy drinking water for residents statewide whose wells have dried up, while also directing key state officials to work with counties and local agencies to find solutions for the shortages.

The State Water Resources Control Board had already allotted $500,000 to buy bottled water for East Porterville residents, said Bruce Burton of the board’s Drinking Water Program.

But many East Porterville residents, like Serrato, say all they want is to get a glass of water from the kitchen sink. Her well dried up nearly two months ago, she said, making life challenging for her husband and three children.

To bathe, they each have to fill a bucket from a 300-gallon tank in the front yard, carry it inside and pour water over their heads with a cup. They’ve lived in their home for 21 years, she said. “It’s not that easy to say, `Let’s go someplace else.’ ”

East Porterville sits along the Tule River, which starts high in the mountains and runs through the unincorporated town. Typically, river water permeates the sandy soil under the community, filling up wells as shallow as 30 feet deep. Not this year. Drought has caused the river to run dry, along with the wells.

Tulare County spokeswoman Denise England said East Porterville needs to get connected to the nearest water main in neighboring Porterville. That could cost more than $20 million and take up to five years, if the project didn’t hit political snags, she said.

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England said counting the number of dry wells is difficult because people don’t come forward fearing their children will be taken away if their home lacks a safe water source, or they believe that their home would be condemned, making them homeless.

Officials have had to combat these rumors, she said, adding, “We’re blindly feeling our way through this.”

In the meantime, charities have stepped up. Local schools, businesses and a religious group in Cincinnati, Ohio, donated water to the community.

Elva Beltran’s Porterville Area Coordinating Council has provided 46 homes with 300-gallon tanks, which are filled each week. The group has pallets of donated bottled water and stacks of blue buckets waiting to be distributed.

Beltran said every day a new family comes in seeking help. “They’re hurting,” she said. “We need water like we need air.”

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A local bank donated $50,000 to Self-Help Enterprise, so the housing nonprofit can provide more homes with water tanks.

Community development program director Paul Boyer said people have been creative, using solar bags to heat water for bathing and putting tanks in trees to increase water pressure. Boyer said it will be more difficult when it turns cold this winter.

“Families every night dream about water,” Boyer said. “Every day they’re thinking about how they’re going to deal with water.”

The well belonging to Vickie Yorba, 94, dried up in February. She now relies on a donated water tank in front of her small home that she and her late husband bought 66 years ago. A neighbor with a deeper well ran a garden hose to Yorba’s home.

She is proud of how sparingly she uses water, likening it to the little used during trips she and her husband took years ago to the mountains.

“It isn’t hard,” she said. “Not if you know how to camp.”