Faye Longo first noticed her spring-fed well was starting to run dry in late July. It started with low water pressure. She and her family did everything they could to conserve water, but ultimately, it failed.
“I had no water,” she said. “And I have an 11-year-old child, and I have dogs and cats and chickens.”
Much of New England is facing dry conditions or drought. That’s put a strain on drinking water resources in some states — including Vermont — and led to hundreds of wells running dry.
It’s a scenario Longo never thought she’d face. She bought her home in South Royalton several years ago — her first house.
In the months before her well ran dry, she called 17 well drillers before she found one that could come to her property in early September.
“I had to take out a second mortgage on my home to pay for that well,” she said. “I'm a single-income family. I could not get any assistance, and that is insane to me, for something as basic as water.”
During the time she was out of water, she and her child’s father hauled it from a spring in Williamstown and spent hundreds of dollars on bottled water at the store.
It’s a story Ken White of Valley Artesian Wells in Weathersfield has heard many times. He drilled Longo’s new well.
“This is as dry as I've ever seen it in the 35 years that I've worked in the industry,” White said.
Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation has received reports of more than 400 wells running dry since August alone — that’s four times as many as they received from 2016 to 2025.
“We're juggling our schedules to try to take care of the people with the greatest need," White said.
Roughly 40% of Vermonters get their water from a private well, but the state doesn’t track how many people get their drinking water from spring-fed or dug wells like the old one at Longo’s house.
Julia Beaudoin is a hydrologist with Vermont DEC who helps permit new wells.
“We do know that wells, over the past 20 or so years, they are getting deeper,” she said. “Drillers are drilling deeper.”
Beaudoin says the majority of reports the state is seeing for wells running dry this summer are for shallow dug wells, with spring-fed wells being especially vulnerable.
“Those sources are also usually less expensive to build, potentially maintain,” she said. “So there's definitely an economics piece to this as well.”
Drilling a new well can cost as much as $20,000. And there isn’t much financial assistance out there for homeowners who have to foot the bill, unless they meet strict income qualifications.
Learn more about financial assistance for drilling a well here.
Vermont has some of the oldest housing stock in the country. Ken White, the well driller, says many of those old homes have hand-dug wells that are only 10 to 30 feet deep.
In contrast, drilled wells can be 400 feet deep. White’s crew was working on one just recently at Michael Mezzacapo’s house in Pomfret.
His spring-fed well from 1895 first ran dry this winter, and he’s hoping to keep it as a backup water source for his garden.
“I realize that it's not a guarantee, but it is sort of a little bit of insurance,” he said of his drilled well.
Mezzacapo is hopeful this new well will make his home more resilient to climate change in the future, something climate scientist Justin Mankin at Dartmouth says is probably wise.
“Drought impacts right now are stressing our practices of water provision,” Mankin said. “I think that is a potential harbinger of greater stresses in the future.”
Human-caused climate change is making New England wetter overall. But Mankin says, where Vermont and much of the region used to see regular, steady precipitation year-round, more of it is increasingly falling sporadically during extreme events.
As temperatures warm, he says that means more of that water is evaporating before it has time to trickle down into the bedrock.
“Even in a wetting climate, when drought does occur, it will just be more severe owing to the temperature effects,” Mankin said.
This could create the sort of prolonged hydrologic drought he says Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are experiencing now.
In South Royalton, Faye Longo says the new well has changed her family’s life. For the first time in a long time, she can shower when she wants to shower and finally run her dishwasher.
Still, she says she’ll probably never stop treating water like a precious resource.
“Did it ever cross my mind that I would have run out of water to drink in my own home?” she reflected. “No, not ever.”
As the climate changes, it’s something more Vermonters may soon have to consider.
Signs your well might be running dry
- Decreasing water pressure.
- Well pump turning on more frequently, but not producing a lot of water.
- Seeing air bubbles in the water coming out of your faucets or hearing gurgling.
- Changes in the appearance or taste of your water (for example, your water is cloudy, or has more sediment in it).
4 things you can do
- Conserve water.
- Ask a well driller if the pump in your drilled well can be lowered without drilling a new well.
- Pay for bulk water to be hauled to your house, but make sure to store it rather than dumping it into your well — it will dissipate.
- Fill water-safe jugs at a known drinking water source, perhaps a local fire department or business. Vermont DEC cautions that roadside springs are not tested for water quality or safety.
