Close to half of all homeowners in Chester County rely on private residential wells for drinking water and other household use. David Jackson is the environmental director at the county health department. He says there's evidence that the drought has been affecting those wells.

"We've done some comparisons over the last six months of this year with six months of the year 2000," he says. "And we have had significantly more wells that have gone dry and had to be redrilled or new wells drilled."

Jackson says it will take a lot of rain this Spring before the water table in the area can be replenished.

"If we get a regular amount of rain, that will certainly help the streams, the reservoirs, and the ponds, lakes, and things like that," he says. "But when it comes to groundwater, it takes a significant amount of time with regular rainfall to actually recharge the groundwater table itself and raise those levels so that homeowners and anyone using a well has enough water."

Eric Michaels from Bucks County Artesian Well Drilling Company says there are some signs that a well might be drying up.

"One of your first indicators a lot of the time is a reduction in pressure. The other thing is a well that was otherwise always clean water will all of a sudden start to get dirty. That's usually an example that through pumping you've actually exhausted all the water in the well, and usually you'll get some dirty water."

Michaels says at that point, residents only have a few options.

"There's two things you can do," he says. "Either drill a completely new well going deeper. Or when it's possible you can drill through an existing well. What you have to do is continue to drill deeper until you tap into veins of water that might be deeper than what previously they had hit."

Michaels says the only other option is to conserve water and hope rainfall will increase and the groundwater levels will rise. Kevin Monley lives in Chester County. He says his well is still pumping water, but he and his neighbors aren't taking any chances.

"We've had some problems with water pressure, and I know some people from the surrounding communities who've had some problems too. They have to go to the Laundromat, they have to really limit their showering and their water. They're bringing bottled water in, so it's really an inconvenience."

Monley says his system shuts down if the water pressure drops too low. So far, he hasn't had any trouble turning it back on, but having the water stop while washing his hands reminds him how important conservation is.