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Private Well Failures Spike In Tulare County

Tulare County Office Of Emergency Services

The drought in Central California has hit many farmers and homeowners hard. Perhaps those hardest hit are in Tulare County where the number of dry wells spiked this week. 

New data released today from the Tulare County Office of Emergency Services reports the number of private well failures in the county grew by 19 percent since October 6.

"As we find additional data-sets we reconcile those in and you start to see these bumps." Andrew Lockman

Andrew Lockman with the agency says the increase is due to more homeowners reporting dry wells and new data from partnering agencies.

“As we find additional datasets we reconcile those in and you start to see these bumps," Lockman says.

Lockman says the number of permits to dig wells is up 54 percent at almost 1,500. He says there’s an increase in dry wells across the county, but that the community of East Porterville makes up 75 percent of the 525 dry wells.

Ezra David Romero is an award-winning radio reporter and producer. His stories have run on Morning Edition, Morning Edition Saturday, Morning Edition Sunday, All Things Considered, Here & Now, The Salt, Latino USA, KQED, KALW, Harvest Public Radio, etc.