CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Helping neighbors in north Cape Coral is a full-time job for Big Daddy’s Well Drilling.
Michael Witten owns the company and said Cape Coral's water shortage has kept his crews busy.
“We have a lot of calls. We are doing the best we can. We are drilling two wells a day if we can,” Witten says.
On Friday, he told Fox 4's Cape Coral Community Correspondent Colton Chavez that many of his customers need deeper wells.
It's a problem Witten said many homes will continue to see as underground water levels for homes that rely on well water continue to drop.
“From the 2004-2005 era during that housing boom, wells were roughly cased to 100 feet maybe 120 and they are 140 feet deep. We set pumps right now at about 140-160 feet so we just drilled a well today down to 260 feet," said Witten.
Witten said water wells need to be dug deeper to reach the ever-shrinking water levels underground.
Since November of 2023, the area north of Pine Island Road to the Gator Slough Canal between Nelson Road north and Northeast 24th Avenue has been under a water shortage by the City of Cape Coral.
The South Florida Water Management District issued the shortage, but the city is telling people to only water their lawns once a week.
