CAPE CORAL, Fla. — On Wednesday, Water Tech 239 told Fox 4 the majority of their customer's wells are running dry in Cape Coral.
In the heat of summer, the issue left Barb Borders and her husband John without water for over two months.
“Not having water for even one person is a crisis,” said Borders.
She said she has been depending on her daughter to drive water to her home over the past two months. Boders told Fox 4 that her well needed to be dug deeper, but getting it done could be a problem.
“Even the company we are dealing with says it could be December or January,” said Borders.
At least five months away, and Borders said the company would need to access their neighbor's yard, owned by the company First Key Homes.
“The people that own it said no, they don't want us to come through their backyard,” said Borders.
Michael Witten, owner of Water Tech 239, said he heard about Borders problems and reached out with a temporary solution.
“We took a hose, double ended connected it to a garden hose, and then as you see we ran it over here to the neighbor's property,” said Witten.
A temporary fix for an issue where Witten said over the past 15 years, Cape Coral home wells are now being dug 180 feet deeper for water access
“We are seeing it become a lot more common,” said Witten.
Witten told Fox 4 he is seeing more homes with dry wells that are located near the City of Cape Coral's pump stations. He believes the pump stations are lowering the amount of water needed for homeowners' wells.
Fox 4 asked the City of Cape Coral about this concern and received a response from Jeff Pearson, City of Cape Coral Utilities Director.
City water production wells are drilled into a confined brackish water aquifer, the Lower Hawthorn Aquifer, that ranges from 800 to 1,200 feet below land surface. Most private wells are located 150 to 200 feet deep in the Sandstone Aquifer, which is not connected to our wells. Most private wells run dry due to inadequate depth.
Fox 4 also reached out to the neighboring owners, First Key Homes, to ask why they won't let workers cross through Borders property to dig her well.
Drew Wolle with First Key Homes said they have now granted Borders access to their property, as long as she signed a liability waver for any potential damages to their property.
Here is the full statement from First Key Homes:
We understand the challenges with wells in this area and have no problem allowing access to our property for the work to be done for the Borders. As any homeowner would, we wanted assurance that any damages to our property would be the responsibility of the party having the work done. As of this afternoon, we have received the signed damage waiver liability and provided our signed authorization, and we're happy for the Borders family knowing that work on their new well can now begin.
That answer may still leave Borders with more questions.
“Once we get it fixed do we still want to possibly deal with this again,” said Borders.
