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Water fight runs deep photo by Jim Craven Don McLaughlin has five wells on his Shady Cove property, and all of them are dry -- he has to buy his water and store it in a holding tank. McLaughlin is one of 2,315 Shady Cove residents who depend on groundwater and who would benefit from a municipal water system requiring a $7.5 million bond measure. Shady Cove setto make decision on creation of municipal system By Melissa Martin of the Mail Tribune SHADY COVE -- Don McLaughlin last year bought a house on a hillside acre with three wells, two dry and one yielding 5 gallons a minute. Today, he has five wells on his property and they are all dry. "I spent $12,000 and drilled two more wells, 400 feet deep each, but found no water," McLaughlin said. "I'm having water hauled in and it's costing me $50 a week." McLaughlin is one of 2,315 residents in Shady Cove who depend on groundwater from 925 private wells, some nearly 50 years old and some drilled 500 to 700 feet below the earth's surface. Yet there are reports of wells drying up on Sarma, Hudspeth, Rene, Cora and Bond streets and inside the town's oldest subdivision known as The Cove, where one resident is drawing water from the Rogue River and sharing it with neighbors. The city of Shady Cove's solution is to ask voters on Nov. 2 to pass a $7.5 million bond measure to build the first municipal water system in the city's history. The city would draw and treat water from the Rogue River, and residents could continue to use their wells for irrigation. "In Shady Cove, one person will drill and get a well that works for a couple of years and supplies one or two people, but then it will go dry," said McLaughlin, who owns White City Metals and Supply. "A lot of money has been put into empty holes." Shady Cove is the largest city in Oregon without a municipal water system, according to HGE Engineers, the Coos Bay firm hired by Shady Cove to update the city's water plan. Shady Cove also has the highest density of wells for the land mass in the state, said a well driller who has dug his share of holes in the Upper Rogue soil. "There are so many wells in such a small area," said Sig Milkowski. He's a third-generation driller and the owner of Gribble Well Drilling in Gold Hill. "It's not like sticking a whole bunch of straws in a big cup. We don't have a big reservoir down there." Below the surface of Shady Cove are fractures in bedrock, as well as aquifers of sand and gravel near the river, said Ivan Gall, hydrogeologist with the Oregon Water Resources Department in Grants Pass. The water in bedrock fractures may be hundreds of years old and may be traveling from a source miles away. It moves rapidly within the fractures when pumped, Gall said. "Under natural conditions, either in sand or gravel aquifers or fractured bedrock, the velocity of groundwater isn't very rapid," Gall said. "A system reaches equilibrium with time -- the recharge is similar to the discharge." "But if you get in an area like Shady Cove with a high density of wells, the action of pumping the groundwater from so many wells will increase the velocity of water," he said. By contrast, the city of Keizer sits on top of abundant aquifers within the Troutdale formation. The city supplies 30,000 residents with 15 million gallons of water daily from 14 wells ranging in depth from 120 to 300 feet. One of the wells yields 2,500 gallons of water a minute, said Wally Mull, Keizer city manager. "Every year the aquifers are recharged back (by rainfall) to the level we were at in 1980 when we put this system in," Mull said. Building a water system was a priority for the residents of Shady Cove when they incorporated the city in 1972. But after the city installed a sewer system and resolved some pollution problems, folks were tired of spending money, said Jim Collier, a former Shady Cove mayor who helped create this Upper Rogue city. Residents who oppose the bond measure say it's too expensive. Eli Diestler, a member of the newly formed Citizens Opposed to Bond Authorization, said he would have to begin paying a monthly water bill -- which he does not pay now -- as well incur an increase in property taxes. "We have a wonderful well that pumps close to 100 gallons a minute here in Shady Cove Mobile Park," Diestler said. "We have adequate pressure and we can water our lawns and gardens. We have no problems with our water." Bob Ivester, a Sarma Drive resident who shares his well with three neighbors without water, said he believes people with great wells should support the water system for the sake of those whose wells are failing. "I'm 70 years old and I haven't got any kids in school, but I still pay property taxes to support education," Ivester said. Shady Cove has survived for 27 years without a city water system, partly because of the 15 community water systems that serve 444 households in mobile home parks and subdivisions. "We have a good system here, but I personally am still in favor of a city water system," said Howard Conner, who runs one of the community systems in town. Living in Deer Park Estates may be similar to living with a city water system, Conner said, with 60 pounds of pressure per square inch in each household (compared to between 35 and 100 pounds per square inch in homes served by the Medford Water Commission.) Deer Park residents pay a membership fee and receive a bimonthly water bill. "We have no treatment process, no filtration on it, but our water is tested every month for bacteria and all the chemical tests governed by the state and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). We've had no minus reports on any of them," Conner said. The subdivision has one of the few wells in the city limits that yield 100 gallons of water a minute. Deer Park also has a standby well with 35 to 40 gallons per minute, Conner said. Despite all the pluses of his community water system, Conner said he supports the city's bond measure, partly because the city has no fire protection. "We have no storage, no towers, no hydrants. All of our fire protection has to come from trucks pumping water down at the river," he said. One of the early developers of Deer Park Estates agreed. "We have had close calls in the past, like in 1994 when a 280-acre fire on the south end of town started in the afternoon and prevailing winds moved it north," said Mike Malepsy, owner of Trails End Real Estate and chairman of the bond committee, Citizens for Water For Future Generations. "If the fire had started in the morning, it would have swept through town." A city water system is like an insurance policy, said Phil Tallman, a Sarma Drive resident who is sharing his one good well with the police chief and other waterless neighbors. He described himself as owning $750,000 worth of real estate in Shady Cove, which would result in $1,200 more in property taxes each month if the bond measure were approved. "I have a good well now, but it might not be good next year," the contractor said. "If you're one of those unfortunate people whose well gets contaminated or goes dry and you don't have water, you can't sell your place and you will basically be stuck." Neighbor McLaughlin, whose after-work project is digging a trench to lay a water pipe from his yard to Tallman's well, agreed. "When they put in a city sewer system, all the expense and the groundwork was done and the trenches dug," McLaughlin said. "I don't understand why they didn't lay the pipe and put the water treatment plant in then. It's unfortunate." 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