Entirety of Southwest Florida under extreme drought, worst conditions in 25 years<\/a><\/p>\nRain fell on and off in Northeast Cape Coral for a couple of hours on Monday, helping dry lawns for now. But neighbors say a brief shower does not address the bigger issue: drought conditions and the long-term health of the area\u2019s groundwater supply.<\/p>\n
In many parts of Cape Coral, thousands of homes rely on private wells that draw water directly from the aquifer underground.<\/p>\n
Longtime Cape Coral homeowner **Kevin Morrissey** says that makes water concerns more than just a landscaping issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to eat, you got to shower, hygiene, medical, everything,\u201d Morrissey said.<\/p>\n
For some homeowners, the solution has been digging deeper wells. Morrissey\u2019s neighbor, Tenya Rourke, says her well reaches about 190 feet underground.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur well is about 190 feet deep, so I don\u2019t have any water issues,\u201d Rourke said.<\/p>\n
Even so, both residents say rapid growth around them raises questions about the future of the water supply.<\/p>\n
Construction continues across the neighborhood, with new homes going up nearby and a larger subdivision planned about a mile away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no problem with the water. I\u2019m a little leery with all the people building houses, but right now, I don\u2019t have any problems,\u201d Rourke said.<\/p>\n
Morrissey says that kind of growth worries him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big subdivision being built about a mile away. I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to fund one,\u201d Morrissey said.<\/p>\n
The City of Cape Coral has already issued a water shortage notice in parts of the city.<\/p>\n
For Morrissey, the combination of new development and water restrictions is confusing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m selling you a house, okay, you have water, and then the City of Cape Coral says, \u2018Well, you can\u2019t use the water.\u2019 I\u2019d go to jail. City of Cape Coral still building houses and telling us not to use water, but that\u2019s okay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Residents say the issue ultimately comes down to a basic need.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in trouble. No water. There\u2019s no \u2014 we can\u2019t live without water,\u201d Morrissey said.<\/p>\n
WINK News contacted the City of Cape Coral to ask about current aquifer levels and how they compare to previous years. City officials say they are gathering that information and expect to have updated numbers soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla.\u2014As Cape Coral continues to grow, some residents are taking a closer look at where their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[27563,192,23499,79],"class_list":["post-509196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-collaborator_gen_stories","tag-environment","tag-lee","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}