{"id":568628,"date":"2026-04-06T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/568628\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:02:08","slug":"will-my-well-go-dry-coalition-rolls-out-groundwater-public-information-campaign-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/568628\/","title":{"rendered":"Will My Well Go Dry? Coalition Rolls out Groundwater Public Information Campaign | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last fall, the Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition issued an assessment documenting the decline in groundwater levels<\/a> over the past several decades. Starting this week, the organization will begin a series of public presentations to discuss the implications of that trend.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cWill My Well Go Dry,\u201d the programs kick off tonight at Woodgrove High School, starting at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Coalition Chair Maura Walsh-Copeland said the release of the groundwater study was intended to raise awareness of the trends and the community outreach effort marks the beginning of a public education phase. The goal is to provide organizations and individuals with the information they need to support advocacy efforts.<\/p>\n

Already, the coalition\u2019s work has helped spur an effort at the state<\/a> and local<\/a> levels to invest more in groundwater monitoring.<\/p>\n

Those programs will provide long-term input to guide future policies, but what should businesses and individuals be doing today?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe titled the presentation \u2018Will My Well Go Dry?\u2019 There are a lot of people who are genuinely concerned,\u201d said John Ellis, who will be one of the presenters during the talks. \u201cAnecdotally, there are lots of stories about streams that have gone dry or ponds that have gone dry, and there actually, actually have been a lot of wells that have been replaced and things like that. I think it just floats around in the community, the western Loudoun community, that we can’t survive without groundwater, and if there’s a question about the sustainability of our wells, it’s pretty much existential. Our properties, our businesses depend on that groundwater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh-Copeland said the focus will be on what can be done to better protect water resources rather than what should have been done before.<\/p>\n

Gem Bingol, who also will be presenting during the sessions, also chairs the county\u2019s Environmental Committee, which has been developing new recommendations for the Board of Supervisors to consider later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe education piece, obviously, is that we’re all responsible to some extent for our own future. I think people are aware that they’re on a limited resource, but when you don’t see it and you use it,\u201d Bingol said. \u201cDo you know when it’s going to end? Do you know if you’re using too much? All of those questions are sort of within your own scope of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis, a co-founder of Save Rural Loudoun who ran as an independent for the Board of Supervisors in 2023, said he sees lessons in the county\u2019s experience with data centers that should not be repeated with groundwater.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe county got blindsided by the data centers and their energy demands and their water demands,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWe had all this encouragement for that kind of development without prior thought about whether enough energy was available and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the water needs of the towns, along with large projects like the proposed Valley Commerce Center and the county\u2019s Western Loudoun Recreation Center, the demands add up quickly, as do questions about whether that water will be available, he said.<\/p>\n

Bingol said this was not just a local concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not just Loudoun. Groundwater is an issue across the nation, across the state, that we are really exceeding the amount of groundwater in the ground in our withdrawals, and you’ve heard it, I’m sure, that water is going to be the new oil, although maybe not right this minute. But water is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who attend the community workshops will learn more about how groundwater is created, stored, and extracted; the impact that wells and groups of wells have on groundwater levels; factors that limit recharge of aquifers; the effects that years-long drought conditions have had; and conservation steps that homeowners and businesses can take to be better stewards of groundwater.<\/p>\n

The programs will be held:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0April 6 at Woodgrove High School starting at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0April 13 at the Lucketts Community Center starting at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0April 20 at the Middleburg American Legion Post starting at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Learn more at loudouncoalition.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last fall, the Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition issued an assessment documenting the decline in groundwater levels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,75767,3,79],"class_list":["post-568628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-loudoun","tag-news","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568628","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=568628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}