\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wltx.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\nSouth Carolina’s severe drought has dried up a popular Lee County artesian well, with experts saying significant rainfall is needed.<\/p>\n
BISHOPVILLE, S.C. \u2014 Despite recent rainfall, state climate experts say South Carolina is still dealing with drought conditions that could continue for some time.<\/p>\n
The drought is now affecting water sources across the state, including a popular artesian well off Highway 15 in Lee County that has stopped flowing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Residents like Lonnie Scott say they have relied on the well for years. “I’ve lived here for 15 years and it’s never been dry, but I heard it might be like this so I came anyway,” Scott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n This story continues below.
<\/p>\n
David DeWitt, agronomy agent for Lee and Sumter counties with Clemson Extension, said while seeing the well dry up may surprise many people, it’s not unusual during extended dry periods.<\/p>\n
“So that’s what we’re seeing here. It’s really not that uncommon. Most people I’ve talked to haven’t heard this one run dry. But, I mean, any time that we have dry… There are other wells similar to this that it’s not as popular as this that run dry, so this has probably got a better water flow than most of ours, and that’s why people don’t remember it being dry. But it’s not that uncommon for them to go dry,” DeWitt said.<\/p>\n
Katie Collins, an area water resources agent with Clemson Extension, said artesian wells rely on naturally pressurized underground aquifers that are typically resistant to mild or moderate drought.<\/p>\n
“These artesian wells are water coming up from a deep, confined aquifer that’s naturally pressurized. So the water comes up on its own you don’t need a pump and those deep aquifers are normally not impacted by mild or moderate drought conditions. But if you get into severe drought conditions, you can see impacts on them,” Collins said.<\/p>\n
South Carolina State Climatologist Dr. Hope Mizzell said much of the state remains under significant drought conditions.<\/p>\n
“We are in the third and highest level of drought. For almost all counties, 10 counties are at the highest level of drought. Those counties that are in moderate drought are Abbeville, Anderson, Greenwood, Laurens, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Richland, Saluda and Union. All other counties are in severe drought,” Mizzell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is no timeline for when the Lee County well will begin flowing again.<\/p>\n
Collins said it will depend on how much rainfall the area receives. “It’s gonna take a significant amount of rain to see it start flowing again because the well is so deep,” Collins said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Collins said people looking for another water source can use other nearby artesian wells, including several located at Lee State Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina’s severe drought has dried up a popular Lee County artesian well, with experts saying significant rainfall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-763729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763729","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=763729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}