RUMFORD — Cindi and Roland Milligan say they have always watched the water supply coming from the 20-foot well in their yard.
They have lived on Isthmus Road in Rumford for 31 years and have never had their dug well go dry.
Until now.
“We’ve been low before but never run out of water,” Cindi said.
In 1987 the Milligans experienced the effects of a low-water table, but they didn’t completely run out.
“The rain keeps stalling out on us; we get maybe an hour or two but we need days,” Roland said.
At first, their neighbor and son Craig ran out of water, but he was able to dig his own well deeper to get more water. Then at the beginning of August, the effects of the lack of rain were seen in their well and they began to conserve water by flushing the toilet only twice a day and carrying water from their son’s home.
“Now I go to the laundromat twice a week, we use paper and plastic (for eating and drinking), and we’re baking instead of frying; you line a cooking sheet,” Cindi said. She tries to use as few dishes as possible and they go out to eat often lately.
Recently she bought a camp shower, filling the 5-gallon bag with hot water and hanging it in the shower.
Her son and his two small children have also been coming over to use it.
“With no rain the water table is going down,” Roland said. The area that the Milligans live in is part of the Scottie’s Brook wellhead protection area. It’s Rumford’s secondary wellhead water supply, he said.
The town’s primary water supply is around Milligan Well (no relation) on Route 5. It’s being considered as a possible source for Poland Spring Water Co., a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North America.
The Milligans think the water extraction would have a negative impact on the town’s supply.
“When you see that about Nestle coming in with about 70 trucks a day, I don’t know if that’s just a rumor, but I’m sure it’s going to be a substantial amount of trucks that are going to pump out, and that’s Rumford’s main water supply that they’re going to be pumping out of,” Cindi said.
“We’re just us on our little spot right here, but when the water table goes down it goes down everywhere. What’s going to recover it? Like this year, what would recover it?” she asked.
mhutchinson@sunmediagroup.net
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