"Lack of rainfall, geology bring water restrictions"

By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, August 30, 2010:

Geology contributes to regular groundwater shortage problems in the Furlong area.


In four of the last six years, Furlong residents have had to watch their water use because Buckingham officials have told them to.

Some of the residents stop watering their lawns; some don't.

Some find creative ways to keep their lawns green while reducing their water use. Joe Jegelka, a resident of Buckingham Forest and a member of the water and sewer committee, said one of his neighbors saves and stores the water that comes from his sump pump and uses it to water his lawn.

Jegelka said the restrictions don't really bother him and his family, but he knows they bother some other people. He joined the water and sewer committee soon after he moved to Furlong because he didn't understand why he and his neighbors were always being told to watch their water usage.

Now he gets it.

Furlong is in a bad position geologically.

The little village is positioned at the intersection of two faults (one called the Furlong fault because it starts there) that prevent groundwater from flowing into the area, said Rob Conway, a hydrologist and geologist from the Delaware River Basin Commission. The bedrock is also composed of small grains that slow the flow of groundwater.

And lower-than-normal levels of precipitation mean there's not much groundwater to begin with.

The Doylestown area has received 7.79 inches of rain since the beginning of June, which is about two-thirds of what the area usually gets, said AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines.

The area got 1.89 inches of rain in June (the average is 3.96 inches), 4.40 inches in July (the average is 4.46 inches) and 1.5 inches so far this month (the average is 2.71 inches), Kines reported.

Most of July's rain came in four days in the middle of the month. Buckingham water director Graham Orton said it came too fast for the ground to absorb it and ran off into streams and storm water drains.

So the standard well formations don't work as they should, as township officials discovered after several developers drilled wells that did not produce the amount of water their hydrogeologists said they would produce.

Orton said the Furlong area has seven public wells, but uses only six.

"One proved to be of no value at all," he said.

Buckingham ordered Furlong residents to restrict their water use in the summer of 2005, and imposed fines on residents who used more than 200 gallons of water per day. The township asked Furlong residents to follow voluntary water restriction guidelines in 2007 and 2008.

Buckingham asked Furlong residents a few weeks ago to follow the voluntary restrictions this summer. The township wants residents to water their lawns by bucket or a hand-held hose between the hours of 7 and 9 p.m. only every other day; turn off decorative water fountains, artificial water falls and landscape ponds; and to not top off their swimming pools. The township asked residents who are connected to the Cold Spring water system to follow the same restrictions this summer. Orton said he does not expect the restrictions to become mandatory.

Some residents are following the restrictions, but others are ignoring them - as evidenced by the occasional healthy green lawn in the Buckingham Forest, Devonshire Estates, Windsor Square, Heritage and Upper Mountain Estates communities.

Heather Jo Mangum, a resident of Buckingham Forest who maintains a website and Facebook page for the community, said she understands why people wouldn't follow the voluntary rules.

"You go and spend $600,000 on a house, you're going to want to have a decent lawn," she said.

Mangum doesn't have a sprinkling system for her house.

"But you should see our lawn," she said. "We're like the trailer trash in the neighborhood. It looks horrendous. If I could have a sprinkling system, I would have one. And I would be watering."

Mangum said her lawn has developed a fungus.

"Everybody thinks it's a diva factor where you have to water your lawn to have it look pretty, but there are environmental consequences," she said. "The grass dies and fungus can grow, and the disease can become airborne."

Mangum has been talking with township officials to try to figure out a reasonable level of water usage for a household and possible solutions for the perennial water shortage problem.

In the meantime, Buckingham has requested and received permission from the state Department of Environmental Protection to establish an emergency connection between the Furlong water system and the Buckingham Village water system. Orton said the township also began drawing water from an emergency well in the Furlong area.

The township has drilled another well for the Furlong area, which is expected to compensate for the inadequate wells.