To the Editor,

This letter is about the water situation on the island. As the Nantucket Waterkeeper, I measure the water levels in our aquifer every month (a half-century tradition of the Nantucket Land & Water Council) at ten wells across the island from ’Sconset to Madaket. These wells are simply metal or pvc pipes installed just far enough below the surface to reach and measure the ups and downs of our aquifer. This data is used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Mass Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). It's also available to the public on USGS’s website- The exact well used to determine if we’re in a drought or not is well #228. You’ll notice that it continues to trend downward. With the exception of two very shallow wells in Madaket which have shown some recovery from recent rain, the other seven wells across the island continue to trend downward.

Nature provided Nantucket with a big, beautiful  “bank account” of fresh water beneath our feet. The principal deposit was made into this bank account some fifteen thousand years ago by a glacier, and nearly every year since, the Grey Lady has collected interest. The interest consists mostly of precipitation in the form of rain- an average of forty-ish inches per year. As our population has grown, we have continued to skim off the top to pay for our lifestyle. However, now our seasonal population has multiplied twenty-fold, and it isn’t raining as much in recent years as it did in the past, so we’re officially at risk of dipping into the principal. Groundwater is retreating farther from the surface- those who live near one of the little ponds like Crosby or Quaise or Pout, which have gone dry, can see this with their own eyes. There is no telling how far into the future the drought will extend, and no way to know how long before we will have more serious issues arise such as shallow wells running dry.

At present, there is no way to control how a private residential well is used, drought or not, so Wannacomet Water Company has been proposing a more representative way to measure the status of our aquifer that does not rely solely on well #228. Until the DEP’s opinion comes back, the best management practices as outlined in the Drought Management Plan should be followed by all. While there is debate over how to classify our drought, one thing is certain- we have less water than we did last month. Seven or eight inches of rain may be a lot for June, but we’re still very much on the wrong side of the ledger.

While it is true (as noted in recent media coverage) that we have a significant reserve of groundwater, operating under the assumption that "we have plenty of water" minimizes the profound fragility of this isolated resource. If your annual income was dwindling, would you simply continue to draw down on the principal in your account at the same pace, with no thought for the future? If the dry conditions experienced over the last two years persist or represent a new normal, maintaining our current consumption habits poses legitimate risks to long-term recharge and aquifer recovery—begging the question of whether we must wait for a crisis to react. 

Heavy landscape irrigation -whether it is by private well or drawing from Town water- directly exacerbates our issues. Rather than continuing with business-as-usual, we, as a community, need to recognize that the drought is having an impact (we can see it in the groundwater level data), and responsibly steward our shared resource by collectively shifting toward sustainable land care, using native plants, and conserving what remains. Protecting this island’s most precious resource requires proactive stewardship today, rather than reactive emergency measures tomorrow. 



If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me at the Nantucket Land & Water Council. I’d love to talk to you about it. Or, if you would like to join me on an upcoming well-monitoring round next month and see for yourself, please let me know. All are welcome. Call or email anytime. 

Sincerely,

RJ Turcotte

Nantucket Waterkeeper
Nantucket Land & Water Council

rj@nantucketlandwater.org | 508.228.2818