Water, water, everywhere …

And not a drop to drink. (From Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner)

This quote describes the past two days at our house, after our well stopped working. At around 5 pm on Sunday, Les announced that there was no water coming out of the taps.

Our first thought was that maybe there had been a power outage or dip; when that happens, the pump has to be manually restarted, as we learned the hard way a few weeks ago. (The hard way involves panic, followed by googling.) But no, all the electrical stuff was working fine, and we could not restart the pump. An unpleasant smell was starting to permeate the basement, and we had exhausted all our knowledge about how wells work. It was time to panic.

The worst case scenario immediately popped into my head. What if the well is dry? It’s a drilled well, which means that it reaches quite far underground to the water table, as opposed to a dug well, which is closer to the surface. Drilled wells are reliable, but we are in the middle of a drought here. People are saying that they have never seen it so dry. This is Newfoundland, FFS! Droughts don’t happen here!

But climate change has shifted everything, especially this year it seems. Towns setting high temperature records and then spontaneously combusting. Germans watching their Volkswagens float down the street. Wildfires seemingly everywhere. All bets are off. Drought in Newfoundland? Sure, why not?!

We wondered, if our well is dry, what can we do? Can you just drill further down? Can you pick a different spot? Or are you basically up Schitt’s Creek? The thought of being unable to rely on a steady supply of water was frightening. Sure, you can do it for a few days, no problem, but as a permanent state? I thought about how Indigenous communities in Canada have had to deal with this for decades.

We called a well installation and maintenance company on Sunday evening. Darlene answered my call while having dinner at The Keg in St John’s. She didn’t seem to mind that her meal was being interrupted. I told her what had happened. She asked how many horsepower our pump is; I couldn’t tell her. She asked how deep the well is; I couldn’t tell her that either. She took my details and said that she would be able to come out on Tuesday. I thanked her profusely.

Meanwhile, we bought some water, peed in a bucket, went out for dinner, and tried to carry on as if everything was normal. Then I read about a NASA study that says the moon is going to wobble in a way that will significantly increase tides over the next decade. Thanks NASA.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Darlene came on Tuesday as promised and found the problem right away – the bladder in our pressure tank wasn’t working and so the whole system had shut down. She replaced the pressure tank and the two control boxes that accompany it, and our water was restored. She assured us that our well is very unlikely to dry up, but did suggest that we should have the water tested for bacteria, and took a water sample to submit to the Public Health Laboratory.

So, things are back to normal in our house. But climate change is happening, and more and more people are vulnerable or feeling vulnerable. I felt briefly vulnerable, although really, I have very little to worry about. Yet.