In 1798, the poet Samuel Coleridge described what it was like to be a sailor becalmed at sea, dying for lack of freshwater.
“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink” has become a cliché for the torture of being surrounded by what you need, but in a useless form.
We think of our world as the “blue planet,” simply awash in water: lakes, rivers, streams, and especially oceans, whose depth and expanse are beyond human imagining.
Yet of all that water, only the tiniest portion — less than 3 percent — is freshwater, the kind we and every known living thing needs.
And even most of that isn’t accessible: it’s frozen in glaciers and ice caps, or way too deep to reach.
Which leaves just seven-thousands of one percent of Earth’s water that is fresh, liquid, and accessible enough to drink.
That’s 0.007 percent — hard to get your head around here, where we are surrounded by water wherever we turn.
Most of us in the watershed of the Brodhead Creek rely on wells for our drinking water — community wells, private wells, or wells operated by water companies.
Some homeowners think they have their “own” well water, and even imagine it to be like an old-fashioned wishing well, where the water sits at the bottom, belonging to them and to them only.
Nope. Wellwater mostly comes from local, shared aquifers.
In other words, hundreds (or even hundreds of thousands) of wells draw from the same source.
That’s why insufficient rainfall or winter snow in some areas can affect people throughout the watershed.
The last time many wells went dry was the 1999 drought.
But as lately as November 2024, moderate drought conditions also caused some wells to fail.
As another, more recent, poet put it, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…”
Keeping drinking water pure, safe, and abundant is in everyone’s best interest. And that’s what BWA is all about.
What is an aquifer, anyway?
Aquifers are porous, subsurface layers of sand, gravel, rock and soil that can store water. Water flows through aquifers and can be drawn from them by wells.
Crucially, aquifers must have sources of “recharge” — ways to replace water as it passes through or is used, such as regular rains and snowmelt.
Visit the Brodhead Water At Risk webpage for more articles in this series.
The Brodhead Watershed Association protects water quality and quantity throughout our area. Get involved! Become a member!
Related Articles This Week:
-- Chesapeake Bay Watershed Executive Council Approves Revised Restoration Agreement; Gov. Shapiro Elected Chair [PaEN]
-- DEP Signs Agreement To Resolve Water Pollution Violations At US Steel Irvin Plant In Allegheny County Following Citizen Complaints; $135,000 Penalty Assessed [PaEN]
-- DEP Awards $168,000 In Lake Erie Coastal Zone Grants, $580,000 In Delaware Estuary Coastal Zone Grants To Protect And Restore Coastal Resources [PaEN]
-- Natural Resources Conservation Service-PA: Emergency Watershed Protection Program Helps Northern PA Residents After Tropical Storm Debby [PaEN]
-- Water At Risk: Why Brodhead Watershed Association Exists In Monroe County And Deserves Your Support - By Carol Hillestad for Brodhead Watershed Association [PaEN]
-- Protecting Clean Water Together: Your Small Choices Matter - By Carol Hillestad for Brodhead Watershed Association, Monroe County [PaEN]
NewsClips:
-- PA Capital-Star: Chesapeake Bay Executive Council Poised To Study Inclusion Of Recognized Native American Tribes
-- The Citizens Voice: Eastern PA Coalition For Abandoned Mine Reclamation Receives Grant To Protect, Restore Local Watersheds [PDF of Article]
-- StateCollege.com: Centre Conservation District Presents Farm Conservation Awards
-- TribLive: Greensburg Signs Most Easements For Northmont Flood Control Project In Westmoreland
-- City & State PA: Private Acquisition Of Municipal Water/Wastewater Systems Is Under New Spotlight As America Water - Essential Utilities Water Company Giants Plan To Merge
[Posted: December 1, 2025] PA Environment Digest
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