Maine rivers hit record lows and wells run dry as drought tightens grip on state

By Elizabeth Walztoni, Bangor Daily News Staff

Numerous rivers in eastern and northern Maine have dropped to record low levels this month or are approaching them as the driest conditions in the state in more than 20 years keep getting worse.

Bodies of water are low in Aroostook, Penobscot and Washington counties, the National Weather Service’s Caribou office said Sunday.

Below the surface, groundwater is also depleted. Wells are running dry around the state, with the 439 reported so far easily outpacing numbers from recent years, including Maine’s last drought in 2022, when 95 wells went dry, according to data reported to the state.

Conditions are now drier than Dixmont-based well driller Trevor Gould or his father, who started in the business in 1972 but is now retired, can remember.

“He’s amazed how dry it is, I’m amazed how dry it is,” the younger Gould said, describing dirt that feels like powder in dug trenches and is as impermeable as concrete at the surface. “It’s ridiculous.”

Almost 75 percent of the state is now in severe or extreme drought after the sixth driest summer on record, according to the National Drought Monitor, and the rest — primarily northern counties — is in moderate drought. Nearly all of Oxford, Franklin, Waldo, Hancock and Washington counties are in extreme drought, according to the site.

The Upper St. John River in Aroostook County, the St. Francis River along the New Brunswick border and the Mattawamkeag River in Penobscot County are seeing the lowest flows since records have been kept, which range from 73 to 90 years for those bodies of water, according to the weather service. 

So are the north branch of the Penobscot River in Rockwood, near Quebec, and Libby Brook in Northfield, though records there don’t go back as far, the service said. 

Nearly the entire Piscataquis River is close to its lowest flow in 123 years of recorded history, as is the Penobscot River at West Enfield, though it is heavily controlled by a dam. 

In Cherryfield, the Narraguagus River is also approaching its lowest flow in 77 years, according to the weather service. That has reduced fish passage and access to habitat for young Atlantic salmon, the Department of Marine Resources reported to the state drought task force earlier this month.

Below the surface, hundreds of wells have gone dry around the state; 55 percent of Mainers used private wells for their drinking water in 2023, according to the latest state data available. A voluntary site run by the Maine Emergency Management Agency listed 439 dry wells this year as of Monday. The majority are in Oxford County, followed by Somerset, Franklin and Cumberland counties.

That data is self-reported and depends on people knowing about the site, the drought task force said earlier this month, so it is possible that the problem has been more widespread than the data on the site suggests.

But companies that drill deep wells, in place of shallower dug ones, are facing more demand for their services this season. Carmel Well Drilling, which serves greater Bangor and beyond, has seen a 30 to 40 percent increase in calls this year from people who are out of water or running dry, according to owner Kevin Holland. 

The company is seeing a large volume of work that he also attributes in part to a shortage of water well drillers. 

A new drilled well can range from $6,000 to $12,000, several Bangor-area drillers said. 

Maine’s most recent major drought was in 2001 and 2002, when around 17,000 private wells dried up, crops suffered millions of dollars of damage and eventually millions of dollars worth of upgrades were spent on water mains and connection points, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. 

Rainfall is predicted in northern and eastern Maine this week, but isn’t expected to make a dent in drought conditions, according to the weather service; it would take 10 to 15 inches of slow, steady rain to do that before the ground freezes.