Water wells drying up in Jasper Co.

JASPER COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - One dry well after another. For the past month, residential water wells in the small town of Parr, Indiana continue to dry up, leaving families like the Lakin's without running water.

"We've been out of water since Saturday," resident, Marcy Lakin said.

"It was an eye opener yesterday when I went to take my pills in the morning and had no water," resident, Rick Brunton said.

"I've had 10 or 15 people call me just this weekend saying they don't have water," Union Township Trustee, Terry Swartz said.

Parr residents and town officials said while they know the drought has played a major role in their wells drying up, they believe irrigation systems used by large dairy farms, like Fair Oaks Farms, also play a big part.

"These big irrigation systems are sucking wells dry," Brunton said.

Sucking wells dry and now the Department of Natural Resources has stepped in to find some answers.

"I don't think there's any doubt that there's a substantial lowering of ground water levels in the Bedrock aquifer system. We'll be looking mainly at those wells drilled into that. That's where the predominant usage from the irrigators in the area is coming from," Basch said.

In a town of less than 200 people, dozens who are without water can't even do simple everyday chores like wash dishes or do laundry.

Meanwhile, Gary Corbett, CEO of Fair Oaks Farms said as soon as they learned Monday of residents' wells drying up, they immediately stopped their irrigation systems which is used to water roughly 5,000 acres of crops everyday.

"We immediately stopped our irrigation systems and contacted the DNR right away," Corbett said.

But while some residents who still have water call themselves "lucky," at least for now, other families like the Lakin's aren't so lucky. So for now, while their dog Coco enjoys leftover water from Tuesday morning's rain, the family said they'll just have to sit and wait for some answers.