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The Piedmont Sole Source Aquifer of central Maryland covers roughly a 130 square-mile area , outlined in green on the map . In 1998 , the delineation was extended to include the area around Poolesville . The federal sole source aquifer designation aims to provide a layer of protection for this irreplaceable resource . Groundwater supplies nearly 50 % of the nation ’ s drinking water ; the volume of groundwater in storage is decreasing in many areas of the United States in response to pumping , however .
When we dug our well in 2017 , I was hoping to get roughly 20 gallons per minute , which is what I had at the farm I rented in Boyds . That well was 200 ’ and I had tons of water . We moved to our current location , and I asked them to stop digging at 200 ’ to see how much water we got . It was 2 gpm — way too little for me to run my farm ! We kept drilling until we got to about 600 ’. At that point , I was fully panicking because of the cost of the drilling and the increased size of the pump required since we were so deep . As we waited to hear how much more water all that drilling got us , I about died when I learned the answer — still the same 2 lousy gpm !!! Thankfully , I have a pond , otherwise I don ’ t know what I would do trying to irrigate 6 acres of produce .
- michael protas , one acre farm plenty I spring sowing 2024 5