{"id":25371,"date":"2026-09-11T16:43:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=884840"},"modified":"2026-09-11T16:43:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:43:56","slug":"drought-stricken-south-dakota-ranchers-faced-with-drying-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/09\/11\/drought-stricken-south-dakota-ranchers-faced-with-drying-wells\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought-Stricken South Dakota Ranchers Faced With Drying Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2026\/09\/11\/884840.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2026\/09\/11\/884840.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>Each morning this summer, Gordon and Connie Howie have awoken on their cattle ranch in central Pennington County and turned on the kitchen faucet, unsure if any water will come out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t do laundry or dishes or take showers other than with a little trickle,\u201d said Connie Howie, 76. \u201cOther times we have a little water because it seems to come and go.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Like many ranchers and residents in rural areas of western South Dakota, the Howie family relies on a well to provide them with water for their lives and livelihood.<\/p>\n<p>But this year, perhaps the worst in recent memory, many shallow wells are running slow or have gone completely dry, forcing people to go to great lengths and expense to provide clean water for themselves or their livestock.<\/p>\n<p>Experts say several consecutive years of limited winter snow pack and a shortage of rainfall have combined with increased consumption of water to cause a decrease in the levels of some underground aquifers that are a main source of water for a large swath of the Black Hills region. The problem is most acute in areas outside the reach of pipes from municipal and rural water systems.<\/p>\n<p>High heat during the summer of 2026 has exacerbated the problem as people, crops and animals all require more water than usual to survive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a well at the house, but it\u2019s just not keeping up because the aquifer is dry,\u201d said Gordon Howie. \u201cFor 20 years you could trust that well 24\/7, and it never quit on us, but now it\u2019s not providing enough water for everything we need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Howies are buying bottled water for drinking and positioning jugs of fresh water throughout the house for daily uses. On a recent day in late August, the couple hauled a trailer to a public-access water station in Rapid City and spent $17 to fill a 1,300-gallon tank they use to keep their 150 Texas longhorn cattle alive on their ranch in Caputa, about 10 miles southeast of Rapid City Regional Airport.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve lived here my whole life and I\u2019ve never seen it this dry, this hot, this long,\u201d said Gordon Howie, who served in the Legislature from 2009-2011 and ran for governor in 2010. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen some drought, but this is the worst one I can remember, and I\u2019m 77 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Self-serve water sources aiding those in need<\/h4>\n<p>All across the plains of western South Dakota, some residents who rely on shallow wells \u2014 generally 1,000 feet deep or less \u2014 are being forced to find alternative water sources.<\/p>\n<p>Some are utilizing a somewhat obscure system of obtaining water in which users insert quarters or bills into a vending machine that triggers a hanging water spout to provide fresh water that is collected in tanks in pickups or on trailers. Such water stations are available in Black Hawk, Deadwood, Piedmont, Rapid City, Spearfish and Sturgis.<\/p>\n<p>Those self-serve water stations are much busier than usual this summer, particularly in Rapid City, where the spout at J&amp;J Asphalt is the only bulk water available in town and is often accessible only after a long wait.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody is hauling water these days,\u201d said Nick Randall, shop foreman at J&amp;J Asphalt, whose shop and water station are located in an industrial area off Dyess Avenue.<\/p>\n<p>Randall said the asphalt company built the water station for its own trucks that use water on paving jobs but decided to make a few extra bucks by selling it through the self-serve system.<\/p>\n<p>Until this year, there were three or four places to buy bulk water in Rapid City.<\/p>\n<p>But now J&amp;J \u2014 which provides water it obtains from the Rapid City municipal system \u2014 is the only public-access spigot still flowing.<\/p>\n<p>Lately, the long line of trucks and trailers at the spigot has caused some inconvenience for the business, Randall said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome days, there\u2019s so many people lined up that we can\u2019t get our own trucks in and out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ralph Bifulco, 62, drives his pickup with a water tank in the back to J&amp;J Asphalt every day to spend $7.50 to fill most of the 550-gallon tank with drinkable water.<\/p>\n<p>Bifulco lives in the Ashland Heights community southwest of Ellsworth Air Force Base, where soil, surface water and groundwater have been contaminated by toxic chemicals produced by base activities.<\/p>\n<p>The area has been declared an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. Despite significant cleanup and remedial activities, drinking water wells near the base were found in 2016 to be contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the so-called forever chemicals used in firefighting foam, according to the EPA.<\/p>\n<p>Bifulco said he needs the water from J&amp;J for all everyday activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got no clean water for anything,\u201d said Bifulco. \u201cIf you can\u2019t drink it, why would you shower or wash your clothes in it?\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Water hauler having a busy summer season<\/h4>\n<p>Many rural residents have clean water delivered by truck, which requires planning and expense.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses such as Frontier Water in Rapid City are extremely busy this summer. It uses three trucks to carry up to 2,500 gallons per load to residences and ranches across the Black Hills region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith all these shallow wells going dry, it\u2019s really boosted my business,\u201d said Darin Klapperich, the owner of Frontier who also ranches northwest of Rapid City.<\/p>\n<p>Klapperich gathers purified fresh water from municipal systems across the Black Hills and delivers it to anyone for any reason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom swimming pools to hot tubs to cattle to cisterns, if you want to pay the freight, then I\u2019m your man,\u201d he boasts.<\/p>\n<p>But this summer, the majority of his runs are to provide drinking water for people and cattle.<\/p>\n<p>On arrival, the water is dumped into a cattle tank or a holding tank for household use. At some locations, he fills underground concrete cisterns people use to store water on their properties and occasionally drains the water into a well to fill it part way, Klapperich said.<\/p>\n<p>An average household uses about 150 to 200 gallons of water per day, but many rural residents are finding ways to reduce daily usage during the drought, Klapperich said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have a shallow well, you\u2019re kind of in trouble. But it\u2019s been amazing to see all the tricks people are using to conserve water right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Concerns over long-range aquifer depletion<\/h4>\n<p>While large, deep-water Black Hills aquifers such as the Madison, Minnelusa, Inyan Kara are lower in volume but still providing sufficient supplies of water, many smaller, shallower aquifers tapped by individual users of the aquifer are dry or getting close. Even some wells that don\u2019t go deep enough into the large aquifers could be seeing reduced flows.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Anderson, an adjunct geology professor at South Dakota Mines and a former director with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the Black Hills region is in the midst of a precipitation shortage that is preventing underground aquifers from recharging as fast or as much as usual.<\/p>\n<p>Combined with the large number of wells being drilled, the lack of rain and snow is causing concern about the long-term ability of aquifers to recharge enough to meet the needs of a growing population, Anderson said.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sdnewswatch.org\/black-hills-water-study-missouri-river-pipeline\/\">reported by News Watch<\/a>, that concern was highlighted in a recent USGS study showing that water use within some of the six \u201csub-aquifers\u201d in the Black Hills is outpacing the rate at which the aquifers are refilling.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson, who now serves as a water consultant, said he is working with a client who recently drilled two new wells up to 1,000 feet deep and did not find sufficient water to justify completion of the well. It is unknown if drought or poor location was the cause, but Anderson noted that some monitoring wells around the Black Hills are indicating lower levels in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we\u2019ve had years of successive below average precipitation, wells have demonstrated significant water level decline,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThis past year has been remarkable with the warm temperatures in the Black Hills with very little snow or rain.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">An expensive but necessary project<\/h4>\n<p>To avoid future dry spells, the Howies plan to drill a new, deeper well to replace the 30-foot well that has run dry. The couple will continue to use a reverse osmosis system in the house to purify the well water for drinking and other uses.<\/p>\n<p>Before picking a site for the new well, the couple has hired a \u201cwitcher\u201d who will use divining rods in hopes of identifying underground water in a process known as dowsing.<\/p>\n<p>Gordon Howie said he expects a sizable bill for the project, with well drilling costing about $100 per foot and possibly a new pump ranging from $20,000 to $50,000.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, he\u2019ll continue his twice-weekly water-gathering ritual, positioning his trailer below the J&amp;J spigot, climbing a ladder to connect an extension pipe to the spout, unfurling bills into the payment slot and filling the tank on his trailer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI let every last dribble go in, because those cattle have got to have water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>This story was originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sdnewswatch.org\/\">South Dakota News Watch<\/a> and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"884840\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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