Tulare County residents to receive weekly drought update

VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Officials in the South Valley are launching a new effort to keep people more informed on the current drought situation.

The Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency along with the Office of Emergency Services will soon start issuing a weekly drought update. It will include important information such as the number of wells that have gone dry, the number of new wells being drilled and the number of people receiving bottled water.

Officials hope the information will inspire people to conserve water.

"We're starting to see this is a prolonged issue. Even if we get copious rainfall this winter lots of folks on private wells aren't going to see their issues resolved," said Andrew Lockman with the Tulare County Office of Emergency Services. "It's important to remember that most of our community water systems, even in incorporated cities, are fed off of private wells so groundwater is an invaluable resource; it's very difficult and slow to replenish."

The weekly updates begin in October.

So far, the number of new wells being drilled in Tulare County has quadrupled since 2011.