I hope you plan on being at the Ruhenstroth Water Planning Steering Committee meeting 7 p.m. today at the Ruhenstroth Volunteer Fire Department on Pinto Circle. The committee members have been working hard to provide us with options and information on our water situation, both for the present as well as for the future.
Many residents have had to redrill their wells because the water table has dropped so low that their pumps could no longer raise the water. Many more are facing the very real possibility that they will have to drill another well or at least drill their present one deeper which can be quite costly. With the unpredictability of snowfall and rainfall to replenish the underground water sources, we need to be looking at our options so we are prepared in case the aquifer water level drops so low that our wells can no longer provide us with water.
If you have not already done so, why not take a few minutes and visit the Web site for the committee at www.geocities.com/ruhenstrothwater. There is valuable information about our particular water situation that will help us understand the challenges we face.
Neighbor Gary Swift was instrumental in getting the Web site formed and has posted the minutes for each of the committee's meeting for us to review. The minutes of the Feb. 6 meeting were just posted.
At that meeting, the committee finalized the mission statement as "an ad hoc group of proactive Ruhenstroth residents concerned about the current and future health and availability of the aquifers that supply water to the Ruhenstroth community. Our first goal is to collect, monitor and collate aquifer data, and to provide this information to Ruhenstroth residents and county officials. Our second goal is to identify the various water resource conservation and development options available to ensure the long term viability of the Ruhenstroth residential community water."
This is your chance to meet the committee members and ask the questions that are important to you. Hope to see you there.
Have you felt the earthquakes that we have been having over the past month or so? While they are not even close to the 6.0 that struck Wells, they are quite consistently registering 2.1 every few weeks.
The one on Jan. 12 occurred at 3:50 a.m. and I bet most people slept through it. Our daughter, Shannon, heard pictures on the wall in her room rattling and her cat got up to look around. There was another one on Feb. 22 at 9:31 a.m. The map shows them occurring in the hills just south of our neighborhood.
There are maps of the area at quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/faultmaps. The Web site has valuable information on recent seismic activity and even has an area to enter one that you may have felt but has not been entered into their database.
Did you know that Alaska has the most earthquakes per year in the United States? California comes in second while Nevada is third for those registering more than 5.0. If you are looking at the numbers for smaller quakes (less than 3.5), Hawaii would be in third place. For anyone interested in purchasing a Richter scale to measure the tremors in your area, you can stop looking. It is not a thing but a mathematical formula. Who knew?
Have a ramblin' good week.
-- To reach Gail Davis, e-mail RuhenstrothRamblings@yahoo.com or call 265-1947.
