I don't know, myself. I offer it only as opinion. I think more than anything, it's a product of instantaneous overwhelming information. It's so easy for everybody to shout doom and gloom from mountaintops, even as they never leave the bottom of their valley.
I'm pretty sure groundwater really doesn't correlate with surface water, though. At least in our geology around here. I have more well water than people just 1/2 a mile away and 400' lower than me. And I know where there is quite a bit of land within a few miles of me that hasn't been developed because they can't find water, but can see creeks.
While it should be recorded like WS said, sometimes it's hard to figure out. My well was drilled after Washington "required" drillers to file well logs, but the address is iffy. I'm pretty sure it's mine, but it could easily be off. My well is pretty shallow if i found the right log, 76 feet, and pretty low flow, and full of arsenic to boot. I have a 1000 gallon in ground tank and a $2800 filter, so we're good to go. I hope. What I was told is that it recharges slowly, but hasn't ever gone dry since it was drilled in the '70s. As far as anyone that knows can remember, anyway.
Hey! Just slow down, you have an El Nino winter coming soon.
