SUMMERDALE — It seems the town of Summerdale’s efforts to dig a new water well have hit a dry spell.

During Tuesday’s Summerdale Council workshop, Mayor David Wilson announced that despite prior testing, the well that was intended as a replacement water source for the town is not producing water at the needed levels. Instead,  it appears to be running dry.

“So we’re going to have to start this process all over again,” he said at the workshop.

It also means financial repercussions.

“The $140,000 we spent for the new hole is lost,” Wilson said, “and we’ve driven several test-wells at $50,000 apiece.”

The mayor told Summerdale Public Works Director Lee Irwin at the workshop that geologist Dan O’Donnell and Griner Drilling had been notified that all work on the current project had been ceased. He also advised the council to consider both a new geologist and engineer to handle the next attempt.

“Y’all take these words very clear,” Wilson told those attending the workshop. “Their words were, ‘We’ve never seen a dry hole in Baldwin County.’”

As previously reported, the new 275-foot-deep well had been set to be located on Davis, north of its predecessor. The geologist’s positive test results last July led town officials to proceed with work, with water supply anticipated to be running by Halloween. However, ongoing efforts to get the well pumping at least 500 gallons of water per minute have not been achieved. Instead, Wilson said, the well seems to go dry.

Summerdale Public Works Director Lee Irwin explained that once water is tapped in a well, a certain amount is expected to recede back into the ground.

“But this well continued to draw down like the pump was running,” he told the Council.

Tuesday’s consensus was that Griner was not responsible for the debacle.

“The geologist is key,” Wilson said.

“I think we need to try somebody else,” Councilman Miles Bishop said.

Summerdale’s new well is intended to replace Summerdale’s current well, which was shut down when Alabama Department of Environmental Management testing deemed it necessary last spring. At that time, the town began purchasing water from neighboring utilities.

In August, the Summerdale Town Council awarded a $304,040 contract to drill the new well to Griner Drilling with funding from an ADEM grant. In September, the Summerdale Town Council approved geology work on the project to O’Donnell for $22,400, who has been involved with the endeavor since it began.

Councilwoman Norma Wilson Giles asked whether the town was insured for the financial loss.

“No,” Wilson replied. “You can’t bind insurance on something like that.”

But Wilson did provide some good news.

“The good news is that there is a $350,000 CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) with an 80/20 match available from ADEM,” he said at Tuesday’s workshop. “We would pay $75,000, and we still have that amount left in the amount we borrowed.”

Further discussion resulted in the Council agreeing to apply for the grant and begin looking for a new one-acre lot that would be suitable to house a new well.

“We’ll first look at sites that we already own before we try to go and buy land,” Wilson said.

The Council agreed to hold a special workshop to further discuss the matter.