Somewhere, there is water under ground.

But the water that charged the wells of people living in part of Menifee is gone, and no one seems to know why.

In the past few months, at least a dozen homeowners in the rural tract south of Garboni Road between Antelope and Briggs roads, and other surrounding landowners, have watched helplessly as their once-plentiful wells, drilled deep into the fractured bedrock, have been reduced to a trickle or gone dry.

A number of residents wonder whether the Metropolitan Water District's massive Domenigoni Valley reservoir project a few miles to the east -- a project that stopped the natural underground flow of water, district officials say -- is the problem, or if a lack of rain and constant pumping have finally taken their toll.

Don Owen, an MWD board member, played down any connection between the dam project and the dry wells.

"There's no obvious way that could happen," he said.

Whatever the reason, the grass is brown and brittle, and fruit trees are being left to die, including about 2,700 in one orchard.

Several options are available to the residents, but most are time-consuming and could cost hundreds and thousands of dollars, they said. These include trucking in water for now, hoping for rain to eventually recharge the wells; wild-catting new wells; hooking up to city water; or trying prove their wells have been destroyed by the reservoir project or other recent construction.

The worst possible option, they said, is to watch as their now-waterless homes become uninhabitable and worthless.

"I would probably lock up and move to town," said resident Carl Seedborg, adding that without water, the area could become a ghost town. "Really, it would make all of this land worthless."

Those who have lost all or most of their water know they must make potentially life-altering decisions within the next few months. Residents who still have water are wondering how soon, if ever, they will face their neighbors' fate.

"We're really watching it," said Margaret Abbott, who uses the water her home still has to care for horses and rescued dogs. "We have our fingers crossed, and we're praying."

Difficult choices

Fred and Jeanne Hallock drilled three new wells on their property after their original well went dry a few weeks ago.

After two dry holes, a 200-foot well came in last week on the Hallock's property, bringing some relief to the couple but leaving lingering doubts.

"I guess we're lucky," Jeanne Hallock said. "But for how long, we don't know. I've never been put in that situation before, where water is so crucial. When you have water, you just don't think about it."

The new well is producing 12 gallons per minute, enough to get by, but it is a third less water than their old well produced.

The Hallocks consider themselves lucky. Other neighbors have not been so fortunate.

"We have to choose between fresh vegetables and showering," said Kim Sterba. "We're remodeling and left our landscaping to last. Obviously, we're not going to do that now. We're going to have to choose between the hardwood floors and a storage tank."

Two weeks ago, the Sterbas' well slowed to a 1- or 2 gallon-per-minute trickle. The minimum needed to legally sell a home with well water in California is 6 gallons per minute.

The family has begun staggering showers and taking laundry to a Laundromat to make sure they and their animals have enough water.

"We're so afraid now," Sterba said.

Closer to the dam project is Bill Rivers, owner of Movieland Animals. His property sits off Holland Road, between the dry-well area and the dam. Rivers has water buffalo, camels, and chimps that he rents out for television shows and such. One of his wells has gone dry in the past year, and production from a second well has dropped by more than two-thirds, down to 3 gallons per minute.

Rivers is angry.

For the past six months, he has had to let his lawn die and put off building a wallow pond for the water buffalo because he needs the water to keep the animals healthy, he said. On a few occasions, after discovering his holding tank had gone dry, Rivers had to truck in water at a cost of $160 per 2,500 gallons. Rivers uses 10,000 gallons per week.

"I have to be very careful," Rivers said. "If I cut down on water for myself, then the animals seem to have enough."

Rivers has his eye on the dam as the cause of the problem, although, like other residents, he has no proof that the reservoir project contributed to the decline in his water.

"About the time they started, my problem started," Rivers said. "California is teaching me to hate the government. I'm pretty stuck, and now they want to sell me back my own water at some God-awful fee."

Chuck Vollmer said he feels the same way.

Vollmer, who lives at the corner of Garboni and Menifee roads, has watched his well production drop from 50 to 2 gallons per minute in the past year.

"I didn't notice it until one morning I woke up to take a shower and couldn't," Vollmer said.

Vollmer says getting on public water is probably better in the long run. Eastern Municipal Water District is running a pipeline to a nearby development and has said hooking up might be possible. But he is upset he will have to pay between $8,000 and $10,000 to start service and then pay a bill every month for something he has been getting essentially for free for the past 15 years.

For Bill and Joyce Benner, the problem goes beyond lawns and showering. They are still getting enough water for those daily chores and a little extra, but the Benners have had to let their nearly 2,700 fruit trees, valued at up to $100,000 and a key part of their retirement plans, die.

The trees were planted eight years ago and flourished until four years ago --about the time construction on the dam started -- when the Benners' wells dropped dramatically, they said. As the wells got worse, they decided to let the trees waste away.

"We turned off the water to the orchard last year, so I'm losing 2,500 trees," Bill Benner said. "I might be able to revive some of the 1,000 apple trees . . . if I had the water."

Cause debated

"You can't look under ground."

That, said water driller Russ DeChenne, is the problem.

DeChenne drilled the Hallocks' wells and has been drilling throughout Southern California but does not know why the area is having problems.

"The water is there now, where we hit for the Hallocks, but it's a crap shoot," DeChenne said.

The Benners and Sterbas do not live on a recognized aquifer, but on fractured bedrock, according to geological studies of the area. The only place water is found in fractured bedrock is in the individual fractures, meaning moving a well six inches can mean the difference between a dry hole and a producing well, said DeChenne.

In a groundwater subbasin such as the area under the dam, known as the Domenigoni subbasin, experts say water sets up in certain flow patterns. Although the surface water in the area tends to flow south, the water underground tends to move southwest.

Construction of the reservoir's West Dam blocked that underwater flow, leading to bitter court wrangles between Metropolitan and a number of landowners who live just west of the dam along Winchester Road.

Dennis Williams, a Metropolitan geohydrology consultant, said monitoring wells closer to the dam shows the district's injection well project, which pumps water into the ground west of the dam and is meant to replace the water stopped by the dam, is working.

"We've shown a mounting rise in levels" of the Domenigoni aquifer, Williams said.

Others are not as sure about the success of the injection wells.

"The injection program is not working as planned," said Michelle Staples, a lawyer who specializes in water problems and is working with a number of landowners who live closest to the dam and above the Domenigoni subbasin. "The wells were supposed to increase the gradient of flow so the water will reach the west edge of the Domenigoni basin, and it's not."

If the water underground did flow from the Domenigoni basin toward the bedrock aquifer, that could indicate the dam project could be partly responsible. But whether that ever happened in the past is unknown and, because of a lack of data, possibly unknowable.

"It does not look like there is a connection" between the Domenigoni underground flow and the Menifee bedrock wells, Williams said. "It looks like the ground water recharge in that area is local. (Wells going dry) is just a fact of life in these types of aquifers."

Though the area is not a recognized subbasin, and some experts say the dam may be too far away to have any effect on the Garboni Road wells, others are not so sure.

If the wells in the Domenigoni basin are showing steep drops, and "hydro-connectivity" can be shown between the two areas, then the Menifee residents may have a point about the dam, said Parameshwaran Ravishanker, Eastern Municipal Water District assistant general manager for resource development.

"But it would very difficult to prove one way or the other," Ravishanker said.

Some residents have speculated that recent dynamite blasting by a housing developer on the north side of Garboni may have affected the wells. However, most experts said such a blast would have had to have been very large to severely shift the underground water-bearing fracture pattern but would not rule it out.

A third possible explanation for the wells going dry is the simplest: If the bedrock fractures are recharged by surface water, essentially rain, then the recent dry spell could be the cause, said Williams, the MWD consultant.

But residents doubt a lack of rain is the problem.

Seedborg, who lives on Eurton Road south of Garboni Road, still has water but, like other residents whose wells have been spared so far, is worried about the future.

"We've lived here for 15 years, through four droughts, and it's never been a problem before," Seedborg said. "If I do lose water, it would be an almost impossible situation."

Seeking solutions

If they hope to preserve their rural lifestyle, the residents along Garboni Road soon will have to choose from a menu of unappetizing choices. They can:

· Hope that rain will come to recharge the groundwater. Until then, spend $2,000-$4,000 on construction of holding tanks and truck in water. That could cost up to $150 to fill each 2,500-gallon tank. This amount of water could last up to two weeks, used sparingly.

· Drill new wells, at a cost of $17 a foot with no guarantee of success, and hope to hit a bedrock fracture that still has sufficient water to keep a household running.

· Hook up to public water. Officials with Eastern Municipal, which is building a pipeline for a new housing development to within a few hundred feet of the area, have told residents they could tap into the public supply but trenching and connecting the piping could cost $8,000, and the work could take months to complete.

· Spend thousands of dollars on water experts and lawyers to try to prove that some outside force, such as the dam or blasting, has caused the problem.

But none of those solutions will soon bring back the Benners' trees, the Vollmers' lawn, or Bill Rivers' plans for a wallow pit for his water buffalo.

"It's an awful situation for well-owners, and I don't know what they should do," water attorney Staples said.

Those living through the problem do not seem any more sure of the future, either.

"It's terrible to have made this investment and not know what is going to happen," Rivers said. "I've spent 10 years here and now I'm in a hell of a bind."

Thomas Buckley can be reached by e-mail at tbuckley@pe.com or by phone at (909)-245-2934.

Published 8/15/1999