West Penn Township officials have been hearing concerns from residents — including several who spoke during Monday’s meeting — about wells and streams going dry.

To help the impacted residents, the township brought a tanker full of water to the municipal building’s parking lot, and expects a shipment of bottled water to arrive at the township offices Wednesday.

Supervisors will also ask water extraction companies operating in the township to scale back on the amount they’re withdrawing during the drought.

“It’s been brought to our attention that this is the worst drought in 22 years,” Chairman Anthony “Tony” Prudenti said. “Streams have been going dry that never, ever have been dry. I get constant reminders weekly about different tributaries that dried up that never dried up before, and about people’s wells.”

Everybody, he said, is “semi-panicked” about the drought and its impacts.

One resident at Monday’s meeting said that her well — along with some of her neighbors’ wells — recently went dry.

She believes water extraction companies are to blame and asked supervisors if they could stop them from withdrawing as much as they typically do during non-drought conditions.

“It’s something we do not regulate — our township. It’s regulated by the Delaware River Basin Commission,” Prudenti said.

And while the township does have an ordinance regarding water extraction, it applies only to new companies who are seeking to pull water from the ground.

The ordinance limits the amount of water that can be extracted during droughts but does not govern the companies already operating in the township.

Supervisor Glenn Hummel knows that the lack of rain is impacting wells.

“I don’t know that we can truly attribute it to the water being taken out of the mountain ... I’m not a scientist, I can’t tell you,” he said. “However, if you go to the Lehigh River, it’s down as low as it’s ever been. You can almost walk across it and not get your feet wet.”

Former supervisor Timothy Houser said two streams on his property are down to a trickle, and a spring-fed pond is down well over a foot.

“If it keeps going like this, and there is no rain in the foreseeable future, the fish I have in the dam are going to die,” Houser said.

He admitted that he was never against water extraction.

“This was my biggest concern when we okayed water extraction. It was if we ever get into a severe drought like this, that they should be mandated to stop pumping groundwater,” Houser said.

Houser was aware of three companies in the West Penn area. Hummel said three additional operate just miles away in Lehigh Township.

“We can ask the water extraction companies in our township that during this terrible drought to reduce the amount of water that they are taking out,” Prudenti said.

Houser also suggested that the Delaware Water Basin Commission and state lawmakers be advised of the situation.