West Penn Township officials have agreed to accelerate well permits as wells and streams continue to go dry.

On a 2-0 vote, supervisors agreed Tuesday morning to instruct Bill Brior, sewage enforcement officer, to expedite any well permits due to the dry wells.

Supervisor Jim Akins was absent.

Before the vote, Jodi Mulcahy, who lives along West Penn Pike, told the board she was back after voicing concerns earlier this month about her dry well.

Mulcahy asked the board if she could get an expedited well permit.

Board Chairman Tony Prudenti told Mulcahy that the board would do its very best to make it happen.

Mulcahy told the board she hasn’t heard back from Jay Land, who is associated with surrounding water extraction projects.

“There’s no regulation, no reports of how much he’s extracting,” Mulcahy said.

Furthermore, Mulcahy said that according to the permit, Land should be rectifying the situation because she is located in his watershed, based on what she was told by the Delaware River Basin Commission.

But, she added that Land told her that he won’t and his partners refuse to help because they’d have to drill for everybody’s well that went dry.

Prudenti assured Mulcahy that the board would have township solicitor Paul J. Datte follow up.

“Delaware River Basin Commission is telling me yes, and he’s (Land) telling me no,” said Mulcahy, who added it’s very hard to decipher where her watershed is. “The amount of mental and physical stress is utterly exhausting.”

Prudenti said that while he understands Mulcahy’s dilemma, she isn’t the only one being affected by the dry conditions brought upon by the drought.

“My point is it’s a problem all over,” Prudenti said.

The township has three pallets of bottled water and offered to have the township load up Mulcahy’s car with water.

Earlier this month the township brought a tanker full of water to the municipal building’s parking lot.

Supervisors said at that time they would also ask water extraction companies operating in the township to scale back on the amount they’re withdrawing during the drought.

Prudenti said earlier this month the Delaware River Basin Commission regulates water withdrawal.

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.

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

He admitted that he was never against water extraction, but that his biggest concern when the board approved it was that they should be mandated to stop pumping groundwater in drought conditions.