Rain doesn't wash away East's drought.

• Author: Martin, Edward

With towns such as Plymouth mopping up from Hurricane Isabel and much of the Coastal Plain soggy from 18 months of rain, Phil Dickerson says people don't believe him when he says water is still in short supply. Four years of drought (cover story, October 2001) have been followed by a wet spell that filled reservoirs and sometimes overflowed rivers. It might fool some but not Dickerson, county engineer for Pitt County, which is spending millions to resolve a water crisis.

State law requires 15 Eastern counties to pump less water from deep aquifers, which have plummeted as much as 10 feet a year. Local officials say alternatives to drilling wells could cost $250 million or more for a strapped region. And economic developers say the inability to guarantee a dependable, long-term water supply could scuttle hopes for landing new industry.

The region's traditional water sources are the Upper Cape Fear and Black Creek aquifers, formed more than 65 million years ago. "Recharging," says Richard Spruill, an East Carolina University hydrologist, "is a matter of tens of years, not days or months." He and John Morris, state water resources...