The City of Fairhope has been looking to install two new water wells, which could be finished sometime this summer, before water capacity issues afloat again.

The two new wells, Well #13 on County Road 33, and Well #14 along Fairhope Avenue behind Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church, are both are scheduled to be online and operational by July. City leaders are confident these two additions will be able to handle the current water demand, which has created problems for Fairhope in past summers.

The city has previously enacted mandatory water rations the past two years due to the system being unable to keep up with usage during droughts, with the summer having been especially brutal. In August 2024, a mechanical failure led to a "catastrophic" failure of Fairhope's water system, causing Fairhope City Council to declare a "water emergency."

More recently, Fairhope's Well #2 suffered a failure, resulting in a temporary portable pump being brought in to help keep it online. The other pump has been sent in for maintenance at an estimated $42,000.

Mayor Sherry Sullivan said the addition of these two wells will increase the total system capacity to 13 million gallons. Currently, Fairhope has a capacity of 6.6 millions of total storage.

In past years, some have blamed the water issues on overdevelopment and population growth, with the city spending more than $40 million on improvements to both water and sewer services. The city is drilling five new test wells for future infrastructure expansion.