From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 25, 1989:

• More than 4,000 private wells, most of them in northeast Kansas, were in danger of running dry if drought conditions in the state continued. This was the message given to the Governor’s Drought Response Team this week from Stanley Grant, secretary of Health and Human Environment. Grant said most of the vulnerable wells received their water from shallow water tables replenished annually by rain, and about 18 months of drought were beginning to have their effect on the wells. The state did not know exactly how many Kansans depended solely on private wells for their water, but Grant estimated that as many as 300,000 private water wells had been drilled in the state. However, most people who had the wells also received water from rural water districts, he said.
• Reports from Alaska this week said that the 987-foot oil tanker Exxon Valdez had run aground, spilling some 270,000 barrels, or 11.3 million gallons, of oil. An oil slick about five miles long had appeared as wind and tide pushed the crude oil away from shore and into the Prince William Sound. “This is the largest oil spill in U.S. history and it unfrotunately took place in an enclosed water body with numerous islands, channels, bays and fjords,” said Richard Golob, publisher of the Golob Oil Pollution Bulletin.