As the drought tightens its grip on Licking County, the Southwest Licking Community Water and Sewer District began implementing water restrictions in its service area this week.
In a post on the utility’s website, it tells customers that “due to the severe drought across the state,” that they should begin voluntary water restrictions.
“Watering lawns, gardens and landscaping should be restricted to even numbered addresses watering on even numbered days and odd numbered addresses watering on odd numbered days,” according to the website, and the utility asks customers to “practice water conservation for car washing and other home use.”
Jim Roberts, executive director of Southwest Licking Community Water and Sewer District, said the utility monitors water-well levels, and “our wells are down a few feet from what they would be this time of year.”
He said it’s typical for them to go down a little during the generally dry months of September and October, and because the water levels were already down going into that period, the SWLCWSD board decided to implement the voluntary restrictions.
“There’s nothing dire at this point,” he said. “We’re just being proactive. We think our customers will respond positively.”
The SWLCWSD water treatment facility serves Etna and Harrison townships, and portions of the City of Pataskala, drawing groundwater from six wells along York Road, according to its website. It treats and delivers an average of 1.4 million gallons a day to about 6,700 customers.
Roberts said this is the first time the utility has called for restrictions. If it continues to see levels decline, it might need to move to what it calls Stage 2 restrictions. “That’s when the restrictions become mandatory, and we’d probably have people out checking on compliance,” he said. “We don’t think we’ll have to go there, but want people to know that’s a possibility.”
The forecast for Licking County calls for sunshine and highs in the 80s through Sunday, with a 40% chance of rain on Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service. The chance of rain increases to 50% on Monday, with a 40% chance on Tuesday.
Yet, it appears that drought could linger for months, according to Dean Kreager, educator for agriculture and natural resources at the Ohio State University Agricultural Extension Service Licking County office in Newark. “The climatologists and meteorologists we’ve been talking with regularly are saying the pattern we’re in now is likely to stay with us into November,” he said.
The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday, Sept. 19, shows a growing number of Ohio’s southern and eastern counties are in the “exceptional drought” category — the worst drought level on the map.
The Drought Monitor staff reported in a summary posted Thursday morning that “in Ohio, significant drought stress extended to row crops, with a U.S.-high 28% of the soybeans rated very poor to poor. In the hardest-hit drought areas, other complications included abysmal streamflow and surface water shortages. Low-water concerns extended into the lower Mississippi Valley, largely due to lack of runoff in recent weeks from the Ohio Valley.”
Virtually all of Ohio is experiencing some level of drought. And 88% of the state is experiencing “moderate” to “exceptional” levels of drought. Exceptional is the worst level of drought, and 10% of the state falls into that category now.
Licking County is one of nearly 30 counties in Ohio currently under a “burn ban,” established by the Ohio State Fire Marshal Kevin Reardon. That order prohibits any kind of outdoor open burning of trash or debris, campfires and bonfires, putting out cigarettes on the ground or discharging any kind of fireworks.
“We want everyone to think before you do something involving any kind of open flame,” Reardon said in a Sept. 13 press release about the burn ban. “We are in severe drought conditions and ground conditions are very susceptible to ignition from a very simple source. We want people to be able to protect themselves, protect their property, and protect their communities.”
Kreager said that farmers are moving quickly to harvest corn and soybeans – earlier in the year than normal – because the kernels and beans are drying out rapidly. “Some beans are drying out so much that farmers have to be careful during harvest to keep them from shattering,” he said.
A growing number of livestock farmers are relying on hay they were saving for winter, or on purchased hay, to feed their animals, and an increasing number are seeing water sources for animals dry up. “I know two people whose wells have gone dry,” Kreager said. “One had to lower his well pump to get water.
“Water levels in some creeks and streams are at extremely low levels,” he said, adding that some livestock farmers use those streams to water their animals. “One farmer said the stream his livestock usually drink out of is gone. At least one, maybe two, called about getting water in their ponds tested to see if they could use pond water to water livestock. The problem is that some ponds are getting stagnant and could have toxic algae in them, so that’s why they are getting them tested.”
If drought conditions continue deep into the fall, as some predict, Kreager said that could be a rough start to next year’s growing season for Ohio farmers.
“They could be going into spring with a lot lower moisture levels in soil than usual,” he said. “Wheat might do OK, but the lack of moisture in pastures and hay fields could result in a significant loss of quality for foraging.”
Earlier in this summer’s drought, some Ohioans somewhat jokingly said, “What we need is the remnants of a hurricane to come through here.” And of the several that have seemingly headed toward the Ohio Valley after coming ashore from the Gulf Coast or Atlantic, all have fizzled, for the most part, before getting to Ohio.
The Drought Monitor staff noted in the latest update summary that after Hurricane Francine came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 11, “days of locally heavy showers led to pockets of flash flooding, extending as far east as Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Less than a week later, on Sept. 16, Potential Tropical Storm Eight moved ashore in northeastern South Carolina and delivered flooding rainfall (locally a foot or more) across southeastern North Carolina. By the morning of Sept. 17, the end of this drought-monitoring period, much of North Carolina and portions of neighboring states had received significant rain. “
But the summary notes that “the remainder of the country largely experienced dry weather, leaving widespread soil moisture shortages across the Plains and Midwest — a classic late-summer and early-autumn flash drought.
The Drought Monitor is operated jointly by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
It said Thursday that “in the western U.S., a cooling trend was accompanied some rain and high-elevation snow, heaviest across the northern Rockies and environs. As the long-running Western heat wave subsided, late-season warmth replaced previously cool conditions across the Plains, Midwest, and Northeast. Nationally, nearly one-half (46%) of the rangeland and pastures were rated in very poor to poor condition on Sept. 15, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from an early-summer minimum of 19%.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.