Extended Drought Strains Resources Along East Coast

he potent drought that has parched much of the East since last fall has communities from Maryland to Maine facing limits on new construction, higher water charges, restrictions on water use, and the prospect of many more dry months without relief.

If the drought drags on, possible delays in linking new housing or businesses to overburdened water systems could cause economic setbacks, water experts said. For the moment, no one has tallied the impacts, which are usually felt community by community, well by well.

Many water systems, including those in Frederick, Md.; Greensboro, N.C.; and many towns near Boston and around New Jersey, were straining to meet demand even before the dry spell settled in.

Increasingly, state and local rules require that developers show there is adequate water before new housing is built. In many places where growth has outstripped supplies, that is becoming a significant hurdle.

It is unlikely that relief will come soon. Federal meteorologists say there is less than an 8 percent chance that rainfall from now through July will end the drought in coastal Maine and Connecticut, Long Island, New York City, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia.

In many other dry regions, the chance that the drought will end this summer is only slightly higher, according to the predictions by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

But those predictions presume that conditions over the next few months will be typical for the time of year. Lately, nothing about the weather has been typical. Flow gauges in streams up and down the East Coast show record lows day after day.

Even scattered downpours like the ones that drenched parts of the East on Friday offer little relief.

The potential for damage to the economy is considerable. Vegetable and milk prices will rise as produce dwindles from farms in the Northeast. Restrictions on water use could hurt small businesses, forcing car washes, for example, to cut back their hours, or machine tool shops, which are often big users of water as a coolant, to reduce production, or causing well drillers to dig deeper for water, at higher cost. Some tourists might alter their vacations, avoiding the Northeast and its hotels.

So far, the economic damage has only been spotty and minor. Mike Saulle, owner of the Centre Ridge Nursery in Nutley, N.J., said yesterday that fewer landscapers were placing large orders for shrubs and trees. The New York State Restaurant Association said some restaurants were offering bottled water at half price and not serving tap water unless customers asked for it. The Philadelphia Suburban Corporation, a water company, reported that restrictions on water use had contributed to a slight decline in earnings.

Because of water restrictions, marinas on the Rockland County banks of the Hudson River have stopped offering boat-washing services to yacht owners, losing a significant source of revenue, employees said.

The drought in the Northeast, if it endures, would show up first in the national economic statistics as a rise in the Consumer Price Index, economists say. The increase in this inflation gauge would not be significant because most of the nation's food is grown elsewhere, they contend, but any increase in inflation just as the economy is recovering from recession could make Wall Street investors extra jittery about interest rates.

"Think of the drought as a supply shock," said Richard Berner, an economist and forecaster at Morgan Stanley. He said the shock from this drought has not yet been sufficient to be noticeable in food prices or food quality. Early summer corn could be the first test of the drought's impact on prices.

Like other economists, Mr. Berner has not yet included the drought or its potential for damage in his forecasts, which currently predict a steady and healthy recovery from recession. If anything, the dry and unseasonably warm weather in the first quarter encouraged more than normal home construction, helping to lift the economy.

"I am factoring in the drought as a potential risk," Mr. Berner said, "but not a problem yet."

The last year eastern states were poised to enter summer with such a deficit of rain was 1966, said Jay Lawrimore, the director of climate monitoring at the data center in Asheville. Many areas are more than a foot below their normal precipitation totals, including New York City and much of New Jersey.

In 1966, the northeastern drought became so bad that the mayor of York, Pa., John L. Snyder, offered $350 of his own savings to a professional rainmaker, according to local newspaper archives. Now York County is in its fifth severe drought in the last seven years.

But the effects, should the current drought persist, are likely to be far greater than they were 36 years ago because population, the economy and water use have grown sharply since then, particularly in the suburbs.

The increased demand is putting ever more strain on water systems, be they a municipal reservoir serving expanding suburbs or a private well serving an enlarged house with more bathrooms and lawn sprinklers.

Add a prolonged drought to the effects of prosperity and rising populations, and problems are inevitable, including higher costs.

"Usually, a utility will institute a reverse price structure so the more water you use, the more you pay per unit, to accomplish some measure of conservation," said Bill Lauer, a water engineer at the American Water Works Association, a Denver trade group representing 57,000 private and public water suppliers.

He said the West was used to chronic water limits. "We've had these restrictions so often it's become a way of life," Mr. Lauer said. But for the East, he said, this is something new.

The prospect of serious, costly shortages is what led New Jersey, Maryland, New York City and other places to institute the first water restrictions long before largely unused snow shovels were stashed away.

Now, central Maryland, New Jersey, New York City, eastern Pennsylvania and many other communities have moved to drought emergencies, with mandatory restrictions and fines for infractions in most of these places.

The abrupt, record-setting heat wave that last week had the Middle West and the East feeling like August in April made matters worse, not only by evaporating precious groundwater, but also by stirring trees, shrubs and grass into early explosive growth, pulling yet more water from the soil.

Meteorologists define a heat wave as three consecutive days with temperatures reaching 90 degrees or higher, and that is exactly what struck New York City and the surrounding region Tuesday until Thursday, only the second time in a century that a heat wave occurred in April. The last one was in 1976.

"Everything leafed out quickly because of the heat," said David Reynolds, a senior meteorologist for the National Weather Service. With the ground already bereft of moisture after a largely snowless winter and a dry fall, the demand from fast-growing vegetation creates further drying just as the hottest months approach, he said.

"All those trees are sucking up whatever moisture is available, so whatever rain falls has much less effect," Mr. Reynolds said. "It'd have to rain a quarter-inch a day just to counterbalance what's going back up into space through evaporation."

In many places affected by the drought, there is a sense of disquiet, linked to the idea that humans are witnessing not only natural vagaries, but deeper shifts in longstanding climate patterns.

It remains far too soon to conclude with statistical certainty that the regional perturbations in weather patterns are the result of a global warming trend that scientists say is being influenced by humans. But whatever is causing the changes, many people seem to have lost their faith in the seasons.

In the Hudson Valley north of New York City, the drought has been less severe than in some places. Enough showers have fallen to swell lilac buds and burst forsythia into yellow floral fireworks.

But even there, water problems are growing, and the storms are never quite enough.

Last Wednesday, on the stifling night after the temperature in Central Park reached 96 degrees, restless residents up and down the valley stirred to the sound of approaching thunder.

For most, though, the rumbling rolled closer, distant lightning flashed, trees rustled in a rising breeze — and then nothing. Nary a raindrop.

Thunderstorms did spottily soak places Friday night, and cooler, more typical temperatures returned to the region yesterday.

In Hopewell Junction, N.Y., on the receding rural fringe 56 miles north of Manhattan, William G. Jordan, 50, saw the well in his backyard run dry last week and had to call in a drilling crew. The wells for three other houses on his road failed recently, he said.

His house and the others had been built on farmland 25 years ago, with shallow wells drawing on plentiful water stored in gravel beds just 40 or 50 feet down.

But more and more developments were built, with wells sucking more water. With no rain to replenish the supply, his pump whirred but pulled nothing. Off and on, "there was barely enough to flush the toilets and brush your teeth," Mr. Jordan said.

On Friday afternoon, Dan Boyd's 45-foot-tall drilling rig was parked behind Mr. Jordan's white split-level, cutting slowly into the bedrock below, going 200 feet or more, until it hit flowing water.

Mr. Boyd said he was very busy these days, like many other drillers, facing a backlog of weeks of work from Lake Placid to Brooklyn.

Mr. Jordan said the new well would cost $5,000 to $10,000, depending on how deep the driller had to dig. The harsh reality of dry times, for him, was no longer just a brown lawn.

He said he would never take water for granted again. "If you got it, you're lucky," he said. "If you can, conserve it, because when you don't have it, it's trouble."

As Mr. Boyd and his assistant monitored the slow descent of the spinning drill, more anvil clouds rolled in from the west, ushering in the weekend cool front.

The pewter clouds rumbled to the south and north, flecked by lightning, but the dusty grass around the chattering drill remained dry.

I was born and raised in Southern California, where drought is a fact of life. Most Easterners have not had experience with drought; droughts don't occur often enough in the East for people to remember them well.

Here's some California-tested tips for dealing with drought:

1. Catch your gray water (from sinks, tubs, dishwasher, washing machine, but NOT the toilet). Divert it for use on your landscaping (but forget the lawn). Don't use the gray water on edible plants.

2. Clear dead/dying brush from around your house. It's a fire hazard.

3. If you must water shrubs, vegetables, landscaping, do it at night, when evaporation is minimal. You can't afford to waste water now. And don't water the sidewalk or street! Monitor that sprinkler or soaker hose carefully! And use small sprinklers; high "fountaining" sprinklers waste water. You shouldn't need to water more than every five days, if it doesn't rain.

4. A brick in the toilet tank will reduce water usage. So will flushing only every OTHER usage of the facility.

5. If you are in the process of landscaping, plant drought-resistant but non-flammable varieties of shrubs, trees, groundcovers, and perennials. You will be glad you did.

6. Teach family members about (and practice yourself) reducing water wastage. Don't leave the faucet running while you brush your teeth, for example.

7. Your city, county, or state may declare a drought emergency. If they say don't water your lawn, they mean it. Believe me, you'd rather have brown grass than a burned-down home because the fire department ran out of water. And they'll fine you if they catch you.

8. If you have a well, it may run dry. It will cost plenty of $$$ to dig it deeper, but if you wait until EVERYONE's wells run dry, you will pay even more, if you can even find a drilling service that doesn't have a 2-year waiting list.

9. Do I have to say this? DON'T burn trash or leaves, and don't toss cig butts on the ground. Ever. The forest fire you start may burn down YOUR home.

10. Don't hose off your sidewalks and driveways; use a broom.

11. Install low-flow shower heads, aerator faucet heads, and fix all those pesky plumbing leaks.

12. Only run full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher.

13. Purchasing a new water-using appliance? There are many good water-saving models on the market.

14. Keep a pitcher of water in the fridge instead of running the faucet until the water is cool.

15. Valuable plantings/shrubbery? Invest in a drip irrigation system. It puts water at the plant roots for greatest benefit, and there's little evaporation and wastage.

16. If your lawn is still growing: Mow it high. Don't scalp it! Longer grass shades the soil and reduces evaporation.

17. Mulch your flower and shrub beds. This holds in moisture and keeps the soil cool.

18. Rain barrels! They should make a BIG comeback! Place one beneath each runoff spot from your roof. Or reroute the downspout into the rain barrel.

19. Share these tips with friends, family, and neighbors. A little savings goes a long way when multiplied.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.