Maryland drought deepens

The Baltimore Sun

Earl F. "Buddy" Hance, a fifth-generation Calvert County farmer, says he hasn't seen a drought like this in almost a quarter-century.

"My corn crop, I figure I've lost 80 to 90 percent," he said yesterday. "And soy, I have very limited potential for making a crop. We haven't had significant rainfall where I live for two months."

Hance, who is also Maryland's deputy secretary of agriculture, says the grim news is echoing across Maryland. Scant rainfall during the prime growing season has damaged as much as 60 percent of the corn crop and 50 percent of the soybeans, hay and pasture grass in Southern Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore.

Yesterday's thunderstorms, which briefly dumped rain in scattered pockets across the region, were nothing resembling drought relief. The National Weather Service said more teasing from isolated thunderstorms is expected today.

Around the region, suburban lawns have turned to straw, and officials have asked residents of Mount Airy, Westminster and Frederick to cut back on their water consumption as the dry weather enters its fourth month.

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport has received barely half its average rainfall since May 1 - just 6 inches. Without an isolated thunderstorm at the airport July 10, that would be closer to 4 inches.

Nearly 85 percent of the state is in "moderate" to "severe" drought, up from 37 percent a week ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It's the third drought in Maryland since 2002.

Midsummer droughts aren't unusual here, said David Myers, the University of Maryland extension agent for Anne Arundel County. But this one started early, creating "real problems" for farmers, few of whom have crop insurance.

"We're going downhill," he said.

State agriculture officials are gathering crop damage reports and plan to report this week to Gov. Martin O'Malley. He will decide whether to seek a federal drought disaster declaration for portions of the state. That would make available a variety of federal loan programs and other policy changes to aid affected farmers.

"We're just concerned for our producers," Hance said. "We want to make sure we do everything we can to make sure they continue in business."

The USDA's weekly Drought Monitor map ranks conditions as "severe" in almost 10 percent of Maryland, including Charles, St. Mary's and southern Calvert counties.

The ratings take into account soil moisture, stream flow, precipitation and health of vegetation as measured by satellite imagery.

Drought in most of the rest of the state was rated "moderate." Far Western Maryland and the state's northeast corner - including northern Carroll, Baltimore and Kent counties, and all of Harford and Cecil counties - were ranked as merely "abnormally dry." Less than 1 percent of the state has had normal moisture.

So far, Maryland hasn't seen a rash of wildfires like those raging in drought-stricken Western states. But firefighters returned Monday to battle a stubborn wildfire near Bivalve in Wicomico County. The smoky blaze has charred up to 36 acres of parched woodlands in the past two weeks. No one has been injured, and no structures have burned.

A mandatory ban on the use of lawn sprinklers took effect at 6 o'clock last night in Mount Airy in Carroll County, strengthening voluntary curbs already in place. Westminster issued a voluntary watering ban July 13.

In Frederick yesterday, Mayor William J. Holtzinger asked residents to voluntarily stop watering lawns and their cars. Commercial car washes are not affected.

"If the dry weather continues, it may be necessary to put mandatory water use restrictions in place," the city's Web site warned. "Please use recycle[ed] ... water when possible to water plants, gardens, etc."

Baltimore County homeowners have watched their landscaping wither. In Sherry Sheedy's Reisterstown yard, the hostas are brown, the rhododendrons are parched, the zinnias have flopped and the lawn is a brittle brown.

When she and her husband moved here from Oklahoma in 1964, the retired teacher was surprised by Maryland's lush green vistas. "But this summer looks more like Oklahoma," she said.

Bryan Butler, the extension director in Carroll County, said the drought appears worst in a strip between New Windsor and Taneytown. Some spots have received barely an inch of rain since April. Ponds and ephemeral streams have gone dry, and some regular streams are "down to a trickle," he said. "It's a bit scary."

New Windsor farmer Melvin Baile Jr., says he has never seen anything like it. Green beans that should reach halfway to his knee aren't even ankle-high. "The probability of a lot of this corn getting an ear on it is slim to none," he said.

The sediment ponds on John Calhoun's organic Ivy Neck Farm in Harwood, Anne Arundel County, have all but dried up.

"We would use this to water the cattle and irrigate that back field," he said. Now, the fish remaining in its puddles are easy prey for occasional herons.

Calhoun has had to cut the grass in his reserve pasture, harvesting just 22 bales, less than half its normal yield.

Arundel's farmers are feeling squeezed, said Myers, the county extension agent. "I heard a couple of them say, 'I'm not going to have anything to pay for my truck now.'" But it's often that way in agriculture. "Farmers, they know it's a gamble upfront."

Jimmy Schillinger, who farms 324 acres in Severn, Millersville and Centerville, held off opening the irrigation spigots for two days last week when weather forecasts included a 60 percent chance of rain. But the rain never appeared, and his corn began to fail. So he turned on the taps.

"It's been full force since last Friday," he said yesterday.

At Maple Lawn Farm in Howard County, co-owner Judy Iager said the dry weather has damaged the corn, soybean and hay crops.

"We will have to be chopping and shelling [the corn] early," she said. If the rains resume, "some of it could bounce back, but a lot of it won't."

The losses will mean less feed for the farm's 350 cattle, and what there is will have less nutritional value. That means Iager will have to buy more feed, and with drought affecting the whole region, that will be more costly.

In Harford County, Richard Holloway, 72, farms close to 1,000 acres in Darlington. He has 350 acres of feed corn in dire need of rain, and his hay crop is coming up short.

"If we don't get rain, we might have enough hay for our own livestock but not enough to sell," he said. Pasture grass is withering, too. "I have seen drier conditions than this. We will make it through. But most of us farmers are gonna be in trouble without timely rains."

Even so, the news wasn't all bad.

Steve Balderston said his peach crop, in a 200-acre orchard in Colora, Harford County, is faring well.

"Peaches love hot, dry weather, but they still need rain, about an inch a week, and are just barely getting it," he said. "The apples are a little dry now, but I think they can stand the stress."

Baltimore's reservoir system, which serves more than 1.8 million customers in the city and its suburbs, is in fine shape, public works officials say. Water levels at Liberty and Prettyboy reservoirs are above normal for this time of year.

"Loch Raven is lower, but we release water from Prettyboy to fill Loch Raven, and we just haven't done that yet," said Ralph Cullison, chief of environmental services for the city's Department of Public Works.

Dry weather would have to continue well into August before the city would consider tapping water in the Susquehanna River to augment its own supplies. The last time that happened - in 2002 - the electricity to run the pumps cost $210,000 a month.

For Marylanders who depend on wells, the news was also reassuring. Groundwater resources are "a little bit low, but it's within what we normally expect at this time of year," said Don Soeder, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Baltimore.

But "if it [the drought] continues for a few more weeks, we may start getting into some trouble. ... A tropical storm would end [the drought] in a hurry."

Six weeks into the 2005 drought, BWI recorded nearly 7 inches of rain in just two days as the remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy swept through. That ended the drought.

So far, however, the tropics remain quiet.frank.roylance@baltsun.com

Sun reporters Andrea Siegel, Julie Scharper, Mary Gale Hare, Arin Gencer and Sandy Alexander contributed to this article.

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