THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509150508
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
Throughout much of Virginia, the only thing to harvest this fall is dust. And with some farmers facing ruin, Gov. George F. Allen declared an emergency Thursday.
``The impact of the drought is being severely felt by farmers across the commonwealth, and water supplies are low in many areas,'' said Allen, who toured a drought-stricken farm in Hanover County.
Yet, while parts of the Old Dominion have gone 40 days and nights without rain, Hampton Roads is abloom.
Rainfall in the past few weeks has surged ahead of normal for September. Lawns that were brown and dead are again turning green, if not yet lush. Some backyard gardeners are even finding yellow flowers of promise on tomato plants once thought dead.
Thus far in September, 2.62 inches of rain has fallen at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport. That's three-quarters of an inch above normal.
Evidence of a drought is easily found, however. The region's annual rainfall is still almost 10 inches below average, or 71 percent of normal.
Since the start of the year, 23.77 inches of rain has been measured at the airport. That compares to an average - based on rainfall over 30 years - of 33.43 inches.
And recent rainfall is a classic case of too little, too late for Jack Beale and many of his fellow Western Tidewater farmers.
First, the drought hit Beale's Waverly peanut fields. Then villainous spider mites moved in, chomping on remaining plants.
So last week Beale did the only thing left to do - he began his harvest, 10 days earlier than usual. Thursday, he started picking - separating the legumes from their vines. ``We had to get the peanuts out of the fields,'' he lamented.
Western Tidewater farmers, who grow more than 50 percent of Virginia's 92,000-acre peanut crop and 67 percent of its 107,000-acre cotton crop, expect a disappointing harvest.
Projected peanut yields are 2,300 pounds an acre, down from 3,100 pounds last year. Cotton fields may produce 650 pounds, down from 944 pounds last year, experts said.
June rains saved the corn. The expected average yield is 100 bushels per acre, with some Southampton County fields reaching 150 bushels. But that is the lone bright spot.
``We continue to show decline in our crop prospects,'' said Robert T. Bass of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Allen's action Thursday should help some farmers.
The declaration allows state agencies to provide assistance wherever needed, without going through the usual bureaucratic red tape, said Michael Cline, deputy coordinator for the state Department of Emergency Services.
For example:
The governor can activate the Virginia National Guard to haul water to the most drought-plagued areas. The National Guard already has hauled water into Wise and Dickenson counties on weekends, when they were on routine training duty under federal control.
The Virginia Department of Forestry is authorized to ban campfires and bypass the state procurement process to buy whatever it needs to fight wildfires.
Most areas of the state have gone without measurable precipitation for 30 to 45 days.
What's bad for farmers and lawn-tenders, though, may be good for marine critters making a home in the lower reaches of the Chesapeake Bay.
A decreased volume of freshwater runoff from the Bay's watershed has allowed coastal ocean waters to travel much farther up into the Bay, bringing crabs and fish that normally make their home on or near the Atlantic shore.
According to Arnoldo Valle-Levinson, an Old Dominion University research assistant professor of oceanography, if the animals are able to find a large enough food supply - micro-organisms from Bay marshes or river runoff - they may stay in the Bay, boosting marine populations.
Valle-Levinson's team at ODU monitors monthly temperature and salinity levels one nautical mile upstream of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This August and September, the group has detected a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in water saltiness, indicative of the increased ocean intrusion.
``We don't understand all the interactions very well,'' Valle-Levinson said. ``But as the coastal waters come into the Bay, that might bring in more larvae. The numbers of individuals in a given population - crabs and fish - might go up.''
In Chesapeake, meanwhile, lack of rain in the early summer has helped make salty drinking water a fact of life.
In July, city residents and officials watched the salt content in the water supply soar to the highest levels in 10 years.
Levels of chloride, which give the water its brackish taste, peaked at 1,612 parts per million on Sept. 2 - more than six times the federal 250-parts-per-million threshold for salty taste in water.
Just as steadily, sodium levels climbed to 806 parts per million, endangering people on sodium-restricted diets or who take lithium. At its highest, the sodium content exceeded the level doctors recommend for such patients by 35 times.
Since 1980, the Northwest River has been Chesapeake's main source of water.
When there isn't enough rainfall to flush out that water system, winds can push saltier water from the brackish Currituck Sound into Chesapeake's intake pipes, inundating the water supply with high-chloride, high-sodium water.
Elsewhere, the concern is less about taste and more about supply.
Norfolk officials said local reservoirs are holding steady, at or a little above 70 percent of capacity.
``A bad situation would be if we were getting no rain and the reservoirs were falling rapidly,'' said Louis Guy, Norfolk's utilities director. ``Well, we're getting no rain, but the reservoirs are not going down quickly. So we're not panicking.''
As for rain, there's none in the forecast. The outlook through Monday is for fair, cool nights and mostly sunny, pleasant days.
Good news if all you're trying to grow is a tan line. MEMO: Staff writers Francie Latour, James Schultz, Jody Snider and Tony
Wharton, and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: ALLEN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY
[Color Photos]
``The impact of the drought is being severely felt by farmers across
the commonwealth.''
- Gov. George F. Allen
JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Collier Presson digs into his peanut crop just off U.S. Route 460 in
Wakefield. The ground is so dry, he said, that the dust flies wildly
in his tractor's wake.
by CNB