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Historic lack of rain changes how Americans live. Deep cracks cover the bottom of what should be five-feet deep Lake
Okeechobee near Okeechobee, Fla. in early May. On June 1, the lake broke
a record for its all-time low water level.
By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY DENVER — Drought, a fixture in much of the West for nearly a decade, now
covers more than one-third of the continental USA. And it's spreading. As summer starts, half the nation is either abnormally dry or in
outright drought from prolonged lack of rain that could lead to water
shortages, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly index of
conditions. Welcome rainfall last weekend from Tropical Storm Barry
brought short-term relief to parts of the fire-scorched Southeast. But
up to 50 inches of rain is needed to end the drought there, and this is
the driest spring in the Southeast since record-keeping began in 1895,
according to the National Climatic Data Center. California and Nevada just recorded their driest June-to-May period
since 1924, and a lack of rain in the West could make this an especially
risky summer for wildfires. Coast to coast, the drought's effects are as varied as the landscapes: •In central California, ranchers are selling cattle or trucking them out
of state as grazing grass dries up. In Southern California's Antelope
Valley, rainfall at just 15% of normal erased the spring bloom of
California poppies. •In South Florida, Lake Okeechobee, America's second-largest body of
fresh water, fell last week to a record low — an average 8.89feet above
sea level. So much lake bed is dry that 12,000 acres of it caught fire
last month. Saltwater intrusion threatens to contaminate municipal wells
for Atlantic coastal towns as fresh groundwater levels drop. •In Alabama, shallow ponds on commercial catfish farms are dwindling,
and more than half the corn and wheat crops are in poor condition. Dry episodes have become so persistent in the West that some scientists
and water managers say drought is the "new normal" there. Reinforcing
that notion are global-warming projections warning of more and deeper
dry spells in the Southwest, although a report in last week's Science
magazine challenges the climate models and suggests there will be more
rainfall worldwide later this century. "It seems extremely likely that drought will become more the norm" for
the West, says Kathy Jacobs of the Arizona Water Institute, a research
partnership of the state's three universities. "Droughts will continue
to come and go, but … higher temperatures are going to produce more
water stress." That's because warmer temperatures in the Southwest
boosts demands for water and cause more to evaporate from lakes and
reservoirs. "The only good news about drought is it forces us to pay attention to
water management," says Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute, a think
tank in Oakland that stresses efficient water use. This drought has been particularly harsh in three regions: the
Southwest, the Southeast and northern Minnesota. Severe dryness across California and Arizona has spread into 11 other
Western states. On the Colorado River, the water supply for 30 million
people in seven states and Mexico, the Lake Powell and Lake Mead
reservoirs are only half full and unlikely to recover for years. In Los
Angeles County, on track for a record dry year with 21% of normal rain
downtown since last summer, fire officials are threatening to cancel
Fourth of July fireworks if conditions worsen. On Wednesday, Los Angeles
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged residents to voluntarily cut water use
10%, the city's first such call since the 1990s. In Minnesota, which is in its worst drought since 1976, the situation is
improving slowly, although a wildfire last month burned dozens of houses
and 115 square miles in the northeastern part of the state. The Southeast, unaccustomed to prolonged dry spells, may be suffering
the most. In eight states from Mississippi to the Carolinas and down
through Florida, lakes are shrinking, crops are withering, well levels
are falling and there are new limits on water use. "We need 40-50 inches
of rainfall to get out of the drought," says Carol Ann Wehle of the
South Florida Water Management District. Despite a recent storm, water hasn't flowed in Florida's Kissimmee
River, which feeds Lake Okeechobee, in 212 days. The district has
imposed its strictest water-use limits ever in 13 counties, cutting home
watering to once a week and commercial use by 45%. The drought also has provided an occasional benefit: Okeechobee's record
low level allowed crews to clean out decades of muck and debris. And some stricken areas are recovering. Texas and Oklahoma, charred by
wildfires in the dry winter of 2005-06, are drought-free. Even in California, where winter snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range was
only 27% of normal this year, plentiful runoff from last year's snows
filled many reservoirs, so shortages are unlikely this year. But another
dry winter would tax supplies. Gleick says water managers are not reacting forcefully enough to the
drought: "The time to tell people that we're in the middle of a drought
and to institute strong conservation programs is today, not a year from
now." The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is doing
that. Last month, it began a "Let's Save" radio campaign. After nearly a decade of drought in parts of the West, the nation's
fastest-growing region wrestles with rising water demands and declining
supply. Donald Wilhite of the National Drought Mitigation Center says the
Southwest and Southeast are "becoming gradually more vulnerable to
drought" because the rising population will need more water. "We think
of water as an unlimited resource," he says. "But what happens when you
turn on the tap and it's not there?" DROUGHT ACROSS THE USA Nationwide: A drought for the ages
Alabama: 'Bad as I've seen' in 31 years of farming
Arizona: Trees, animals stressed
California: Hard-hit cattle ranchers selling off herds
Florida: Giant lake's bed exposed
Minnesota: With canoes facing dry-dock, outfitters now pray for rain
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