Maryland Department of the Environment issues drought watch for Western Maryland

The Maryland Department of the Environment issued a drought watch on Tuesday for Western Maryland, including Washington County.

State environment officials are urging residents and businesses to voluntarily reduce water usage.

Washington County's drought status has been listed as severe recently, including on Tuesday, at Drought.gov. That site is run by the National Integrated Drought Information System whose partners include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and several other agencies and groups.

The watch also affects Allegany and Garrett counties. Parts of southern Allegany County are in extreme drought, according to Drought.gov.

Most of Maryland's Eastern Shore also has been under a drought watch.

The Western Maryland drought watch was triggered by "lower-than-normal stream flows and groundwater levels for this time of year," according to an email from environment department spokesperson Jay Apperson.

While some parts of Washington County got a couple inches or more of rain Monday night — even resulting in a flash flood warning, that isn't going to be enough to cure a drought, weather and agriculture officials said.

Some areas of the county hardly had any rain Monday night, said Jeff Semler, the University of Maryland Extension Service's agricultural extension agent for Washington County.

According to information shared by the City of Hagerstown, the Governor's Water Conservation Advisory Committee recommends several actions under a drought watch. Those include having water systems activate water conservation plans and aggressively pursuing leak detection surveys and repair programs.

"While the City of Hagerstown continues to monitor all drought and water conservation requirements issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment, no water conservation is mandatory at this time," Utilities Director Nancy Hausrath said in an emailed statement. "However, all Maryland residents are being asked to voluntarily conserve water and should drought conditions persist, restrictions may become necessary (mandatory)."

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What does this mean for the local water supply?

Washington County and Hagerstown officials are monitoring drought conditions.

The City of Hagerstown supplies water to homes and businesses not only within the city limits, but also to many outside city limits including the towns of Williamsport, Smithsburg and Funkstown, Hausrath said in a phone interview.

The city draws water from the Potomac River near Williamsport, whose water levels have been low recently.

Hausrath said there haven't been any issues at the intake site at the Potomac, which is monitored regularly. Utility officials also don't anticipate having any supply issues.

Since May the river, at its Shepherdstown, W.Va., monitoring site, was at its lowest on July 17 at 728 square feet per second, said Jeremy Geiger, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Baltimore/Washington Forecast Office.

At the Hancock monitoring site, upstream from Hagerstown's water intake, the river was running at about 530 cubic feet per second recently, Geiger said Tuesday.

Those are very low levels given the river normally runs at thousands of square feet per second, he said.

Hausrath said the R.C. Willson Water Treatment Plant's intake near Williamsport is the first one coming down the Potomac River. If water is released from the Savage River or Jennings Randolph dams along the Upper Potomac, Hagerstown's water plant would be the first to benefit.

Semler said the drought conditions have been worse in western Washington County and in some areas along the Mason-Dixon Line.

Hancock Town Manager Mike Faith said Tuesday that Hancock's water levels were fine and its three tanks were full. The town draws water from two wells and has a permit to draw water from the Potomac in case of an emergency.

One way to tell if a well's level is getting low is sand gets into the pumps, but there hasn't been any of that, Faith said.

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Signs of drought impact

Probably one of the most obvious signs of drought impact has been lawns getting brown.

Farmers have bigger concerns.

Folks driving by crops might have noticed soybeans leaves cupping and corn leaves rolling. Semler said that's from plants being under severe stress from the lack of moisture.

Folks might also have noticed the drought impact through the price of sweet corn. The going rate locally seems to be $8 for a dozen ears, versus $6 last year, Semler said.

There has been less volume in some instances, and perhaps more irrigation costs, he said. The corn is maturing faster because of the dry weather. Even some rain now won't allow affected corn to fully recover from the earlier lack of moisture.

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Recharging aquifers takes time

Recharging aquifers takes time and more consistent rain, according to Semler and Geiger.

In recent years, most droughts in the Baltimore/Washington Forecast Office coverage area ended because a tropical storm hit the area, Geiger said. Tropical storms tend to be more widespread, which is what is needed to recharge underground water supplies.

"Very localized rain doesn't really help the larger water table or rivers and streams," he said.

Geiger said there has been an estimated 3 to 4 inches of rain in the past 30 days along the Washington County/Berkeley County, W.Va., line. He looked at that area because of where Hagerstown's water plant intake is along the Potomac.

But of that rain amount, 2 to 2.5 inches came Monday night. Those estimates are based on rain gauge information and radar.

Vast parts of Washington County and the Cumberland Valley have limestone contributing to channels for how water gets to aquifers and wells, Semler said.

A particular well's recharge area might stretch from Maugansville to Clear Spring, he said.

Those aquifers don't get recharged just because parts of the area got a few inches, he said.

"It just doesn't work that way. It would be nice if it did, but it doesn't."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Maryland Department of the Environment issues drought watch for Western Maryland