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Today is Earth Day, and while global warming and other environmental issues are in focus, it is severe drought that has center stage in Northwest Georgia.
Floyd and neighboring counties are the driest areas in the state.
Severe drought conditions have developed across both the northwest and southeast portions of the state with rain deficits for the year of more than 12 inches in some parts.
The driest areas of the state include Floyd, Polk, Chattooga, Walker, Dade and Catoosa counties in Northwest Georgia and the counties lining the most southeast corner of the state, according to state climatologists.
Assistant state climatologist Pam Knox says, “The center of the driest area is right around Rome.”
She and state climatologist David Stooksbury use rainfall statistics provided by the Georgia Automated Environment Monitoring Network.
Based on those numbers, she says, Floyd County has had 7 inches of rainfall to date and has a rainfall deficit of 12.5 inches below normal.
Other Northwest Georgia counties rainfall:
Polk rainfall to date — 8.5 inches; Deficit — 11 inches
Gordon rainfall to date — 8 inches; Deficit — 12 inches
Chattooga rainfall to date — 8 inches; Deficit — 12.5 inches
Walker rainfall to date — 9 inches; Deficit — 11.5 inches
Dade rainfall to date — 9.5 inches; Deficit — 11.5 inches
Catoosa rainfall to date — 9.5 inches; Deficit — 11.5 inches
Knox said this year is the driest since 2002 and the seventh driest period recorded since 1892.
The drought prompted the state’s environmental chief last week to expand the statewide ban on when homeowners may water their lawns.
State Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch said the ban now in effect prevents all outdoor water use between 10 a.m. and midnight.
The state already had prohibited watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and allowed residents to water only every other day.
Couch’s declaration came during an emergency meeting of the state’s Drought Response Committee on Wednesday as wildfires strengthened by dry conditions roared through tens of thousands of acres in south Georgia. She said the more stringent ban is needed to assure the state has an adequate water supply as the drought continues to worsen.
“I see us poised on a precipice that hopefully we don’t fall off of,” Couch said. “Every gallon of water we save today is a gallon that we’ll have in reserve later in the year.”
Under the new ban, homes with addresses that end in odd numbers may use outdoor water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and homes with even numbers may water Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Stooksbury said the drought has become severe in Northwest and South Georgia and moderate in much of the rest of the state.
Places like LaFayette and Blairsville in North Georgia are 10 inches or more behind the amount of rainfall they normally would have received by this time of year and other rural areas that are harder to measure may be as much as 15 inches behind, Stooksbury said.
In all, he categorizes the drought as severe in 17 Georgia counties and moderate in another 21.
Last month, state officials said Georgia was in the midst of a drought that is increasing the risks of wildfires, lowering a reservoir that supplies drinking water to the state’s largest cities and playing havoc with farmers’ crops.
Floyd County
National Weather Service rainfall totals list Greater Rome as having about 10 inches to date this year, more than 11 inches under the average year-to-date total through April.
April alone usually brings an average of 4.81 inches to Rome. So far this April, only 1.36 inches has fallen. The National Weather Service statistics are based on the reporting station at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport.
That year-to-date total is a bit higher than the numbers the state climatologists use. The numbers differ because the measuring stations are at different locations that can vary greatly in rainfall, even within the same town, Knox said.
But no matter which numbers climatologists use, rainfall for Rome and Floyd County is less than half of what it usually is this time of year.
And when it’s dry, there’s a greater risk of fire. With wildfires scorching parts of South Georgia, any burning poses extra risks, say fire and forestry officials. Josh Burnette, a forester with the Georgia Forest Commission’s Rome office, said conditions are ripe for serious wildfires in Northwest Georgia, but so far things have been under control.
Many regional foresters have been sent to South Georgia to fight blazes around the Okefenokee Swamp, he said.
“Low humidity and high winds are our biggest enemy,” said Burnette. “We have the same situation as South Georgia does now except for our fuels are different.”
South Georgia has more native plants with oily residues that burn even when the plant is green.
“The greening here has actually slowed the problem,” he said.
Like everyone else, foresters are hoping for some rain, Burnette said. One thing in their favor is a Floyd County ban on outdoor burning that is implemented from May 1 through Sept. 30.
Of course, obvious signs of drought in Rome — where the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers merge to form the Coosa — are low river levels.
As of this weekend, the level of the Oostanaula (at Turner McCall Boulevard) is just less than 4 feet. The Etowah is 12.93 feet at the East Rome Bypass. The Coosa, at Mayo’s Bar Lock & Dam, is 11.74 feet.
Despite those levels, Leigh Ross, Rome’s water and sewer department director, said he is not worried.
Rome lies at the conflux of the Oostanaula and Etowah river basins and receives ample water from those sources, he said.
“During our worst drought ever, we still had more than 600 million gallons a day come through Rome,” Ross said. “We use — on average — between 9 million and 12 million gallons a day.
“It would have to be a worse drought than we have ever had — something historical — to be able to affect our water supply.”
Farmers are the most threatened by the whims of nature, and severe droughts can leave them high and dry.
Todd Hice, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency office in Rome, said many area farmers have delayed planting soybeans and may have to delay planting cotton because the soil is so dry.
“They can’t afford to put fertilizer and seed out there if it is not going to grow,” Hice said. “If it doesn’t rain in the next five to seven days, I don’t know what they are going to do. They are going to have to make some hard decisions.”
Cotton can be planted as late as early May, Hice said.
Less than 5 percent of Floyd County farmland is irrigated, Hice said. Most area farms are on low-lying areas where the soil generally retains more moisture — when there is moisture.
Polk County
The recent cold snap coupled with severe drought conditions have Polk County farmers facing obstacles early in their planting and growing season.
Cedartown farmer Jerry “Buzz” Spain has 200 acres of ruined wheat but will plant 300 acres of corn next.
Spain, who lives on Puckett Road on the outskirts of Cedartown, said he owns and farms about 600 acres.
Temperatures that dropped into the 20s in early April seriously damaged corn and wheat crops, according to area agriculture officials. That’s what cost Spain his wheat.
“The head was exposed, and it cannot stand temperatures under 30 degrees for two hours. It kills the pollination on it,” Spain said.
As requested by Gov. Sonny Perdue, the Polk County Agriculture Emergency Board is preparing a damage assessment report of the area caused by the freezing temperatures. Hice is collecting data about damaged crops and will submit the report May 1.
So Spain is counting on corn.
“We’re waiting on it to rain and soften the ground up enough so we can plant it,” he said. “There is no ground moisture at all.”
The 43-year-old farmer said he is ready to plant, but the drought is making it very hard.
Farmers had drought conditions last year and are beginning this season in the same way.
Guy Rutland, who has been farming for decades in Polk County, agreed and said he did not plant his corn until it rained last week.
“We’re so far behind with rainfall till it’s pathetic. We must be 20 to 30 inches behind altogether,” said Rutland, who planted 50 acres of corn. “We’ve been in a drought for the last eight or 10 years.”
“I had the best wheat crop I’ve ever had in my life, and all that wind and rain laid it down, and I’m afraid the freeze has killed the heads,” Rutland said of his 30 acres of wheat.
Rutland lost his soybean crop last year as well as his hay crop because of drought conditions and said he had to buy feed for his 80 head of cattle because of lack of hay. Catoosa County Sims Sod Farm on Burning Bush Road in Catoosa County cultivates 300 acres in grasses.
“We’ve really had it dry through the winter,” owner Bernard Sims said by cell phone as he readied one of his pumps to water a newly seeded field in what he referred to as the bottoms.
He said he and his family have had to work hard to keep ahead of the drought this spring. He said usually they do not worry about watering until June. “We have to pump more water. We are permitted to pull water out of a creek, but that costs more,” he said. “Our pumps are diesel, and diesel has gone up tremendously. So far we’ve been able to keep everything watered.”
Sims said the sod requires a certain amount of moisture so the dirt will stick to the sod’s root system for cutting. The city of Ringgold operates its own water plant, drawing from South Chickamauga Creek. City Manager Dan Wright said they have seen no significant change in water usage as a result of the drought.
Jerry Lee, chairman of the Catoosa Utility District, which draws its supply from Yates Spring, said it is having no problem meeting the water needs of the community. He said also there is no change in the usage.
Both local water providers encourage their customers to adhere to state watering ban requirements.
Walker County
Norman Edwards, director of the UGA Extension Service in Walker County, said the past winter was very dry, and a continuing rain deficit means cattle pastures and hay fields will likely suffer much lower yields.
“The cool weather grasses are not nearly as green and lush as they should be,” Edwards said, adding that farmers rely on the growth that’s going on right now for the larger spring hay cutting, which is coming up soon. “The slow growth will create a demand that drives prices up or causes an outright shortage of feed,” he said.
The typical rainy season begins in late February to early March, Edwards says, and is crucial to production for the remainder of the year.
“Cattle farmers need healthy spring growth to have grazing fields that can withstand hot dry summers.”
Not much relief in sight
Local weather forecasts don’t call for rain in the next few days, but there could be thunderstorms rolling in at the end of the week.
But the state climatologist says the drought conditions are here to stay for a while.
“It’s been dry since the first of the year, and I don’t see much promise for conditions to improve,” Stooksbury said.
Charlotte Atkins, Robin Hice, Randall Franks, Mike Colombo, Tim Carlfeldt, Mike Perry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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