The Shenandoah Valley has been under a drought warning advisory for the second summer in a row, impacting municipal water supplies and agriculture. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
With high temperatures and a dearth of rain, stream levels in the Shenandoah Valley have been low this summer. But the most persistent indicator of drought has been our groundwater levels, which the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has classified as in "emergency" condition since June.
Weedon Cloe, manager of the DEQ's Office of Water Supply, said even when we get precipitation like that from Tropical Storm Debby, most of it doesn't make it to the aquifer.
WEEDON CLOE: Most of that rain went into runoff, fed into the streams, was intercepted by the tree canopy. … What's left that makes it past all that, it takes time for it to seep down into the ground.
The DEQ uses data from streamflow and well monitoring sites around the state to make drought determinations. On Thursday afternoon, the North Fork of the Shenandoah River at Mount Jackson was reading at two and a quarter feet deep – close to the low it sat through last fall. A well monitor at an old park near Lake Laura measured the aquifer at 14 and a half feet below the ground. But other monitors in the valley measured the water table at 44 to 80 feet below the surface.
A lack of rainfall creates a higher demand for water while, at the same time, municipal supplies are not being replenished. The town of Woodstock, which gets all of its water from the North Fork, imposed mandatory water restrictions for about a month this summer, when the river was so low it was flowing at five percent of its normal rate. Residents were told not to wash paved areas and limit watering gardens and landscaping, among other conservation strategies.
AARON GRISDALE: It was easy to communicate and have the community understanding about the restrictions that we were in because of how dry it was everywhere.
Aaron Grisdale is the town manager. By fiscal year 2027, the town council hopes to identify a second water source. Water supply needs are also on the minds of Harrisonburg leaders. The city pulls water from the North River and the Switzer Reservoir by way of the Dry River.
MICHAEL PARKS: Hopefully in the very near future, the next couple years, we will be opening up the third water supply at the Shenandoah … always keeping in mind climate change and the impacts of that.
Michael Parks is the city's director of communications. He said currently, the city has about 68 million gallons of water at its disposal per week. In the heat of July, residents were using almost 65 million, and a few weeks later, available supply dropped below that.
PARKS: We did see a drop in supply in the Switzer Reservoir. With the recent rain we feel we're back where we need to be there.
The group hit hardest by any drought is farmers.
KARL PAULSON: This is probably, in my lifetime as a farmer, the driest stretch of weather I've ever seen.
Thirty-five year old Karl Paulson operates a dairy farm in Rockingham County.
PAULSON: We're a family farm. … We milk 360 cows in Port Republic. We raise all of our own forages and probably 30 to 40% of our own grains.
The Paulson farm has direct access to the Shenandoah River for irrigation, which has been a major protective factor as they grow and stockpile food for their herd.
All the ag folks I spoke with agreed that the corn crop was deeply affected this year. Here's Mike Wallace with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
MIKE WALLACE: June was really one of the hottest months on record for that area, and that is really detrimental for corn production. That is because corn is actually growing pretty rapidly during that month, and without water, that actually stunts the growth and can destroy a crop.
JEREMY DAUBERT: All the corn that was raised that was intended to be harvested for grain is actually going to be harvested for silage.
Jeremy Daubert is the dairy agent for the Rockingham County Extension office. He said a lot of local farmers do have crop insurance to cover the loss on corn.
DAUBERT: The problem with corn silage is it's a high moisture product. So you can't just – if you have dry round bales of hay, you can store them in a barn or wherever, but corn silage has to be in a bag or a bunker silo. It has to be fermented to really be good feed.
Paulson knows farmers who are worried about the quality of their feed this year.
PAULSON: So this year your cows are having a hard time making as much milk on a poor quality forage – that's true for a lot of the farms around here.
Then there's the depleted pastures and rising prices of hay.
JEREMY HOLLOWAY: We had to go all the way into Pennsylvania to buy hay, and hay prices are astronomical right now. There's people selling hay at $80, $90 a bale, when we used to pay $35 a round bale.
Rockingham County Fire Chief Jeremy Holloway raises a small herd of beef cattle. He normally starts feeding hay in December. This year, he started in July. Other firefighters on his crew are also farmers. Holloway advocated for the board of supervisors to pass an emergency declaration that supports farmers applying for emergency assistance funds through the Farm Service Agency.
HOLLOWAY: They're not asking for handouts, but at some point in time we've really got to keep this food chain going.
For farmers, surviving a drought is partially a matter of business planning. But it goes deeper than that.
PAULSON: Gosh, we live, eat, and breathe the weather. … You know, one, we're out in it every single day, many many years in a row, so you have such an intimate relationship with the weather. We just constantly are looking at forecasts.
For much of the valley, unfortunately, the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center says things might not change any time soon.
