SALISBURY, Md.- The word "drought" has been thrown around a lot lately. It is no secret that much of the country is desperate for a good soaking of rain. Now, virtually the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland is under a drought warning and the state is asking people to voluntarily cut back on their water usage by 10 to 15 percent.
"I have it off when we're not watering," explained Betty Radford, while pointing out the outdoor faucet she uses to water her Salisbury lawn and plants. "You do everything you can to conserve it."
And Radford knows water conservation is especially important now.
"I watered it last night and I will not water it again now I would say for at least another two or three nights," she said, speaking of her lawn.
The Maryland Department of the Environment's current drought status map shows a situation that has gone from bad to worse over the past month, thanks to a continued lack of rain and hot temperatures. It is a situation the Wicomico County Health Department is keeping a close eye on.
"Just monitoring the situation, stay in contact with MDE, continue to educate the community, promote water conservation and really just promote good water use," noted Dennis DiCintio, the health department's director of environmental health.
The health department has 10 monitoring wells throughout the county, which they read once a week and keep track of the data.
"Right now, it looks like most of the wells are anywhere between three and seven feet below normal," DiCintio explained. "That's the shallow aquifer. Unfortunately, that's pretty substantial when you start talking about agriculture and crops so it's a pretty enormous deficit right now."
And recent showers do not even begin to put a dent in that deficit.
"We've seen much more substantial rainfall over the past few weeks and they haven't even touched the water tables. The water tables just continue to decline, even with the amount of rain that we've had," said DiCintio.
According to MDE, "With the growing season in full swing and higher than normal temperatures, hydrologic conditions in the Eastern region are not expected to improve over the next month unless the area receives substantial rainfall."
© MDE Drought Status Map
