Winter drought spells trouble for the U.S.A.

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 12

Winter drought spells trouble for the U.S.A.

From the “Economist,” London

Americans donned foulweather gear with sighs of relief earlier this month as. rain and snow rolled across, the ; country. But ; this month’s storm alone will not end the drought that now threatens some 20 ; .t0 30 per cent of the United States, arid. • Government weather watchers — despite ■ a brief glimmer of hope —■ are standing by their forecasts of below-normal rain and snow for at least ‘the next month. That is worrying. Four Eastern states (including New York) have already declared drought emer'gencies, and have warned residents that they must cut back water use or else face ; rationing. Many other parts of the country — including some prime agricultural areas — are also watching their water supplies with a

growing sense of alarm. This winter’s storms have not provided enough rain and snow to refill reservoirs for the dry summer months. Lack of snow is giving ulcers to.- Rocky Mountain ski-resort" operators. With the Mississippi at record low* levels,. barge operators are being obliged to lighten up oh cargoes (and hence profits) or run aground. And Mid-Western farmers are worrying that the absence of an insulating layer of snow may damage the seeds of the winter wheat crop. These problems have their origins in the West. A highpressure area has settled stubbornly over the Western mountains and is deflecting into Canada the wet Pacific winds that normally bring moisture to the United States. Some meteorologists had hoped that the recent

storm might signal an end to the blockade, but the high-pressure area quickly returned. Hardest hit so far have been the Eastern states. Accustomed to steady rainfail, they lack the extensive water-storage systems that Western farmers have built up to protect against periodic drought. So this year’s drop in rain and snow to less than half of normal levels has quickly translated into water shortages. The level of New York City’s reservoirs, for example, has fallen to below a third of capacity, and they are being drained still further to help shore up a regional water network that is already depleted. Water flow in the Delaware River, which supplies cities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware as well as New York, is now so low that salty sea water is

threatening to creep up river and contaminate some towns’ supplies. Scarce fresh water is being diverted into the river to help keep the sea water back. Meanwhile residents of all four states are being told to reduce water consumption by a quarter, and some utilities are limiting supplies. One consequence of the drought could well be to send Eastern states scurrying to Washington for help in improving their cities’ increasingly decrepit water systems. The Federal Government’s central emergency management board has already stepped in to help provide short-term relief. But states may want help with more permanent solutions as well. New York, for one, needs a new aqueduct to feed water' into New York City; both its old aqueducts are leaking. For now, however, the

concern of most Easterners is not water, but cold. Although temperatures rose slightly earlier this month, the Western weather blockade had been allowing Arctic air to flow down the Eastern seaboard. Massachusetts, declared a state of emergency in piid-January. and closed some public buildings, after supplies of natural gas

and heating oil began to run out in the face of stepped-up demand. Much of the NorthEastern fishing fleet found itself locked into ice-bound harbour®. Even in usually balmv Florida, freezing temperatures have ruined some 20 per cent of the citrus crop. Now that the weather is back to abnormal, the cold may return too.