DROUGHT
Communities should act now to conserve water, experts urge

Jim Barlow, Life Sciences Editor
(217) 333-5802; b-james3@uiuc.edu

6/1/2000

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- On the surface, the grass is green and crops are in good shape, but state water experts in late May urged community leaders in Central and Southwestern Illinois to realize that the truth lies 6 inches below the surface.

In the affected areas subsurface moisture levels are up to 75 percent below normal in a layer just 6 to 20 inches deep. The same is true over a broader area between 3 feet and 6 feet down. Unless 4 to 6 inches of rain falls within a month, roots of growing corn and soybean crops will find little nourishment as they move deeper, and the levels of streams and reservoirs that deliver public water supplies will continue to fall. June's statewide average of rain is barely 4 inches.

"The bottom line is that Central Illinois stretching into Western Illinois and throughout Southwestern Illinois are in a state of drought," said Derek Winstanley, chief of the Illinois State Water Survey and adjunct professor of geography at the University of Illinois.

The long-range forecast is for above-normal temperatures and below-normal rainfall through August, according to the Climate Prediction Center. "If this turns out to be true, that could well add to the problems we are facing," Winstanley said. "We recommend that communities and individuals in the affected areas take aggressive steps to conserve water and obey the principle that preventative medicine is less painful than major surgery later on."

Rainfall since July 1999 is 20 to 35 percent below normal across the state. Annual rainfall in Illinois ranges from 35 to 48 inches. "Many streams in Central Illinois are as low as we've seen them at this time of year," Winstanley said.

The latest State Water Survey drought assessment showed that many reservoirs in the hard-hit area are 3 to 5 feet below full but not yet a threat to water supplies. However, Lake Evergreen near Bloomington and Lake Springfield continue to fall steadily to "substantially below normal."

Drought assessments are on the Web at www.sws.uiuc.edu (follow the link to highlights). The problem goes beyond Illinois, said Bob Scott, a scientist with the Water Survey's Water & Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program. "The situation extends farther west into Iowa and parts of Missouri, where rainfall in the last 10 months has been in deficit," he said.

The last serious drought in Illinois was in 1988-89. That situation came on suddenly with a dry spring and summer. This year's "slowly evolving situation" started months earlier, Winstanley said.

"We are going into the heavy-water-use time of year," Scott said. "Not only do more people wash their cars, they water their lawns and golf courses. There also is more evaporation, and there are crops in the fields that are taking moisture out of the soil. So we're in a big sink time of the year in terms of water use. It's time to seriously evaluate what water use is necessary."