Withered D.C. Region Cries for Water, Cool Water

Jean Paul Dionou waters vegetables at the Fort Stevens Community Garden in the District. A severe drought has killed trees and plants, hurt sales at nurseries and dried up wells. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

Residents on the lower shore, around Somerset County, say the Eastern Correctional Institution is using too much water from the Manokin aquifer. The prison, which houses 3,350 inmates, is allowed to pump about 25,000 gallons per day. But in recent weeks, Somerset County Administrator Daniel Powell said, water use has risen to more than 200,000 gallons daily.

State prisons spokesman Mark Vernarelli was quick to defend the prisoners, writing in an e-mail, "Our inmates are not taking hour-long showers or flushing water down the drain to waste." He said officials are auditing water use and will develop a plan to reduce use even as Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced that Maryland will investigate the well failures.

Other water worries have meant that, at the National Arboretum in Washington, the conifers and magnolias are suffering; oaks in the woods are dying; and staff members are watching the grass turn brown as they save water for the landscape's 200 cultivated acres of plants and trees.

"Every day, all day, all we're doing is watering," supervisory horticulturist Angela Palmer said. "If an irrigation system goes down, it's like the end of the world."

On 250 more acres at the arboretum, unreached by sprinklers or hoses, the grove of state trees -- a collection of trees from each state -- and the glorious ellipse meadow are feeling the Darwinian effects of the drought. "It's survival of the fittest out there," Palmer said grimly.

In Alexandria, 200 trees have died, and more deaths are expected. Although most of the victims have been 1- to 3-year-old saplings, Roger Blakeley, deputy director of the department that manages Alexandria's 944 acres of parkland, said he expects that even the older trees might suffer long-term and permanent damage.

"We'll see a tremendous loss of tree canopy if this continues," he said.

Garden centers are also suffering. Sales at Wentworth Nursery in St. Mary's County are down 25 percent this summer, estimated Mike Wells, the nursery's general manager.

Jan Borchlewicz, 58, of Lexington Park hoped to buy shade for her garden, but as she examined a Tiger Eyes sumac, she remained leery: "There's no sense spending money that you know is just going to burn up. And it's not just the money. It makes me sad to see them die."

But scorched earth today could mean more green in the fall. At the Merrifield Garden Center in Fairfax County, plant specialist David Yost said store employees are bracing for "a big fall season." He expects that customers will be looking in September and October to repair drought-damaged lawns.

What might not be big, or even widely available, are jack-o'-lanterns. Bushwood farmer Kari Ritchey said she is using an irrigation system to try to prevent that possibility.

"A lot of the farmers just have lost everything," she said. "We did get some rain, but it's just too late."