The Downside of Sunshine
Balmy Weather Might Feel Great, but Lawns Are Shriveled, Farmers Are Frazzled and Houses Need a Cool Drink of Water

By Nick Miroff and Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Blue skies, beaming sunshine and perfect beach weather: When will the tyranny end?

As the region's endless summer wears on into October, Washington area residents are looking at their desiccated lawns and withered shrubs with a deepening sense of malaise about the drought.

Frances Louer, a troubled green thumb, tends a garden with thousands of azaleas in Haymarket and scans weather reports eagerly for a sign of rain. "If it comes, we'll welcome it," she said. "If not, what can you do?" The streams on her five-acre property have dried up, she said, and the swamp is so hard now "you can drive a tractor on it."

This year's lack of rain is creating problems large and small, from huge water bills for some avid gardeners to what Heidi Symms of Gainesville calls a bumper crop of certain bugs. Spiders are her arch foe. "I think the bugs like the dry weather," she said while shopping for insecticide at a Southern States gardening store in Manassas.

In the District and across the region's suburbs, residents are adapting to a dry spell that has bedeviled farmers for months. One couple saves on bath water by washing children two-to-a-tub. Others have refused to concede their lawns to nature's whims, watering with abandon. A structural engineer in Alexandria said he's advising homeowners with foundation problems and clay-heavy soils to soak the perimeter of their house as a protective measure.

Although cooler weather is expected today and through the weekend, arid conditions are likely to persist through the end of the month, said Jim DeCarufel, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Sterling office. Only 21 inches of rain has been tallied at Reagan National Airport this year, well below the 31-inch normal total.

"It's going to take widespread wet weather for days to make any dent in the drought," DeCarufel said, "and right now, that's not in the foreseeable future." The record low for annual rainfall is 21.6 inches, set in 1930, he said.

This year's dry conditions have inflicted crop losses as high as 60 percent on farmers in Maryland and Virginia, where state officials have asked for federal drought disaster relief. The dry weather is also starting to afflict suburban residents.

Loudoun County authorities imposed mandatory water restrictions last week, and most of the rest of the region is on a drought watch, with voluntary conservation measures. Residents have been asked to take shorter showers, limit watering of lawns and gardens and turn off the tap while brushing their teeth.

In western Montgomery County, Poolesville residents say they're sensitive to shortages because they depend on well water.

Maggie Nightingale said she always tries to take short showers and keeps an eye on dripping faucets. Since August, she has been taking more precautions.

"We make sure the dishwasher is full when we run it and that the washing machine is full before we do laundry," Nightingale said.

Leesburg resident Greg Powell and his wife, Beth, have saved water by bathing their sons, ages 2 and 5, together. Powell relies on an 800-foot-deep well. Although he's not worried about it running dry any time soon, Powell said he's aware of the need to conserve.

"We certainly haven't watered any grass or washed any cars at our house lately," Powell said. "It's definitely affected our lifestyle, not drastically but just in small changes."

The small changes can affect plants and pets alike.

Lezley McIlveen, a dentist in Herndon, said the drought has relegated her horse to a steady diet of imported hay from the Midwest because the pasture where he's stabled is barren. Each out-of-state bale costs $15 and doesn't deliver the same nutritional value as fresh grass. "I'm worried about him getting colic," she said.

The battle to keep grass green has also been a losing one for Manassas area home builder Tony Willingham. He has had trouble getting inspectors to issue occupancy permits on houses he has completed because the landscaping looks so shoddy. "Everything that I planted a month ago is dying," he said. "The only thing this drought helps me with is laying basements, because the concrete dries so fast."

Despite the hand-wringing over the weather, plenty of residents said that they have few concerns about drought and that they would cut back on water use if restrictions were put in place.

"I guess I should be doing more," said Gaithersburg resident Brian Combs. "Now I feel bad. Are we in a water crisis I'm not thinking about?"

Even as some residents cut back on watering their lawns as a result of the shortages, they might want to consider watering their houses, Alexandria structural engineer John Woods said. Homeowners who live atop expansive soils, such as marine clay, can prevent settling and cracking by moistening the ground along the base of their home's foundation. "If this drought continues, people will start to see problems by next month or December," he said. "They will see cracks in ceilings and around windows and doors."

At national parks in the area, officials said they are worried about the health of plants and shrubs planted in the spring, National Park Service spokesman Bill Line said. To the north and west of Washington, in places such as Catoctin Mountain Park and in battlefield parks at Antietam and Monocacy, Line said the drought could kill off trees weakened by gypsy-moth infestations.

But the Park Service's most famous trees, the blossoming cherry trees that encircle the Tidal Basin, are in no danger, Line said. He said crews have been soaking them with Tidal Basin water all summer.

Like its neighbors, the District is under a drought watch, issued by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, but the city is not feeling much strain on resources, officials said. The Potomac River is running at reasonable levels, and the city's reservoirs are full, said Carrie Brooks, spokeswoman for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D).

The District generally has less demand for water than suburbs because city lawns are fewer and smaller, Brooks said. "We have not had to do anything special," she said. "If that changes, we could put something in place very quickly."

Staff writers David A. Fahrenthold, David Nakamura, Paul Schwartzman and Jackie Spinner contributed to this report.