Most of Virginia continues to be under drought warning

While there has been some rainfall across Virginia this week, the state agency responsible for monitoring drought continues to sound a warning.

“Much of the state has received 0.5 to 2 inches of rain during the last two weeks, which has prevented drought conditions from worsening,” reads an information release sent out on June 25 by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

“However, severe drought continues in many parts of Virginia, particularly where precipitation was minimal,” the opening paragraph continues.

So far no parts of the Commonwealth are under a drought emergency which is the highest stage of response. All but the far southeast corner of Virginia are under a drought warning advisory which encourages everyone to conserve water.

According to the DEQ, precipitation levels are 8.5 inches below normal as measured from October 1, the beginning of the water year. There are also concerns about aquifers and wells.

“Groundwater levels in 19 of the state’s 24 monitoring wells remain below the 10th percentile for this time of the year,” reads the release. “Long-term outlooks for groundwater levels remain a concern and will take a prolonged period of additional rainfall to recover.”

DEQ monitors also review reservoir levels and those in the Middle James River Basin are considered normal. The topic came up at the meeting of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s Board of Directors this week.

“The face of the [South Fork] Rivanna Reservoir is still fairly wet,” said executive director Bill Mawyer. “We still call it spilling because it’s wet. This rain will help improve that a little while, a little bit.”

Mawyer said the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir is the one to watch to see if the pool begins to drop.

“If the water level gets one foot below the top of the dam, that’s when we would go to a watch status and ask the community, the city and the [Albemarle County] Service Authority to communicate with its customers about being in a voluntary watch status,” Mawyer said. “If the level below the top of the dam goes to two feet, drops to two feet, then we would request the two locality utilities to go to a warning stage which is mandatory water restrictions.”

Mawyer said the local emergency would kick in if the level drops to three feet.

Supervisor Ann Mallek urged the RWSA and others to get information out sooner to encourage people to conserve.

“It takes months and months to get people’s understanding about their need to change their behavior,” Mallek said. “We cannot wait until we’re dropping three feet a day like we were in 2002.”

That year was the historical drought of record when at one point in the fall the RWSA only had sixty days left of water supply. That led to the adoption of a community water supply plan that called for the expansion of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir and a nine-mile pipeline to South Fork Rivanna Reservoir that will allow water to be pumped in either direction.

You can keep an eye on reservoirs in the weekly Water Report on the RWSA website.

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