Transcripts

TOM MEERSMAN: Much of Minnesota and the surrounding region is baking again today. Record or near-record temperatures and winds are evaporating about a third of an inch of water from many lakes every day, shriveling agricultural crops and driving thousands of people out to the beaches or into spaces that are air conditioned.

In Northern Minnesota, the Beltrami County Board declared a state of emergency and said that the lack of rain has been a disaster for agriculture. Nearly 150 miles to the south, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Office Director, Urban Frank, offered a bleak assessment of the situation in Stearns County.

URBAN FRANK: The small grain crop in the county is damaged beyond salvation. We're estimating that we've got 70% to 80% loss in small grain crop.

TOM MEERSMAN: In addition to crop damage, the weather is affecting farmers' abilities to feed their livestock. Seventh District Congressman Arlan Stangeland announced in Washington that he wants the US Department of Agriculture to waive certain procedures and to speed up assistance to needy ranchers and dairy farmers.

ARLAN STANGELAND: We're talking about the ability of farmers and ranchers who have dairy herds or beef herds to be able to hay and graze, set aside acreage. If they qualify, they would be eligible for feed assistance. There's also an emergency feed program where they could borrow money or get assistance in buying feed.

TOM MEERSMAN: Stangaland figures that 15 of the 23 counties he represents are in trouble because of the unseasonable weather, and that the remaining 8 will probably be added to his list after a couple more days of windy, dry conditions. Temperatures are also stretching the abilities of water systems to keep up with demand in the metro area.

Several communities have limited lawn sprinkling to certain days and hours. Minneapolis Water Works Director Jim Hayek says the sprinkling bans are not all that effective, however, and that Minneapolis will not impose such restrictions. Hayek is concerned, however, that the city's equipment might not hold up under the strain of treating and pumping near its capacity of about 160 million gallons of water per day.

JIM HAYEK: If we had any kind of a mechanical outage, a major pump going out or some of the treatment equipment chlorinators, for example, or transformer blows or something like this, then we'd be in big trouble real fast.

TOM MEERSMAN: Although hot temperatures and sparse rain are affecting surface water supplies, Department of Natural Resources hydrologist Sarah Tufford says Minnesota still has plenty of underground water.

SARAH TUFFORD: Particularly groundwater supplies are not directly affected immediately by climate conditions. It takes quite a long time for the impact of today's dry weather to show up in the water level in a well. So that shouldn't be an immediate concern.

TOM MEERSMAN: Tufford says that even in the Twin Cities, the reason for sprinkling bans is not because there's any shortage of water, but because communities can't pump it up and treat it fast enough to keep up with demand. She expects the state would need to have a prolonged drought of several years before the lack of water would have any significant impact on underground supplies. I'm Tom Meersman.