It's officially a drought

By Tom Barton

Thursday, June 23, 2005 2:03 AM CDT

RACINE - All around Racine and surrounding areas, lawns are turning brown.

As summer begins, the National Weather Service is already declaring drought conditions for southeastern Wisconsin.

Randy Larson, owner of Lawn Specialists, 1042 Roosevelt Drive, said he's starting to see holes in lawns where there is no grass.

This week, he said his business has only cut 50 percent of its customers' lawns, and is expecting the same for next week.

"It definitely has a significant financial impact," Larson said.

Patti Nagai, horticulture educator for University of Wisconsin Extension in Racine, said this month's lack of water is out of the ordinary.

"It's interesting because this is normally a wet time of the year for us," she said.

Only 6.1 inches of rain have been recorded in the area since March 1, compared to the 16.8 inches recorded last year at this time. Last year was also the second wettest spring for Wisconsin, while this spring has been recorded as the seventh driest in Racine-area history, according to the Wisconsin State Climatology Office.

Water use by Racine residents has increased slightly since the beginning of the month.

"Pumping is going up a little each day," Mike Kosterman, plant superintendent of Water and Wastewater Utilities in Racine, said Wednesday. "There have been modest increases, but nothing too significant. We'll keep increasing our dumping each day we go without rain.

"Yesterday was our biggest day so far. We pumped about 31.5 million gallons. Today, I'm assuming we'll do a little more."

Although pumping slightly more water than usual, he said it is typical water use for this time in June.

"We are still way below our capacity," Kosterman said, adding the plant can filter about 60 million gallons a day and can pump between 55 to 54 million gallons a day.

While parts of Chicago suburbs such as Joliet, Ill., have imposed water restrictions because of increased use with recent dry conditions, Kosterman and Racine Public Works officials said use in Racine is not significant enough to impose

restrictions.

"We haven't had any watering restrictions on our customers since 1979 to 1980," Kosterman said. "Even during the major drought in 1988, there were no watering restrictions."

While lawn maintenance services and homeowners may be feeling the heat, local farmers said they have yet to truly feel the effects of dry conditions.

"To me, the crops look good," said Jason Baumeister, who runs a family farm in Burlington with his father, Ervin.

"We are starting to see some signs of dryness, but things don't look too bad right now. But if we don't see rain in another two or three weeks, we are going to start seeing some drops in yields," said Baumeister, who grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa hay, wheat and oats. "If it keeps up it could be bad, as we don't do any

irrigation."

Dry conditions have not led to increased grass or brush fires yet either, according to the Racine Fire Department.

"At this time there doesn't seem to be a spike. The number of reported fires we're seeing is pretty typical," said Lt. Gary Green with the Racine Fire Department's Fire Prevention service. "When school was getting out, we saw a normal increase in grass fires reported, due to kids dropping matches - malicious burning. But the numbers are typical for this time of year."

While watering lawns and gardens helps prevent the spread of fires, Green said watering lawns doesn't necessarily help

prevent fires.

"It's a really a personal choice (to water or not) and has little to do with fire prevention. It's more an issue of prevention by not doing anything that would cause a fire. Don't throw the cigarette butts and have a bonfire in your backyard," Green said.

"One thing a lot of people forget about is that open burning is not allowed in the city. Some people are under the impression that they can have a bonfire in their backyard and they can't."

If you are going to burn outside, do so in an outdoor fireplace with a top on it to control the sparks, he said.

"And don't put it on top of something that can burn. Don't put it on your lawn." Green said. "It may not start a fire, but it will certainly kill your lawn."

Persons found engaging in open burning could face a citation of up to $150, according to city

ordinance.

"It's a lot of common sense. If people just stopped to think, a lot of fires would be prevented. It's simple: Keep the hot spots away from the things that can burn," Green said. "Don't discard your smoking materials outside on the ground. Put a little water in your ashtray or use some sand and put it in a metal bucket.

"Don't dump out your coals if they're still hot. Make sure they're cool. If you need to get them out of your grill, dump them in a metal bucket, but the best thing to do is let them sit there."

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