Drought again becomes issue in our state

By: Morning News | SCNOW
Published: August 07, 2008

And it’s hot.

And it’s dry.

But it’s been much drier than normal, especially in the counties in the northwestern part of our state.

So much so that the South Carolina Drought Response Committee added nine more counties into the extreme drought category: Anderson, Abbeville, McCormick, Edgefield, Saluda, Greenwood, Laurens, Newberry and Laurens.

They join five other counties in the Upstate that were placed in that category on June 30: Cherokee, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens and Spartanburg.

According to the committee, steps already taken by local governments and water suppliers, as well as residents in the area, have helped keep the problem from being worse.

But predictions are that no major rainfall is predicted for that area any time soon.

Recent rains in Charleston and Georgetown counties, however, helped to remove them from the drought category.

Pee Dee counties are short normal rainfall amounts, but we aren’t as bad off as the ones in the Upstate.

The good news is that a few years ago, leaders in the Pee Dee led by Florence Mayor Frank Willis took steps to work with North Carolina and South Carolina state officials and federal officials to have a system in place so we could agree on river flows in our area and other steps to take if things got bad again.

That’s certainly good news, but it emphasizes the need for good planning, conservation and other steps to keep our water supply flowing.

Florence’s city water system is in good shape and expects to be that way for years to come.

That’s a plus not only for our residents and businesses but also for future development.

But don’t take that to mean we can “waste” our water supply and not continue to find ways to use less of it if possible.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

But, hopefully, a little more rain is on the way, but not because of a hurricane.