From dried-up stream beds to ears of corn so small only a toddler would find them satisfying, signs of this summer’s drought are everywhere. Rainfall levels have been below normal since May, affecting area farms and orchards as well as the health of Bare Hill Pond. On July 21, the state declared a critical drought for all of Worcester County, urging residents in the county to halt all nonessential water use.
Farms and orchards have been hit the hardest. Carlson Orchards owner Frank Carlson told the Press the orchard has three wells and two ponds that are used for drip irrigation, but he has to limit water use because the wells are stressed and the ponds are getting low. Water is going to the peach trees and some of the apple trees that bear more expensive varieties such as Honeycrisp. But Carlson said apples like McIntosh and Cortland will be smaller this year because those trees aren’t getting water. “We need rain badly,” he said.
At Willard Farm, the story is much the same. Wendell Willard said the crops that have the luxury of drip irrigation are doing well: tomatoes, sunflowers, cucumbers, and some small pumpkins and gourds. But other crops, such as sweet corn and large pumpkins, are faring poorly. Those fields are “pretty much a desert,” Willard said. He added that it doesn’t take much water to keep corn alive, but the showers that sporadically appear keep going north or south of his farm. This summer’s drought is “the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The Bowers Brook intake for Bare Hill Pond contains only mud and lacks running water as a result of the ongoing drought. (Photo by Joan Eliyesil)
Westward Orchards farmer Chris Green told the Press his apples and peaches are smaller than normal. That means less money for the orchard. Usually, he said, about a third of the apple crop is sold to wholesalers, but this year’s small apples won’t be acceptable because of their size. He’s hoping insurance will cover some of the losses. His corn is also suffering, not so much from the drought but from bird damage. “When it’s really dry, the birds eat the tops of the corn,” he said.
Linda Hoffman, owner of Old Frog Pond Farm, also reported crop damage from wildlife looking for water. “Bird pressure on our peaches has been terrible, and the deer are eating much more fruit than usual,” she said. While the pond provides irrigation for the vegetables, the irrigation system for the orchard on the other side of Eldridge Road relies on the surrounding wetlands, which Hoffman said are getting drier. She said her sense is that both fruits and vegetables are smaller at her farm this year.
At Doe Orchards, owner Pam Lawson told the Press her staff is working hard to minimize the effects of the drought. Blueberries are getting drip irrigation, five-gallon buckets of water are helping the peach trees stay hydrated as the crop is nearly ready for picking, and workers are getting water to the Christmas trees as well. Lawson is also making sure her honeybees are getting water and that their hive lids are propped up for ventilation. But the apple trees are “clearly stressed” she said, and high temperatures are now threatening to sunburn the apples as well, a situation Frank Carlson also mentioned.
Town water not an issue
Department of Public Works Director Tim Kilhart told the Press the one well that currently supplies all the water to the center of town is not having any issues keeping up with demand. He said it’s only putting out about 14,000 gallons a day, about 4,000 gallons less than average, because school is not in session and there’s a ban on outdoor watering for residents in the water district. Harvard’s Water Commission ordered the ban last summer when one of the town’s two wells had to be shut down because of e-coli contamination. The well is still offline while the town waits for a DEP permit to install a full-time chlorination system, and the watering ban will remain in effect until the well is brought back online. Landscaping at Town Hall and the new field in front of the elementary school, both inside the water district, are being watered from a tank, not the town water supply.
But private well owners are not governed by the Water Commission or by state regulations. That falls to local boards of health; as of press time, Harvard’s BOH had not made any statements regarding watering bans for homes or businesses with private wells. Kilhart told the Press his staff is continuing to irrigate at Charlie Waite field, Harvard Park, and one of the Ryan land baseball fields with water from private wells at those locations.
Pond is stressed
The water level at Bare Hill Pond is already lower than normal end-of-summer levels, according to Bruce Leicher, chair of the Bare Hill Pond Watershed Management Committee. Leicher said the lack of rain has not only contributed directly to the lower water level, but indirectly because of the reduced inflow of water from underground springs and streams. Bowers Brook, which feeds into the pond from the south, was mostly mud with a few small puddles during a recent visit by this reporter.
The main problem the drought is causing for the pond, though, is an increase in temperature. Leicher said the reduction of water flowing in from cool underground springs raises the temperature of the pond, which is now in the mid-80s. He said the water is warmer not just at the surface but to a depth of about 8 feet. Warm water loses some of its ability to hold oxygen, he added, and that stresses fish, especially the smaller ones. It also provides an environment conducive to algal blooms like the one that closed the beach last summer for nearly two months. The Board of Health is monitoring algae levels every two weeks, and so far they are low, but last year’s bloom began in late August (see story, page 5). “What we need is some rain to reverse course,” Leicher said.
Ellen Leicher, chair of the Climate Initiative Committee, told the Press that drought was one of the concerns raised by the town participants in the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness project a few years ago, and now those concerns are taking shape. The CIC is working on a climate action plan that will include protection of the town’s water resources. “Like all of the impacts of climate change, it will take mitigation—residents doing everything they can to reduce their carbon footprint, and it will take adaptation—getting used to using less water, having hotter summers, seeing changes in biodiversity,” Leicher said. The plan will be made public for resident input in September.
