Tagged: drought

The City of Macomb has taken steps to ensure the water continues to flow this summer despite the drought.

Mayor Mike Inman said water from one of the city's deep wells is being pumped into Spring Lake, which is the city's water source.

“The water manager started pumping from one of our deep wells the first week of July,” Inman said.

“We're pumping roughly 800 gallons a minute from that deep well into the lake, trying to maintain the water level there.”

The city has two deep wells. Both are at Spring Lake.

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is confident his state will come out on top when it comes to a proposed $1.5-billion fertilizer plant.

Orascom Construction Industries is said to be considering multiple sites in Iowa for the plant, along with locations in central Illinois and Texas.

Branstad says he has personally talked to representatives of the Egypt-based company about Iowa’s history of honest, reliable government, especially when compared to Illinois.

Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel says the current drought conditions have been slowly developing since the start of the calendar year.

"Every month, this year, has been below normal on precipitation and above normal on temperatures," says Angel.  "You get that combination going and we were drying out in March, which is normally the 'budding' month."

Angel says the situation was not helped by a dry winter, which depleted some soil moisture, and less rain last summer and fall.

He says the drought is also feeding on itself. 

Rich Eggers' guest is Dr Tom Williams, Associate Professor of Geography at Western Illinois University. They talk about the recent heat wave and the year-long drought in the region.

"Farmers are rightfully quite concerned about the growing drought threat and the fact that the forecast for the next week doesn't hold a lot of hope for any significant rainfall," Williams said.