WESTMINSTER, Md. — Forklifts load peaches and plums bound for North Carolina, and while its orchards are still producing plenty of fruit, Baugher’s Farm in Westminster can no longer count on Mother Nature to save crops like sweet corn and pumpkins that it plants in the ground.
“We’re pulling a lot from our irrigation ponds and you can only pull so much water from them until they’re dry,” said Nick Wilhide, “and if we don’t get rain here soon or some sort of water, we’re going to pull them until they run dry.”
According to federal data, this is the second driest year to date in Carroll County in more than 129 years.
During the drought of 2002, Westminster had to truck in water, and now that the state has issued a drought watch calling for voluntary conservation measures, Mayor Mona Becker is concerned.
“We suffer from not having enough water for economic development and we are very water-limited in Westminster,” noted Becker, “and in the City of Westminster, we are solely dependent on precipitation, because precipitation feeds our reservoir and precipitation feeds our ground water wells.”
Becker says the city has already limited development for lack of water resources, but refraining from watering lawns or washing cars may help, if those who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and going to stay afloat should the dry weather continue.
“Rain is super important and if we can’t do that with all of the extra costs of adding all of the irrigation that we’re put in, then it just drives up costs,” said Wilhide, “and then we have to pass that on, which is unfortunate to the customer and we never want to do that. It’s an unfortunate reality that we’re in.”
