By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Robert Steele, Juab County Commissioner, thinks
that it is time to declare Juab County an emergency
drought area.
"I would like to see us declare our county one that
is suffering an emergency drought," said Steele.
He said he would like to do this so that local
farmers could begin to receive the financial help they
may need to survive another year without much water.
Steele thinks such a declaration would be a step
toward no- or low-interest federal loans for communities
and businesses, such as agriculture, that suffer at least
40 percent losses due to drought.
Federal assistance as well as assistance from the
state could be used by counties for whatever projects are
needed. Those projects could include drilling new wells
or even trucking in water in an emergency.
In order to qualify, counties first must declare an
emergency. Their declarations will be passed along to the
governor's office.
San Juan County and the Navajo Tribe already have
signed such declarations.
Gov. Mike Leavitt has been commended for
recognizing the threat of another year of drought for the
state and has already called for water conservancy
efforts and is asking all citizens to support the "H2O,
Slow the Flow" campaign.
According to a report from the state's Drought
Review and Reporting Committee, more than half of Utah's
counties are suffering from drought, and parts of the
rest of the counties will be before the end of the
summer.
"Generally the western portions of Millard, Juab,
Tooele and those portions of Box Elder (counties) that
are outside the Bear River drainage will see drought
problems," said committee chair Robert Morgan.
Counties that will have problems with drought this
year, according to Morgan, are Washington, Kane, San
Juan, Iron, Garfield, Beaver, Duchesne, Wayne, Emery,
Grand, Uintah, Sanpete, Rich, Piute and Carbon
counties.
Ivan W. Flint, assistant to the governor, said he
believes there will be few counties in Utah that won't be
impacted by drought conditions.
"Some areas, such as most of the Wasatch Front and
Morgan and Summit counties, are in good shape," said
Flint.
Many agriculture areas may have at least 20 percent
less than normal water availability.
Cary Peterson, the Utah agriculture commissioner,
said in some counties this is the fourth year of
drought.
"Then a population is coming&emdash;crickets and
grasshoppers and voles and moles and other things and
they could take whatever forage product there is."
Peterson said Mormon crickets, grasshoppers and
other pests will migrate from dry land to irrigated
fields and communities, where they could cause tremendous
damage.
Peterson said that there were areas in the state
that will have 90 percent loss.
The rancher's and farmer's ability to survive the
fourth year of drought in the state depends, to a great
extent, on the financial condition of the individual
going into the problem.
"For some of them, it could be devastating. For
others, if they have resilience, they will double the bet
and try again next year," said Peterson.
