The Water Dilemma: A Local Perspective

 In 1922, Charles Wampler Sr. hatched his first 50 pullets in Western Virginia, and thus the commercial poultry industry. Five years later, he went on to launch Wampler Feed and Seed Co. Fifty years later, there were nearly 1 million chickens in Rockingham County, giving rise to one of the agricultural industries that has made this area so successful and important for the food industry.

We need farms and the food that comes from them. It provides the backbone of our economy and ensures high-quality, low-cost food for others around the nation and in some other countries. As our agricultural industry expands, however, so does our collective responsibility to use diminishing resources in a sustainable manner.

Right now, 47% of the land in the lower 48 states is experiencing drought, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration considers the Shenandoah Valley to be in a moderate drought. Just before late summer rainfall from a tropical depression, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality was poised to declare a drought in the State, which would have curtailed surface water use for farms and other irrigation. With more mouths to feed and expanding agricultural use, we have to be increasingly vigilant to use best management practices for watering and irrigation. Droughts like the current one we are experiencing will increase in severity and frequency.

Our poultry industry that began with a meager 50 birds in 1922 now supports over 18.2 million in Rockingham County, according to the agricultural research service statistics from 2017.

 Conservative estimates of 80 gallons of water per 1,000 birds per day means that poultry in Rockingham County use 1.5 million gallons per day, in addition to Rockingham’s 111,000 beef and dairy cattle, which consume about 1.75 million gallons per day. Add to that all the water we use to irrigate feed crops and pasture land.

Agriculture often gets the brunt of the blame for water consumption, but residential use as well as golf course consumption is significant. The average 150-acre golf course consumes over 200 million gallons of water per year, so we must all work together to curb consumption where we can. Daytime irrigation is extremely wasteful, with evaporation consuming between 30 and 50% of the water used.

We must not only remain mindful of our responsibility to consume wisely, but we should also encourage those around us to adhere to commonsense guidelines. Water consumption and surface use regulations are at 9VAC25-210-(300-390) and contain great information on the permits required for excess surface water removal and laws for how to do so in the right way. Some may not be aware, but there are pumping limits, especially during times of drought. Although many consumptive laws are hard to enforce, that does not mean that we should pump with impunity as if our consumption of resources doesn’t have a direct effect on that of our neighbors, on fishermen and on the larger environment.

If we cannot work together to deal with water shortages and receive neighborly suggestions for how to curtail water use now, how will we ever deal with the issue when a more severe drought is upon us? Laws and best management practices are not there to impede personal freedom, but rather to put some restraint on unabated consumption from a common resource. We must remember that we are merely stewards of these resources for a short while, and the way in which we use them will affect future generations.