South Royalton
The White River and others in the Upper Valley are unseasonably low, and residents in communities such as Royalton and Sharon have taken notice.
“There’s a spot on the river my boys were swimming in, came up about to my son’s mid-chest, and now that’s gone,” said Matthew Thornton, who works as an emergency medical technician for the South Royalton Rescue Squad.
Thornton’s family took that swimming excursion in July, and “even then it was lower than I’d seen it,” he recalled.
The White River’s decreased level and discharge are symptoms of a broader dry spell, which has lowered crop yields in both Vermont and New Hampshire and put a strain on municipal water supplies.
Officially, conditions in the Upper Valley range from “abnormally dry” in Orange County and northern Grafton county to the more severe “moderate drought” in southern Grafton County, Sullivan County and Windsor County, according to the federal National Integrated Drought Information System.
“We’ve documented losses in corn and hay by virtue of the dry conditions,” said Steven Schmidt, the Grafton County Farm Service Agency executive director. “The corn crop that came in this summer is significantly less than normal, and hay is similar.”
Eric Winchester, a program technician at the Windsor/Orange County FSA office, reported similar news.
“It’s been a very dry year, and continues to be, and pasture is short in a lot of places,” he said.
Winchester had recently spoken to a farmer from Springfield, Vt., who’d brought his cows in from pasture early, due to drought-stunted grass.
Farther north, South Royalton has asked residents to be mindful of their use of water.
“Please refrain from any leisurely use such as car washing, extended/showers baths, etc.,” the town’s water department said Thursday.
South Royalton’s Prudential Committee decided on the voluntary water restriction at its meeting the previous night. Don Lovejoy, one of the committee’s members, had observed the drop in the White River, South Royalton’s main source of water, and thought it would be a good idea to encourage the townspeople to moderate water use.
Resident Ted DiCicco learned about the recommendation from a flyer posted at the South Royalton Market, but said his household already used water conservatively.
“In this land of fun and sun. we don’t flush for number one,” he joked.
DiCicco was out for a walk with Ron Guest, who was visiting from his hometown of Mystic, Conn. Guest recounted having started to power-wash his house, only to stop halfway through because he felt he was using too much water. In Connecticut, too, people are conscious of limited water supplies, he said.
Sharon resident Melissa Sotak said some of her neighbors’ wells had dried up.
“The people I know, they’ve never run out of water all the way before,” she said.
On Sunday morning, some residents of South Royalton had yet to hear of the recommended restrictions. Several Vermont Law School students walking down Windsor Street said they did not know about it.
When informed of the restriction, Nate Barsanti was preparing for his lunchtime shift at the Worthy Burger restaurant. He said he was unaware the town drew water from the White River, but that he’d noticed the river was “exceptionally low.”
Cleaning and sanitizing demand the most water at the Worthy Burger, and are second only to coffee machines at the South Royalton Market.
South Royalton has a backup water source: a modest reservoir off of Park View Terrace, southwest of the town center.
However, part of the impetus for the restriction was that the town did not want to put too much strain on its one other supply of water.
“Last winter, one of my coworkers said how great it was that we had so little snow,” recalled Thornton, the EMT. “I said, you won’t think it’s so great when we don’t have a water table.”