Gov. Tim Kaine asked the federal government Monday to declare the Commonwealth of Virginia an official disaster area because of drought.
According to Kaine's spokesperson Kevin Hall, about 70 of Virginia's 130 jurisdictions asked the governor to request disaster status.
"This has been pretty much statewide all through 2007 and it has prompted a lot of local governments to seek federal drought disaster status," Hall said.
Hall said the Governor's Office is still waiting for the federal government to reply to the request.
"We are hoping for a response as quickly as possible," Hall said.
If statewide agricultural disaster status were granted to Virginia, farmers who have suffered crop losses from recent heat and drought may be eligible for "some very favorable" federal loans, Hall said, adding that "similar requests for statewide status have been granted to Delaware, Maryland and Tennessee."
University Utilities Director Cheryl Gomez said there are three phases in declaring an area as 'at risk.'
"The first phase is a drought watch, when the conditions look good for us moving into a drought situation," Gomez said, noting that Albemarle County and Charlottesville were placed under a drought watch July 23. "Then it was August 15 that they declared a drought warning, which is the second phase."
The third and last phase is the drought emergency, which Gomez noted the region has not yet entered.
"Hopefully we will not move into a state of emergency," Hall said.
Gomez said the University has taken many steps to cut back water usage.
"We've stopped washing buses and service vehicles back in August, which was a mandatory requirement in compliance with Charlottesville's city ordinance," Gomez said.
She added that the pool in the Memorial Gymnasium was shut down indefinitely sometime between May and early June, while the City of Charlottesville granted the University the right to keep the Aquatic & Fitness Center's pool open for its physical therapy and rehabilitation purposes.
Gomez said University officials also are monitoring water usage in its heating and cooling systems and "are no longer irrigating lawns or watering plants, either."
The problem, Gomez said, is that even with all the cutbacks, the University is still using more water than is coming in from reservoir or ground sites. While the University and the Commonwealth await federal response, Gomez noted that "everyone is hoping the dry spell will break and that we'll get some rain"
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