Arkansas Farmers' Pockets in Jeopardy Because of the Drought
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Updated: July 26, 2012
Lifelong farmer Robert Gilliaum says its the driest he's ever seen.
"We got a problem with water, it's a going down," he says.
The drought is forcing Gilliaum and others to double up on watering, but wells in Jackson County are at their lowest levels in decades. A friend of Gilliam's said that his water well was pumping sand and gravel.
Phillip Anderson says its a constant battle to keep the water running.
"You've got to have everything right for them to work," Anderson says.
With pumps burning through enough butane to power 40 houses it's not just the wells that are running dry. Farmers can't afford to stop now. They've already lost the dry bean crop.
"You pump all year long for this moment right here. If your well goes down, you lose everything you've done all year."
Its an all-out war in Newport and farmers are wondering how much longer they can hold their ground before the entire county gets swallowed in a cloud of dust. Some farmers say this might be the worst it's been since the Dust Bowl Era in the early 1930's.
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says the Summer of 1930 saw several consecutive days with temperatures of at least 110 degrees and no rain fell for more than two months.
