Burgum proclaims statewide fire and drought emergency.
BISMARCK — Gov.
Doug Burgum proclaimed a statewide fire and drought emergency on Monday evening.
He also ordered that all state agencies maintain high levels of readiness.
The executive order activates the State Emergency Operations Plan and authorizes Maj. Gen. Alan Dohrmann, adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard, to activate the Guard if needed to support local and tribal governments, the governor said in a press release.
Extremely dry conditions, lack of precipitation and high winds have created a fire emergency in North Dakota and have had a detrimental impact on livestock water supplies, crop and pasture conditions, the release stated.
Last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report showed 8 percent of the state in extreme drought, 32 percent in severe drought, 27 percent in moderate drought and 33 percent abnormally dry.
Conditions are not expected to improve in the near future, the release stated.
"These conditions present a serious threat to the health and safety of local area citizens and their personal property," Burgum said of the fire danger.
"Significant manpower and equipment will be required for response and recovery operations."

Burgum declares statewide fire, drought emergency.
North Dakota Gov.
Doug Burgum has proclaimed a statewide fire and drought emergency, ordering state agencies to “maintain high levels of readiness.” The executive order, issued Monday following a meeting of state agencies that was closed to the public, activates the State Emergency Operations Plan and authorizes the North Dakota National Guard to activate, if needed.
Drought conditions and high winds have created a fire emergency in North Dakota.
The U.S. Drought Monitor report released last week showed 8 percent of the state in extreme drought, 32 percent in severe drought, 27 percent in moderate drought and 33 percent abnormally dry.
The conditions have increased the fire risk for North Dakota, with 30 counties issuing emergency declarations, burn bans or other fire restrictions.
“These conditions present a serious threat to the health and safety of local area citizens and their personal property,” Burgum said in a statement.
“Significant manpower and equipment will be required for response and recovery operations.” Last week, Burgum directed the Department of Emergency Services and other state agencies to coordinate drought and wildfire planning and response efforts.
Information about drought and fire conditions, including counties with burn bans and fireworks restrictions, is available at NDresponse.gov.

Drought emergency declared in 19 Montana counties, 2 reservations.
HELENA – Gov.
Parts of these counties have seen record low precipitation, high temperatures, and excessive wind in the last two months, state officials said.
These conditions rapidly deteriorated crop and forage viability after a winter of below average precipitation.
Crops such as oats, spring wheat, edible dry peas, and sugar beets are all suffering, officials said.
In addition, pasture and range conditions are poor to very poor, per the June 18 Crop Progress Report.
Ranchers reported extreme dust has made it difficult to keep track of all head, even during branding.
Bullock said farmers and ranchers from many eastern communities are feeling the impacts of drought conditions.
He said his administration is committed to making sure impacts are minimized and will continue to work closely with these communities to monitor conditions and provide further assistance.
Earlier Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands in Montana.

Butte County declares drought emergency.
BELLE FOURCHE — The Butte County Commission declared Tuesday that current drought conditions have created a natural disaster within the county.
Melissa Smith, a hydrologist with the weather service, said that over the last 60 days, the Belle Fourche and Spearfish areas have gotten approximately three inches less than average amounts of precipitation for this time of year.
As you go north and east into the state, Smith said, the drought conditions worsen substantially.
“The worst part of the state right now is north-central South Dakota and up into North Dakota,” she said.
The lack of consistent precipitation has resulted in the lack of rainwater runoff and caused livestock ponds, dams, and natural water holes to become severely depleted and abnormally low subsoil moisture, resulting in widespread crop losses.
Drought conditions have had a detrimental effect on the production capabilities of the agricultural industry, which, in turn, severely affects the local economy.
According to the most recent scale released Thursday, 83.68 percent of the state is under a D0-D4 rating, up from 46.97 percent at this time, last year.
Most of Butte County is currently under a D0 rating, indicating abnormally dry conditions, with the exception of the southeast corner of Butte County, which is under a D1 rating, designating moderate drought conditions.
Through the rest of June and into early July, the National Weather Service is forecasting persistent above-average temperatures and below average-precipitation.

PIERRE, S.D.
Dennis Daugaard declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in the state.
As part of the State of Emergency, the state will ease haying and transportation restrictions to assist agriculture producers.
Effective immediately, farmers and ranchers across the state may cut and bale state highway ditches adjacent to their property.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation has suspended their mowing operations until July 5 to allow farmers to access more of the hay along the ditches.
The state is also authorizing producers to travel statewide without a commercial driver’s license to ease transport of feed in the drought stricken area.
With the emergency drought disaster declaration federal trucking regulations are waived for the transportation of goods such as hay.
FMCSA regulations ranging from 390-399 are waived for the next 30 days.
The permits are free and available by contacting the South Dakota Highway Patrol Permitting Office at (605) 698-3925.
For more information on state highway ditch mowing, call Greg Fuller, SDDOT director of operations at (605) 773-3256.

Governor declares drought emergency.
Drought conditions in South Dakota have prompted Gov.
Dennis Daugaard to issue an emergency declaration which eases hay and transportation restrictions.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation has suspended mowing operations along those ditches until July 5 in order to give farmers access.
The declaration isn’t likely to affect the state’s pheasant population, said Travis Runia senior upland game biologist for the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department.
The mowing restriction was created as an effort to give pheasants more places to nest.
Runia said pheasants do indeed nest in highway ditches.
Still, compliance with the restrictions hasn’t been all that great and state highway ditches don’t amount to all that many acres of land, Runia said, so the impact of mowing the ditches likely won’t be too big when it comes to pheasants.
The drought conditions affecting ranchers are much more likely to cause a problem.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows about 80 percent of the state being either abnormally dry or in some stage of drought, up just slightly from last week.

Gov.
Daugaard issues state Of emergency for drought conditions.
PIERRE – Gov.
Dennis Daugaard has declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in South Dakota.
As part of the State of Emergency, the state will ease haying and transportation restrictions to assist agriculture producers.
Effective immediately, farmers and ranchers may cut and bale state highway ditches adjacent to their property across the entire state.
For safety reasons, mowing in the medians of divided four-lane highways is prohibited and a permit is still required for mowing interstate right-of-ways.
Producers are also reminded to be watchful of traffic along the highways and to always yield to oncoming traffic.
With the emergency drought disaster declaration federal trucking regulations are waived for the transportation of goods such as hay.
FMCSA regulations ranging from 390-399 are waived for the next 30 days.

WARDER, Ethiopia — Ethiopia’s government is warning it will run out of emergency food aid starting next month as the number of drought victims in the East African country has reached 7.8 million. An international delegation visited one of the worst-affected areas Friday near the border with Somalia, which suffers from widespread drought as well. Ethiopia’s disaster relief chief Mitiku Kassa told The Associated Press that the country needs more than $1 billion for emergency food assistance. Seasonal rains have been critically small and local cattle are dying. The number of drought victims has risen by two million people in the past four months. The risk of an acute food and nutritional disaster is “very high,” the disaster relief chief said….

The Middle Route Project of the south to North Water Diversion Project will work with local governments to carry out water pollution emergency drills.
The traffic accident is caused by simulation with leakage of hazardous chemicals into the canal water pollution incident, and launched the emergency response and disposal of the water diversion project is the transport unit for the first time with the local government to carry out joint prevention and control emergency drills.
During the emergency drill site, a chemical tank for water falling is hoisted by a crane and cooled by water spraying.
The water pollution incident, middle construction authority belongs to the high element management office, Hebei branch of the relevant three level of operation and management mechanism respectively launched the emergency plan, immediately report the emergency office of the local government of Hebei Province, set up an emergency command, combined with the local government to carry out emergency rescue and disposal work.
During the emergency drill site, water quality monitoring personnel sampled the polluted waters.
Exercise aimed at improving water diversion project operation management units and the masses along the risk consciousness, test the emergency plan operability, practicability and cohesion effectiveness, comprehensive training and training management team, effectively promote the building authority and the local government to establish joint control mechanism of South-to-North Water Transfer Project, coordination and disposal unexpected events, improve the ability of South-to-North Water Transfer Project emergency disposal.
Water quality monitoring personnel on-site detection of water, the results are reported at any time.
Linkage, and the seat of the government emergency system seamless docking, joint defense joint control, to achieve joint response, coordinated operations; the whole line to carry out joint linkage linkage, to prevent secondary disasters, and ensure project safety.
South to North Water Diversion Central Construction Bureau deputy director Liu Xianliang said in an interview with reporters, the exercise process is actual combat process, test the feasibility and availability of the plan.
In addition, through exercises, South China north to coordinate the establishment of local governments coordination, communication and linkage mechanism to promote the coordination of South North Water Diversion local governments to prevent risk normalization.

NEWS WORTH NOTING: State Water Board adopts emergency regulation to implement SGMA; Weekly water and climate report.
State Water Board adopts emergency regulation to implement SGMA From the State Water Board: On May 16, 2017, The State Water Board adopted a resolution to adopt the Emergency Regulation for Implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
You can download the adopted emergency regulation at http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/gmp/docs/fees/20170516_adopted.pdf.
For more information on the emergency regulation or the State Water Board’s role in SGMA, visit www.waterboards.ca.gov/gmp.
The report focuses on seasonal snowpack, precipitation, temperature, and drought conditions in the U.S. Drought conditions prevail across much of Florida.
Through May 16, year-to-date rainfall in Orlando, Florida, totaled a record-low 3.34 inches (27% of normal).” Click here to open the report.
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