8 Parched Rivers Set Low-Water Records

Eight drought-plagued rivers set records for low water last month, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Tuesday.

The North Fork of the Edisto River at Orangeburg, S.C., averaged 141 million gallons of water per day for July, the least amount of water for any month ever measured in that river in 49 years of record-keeping.

And on July 15 the Wisconsin River at Muscoda, Wis., recorded its lowest one-day flow ever at 1.2 billion gallons. That river has been measured for 75 years.

Six other rivers, including the once mighty Mississippi, had their lowest flows for any July on record, the survey reported.

Setting records for the month of July were the Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls, Wis., with flow at 9% less than the record set in 1910; the Altahama River at Doctortown, Ga., 74% below normal, the lowest in 56 years of records; the Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee, Fla., at its lowest in 59 years of record-keeping; the Sturgeon River at Sidnaw, Mich., 90% below normal, the lowest in 47 years, and the Oconto River at Gillette, Wis., with its lowest July in 76 years at 47% below normal.