People stopped joking about all the rain being good for their tomatoes somewhere in the third day of the deluge.
Now, scientists caution it could have negative effects on groundwater safety and even the health of the Chesapeake Bay.
“Every storm you get from here on has the potential to cause local flooding,” said Andrew Miller, surface water hydrologist with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
The ground has absorbed all the water it can.
“I?d look for dissolved oxygen problems later in the summer in the Chesapeake,” Miller said.
Usually, more than a normal amount of spring rain brings sediment, nutrients and blooms of algae into the Bay?s slightly salty water, he said.
When the algae sinks to the bottom, it feeds bacteria that strip oxygen from the water and that can affect fish and crab populations.
On land, he said he does not expect long-lasting effects.
Flooding could have been worse, said his colleague, Claire Welty, director of civil environmental engineering.
“When you look at the total rainfall for the year, we?re still under,” she said, because of near drought conditions before the rain. “You didn?t see so much flooding as if the ground had already been saturated.”
