4
CapitalPress.com
April 10, 2015
Drought
Low Oregon snowpack means low rivers
By JEFF BARNARD
Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. —
Federal hydrologists say the
latest numbers reinforce the
forecasts: Rivers and streams
throughout Oregon will have
flows far below normal this
summer due to the meager
mountain snowpack.
The Natural Resources
Conservation Service released
its April surface water outlook
on Tuesday.
Precipitation has been at
or near normal in most basins,
but warm temperatures have
left the amount of snow in the
mountains at record lows, be-
tween 8 percent and 32 percent
of average across the state.
That means basins with
major reservoirs for storage
are expected to do relatively
well. The Willamette River at
Salem, for example, is predict-
ed to have flows 76 percent of
average.
But even they will drop far
below normal as the summer
wears on, due to low flows in
streams feeding the reservoirs.
And basins depending on
snowpack for most of their
water storage are expected to
do poorly. The Silvies River
at Burns is forecast to be at 17
percent of average.
The water year started off
well, with strong storms, even
though they came with warm
temperatures. The report says
the most significant snowfall
came in late December, and
if temperatures had remained
that cold the rest of the winter,
snowpack would be near nor-
mal. But January was relative-
ly warm and dry, and the pre-
cipitation that has fallen since
has been mostly rain. March
came in warm and sunny, and
left with raw cold and some
snow in the Cascades.
As of April 1, 76 percent
of snow monitoring sites were
at their lowest level on re-
cord. Though April 1 normally
marks the peak snowpack for
the year, more than half the
monitoring sites reported bare
ground.
The U.S. Drought Mon-
itor puts most of Oregon in
drought conditions, with the
southeastern corner in extreme
drought. Inflow to the Owyhee
Reservoir is forecast at 24 per-
cent of average.
Inflows to Upper Klamath
Lake, the primary reservoir for
the Klamath Reclamation Proj-
ect straddling the Oregon-Cal-
ifornia border, are forecast at
39 percent of normal.
In southwestern Oregon,
the Rogue River at Gold Hill
is forecast to be 69 percent of
average.
In central Oregon, the De-
schutes River south of Bend is
forecast at 79 percent of aver-
age.
In northeastern Oregon, the
Grande Ronde River at Troy
is forecast to be 52 percent of
average.
Drought emergencies
declared in 3 counties
SALEM (AP) — Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown has declared
drought emergencies in three
more counties — Crook, Har-
ney, and Klamath — due to low
water levels and record low
snowpack.
Brown declared a drought
emergency in Malheur and
Lake counties last month. She
added the latest three on Mon-
day.
The counties asked the state
to take action, and the Oregon
Drought Council considered
the requests in light of water
conditions, future climatic
forecasts and agricultural im-
pacts.
The drought continues to
have significant impacts on ag-
riculture, livestock and natural
resources in each of the coun-
ties.
In the governor’s words,
“Oregon’s unusually warm and
dry winter has potentially dire
consequences.” The declara-
tion allows increased flexibility
in how water is managed to en-
sure that limited supplies are
used as efficiently as possible.
Idaho eagerly awaits early water Yakima
Basin
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
ABERDEEN, Idaho —
Canals throughout Southern
and Eastern Idaho have turned
on well ahead of schedule,
providing desperately needed
water for newly planted crops
and moisture-stressed winter
wheat following three consec-
utive dry months.
Lyle Swank, water master
of Eastern Idaho’s Water Dis-
trict 1, said all but a couple of
the canals between Blackfoot
and Idaho Falls were active by
April 2, much earlier than he’s
ever seen in the past.
Swank said dryness and
spring-like March tempera-
tures have sped up irrigation
demand.
“When winter wheat
breaks dormancy, we’re used
to having conditions where
we’ve gotten some signif-
icant moisture within the
previous couple of months,”
Swank said. “This year, the
storms we got were pretty
small, and not the soaking
type.”
Idaho Wheat Commission
Executive Director Blaine
Jacobson said declining soil
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Steve Howser, general manager of Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Co., notes the locations of sink holes
as water fills a canal in Springfield, Idaho. Howser said he’s rushing to fill the reservoir to deliver water
to winter wheat crops that need the moisture.
moisture prompted many
growers to plant spring grain
early, and water companies
have been striving to deliver
water quickly.
“(Soil) moisture that in
some years would last until
late April was disappearing
in March,” Jacobson said.
Aberdeen-Springfield
Canal Co. Manager Steve
Howser opened his gates for
irrigation on April 1, the ear-
liest in his company’s history.
Howser said winter wheat
growth is advanced for early
spring and plants have gotten
stressed without adequate
water. He saw a few growers
on his system mow their win-
ter wheat last fall, worried
the plants had grown too tall
following a wet August and
risked breaking under the
weight of snow. Furthermore,
winter wheat broke dorman-
cy early due to a mild winter.
“It’s the winter wheat
that’s really suffering right
now,” Howser said. “There’s
no soil moisture left, and
those young wheat plants had
very shallow roots.”
In most years, Howser
spends 14 to 18 days slowly
filling the system and making
preparations before starting
deliveries. This year, his goal
is to have everyone online
within 10 days of opening his
gate, starting deliveries earlier
in the upper portion of his sys-
tem to prevent the rapid filling
from causing flooding near
the canal’s end. Howser said
he lost a few weeks of mainte-
nance time, when he normally
makes repairs to his system
such as filling sink holes, due
to the early irrigation demand.
“I had one grower tell me
if he didn’t get some water
soon, he estimated he’d lose
30 percent of his winter wheat
crop,” Howser said. “I think
we’re going to save most of
it. The guys on the very end
are going to have the biggest
issue because they’re the ones
who won’t get delivery until
April 10.”
Aberdeen farmer Dwight
Horsch said his winter wheat
still has a healthy color, which
he attributes to his heavy
soils, but farmers with sandy
fields have endured more crop
stress.
“We normally don’t have it
totally dry like this,” Horsch
said. “We normally have a
shower or two in the spring.”
Washington snowpack smallest in 35 years
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
An irrigation canal west of the Beverly Burke Road, nine miles
southwest of George, Wash. carries water on March 26. It will run
strong all season because it’s fed by the Columbia Basin Irriga-
tion Project from Lake Roosevelt. Canals fed by the Yakima and
Wenatchee rivers may run low this summer because of drought.
be some financial pain and hard-
ship for our growers,” said Scott
Revell, Roza manager.
“Below 60 percent they make
some tough decisions. We’re
watching the weather closely the
next 30 days,” he said.
The district leased 28,000
acre-feet of water in 2005, the
last drought year, but it might
be harder to find that much this
year, Revell said. Growers are
keeping ponds full, some have
wells and the district could shut
off its canal for awhile in the
middle of the season or termi-
nate service early at the end, he
said.
Seventy-five percent of nor-
mal water supply is generally
considered the threshold for
drought conditions. Gov. Jay In-
slee declared drought emergen-
cies March 13 for the Yakima
“A month ago, in March, we
had less snow overall than in
1977,” he said.
April 1 historically is the
maximum snow accumulation
date, Pattee said. Snowpack
ranges from 2 percent of normal
in the Olympics and 4 percent in
the foothills of King and Sno-
homish counties to 68 percent of
normal in Pend Oreille and 79
percent in the Methow, he said.
More importantly, the fore-
casts for percent of normal
stream flow for April through
September are: Spokane, 46;
Pend Oreille Lake inflow, 89;
Kettle at Laurier, 49; Okanogan,
74; Methow, 73; Chelan, 69;
Entiat, 65; Wenatchee, 53; Yaki-
ma at Cle Elum and upper lake
inflows, 36; Yakima at Parker,
36; Naches, 31; Ahtanum, 55;
Klickitat near Goldendale, 67;
Walla Walla, 76; Grand Rhonde,
52; Asotin, 60; Cowlitz, 66;
Skagit, 83; and Dungeness, 58.
The Cedar River, a major
source of Seattle city water, is
51 percent and the South Tolt,
the rest of Seattle’s supply, is
at 66 percent, Pattee said. Seat-
tle isn’t too worried though, he
said, because reservoirs are full
from rain, the rivers will pull
from ground water and the city
has backup wells.
The main stem of the Co-
lumbia River from the Canadi-
an border south is forecast at 94
percent of normal and 83 per-
cent at The Dalles, Pattee said.
Users who depend on it should
be fine, he said.
Capital Press staff writer
Don Jenkins contributed to this
report.
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder,
on 4/13/2015. The sale will be
held at 10:00 am by
ANDY’S TRUCK REPAIR
1395 INDUSTRIAL WAY
WOODBURN, OR
Freightliner Semi
VIN=1FUYDSEB6YPH05512
Amount due on lien $6,155.00
Reputed owner(s)
Mitchell Rickerd
Trimac Equipment Leasing
Legal-14-2-1/#4
YAKIMA, Wash. — Wash-
ington’s winter snowpack now
stands at 21 percent of normal,
the lowest in at least 35 years,
and the U.S. Bureau of Recla-
mation estimates junior water
right holders in the Yakima Ba-
sin will be limited to 60 percent
of normal water supply.
That means growers in the
Roza Irrigation District and Kit-
titas Reclamation District prob-
ably won’t get all the water they
need in late summer. It could
curtail some Timothy seeding in
the Kittitas Valley surrounding
Ellensburg and harm the ex-
pansion of hops fields planned
in the Yakima Valley. However,
those irrigation districts serve
the outer edges of those valleys.
Other districts with senior water
rights serve the interiors and the
bureau is forecasting full supply
for senior water right holders.
“At 60 percent we can scrape
through the season but there will
Basin, Olympic Peninsula and
Walla Walla regions.
The bureau’s April forecast
is based on flows, precipitation,
snowpack and reservoir stor-
age as of April 1. It confirms
conditions worsened in the past
month. Yakima Basin reservoirs
are full, but the snowpack has
shrunk, the bureau said.
The state Department of
Ecology continues to consider
its drought responses. Spring
weather can still change the situ-
ation in either direction.
About 8 to 10 inches of snow
fell in Cascade elevations above
4,500 feet the night of April 5
but won’t help much, said Scott
Pattee, water supply specialist
of the Washington Snow Survey
Office of the USDA Natural Re-
sources Conservation Service in
Mount Vernon.
The 21 percent statewide
snowpack as of April 1 is the
lowest on that date in the current
data system that goes back to
1980, Pattee said. It’s probably
lower than the statewide snow-
pack of 1977, a big drought year
for all Western states, but no
statewide estimate was made
then, he said.
15-1/#4X
15-1/#4X
drought
gets worse
DOE expected to
step up response
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Junior water right holders
in the Yakima Basin can expect
60 percent of their normal wa-
ter supply during this irrigation
season, the U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation said Monday.
The water supply forecast
was worse than one month ago
when the bureau forecast a 73
percent supply for junior rights.
Senior water right holders are
forecast to receive full supplies.
March’s forecast was be-
low the 75 percent figure that
Washington state considers the
threshold for drought condi-
tions. Gov. Jay Inslee declared
a drought emergency March
13 in the Yakima Basin, along
with the Olympic Peninsula
and Walla Walla region.
The April forecast con-
firmed expectations that the
drought deepened in the past
month. Yakima Basin reser-
voirs are full, but snowpack, al-
ready a fraction of normal, has
worsened, the bureau’s Yakima
Project River Operations super-
visor, Chuck Garner, said.
The Washington Depart-
ment of Ecology will step up
its response to drought because
of the new forecast, agency
spokesman Dan Partridge said.
DOE has requested $9
million from lawmakers for
drought relief, including $4
million the agency tentatively
planned to lease water in the
Yakima Basin if the drought
worsened during March.
The leased water would be
put into streams to compensate
for groundwater pumped from
emergency wells. DOE consid-
ers activating emergency wells
as an extreme measure.
“We kind of anticipated
this day would come, and we
planned for it accordingly,”
Partridge said. “We’re refocus-
ing our efforts on the Yakima
Basin.”
A DOE committee that
evaluates statewide water
supplies wmet Tuesday.
The bureau’s April forecast
is based on flows, precipita-
tion, snow pack and reservoir
storage as of April 1.
“The weather conditions
this spring will influence the
snow in the hills, the flows
for fish, and the demands by
irrigation. We hope conditions
work together to keep the res-
ervoirs full well into May,”
Garner said in a written state-
ment.
If spring rainfall and tem-
peratures are unfavorable,
the water supply forecast for
junior users could continue to
decline, the bureau warned.
The bureau will update its
forecast in May.
Garner recommended that
water conservation be consid-
ered by all users in the Yaki-
ma Basin.
During the last drought, in
2005, the bureau forecast in
April that junior water right
holders would receive 34
percent of their normal wa-
ter supply. The supply fore-
cast rose to 41 percent by
mid-July.