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CapitalPress.com
June 5, 2015
Drought
May rains had little impact on drought
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Heavy rain that pelted
much of the Pacific Northwest
and Northern California in
late May did not significant-
ly ease the drought situation,
federal water monitors said.
Rain increased topsoil
moisture and temporarily re-
duced the need for irrigation
during what was an unusally
cool, wet month, but provid-
ed “negligible” long-term
relief from drought, accord-
ing to the USDA’s Natural
Resources
Conservation
Service.
“Rain waters your lawns
but snow fills your reser-
voirs,” as an NRCS official in
Utah told the news media.
Scott Oviatt, an NRCS
snow survey supervisor in
Portland, said the rains pro-
vided short-term relief at best
for agriculture. The Owyhee
Reservoir in Southeast Or-
egon gained a week or two
supply of water for irrigation
of high value crops, he said.
Areas that don’t have stor-
age reservoirs didn’t benefit,
Oviatt said.
“A lot of it, because of the
intensity of the rain, ran off
into the streams,” he said. “A
lot of it went down the river
and wasn’t saved.”
The next week will bring
a ridge of high pressure and
extremely warm weather to
Western Oregon, Western
Washington and Northern
California, Oviatt said.
Reservoir operators have
been “very proactive” in try-
ing to maintain the water sup-
ply, but in some cases their
hands are tied by rules that
govern when reservoirs are
drawn down, he said. Operat-
ing rules are under review by
the agencies that operate stor-
age reservoirs.
Hydrologists have warned
for months that 2015 would
be a bad year for drought
because mountain snowpack
levels were so low across the
West. While precipitation was
near normal in some areas, it
fell as rain rather than snow.
Warmer than normal tem-
peratures exacerbated the
problem. By early May, the
NRCS reported that much
of the snowpack had already
melted and would not be
available to provide stream-
flow later this summer.
Nationally, the NRCS esti-
mates 26 percent of the con-
tiguous 48 states is in mod-
erate drought or worse. The
drought areas are home to
nearly 94 million people.
State leases water from Olympic
Peninsula farmers for fish
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Roza Irrigation District
turns water on again
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
SUNNYSIDE,
Wash.
— The Roza Irrigation District
began drawing from the Yakima
River again on June 1 to provide
limited water to 72,000 acres
of farmland after a three-week
shutdown to conserve water.
Most of the district was to
get water within three days but
it takes about five days for users
in the lower 30 miles of the sys-
tem to get water, Scott Revell,
district manager said. The main
stem is 95 miles and laterals
make up more than 350 miles.
Deliveries are at 1.8 gallons
per minute, down from the nor-
mal 7.1 gpm, to continue water
conservation. That’s a 75 per-
cent reduction.
The Yakima County Su-
perior Court approved more
than 8,000 acre-feet of water
transfers from the Sunnyside
Valley Irrigation District to the
Roza on May 28, Revell said.
A second round will provide
more leased water, he said. The
Roza is looking for more water
leases, although the SVID lease
window has closed, he said.
The 21-day shutdown and
water transfers gain the dis-
trict 23,000 acre-feet of water,
which will keep the district
from running out in mid-Au-
gust and extend deliveries to
Sept. 28 if the Yakima Basin
supply remains at 44 percent of
normal. Normally, the district
provides water until Oct. 20.
Maintaining water deliver-
ies as long as possible main-
ly helps hops, wine and juice
grapes and apples. Those crops
make up 45,000 acres, or 62
percent, of the district.
The 1.8 gpm delivery is the
minimum at which the system
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE
NOTICE OF PROPOSED
RULEMAKING HEARING
Oregon Department of
Agriculture, Market Access
& Certification Program,
Administrative Rules Chapter
#603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Adopt: OAR 603-052-0871and
Amend: OAR 603-052-0921.
RULE SUMMARY: The pro-
posed rule mandates inspec-
tion of crucifer fields in the
Willamette Valley Protected
District (WVPD) for the disease
blackleg. Blackleg attacks all
the commercially grown mem-
bers of the Brassicaceae family,
including crucifers grown for
vegetable seed, oil, forage,
and the fresh market. In 2014,
the Oregon State University
Extension Service announced
an outbreak of blackleg had
been detected in Oregon, with
70% of crop sites surveyed
found with the disease. While
certain required mitigation
activities have already been
mandated by the ODA, the
industry and the ODA believe a
limited time period (5-years) of
mandatory inspections in the
WVPD is necessary to bring the
blackleg epidemic back under
control. The proposed amend-
ment to OAR 603-052-0921
clarifies the crops that may be
subject to enforcement activi-
ties. Hearing date: June 22,
2015 at 11:00 a.m., ODA,
Hawthorne
Facility,
151
Hawthorne Ave NE, Salem, OR.
Last day for public comment is
June 22, 2015.
23-2/#4
can operate and is not enough
for most growers without sup-
plemental wells, Revell said.
The Roza plans to increase
deliveries to 2.7 gpm in the first
half of July and 3.3 gpm in the
last half of July and first half
of August during the hottest
weather, Revell said. Deliveries
will drop back to 2.7 gpm the
last half of August and to 1.8
gpm from the end of August to
the end of the season, he said.
The Roza board granted
final authorization for the
June 1 restart on May 29 af-
ter learning the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation is holding
steady, because of recent rain,
with its May 19 forecast of
44 percent of normal water
supply for junior water right
holders in the Yakima Basin
for the summer.
The Roza and other irriga-
tion districts have been using
water from mountain reser-
voirs earlier than normal this
year. The scant snowpack in the
mountains will not feed the riv-
ers or replenish the reservoirs,
as it normally does.
One of the main reservoirs,
Keechelus Lake just east of
Snoqualmie Pass, was down 20
feet from full pool on June 1. It
had 110,990 acre-feet of water
and has 157,800 when full.
It’s 70 percent full when
normally it would be 85 to
100 percent this time of year,
said Quentin Kreuter, Bureau
of Reclamation river operator.
Reservoir inflows are 25 to
30 percent of average, he said.
While the Roza hasn’t been
using any water the past three
weeks, the Wapato Irrigation
Project, Sunnyside Valley Ir-
rigation District and Kittitas
Reclamation District have been
drawing large volumes.
Other Yakima Basin res-
ervoir conditions: Kachess,
91 percent full; Cle Elum, 93;
Bumping, 100; Rimrock, 100.
LEGAL
NOTICE OF OREGON
HOP COMMISSION
PUBLIC BUDGET HEARING
The Oregon Hop Commission
will hold a public hearing,
pursuant to ORS 576.416(5),
for the purpose of receiving
comments
on
the
Commission’s proposed 2015-
2016 budget on Thursday,
June 18, 2015, 12:00 noon, at
Seven Brides Brewing, 990 N
First St, Silverton, OR. At this
hearing any producer of
Oregon grown Hops has the
right to be heard with respect
to the proposed budget. Any
person wishing to comment
on the budget is welcome to
do so either orally or in
writing. A copy of the
proposed budget is available
for public inspection during
normal business hours, under
reasonable circumstances, at
the Oregon Hop Commission
office located at 3037 G Street
- Hubbard, Oregon.
For
further
information,
contact the Oregon Hop
Commission office at (503)
982-7600 or
nancy@oregonhops.org.
The meeting location is
accessible to persons with
disabilities. A request for an
interpreter for the hearing
impaired or for other ac-
commodations for persons
with disabilities should be
made at least 48 hours in
advance.
23-2/#4
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Clallam County farmer Ben Smith explains how the drought-stricken Dungeness River on the Olympic
Peninsula will affect his farm and dairy. Smith and other farmers will lease water to bolster flows for
fish in the late summer.
farmland in a rain shadow. Se-
quim’s average annual rainfall
of 16 inches is nearly identical
to downtown Los Angeles’.
Melting snow normally
feeds the Dungeness into late
summer as farmers irrigate
crops and salmon migrate up-
river to spawn. This year, the
Olympic snowpack was less
than 10 percent of normal
through the winter and spring
and is now virtually gone.
“Nobody has seen a year
like this,” said dairyman Ben
Smith, president of the Se-
quim-Dungeness Water Users
Association. “We got the rain,
but the snow didn’t stick.”
Farmers who leased water
rights will shut off their irri-
gation systems Aug. 15 and
leave in the river an additional
5.6 cubic feet per second, or 40
gallons. The irrigation season
ends Sept. 15.
The Northwest River Fore-
cast projects that late summer
flows will be about one-third
of normal, which would leave
farmers only a fraction of the
water they are usually allowed
to withdraw.
Smith, who grows live-
stock feed and vegetable seeds
on about 600 acres, said he
believes chances are high that
will happen.
He will lease water for about
300 acres and hopes to break
even after buying more hay
to feed his 400 milking cows.
Leasing the water will reduce
the risk he will suffer greater
losses, especially if the summer
is dry and warm, he said.
It’s uncertain whether the
water leased from farmers will
be enough to get fish to spawn-
ing beds. The fish will include
federally endangered chinook
salmon and an expected huge
run of pink salmon.
Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife drought co-
ordinator Teresa Scott said the
chinook salmon will need at
least 10 inches of water and the
pink salmon will need 6 inches.
Fish biologists may still
have to intervene to create
channels for fish to pass, she
said.
Delta watermaster pleased with plan participation
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — The
watermaster of the Sacramen-
to-San Joaquin River Delta
lauds farmers’ “significant par-
ticipation” in a plan for senior
rights holders to voluntarily cut
their water use by 25 percent
from 2013 levels.
In all, 229 applications from
farmers in the Delta were re-
ceived by the June 1 deadline,
said Michael George, Delta
watermaster for the state Water
Resources Control Board.
LEGAL
SECRETARY OF STATE
NOTICE OF PROPOSED
RULEMAKING
Oregon Department of
Agriculture, Market Access
& Certification Program,
Administrative Rules Chapter
#603, Sue Gooch, Rules
Coordinator, (503) 986-4583.
Amend: OAR 603-052-1230.
RULE SUMMARY: The most
recent survey and detection
data
from
the
Oregon
Department of Forestry and
edpidemiology research from
Oregon State University indi-
cate that Phytophthora ramo-
rum has increased its rate of
spread within Curry County
from 1- to 2-mi per year pre-
2011, to a current rate of 3- to
4-mi per year. In addition, new
infestations have been found
near the border of and outside
of the existing quarantine
boundary. In response, the
ODA is proposing to expand
the quarantine boundary in
the county to encompass the
new infestations and to
address the increased rate of
spread. The ODA is also updat-
ing the statutory authorities
used to promulgate this rule.
Hearing date: June 16, 2015 at
8:30 a.m. Location: Docia
Sweet Exhibit Hall, 39392
Ellensburg Ave, Gold Beach,
OR. Last day for public com-
ment is June 22, 2015.
23-2/#4
Farmers are fallowing por-
tions of their fields, extending
irrigation schedules and tak-
ing other measures to meet the
terms of a deal that the water
board announced on May 22,
George said.
“I am very impressed with
the level of participation,” he
told the Capital Press. He add-
ed he was also pleased with the
level of detail in the plans.
“They indicated pretty sig-
nificant plans for actually saving
water,” he said. “They go be-
yond just fallowing 25 percent
of the land to include changes
in methods or technology used
for irrigation, in some cases
changes in crops, or changes in
the way crops are managed or
harvested.”
Some farmers have gotten
together with their neighbors
to create a program “on a com-
bined basis,” George said.
It’s still uncertain how
many acres will be covered or
how much water will be saved,
although the agreement had
the potential to apply to about
half the 600,000-acre central
and south Delta region, he
said. More than 1,000 state-
ments of diversion and use are
recorded in the Delta region,
with some farmers holding
multiple rights, he said.
Many growers hold ripari-
an water rights, which are the
most senior in the state.
About 20 percent of farm-
land in the area is in permanent
crops, so growers would have
difficulty taking part in the pact
unless they got together with a
neighbor who was already fal-
lowing fields, George said.
The ability to participate “re-
ally depends on each individual
farming operation and where
they’re at,” said Bruce Blodgett,
executive director of the San
Joaquin Farm Bureau Federa-
tion in Stockton.
For instance, alfalfa grow-
ers typically keep their crop
in the ground for five to seven
years and rotate it out with less
water-dependent crops for a
year or two, he said. A farmer
that just replanted alfalfa fields
this year would have difficulty
cutting water use by 25 per-
cent, he said.
“I was talking to a grower
yesterday who was the exact op-
posite,” Blodgett said. “In 2013
he had alfalfa and this year he
has other crops in. For him, a 25
percent reduction is easy.”
John Kisst, who farms 900
acres in the Delta, will irrigate
some of his fields once a month
rather than twice and will leave
some fields unplanted, he told
The Associated Press. Some
growers may switch to less wa-
ter-intensive crops like safflow-
er, corn and beans.
15-5/16 x 10 x 2
18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3
CALL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY.
Delivery Available
503-588-8313
2561 Pringle Rd. SE
Salem, OR
ROP-23-2-1/#7
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Roza Dam is shown on the Yakima River in Yakima Canyon on May
28. Diversions for the irrigation district covering 72,000 acres of farm-
land in the Yakima Valley began again 11 miles downriver on June 1.
SEQUIM, Wash. — More
than a dozen Olympic Peninsu-
la farmers will lease their water
rights, forgoing irrigating about
840 acres for one month this
summer to leave water in the
Dungeness River for fish.
The 13 growers, who sub-
mitted offers, will receive
an average of $150 per acre,
Washington Water Trust project
manager Amanda Cronin said.
Two offers from farmers were
rejected as too high.
“We’re very happy with the
participation from the irrigation
community,” she said.
The water trust is a nonprof-
it organization that arranges
water leases between farmers
and the Washington Depart-
ment of Ecology. As part of a
$9.6 million drought-response
plan, DOE allocated up to
$200,000 to lease water from
the Dungeness. Cronin said the
purchases will be well within
the budget limit.
The Olympic Peninsula is
Western Washington’s most
drought-affected area and was
the only westside region in-
cluded in Gov. Jay Inslee’s
original drought declaration
in March. Inslee since has de-
clared a statewide emergency.
Even peninsula farmers
who aren’t leasing their water
rights may face mandatory cut-
backs this summer because of
extraordinarily low flows in the
Dungeness River.
The river originates in the
Olympic Mountains and runs
for 28 miles to the Strait of Juan
de Fuca, providing irrigation
water to some 5,700 acres of
“This is not a science,” Kisst
told the AP. “But we’re expect-
ed to make our best effort.”
John Herick, an attorney and
manager of the South Delta Wa-
ter Agency, believes as many as
90 percent of farmers eligible
for the program will participate,
he told the wire service. George
told the Capital Press the partici-
pation level may be that high but
he isn’t certain.
Delta farmers reached the
agreement as junior rights hold-
ers throughout the state have had
their water shut off or severely
restricted for a second straight
year because of the drought.
Signing up for the plan will
give growers in the Delta region
certainty if the water board has
to start curtailing senior right
holders, George said. The board
told growers “that we won’t
enforce against you as long as
you’re in good faith following a
plan for 25 percent in reductions
in riparian use,” he said.
In other drought-related de-
velopments:
• California’s cities and
towns achieved a 13.5 percent
reduction in water use in April,
according to the water board.
They have until June to comply
with a mandate to cut water use
by 25 percent.
In addition, nearly 400 wa-
ter suppliers responded to a
first-ever enforcement report,
signaling efforts to respond to
reports of leaks and suspected
water wasting, notes a state
news release.
• Crews are finishing work
about two weeks early on a
750-foot-long temporary bar-
rier in the Delta to prevent
saltwater intrusion, the state
Department of Water Resourc-
es reports. About 100,000 tons
of rocks have been placed in
the West False River to create
the barrier.