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CapitalPress.com
June 19, 2015
Drought
Boise water allowance rises 78 percent
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — The 2015 water
season has improved signifi-
cantly for farmers in South-
western Idaho who receive
irrigation supplies from the
Boise Project Board of Con-
trol.
BPBC has raised its 2015
water allotment to 2.95 acre-
feet, up significantly from the
1.65 acre-foot allotment it set
on April 16.
The project delivers water
to five irrigation districts and
165,000 acres on the Boise
River system.
In anticipation of a tight
water season, Meridian farm-
er Drew Eggers, who grows
high-water crops such as
mint and corn, began pump-
ing from a well in April and
purchased water from an-
other landowner on a 1-year
lease.
“You spend more mon-
ey on production costs but
it’s something that has to be
done,” he said of those mea-
sures. “Water is a link in the
chain you have to make sure
doesn’t get broken.”
Eggers said the allotment
increase has improved his wa-
ter situation significantly.
“One point six five acre-
feet of water won’t raise a
crop,” he said. “Now that the
allotment is up to (2.95) acre-
feet, that kind of relieves some
of the pressure and I think we
can make it work.”
BPBC Manager Tim Page
said a series of May rain-
storms helped improve the
Boise system significantly.
Conservative use of water in
April and May by farmers
who anticipated a tight water
year also helped, he said.
The rains enabled the proj-
ect to operate from natural
river flows rather than turn to
water stored in reservoirs, he
said.
“It’s a combination of two
or three things that helped
us get where we’re at,” Page
said.
Pioneer Irrigation District,
which receives water from
the Boise River system, is
running as normal, with no re-
strictions, said superintendent
Mark Zirschky.
The district was able to op-
erate from natural river flows
until the third week of June in
2014 and Pioneer expects that
to happen again this year in
large part because of the May
rains, he said.
“I’m a little surprised (nat-
ural flows) held up as good as
they did, which has enabled
us to get this far this year,” he
said. “The rains offset demand
and helped the reservoirs a lit-
tle bit also.”
Irrigation water in the Boi-
se valley normally flows until
the first part of October and
the Pioneer board of directors
has decided to run the sys-
tem as normal unless things
change significantly, Zirschky
said.
“Right now, we don’t see a
need to reduce deliveries,” he
said. But, he added, “If things
really start to go south, then
(we might) tail things back a
bit.”
Obama announces another $110M for drought relief Owyhee
Irrigation
District
increases
its water
allotment
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
President Obama hand-
ed the West another $110
million in drought relief on
June 12, including a prom-
ise of $72 million in crop
insurance savings over the
next two years for struggling
farmers.
Through its Risk Man-
agement Agency, the USDA
will expand a program that
allows farmers to exclude
the exceptionally bad pro-
duction years resulting from
drought from the calculation
of their crop insurance cov-
erage, providing an estimat-
ed $30 million in addition-
al relief in fiscal 2016 and
$42 million in the following
year, according to federal of-
ficials.
As part of a sweeping
aid package for parched
Western states, the Labor
Department will give as
much as $18 million to pro-
vide jobs for displaced Cal-
ifornia workers while the
USDA Food and Nutrition
Service will help set up 760
community meal sites in the
Central Valley.
Obama announced the
aid package as he and top
administration
officials
were holding a teleconfer-
ence with Western gover-
nors, including California
Gov. Jerry Brown and Ore-
gon Gov. Kate Brown.
“The goal of the briefing
was to provide an update to
our leaders in the Western
United States about the out-
look for drought and wild-
fire in the coming summer
season and to talk about
ways the federal govern-
ment is working to partner
with states in the West on
the challenges they’re cur-
rently facing,” White House
senior adviser Brian Deese
told reporters in a confer-
ence call after the presi-
dent’s meeting.
“Obviously we are fo-
cused on and concerned
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
In this photo taken Monday, May 18, 2015, irrigation pipes sit along a dried irrigation canal on a field farmed by Gino Celli near Stockton,
Calif. Last week the administration announced additional aid to drought-stricken farmers.
about the impact of the
drought for economic and
social conditions across
the United States,” he
said. “But with the very
dry conditions, the outlook
for wildfire season is very
acute through the West in
the summer months.”
Administration leaders
took the opportunity to tout
a provision in Obama’s bud-
get proposal that aims to
protect forest management
in the federal wildfire disas-
ter budget.
The provision is similar
to legislation by Reps. Mike
Simpson, R-Idaho, and
Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., that
would force the U.S. Forest
Service and other agencies
to use contingency money
rather than dipping into the
forest management account
when firefighting costs bal-
loon beyond appropriated
levels.
“In the House and Sen-
ate, we have a growing co-
alition of Republicans and
Democrats from across the
country who recognize that
the dynamic (of raiding for-
est management funds) is
self-defeating,” Deese said.
“We’re optimistic that we
can make some progress.”
The latest aid package
adds to the $190 million the
federal government has al-
ready devoted to drought re-
lief this year and the antici-
pated $1.2 billion in USDA
assistance to livestock pro-
ducers facing grazing loss-
es.
Administration officials
say they’ve been coordi-
nating with state and local
agencies to respond as 35
percent of the West is fac-
ing severe or exceptional
drought.
Starting in July, the Na-
tional Dislocated Work-
er Grant will provide jobs
with public and nonprofit
agencies for about 1,000
displaced workers for six
months. The employees will
work on such projects as
improving water efficiency
and reducing wildfire risk,
according to a news release.
Other states with disas-
ter declarations because of
drought will also be able to
apply for this aid, the re-
lease explains. The grants
will stabilize the economies
of drought-affected regions
at a critical time, said Portia
Wu, the assistant secretary
of labor for employment and
training.
“These are temporary
positions … to conduct
drought-related relief work,”
Wu said. “These grants can
provide much needed assis-
tance to get people who’ve
lost jobs because of the
drought back to work.”
The meals program
comes after a similar effort
last summer provided meals
to low-income children at
725 sites throughout the
Central Valley. The USDA
will work with faith-based
and community groups to set
up the meal sites.
In other aid, the Bureau
of Reclamation is providing
$6.5 million to projects that
improve water management
over the next two years. The
money will combine with lo-
cal matching funds to total
nearly $30 million to help
alleviate the impacts of the
drought.
USDA Rural Develop-
ment will also provide at
least $7 million to address
the drought-related needs
of water utilities, and the
Interior Department is set-
ting aside $10 million for 10
wildland fire-resilient land-
scape projects.
Yakima Valley orchards losing to drought
Capital Press
SUNNYSIDE, Wash. —
Several growers are tearing
out apple orchards in the
Yakima Valley to save wa-
ter for more profitable apple
varieties as they cope with
drought.
Tens of acres of apple
trees have been torn out on
Konnowac Pass between
Moxee and Zillah, said Scott
Revell, manager of the Roza
Irrigation District.
It is not an Evans Fruit
Co. orchard but is next to
it, said Jeannette Evans,
co-owner of the Evans Fruit
in Cowiche. It belongs to
someone in Zillah and even-
tually will become hops, she
said.
Several growers are cut-
ting down marginal apple
orchards to save water for
higher-value orchards, said
Cliff Plath, orchard manager
of Washington Fruit & Pro-
duce Co., Yakima.
“We have orchard land
fallow now that we are keep-
ing fallow so we can use the
water in other orchards,”
Plath said. “In light of water
management several years
ago we switched a small
percentage of our operation
to wine grapes because they
use less water.”
The Yakima Valley cherry
LEGAL
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interested in starting a business in the Ports Business Incubator
Building located at 683 Wallace Way, Grandview, WA. The purpose
of this RFP is to determine interest in locating and starting new
businesses in the building. The type of business proposals selected
will determine the interior construction required, rental rates and
occupancy dates.
All proposals shall include:
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• Product(s) to be manufactured or created
• Specific building requirements
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• Names and contact information of principals
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Persons interested in viewing the building or having questions
should contact: Jessica Hansen, Executive Director, Port of
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in sealed envelopes marked “Incubator Proposal” should be
postmarked not later than Tuesday, July 28, 2015 and addressed to:
Port of Grandview, PO Box 392, Grandview, WA 98930 Legal-25-4-2/#4
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
The upper end of Keechelus Lake near Snoqualmie Pass on
June 14, lower than normal because of early drawdown to feed
drought-stricken Yakima Basin. The lake is at 61 percent of full.
crop has suffered from lack
of water and heat, Evans
said.
Colin Morrell, a Benton
City grower, said his cher-
ries were a size smaller than
normal and more went for
brining than fresh market
because of less water. Pack-
outs were down 10 percent,
he said.
Roza Irrigation District
shut down water deliveries
from May 11 to June 1 to
save water for later in the
season. Morrell said the re-
start, while still of limited
amount, helped get cherries
15-5/16 x 10 x 2
18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3
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By DAN WHEAT
through 100-plus degree
heat on June 9 and 10. He
said some of his wine grapes
have not developed full clus-
ters because of lack of wa-
ter and some of a neighbor’s
apple trees “look weak and
yellow.”
“I had what looked like a
really nice cherry crop. I put
in a wind machine to protect
it and spent money on pro-
pane. I knew there was talk
of drought, but I didn’t antic-
ipate it being this bad. That’s
where I made a tactical error
thinking more about (spring)
frost than drought,” Morrell
said.
His biggest concern now,
he said, is how early the
Roza shuts down.
Right now, at 44 percent
of normal water supply in
the Yakima Basin, the Roza
should make it to Sept. 22,
Revell said. Normally, the
district provides water to
Oct. 20. Fall water is crucial
for apples, pears, grapes and
hops.
The Roza district is now
up from 8,000 to 9,400 acre
feet of court-approved water
leases, Revell said. Another
257 acre feet from the Nach-
es Selah Irrigation District
is forthcoming and the Roza
is capturing another 1,500
acre feet by pumping its own
drainage back into the canal,
he said.
ONTARIO, Ore. — The
Owyhee Irrigation District
has increased its 2015 water
allotment to 1.6 acre-feet and
the bleak irrigation situation
facing farmers who get their
water from the district has im-
proved ever so slightly.
The new allotment for the
2015 season is up slightly from
the previous level of 1.5 acre-
feet. But it’s still below last
year’s allotment of 1.7 acre-
feet and well below the normal
allotment of 4 acre-feet.
A two-week stretch of rain-
storms added about 10,000
acre-feet to the Owyhee Res-
ervoir system, said Jay Cham-
berlin, manager of the OID,
which provides water for
1,800 farms and 118,00 acres
of irrigated land in Eastern Or-
egon and part of Southwestern
Idaho.
“Spread out amongst all
the acres, that’s (not a lot)
but we’re going to try to get
them another tenth of a foot,”
Chamberlin said.
The Owyhee Reservoir was
dropping at a pace of about
2,000 acre-feet a day but fell
only about 200 acre-feet a
day during the stretch of rain
storms, said OID board mem-
ber Bruce Corn, a farmer.
Stream in-flows into the
reservoir increased from 135
cubic feet per second to about
900 during part of that stretch,
Corn said.
Farmers in the area are suf-
fering through a fourth straight
year of drought conditions and
have left a lot of ground fallow
and planted less water-inten-
sive crops as a result.
While the rains didn’t
turn things around, they have
helped this year’s situation a
little bit by enabling OID to
provide farmers a tad bit more
water, Corn said.
“That’s still only 40 percent
of the normal allotment, but
every little bit helps,” he said.
Chamberlin said the dis-
trict hopes to keep the water
flowing until the first part of
August, which is the same
time OID stopped delivering
water last year. He said the
rains may add a few days to
the end of the season.
Nyssa farmer Craig Froer-
er hopes the rains allow the
water to flow until close to
September.
If the season is extended,
that could make a big differ-
ence for some growers, said
Froerer, who estimates last
year’s tight water supply had
about a $1 million impact on
his farm.
Froerer will be finished
watering his short-term
crops, like wheat and peas,
by then, but the extra water
would be especially import-
ant for his long-term crops,
such as mint and asparagus.
“If we can last a little bit
longer ... it will make a big
difference to us,” he said.
The rains didn’t solve all
the region’s water problems
“and it was not a game-chang-
er, but it may lengthen the
season a little bit, which is
very, very important,” Corn
said. “It’s still a bit bet-
ter than it would have been
and it gives people a little
hope.”