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CapitalPress.com
July 17, 2015
Drought
Strong El Nino likely this winter
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — It’s
now almost certain that
strong El Nino conditions
will dominate the West this
winter, but forecasters still
caution that resulting storms
may not be enough to bust the
drought.
Federal long-range fore-
casters say there’s a 90 percent
chance that El Nino, which
generally pushes storms from
the equatorial Pacific Ocean
into the Southwest, will con-
tinue in the Northern Hemi-
sphere through the winter of
2015-16.
Further, they give it an 80
percent chance of sticking
around into the spring, ac-
cording to a bulletin from the
National Weather Service.
Still, a stubborn ridge of
high pressure that’s contribut-
ed to the drought may prevent
the anomalous rains of a super
El Nino such as 1997-98, as-
serts Brett Anderson, an Accu-
Weather senior meteorologist.
Michelle Mead, a Nation-
al Weather Service warning
coordinator in Sacramento,
agrees. She has consistently
urged caution amid some me-
dia reports that suggested this
could be a historically wet
winter.
“As we get closer to winter,
the skill in forecasting El Nino
strength improves,” Mead said
in an email. However, graph-
ics from the federal Climate
Prediction Center are “already
showing some probabilities of
seeing above average precipi-
tation for Southern California
this fall and winter,” she said.
“They continue to show
equal chances (of above-
and below-average rainfall)
for Northern California,”
Irrigation water outlook
varies in Treasure Valley
she added.
State officials have said
California
would
need
above-average rainfall and
snowpack this winter to begin
to recover from the drought,
which is now in its fourth year.
El Nino’s warm storms could
mean snow levels are stuck at
higher elevations, which was
the case last winter when the
state ended up with a histori-
cally meager snowpack.
And one wet winter may
not be enough to end the
drought, AccuWeather senior
meteorologist Bernie Rayno
advises.
“Current rain deficits are
way too large,” Rayno said
in an online weather bulletin.
“Even if California receives
that rain that fell in 1997-98, it
will not come close to ending
the long-term drought.”
Forecasters also expressed
concerns that strong El Nino
conditions would favor a
milder-than-normal winter in
the Pacific Northwest, caus-
ing droughts in Washington
and Oregon to persist.
Warming sea surface tem-
peratures in the central and
eastern Pacific have coupled
with wind and storm shifts
to reflect an ongoing and
strengthening El Nino, Mead
explained.
The development comes as
some periodic, unseasonable
rain has spritzed California,
including last week, when
some mountain areas saw
as much as 2 inches of rain-
fall and hail fell around Lake
Tahoe and Mt. Shasta, accord-
ing to the National Agricultur-
al Statistics Service.
However, the temperature
and precipitation impacts
from El Nino are minimal
during the summer, Mead
said.
House GOP, Democrats trade barbs
over competing drought bills
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
The water supply for
farmers in the Treasure Val-
ley region of Southwestern
Idaho and Eastern Oregon is
a mixed bag.
Many farmers will see
their irrigation water flow
until the first part of Octo-
ber, as normal. But for oth-
ers, the season could end
much earlier.
For those on the short end
of the water stick this year,
a recent heat wave that saw
high temperatures top 100
degrees for a record nine
straight days didn’t help.
“The hot weather certain-
ly didn’t help us; it was real-
ly starting to takes its toll,”
said Jay Chamberlin, man-
ager of the Owyhee Irriga-
tion District, which supplies
water to farmers in Eastern
Oregon.
Water demand went up
by at least 20 percent during
that heat wave, he said, and
water loss to evaporation
and canal seepage was about
45 percent greater than nor-
mal.
OID will likely stop de-
livering water the first week
of August, two months earli-
er than during a decent water
year, Chamberlin said.
Farmers on the Idaho side
who receive irrigation water
from Water District 67, the
Weiser River system, are
also facing an early shutoff
this year. The district began
drawing from water it has
stored in reservoirs on June
9, one month ahead of nor-
mal.
Farmers on the lower end
of the Weiser basin will run
out of irrigation water in the
next couple of weeks “and
the rest of us aren’t far be-
Sean Ellis/Capital Pres
Water from Pioneer Irrigation District’s Phyllis Canal flows by a
farm field in Southwestern Idaho April 13 in this file photo. Many
farmers in the Treasure Valley will see their irrigation water
flow until the first part of October, but for others, the season
could end much earlier.
hind them,” said watermas-
ter Brandi Horton.
The heat exacerbated the
situation and water deliver-
ies will likely stop the first
week of August, she said.
“Evaporation loss from
that triple-digit heat we ex-
perienced was astronomi-
cal,” Horton said. “The end
of the season is coming real
early this year.”
But officials from other
irrigation districts say the
water should flow until the
first part of October.
“The heat was devastat-
ing” but “we’re still looking
to get into October,” said
Alan Newbill, president of
the Pioneer Irrigation Dis-
trict board of directors.
Nampa & Meridian Irri-
gation District, the valley’s
largest, started drawing from
reservoir storage three weeks
earlier than normal this year.
The district still expects to
have a normal season but
will likely end the year with
virtually no carryover water,
said water superintendent
Greg Curtis.
“It looks like we will be
able to have a full season; I
think we’ll at least get to the
end of September,” he said.
“But it looks like it’s going
to take every bit of storage
water we have to do that.”
The Boise Project Board
of Control, which delivers
water to five irrigation dis-
tricts and 165,000 acres on
the Boise River system, ex-
pects to continue delivering
water until the first part of
October, said BPBC Manag-
er Tim Page.
A series of May rain-
storms, as well as conserva-
tive use of water by farmers
who planted more crops
that use less water this year,
helped significantly, he said.
“I think that made a dif-
ference (and) I suspect we
will have some carryover
water at the end of the year,”
Page said.
California lawmakers in the
U.S. House of Representatives
are mostly talking at each other
as they tout competing measures
aimed at easing impacts from
the state’s historic drought.
Republicans have pushed a
bill to the House floor by Rep. Da-
vid Valadao, R-Hanford, which
seeks to provide better access
for farms and cities to water
now set aside for fish under the
Endangered Species Act.
Rep. Jared Huffman,
D-San Rafael, failed at at-
tempts to amend the legisla-
tion as it passed the House
Natural Resources Commit-
tee by a 23-12 vote on July
9. He has unveiled his own
bill, which would set aside
more than $1.3 billion for
various agency projects
such as groundwater re-
charge and cleaning up con-
taminated groundwater.
The two bills have been
characterized as veritable
wish lists from the two par-
ties, but both sides insist
their legislation has the best
chance of making it through
the Senate and being signed
by President Obama.
“We’re certainly optimis-
tic that some version of this
— either on its own or part of
a larger bill — will go to the
president’s desk,” said Kevin
Eastman, a spokesman for Rep.
Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, a
co-sponsor of Valadao’s bill.
The legislation is primar-
ily based on negotiations last
year between House Repub-
licans and Democratic Sen.
Courtesy Rep. Jared Huffman
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman,
second from right, tours Littorai
Wines in Sebastopol, Calif.,
while giving the business a
sustainability award in April.
Dianne Feinstein, Eastman
said.
“We think it’s a very
balanced, even-handed ap-
proach.”
Feinstein’s office did not
return a call or email from the
Capital Press seeking com-
ment about the two bills.
Valadao’s bill was expect-
ed to pass easily in the House
but faces dubious odds in the
Senate, where some Demo-
crats’ support would be need-
ed to overcome a filibuster.
The bill is similar to one by
Valadao the GOP-led House
passed last year but couldn’t
be reconciled with a Senate
measure sponsored by Fein-
stein. Within its 170 pages, the
current bill would cut funding
for a San Joaquin River salmon
reclamation project that settled
a lawsuit, increase operational
flexibility for the Central Valley
Project during droughts and cut
red tape for major water storage
projects.
The bill’s cosponsors are
mostly Republicans, except for
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, who
serves on the Agriculture and
Natural Resources committees.
Costa said the legislation un-
veiled June 25 “is a comprehen-
sive, common-sense approach
that includes short- and long-
term solutions” to the drought’s
impacts.
Brown’s new tunnels plan
ratchets back habitat restoration
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — The
latest version of Gov. Jerry
Brown’s plan to build two giant
tunnels ferrying water across
California locks in just 15,600
acres for habitat restoration,
one-sixth of that committed
under Brown’s original tunnels
proposal, state officials con-
firmed Monday.
Spokeswoman Nancy Vo-
gel of the Natural Resources
Agency said Monday that the
state’s original pledge to restore
100,000 acres for native fish
and other wildlife, at $8 billion,
is no longer warranted because
the state is no longer pursuing a
sweeping, 50-year environmen-
LEGAL
29-2/#4
Courtesy Rep. Jared Huffman
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, speaks at a recent Sono-
ma County Water Agency-sponsored gathering. His bill proposing
more than $1.3 billion in response to the California drought is one of
two competing water-related bills in the House of Representatives.
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Oregon Soil and Water
Conservation
Commission
(SWCC) will hold its regular
quarterly
meeting
on
Tuesday, August 4, 2015, from
8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at
Miller Woods, 15580 Orchard
View Road NW, McMinnville,
OR 97128. The meeting
agenda covers SWCC reports,
advisor reports, Soil and
Water Conservation District
programs
and
funding,
Agriculture Water Quality
Management
Program
updates, and other agenda
items.
The Oregon Department of
Agriculture complies with the
Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA). If you need special
accommodations to partici-
pate in this meeting, please
contact Sandi Hiatt at (503)
986-4704, at least 72 hours
prior to the meeting.
29-4/#4
tal permit for Brown’s tunnels
project.
Brown is seeking to build
twin tunnels to carry water from
the delta of the San Joaquin
and Sacramento rivers to sup-
ply what the state says are 25
million residents and 3 million
acres of farmland in Central and
Southern California. Last week,
his administration released a re-
vised proposal with a less ambi-
tious plan to restore habitat, after
federal officials balked at the
original 50-year environmental
permit sought.
The cost of the 50-year en-
vironmental mitigation effort,
with its 100,000 acres of habi-
tat restoration, also threatened
to raise the cost of the project
“beyond affordable levels” for
the water districts that are slated
to pay for much of the tunnels,
Mark Cowin, head of the state
Department of Water Resourc-
es, told reporters.
State and federal officials
said Monday that the current,
aging system of canals and oth-
er conduits ferrying water south
from the Delta is broken, and
that wildlife will benefit from
LEGAL
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
The USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS)
announces a meeting of the
Washington State Technical
Advisory Committee on July
28, 2015 from 9:30 am to 3:00
pm, 316 W. Boone Ave., Suite
450, Spokane, WA. Remote
access is also available.
For more information
contact Sherre Copeland,
(360) 704-7758.
29-2/#4
modernizing it. Environmental
groups and others blame the
current state and federal wa-
ter projects, drought, and other
factors for endangering several
species of native fish. One, the
Delta smelt, turned up in so few
numbers in a June state survey
that the state Fish and Wildlife
Department rated its relative
abundance in the wild at 0.0, the
lowest rating for the smelt ever.
“We feel we would be re-
miss if we didn’t try to fix the
system,” Cowin said.
The revised plan commits
to 15,600 acres of habitat resto-
ration to offset any environmen-
tal harm from construction of
the tunnels. State officials now
are waiting for a verdict on the
revised tunnels plan from the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and other agencies.
At the same time, the state
announced in April that it was
dropping the proposal to reha-
bilitate 100,000 acres in habi-
tat as part of the tunnels plan,
Brown announced what state
officials called EcoRestore — a
project to restore 30,000 acres of
habitat.
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 819
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder,
on 7/26/2015. The sale will be
held at 10:00am by
Wiltse Towing, LLC
3120 Cherry Ave NE
Salem, OR
2005 GMC Sierra 1500 PU
VIN= 1GTEC14X35Z208712
Amount due on lien $1,940.00
Reputed owner(s)
Raymond Pederson Legal-29-2-2/#4