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2 CapitalPress.com July 24, 2015 Western snowpacks start small, get smaller By DAN WHEAT California snowpack deficit explained Capital Press F Courtesy of NRCS Melissa Webb, a water supply specialist, installs a new SNO- TEL snow measurement site northwest of Lakeview, Ore., in late June. March 27, 2010 March 29, 2015 Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe Walker River Basin Calif. Source: USDA NRCS 71 47 20 ’13 2015 Walker River Basin Si er San Francisco er ra Francisco ra Ne Ne va va da da mal on April 1, Pattee said. Oregon’s peak was 51 percent of normal, Idaho’s was 92 percent of normal and California’s peak in the Sierra Nevada was 60 per- cent. “That was all right after the first of January and ev- eryone went downhill from there,” Pattee said. By April 1, Oregon’s snowpack ended up at 14 percent of normal, Idaho’s was 51 percent and Califor- nia’s snowpack was 9 per- cent. Lower elevations of Or- egon’s Cascade Range also typically build a snowpack that lasts into May or June, Koeberle said. This year it lasted only a few weeks. This year, Oregon had the smallest snowpack on record, she said. About 60 percent of the NRCS snow measurement sites in Or- egon and Washington had record low measurements, Pattee said. The Lake Tahoe Basin in California and Nevada this year also experienced its smallest snowpack on re- cord, peaking at 22 percent of the median amount, said Jeff Anderson, of the NRCS in Reno, Nev. Snow water equivalent was about 10 inches at each of eight measurement sites Snow water equivalent at Walker River Basin, 2005-15 resh water supplies in California and other western Above average SWE Below average SWE states come mostly from snow 200% that falls in the mountains during (For April 1 of each snow year) winter. As the snow melts, the 172 169 runoff replenishes lakes and 168 reservoirs each summer when 150 rainfall is sparse. This year’s snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Sierra Nevada was far below the Percent 103 100 of 100 30-year average — even less median than 2014, one of the driest SWE* 89 years on record. The satellite images below show Sierra Nevada snowpack in 50 48 2010, a normal snow year, 43 versus 2015. The chart, right, *Median average is for the 30-year period from 1981-2010. Percent of median SWE represents the average of values measured at each illustrates the percent variation SNOTEL site basin-wide compared to the median value for that day. from normal SWE for the Walker 0 River Basin near Yosemite Valley. 2005 ’07 ’09 ’11 Si Record low mountain snowpacks are at the heart of the drought-driven water shortage gripping the West. For farmers, the snow- pack is like money in the bank. Snow accumulates through the winter, and during spring and summer the snow gradually melts, replenishing the region’s streams, lakes and reser- voirs. Not this year. In many parts of the West, the pre- cipitation that fell during the winter was rain, not snow. That left snowpacks at record low levels. Worse yet, they melted early be- cause of a warm spring. Snowpack is “extreme- ly important” for irrigation for agriculture, hydropow- er, municipal water supplies and fish, said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist at the USDA Natural Resourc- es Conservation Service in Washington state. “Seventy percent of all crops grown in the Pacific Northwest are irrigated,” Pattee said. Much of that irrigation water comes from snowpack. “During some years past, spring rainfall has offset the impacts of a low snow year but rainfall isn’t reliable like snowmelt,” said Julie Koeberle, NRCS hydrolo- gist in Portland. Without snowpack, the ground is not insulated and dries out quickly after rain, affecting wildlife, vege- tation and creating earlier streamflow peaks. Low snowpacks and low streamflows have been a problem in California for five years, for two or three years in Oregon and this year in Washington, Pattee said. The culprit is warmer winter weather. Snowpack usually builds through the winter and peaks about April 1. This year, Washington’s snow- pack peaked at 50 percent of normal in January and shrank to 22 percent of nor- Images courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory in the previous low years of 2014, 1992 and 1988 and this year was less than half that, Anderson said. Normal snow water equivalent at those sites is 22 inches, he said. “2015 has the dubious distinction of setting a new definition of what a low snow winter can be,” he said. Prior to automated mea- surement sites, snow was measured in tubes. That method is still used at the south end of the Tahoe Ba- Alan Kenaga/Capital Press sin at Lake Lucille, which is at an elevation of 8,188 feet, and at the north end at Ward Creek, Anderson said. This year set the record for the lowest snow levels re- corded for those sites, dat- ing back to 1923, he said. Ward Creek was snow-free on April 1 for the first time, he said. California’s statewide snowpack was just 1.4 inch- es of water content on April 1, the lowest since 1950 and just 5 percent of the histor- ical average of 28.3 inches for April 1, according to the state Department of Water Resources. Idaho generally did bet- ter than California, Oregon and Washington this year for snowpack, said Ron Abramovich of the NRCS in Boise. That’s because Idaho benefited more from winter storms after high pressure diverted them around Ore- gon, Washington and west- ern Idaho, he said. May rain also helped reduce farmers’ irrigation demands across southern Idaho, he said. The upper Snake, Selway and Lemhi basins did well at just over 100 percent of nor- mal snowpack while Idaho’s western border was at 50 per- cent and less and the Owyhee Basin peaked at around 36 percent of the median on Feb. 1 and shrank to 22 per- cent of average on March 1, Abramovich said. “Snow drought is the best term to explain this year’s unique pattern, which has seen a larger percent of the moisture falling as rain than snow,” he said. How to make the water-right system work better By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Experts say there may be ways to improve the current water-right system, which they argue is part of the prob- lem Western farmers face during times of drought. Water rights were created in a much different environ- ment than the 21st century, said Peter Gleick, president of Pacifi c Institute, a sci- ence-based think tank focused on water issues. “They don’t refl ect the hy- drology we have today, and they don’t refl ect the economy we have today. It’s a system that’s not working very well and with no path forward,” he said. Water rights aren’t man- aged, regulated or overseen in a way that makes them work, he said. “I’m not saying we need to throw them out. That’s not po- litically feasible or practical,” he said. Everyone is embedded in the current allocation system, but changes in water manage- ment need to be implemented to fi t current circumstances, he said. The fi rst problem with ex- isting water rights is that water use isn’t measured or mon- itored, so there’s no way to know if those rights are being respected, he said. The second problem is eco- systems have been left out of the equation. There’s no allo- cation for ecosystems in west- ern water rights, he said. The third problem is there’s no market system to replace the current allocation system. There’s no such thing as a free market for water in California; water is diffi cult to move and the dollars aren’t there. Mar- kets can play a role, but there has to be more effi cient alloca- tion, he said. Elsewhere in the West, some innovation is being seen in arrangements between cities and farmers, wherein the farm- er shares water with the city in times of drought but holds onto his rights and continues to farm, said Doug Kenney, Online Untapped Potential: http://pacinst.org/publication/ ca-water-supply-solutions/ director of the Western Water Policy Program at the Univer- sity of Colorado Law School. Leasing out his water could benefi t the farmer by providing extra income and eliminating input costs he’d incur only to get a poor crop in a water-short year, he said. Another problem with wa- ter rights is they can be for- feited if the benefi cial use is discontinued for a prescribed period of time, typically fi ve or more years, Kenney said. That “use it or lose it” tenet of Western water rights varies by state but basically provides that a water right holder who ceases to use all or part of his right for its designated bene- fi cial use permanently forfeits the right to use the unused por- tion. “As for agriculture get- ting more water in the West, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. There just isn’t any extra out there,” he said. Storage isn’t the problem or the answer, he said. Dams have already been built ev- erywhere it made sense, and there’s no water to put in any new reservoirs, he said. “If you’re running low on clothes, it doesn’t help to build more closets,” he said. The question for agricul- ture is whether it can retain the water it has and if not, can it structure policy and rules in a way that agriculture can bene- fi t from losing water, he said. While Gleick agrees that Western water supplies are tapped out and building reser- voirs would be trying to solve a 21st century problem with 19th century infrastructure, he said research at the Pacifi c Institute gives him reason for optimism. The research focused on supply-and-demand challeng- es in the West and improving effi ciencies to do more with the existing water supply. The research found that Califor- nia could generate 11 million to 14 million acre-feet a year of water in new supplies and demand reductions with four cost-effective solutions, Gle- ick said. That would be enough wa- ter to restore the Sacramen- to-San Joaquin River Delta and California’s groundwater basins, which are collective- ly over-tapped at the rate of 6 million to 7 million acre- feet a year, according to data in the Institute’s report, “The Untapped Potential of Califor- nia’s Water Supply.” Modest agricultural effi - ciencies could reduce Califor- nia water use by 5.5 million to 6.6 million acre-feet a year, while maintaining acreage levels and the current crop mix. At the high mark, that would be enough water to irrigate 2.5 million acres of fruit and nut trees or twice fi ll Lake Oroville, the state’s sec- ond-largest reservoir. Urban effi ciencies could reduce the state’s water use by 2.9 million to 5.2 million acre-feet annually, enough to supply seven cities the size of Los Angeles every year, ac- cording to the report. Water re-use and storm-water capture also offer enormous potential, Gleick said. California currently re- uses only 13 percent of its water. Water re-use potential beyond that amounts to 1.2 million to 1.8 million acre- feet annually. At the high end, that’s enough to supply more than two cities the size of Los Angeles every year or irrigate 400,000 acres of vegetables. Storm-water capture in the Bay area and urban Southern California could increase sup- ply up to 630,000 acre-feet per year, nearly enough water to supply Los Angeles every year. “There is enormous poten- tial; it’s huge,” Gleick said. While the drought is caus- ing a “real fracturing” in Cal- ifornia water politics, it also opens the door to honest con- versation about solutions, he said. “I’m optimistic,” he said. HYPRO TRANSFER PUMPS WATER • LIQUID FERTILIZERS • OTHER CHEMICALS Conserve water and energy. Put the savings in your pocket. Pentair Hypro self-priming transfer pumps handle big, high-capacity liquid transfer jobs with ease. 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