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4 CapitalPress.com August 14, 2015 Drought Kittitas hay losses in millions Tree fruit also takes hit due to drought; U.S. Bureau provides a bit more water By DAN WHEAT Capital Press ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Kittitas Valley hay growers are suffering millions of dollars in losses of second-cutting Timo- thy due to drought and will lose more next year because they won’t have water this fall to seed next year’s crop. The Kittitas Reclamation District ran out of water Aug. 6, 2½ months ahead of normal. The district serves 60,000 acres of farmland in Kittitas Valley, about two-thirds of the irrigated acreage in Kittitas County. The district has long known it would run out now. It kept full rations earlier in the season, when other districts cut back, in order to give growers a good first-cutting of Timothy, largely sacrificing second-cutting. A few growers on the KRD are doing second-cutting now but it will be down 80 to 90 percent from normal, said Mike Hajny, vice president of Wesco International Inc., an Ellensburg hay exporter. Hajny estimates that loss at $7.6 million, figuring 20,000 acres at 2 tons per acre and $190 per ton. Additionally, few growers will risk seeding new Timothy this fall for next year resulting in probably another $2.6 million in losses, he said. About 15 percent of the val- ley’s Timothy fields are reseeded each year, Hajny said. A few growers will reseed and hope for rain but rain is un- likely so fields needing reseeding will suffer in yield and quality next year and other grasses will move in, said Urban Eberhart, KRD manager and a hay and tree fruit grower. The 15 percent reseeded each year provides the highest quali- ty Timothy for export horse hay to Japan and Middle East that fetches top dollars, Hajny said. “It will wipe out the top 15 percent and we’re really con- cerned about being able to find the correct quality that over- seas horse markets expect us to have,” he said. Tree fruit is not big in the Kittitas Valley but there are sev- eral hundred acres. Eberhart said growers are seeking state De- partment of Ecology permission to use emergency drought wells to save pear and apple crops. Pasture irrigation also ended Ruth Wheat/for Capital Press Lower end of Keechelus Lake near Snoqualmie Pass is shown on July 23. It held 44,762 acre-feet of water on Aug. 4, 28 percent of capacity. It is one of five reservoirs serving the Yakima Basin. with the Aug. 6 curtailment and irrigators depending on return flows from the KRD will be im- pacted, he said. Parts of KRD canals will still carry water to Cascade Ir- rigation District and tributaries, he said. “All of this underscores the importance of getting the Ya- kima Integrated Water Man- agement Plan passed (through Congress) so all the things au- thorized can be implemented,” Eberhart said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation decided Aug. 3 to give Yakima Basin junior water right holders another 1 percent of normal water supply which is 12,000 more acre-feet of water. Junior water right hold- ers moved up from 46 to 47 per- cent of normal supply. “Cooler temperatures gave us a little break in usage from some people,” said Quentin Kreuter, the bureau’s Yakima River operator. It helped get the KRD to Aug. 6 and helped the Roza Ir- rigation District in the Yakima Valley a little, he said. “Another cool off or a big rain is the only thing that would change numbers again,” Kreuter said. “Right now we don’t fore- see anymore increasing in the prorationing level.” Roza Irrigation District will remain at 3 gallons per minute per acre through Sept. 12 and Washington Department of Ecology awards first drought-relief grants Money goes for new well, fish passage and advertising By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — The Washing- ton Department of Ecology on Monday awarded drought-relief funds to drill a community well in Stevens County, shepherd salmon up the Dungeness River on the Olympic Peninsula and promote water conservation in the Kennewick Irrigation Dis- trict. DOE plans to fund other projects in the coming weeks to preserve crops, help fish and shore up municipal water sys- tems. “We’re moving quickly to support critical water supplies for communities, farmers and fish across the state who are en- during extreme hardships in this unprecedented drought,” DOE Director Maia Bellon said in a written statement. The Legislature has appro- priated $16 million for a two- year response to the drought. With Monday’s grants, DOE has now spent $3.6 million on Don Jenkins/Capital Press A low Dungeness River flows at Railroad Bridge Park near Sequim, Wash., on June 1. The river provides irrigation water for farmers living in the Olympic Mountains rain shadow. A historically light winter snowpack in the mountains means the river will run much lower than normal this growing season. drought relief, including $1.1 million to authorize emergency wells on farms in the Yakima Valley and $1.9 million for state Department of Fish and Wildlife fish projects. DOE is reviewing 11 other applications, including one from a Central Washington irrigation district trying to get fruit grow- ers through the summer. It’s one of the few proposals that would deliver water to growers this season. “It’s so dry out there, there isn’t water to go after,” said Mike Schwisow, a lobbyist for the Washington State Water Re- sources Association, an alliance of irrigation districts. The Icicle Irrigation Dis- trict in Cashmere has applied for $41,000 to install pipes to siphon 800 acre-feet of water from Eightmile Lake. The district has rights to the water, but the lake has nearly dropped below the outlet, mak- ing it impossible to tap the water without the project, the district’s manager, Tony Jantzer, said. The water would flow into a canal that serves fruit grow- ers on about 2,300 acres in the neighboring Peshastin Irrigation District. The districts have a close working relationship and many common landowners, said Jantzer, who manages both dis- tricts. To stretch the irrigation sea- son, the Peshastin growers had their water supplies cut from 6.7 gallons per minute to 4.5 gallons per minute in mid-Ju- ly. New pipes from Eightmile Lake would allow growers to continue receiving that rationed amount through late September, Jantzer said. The district will have to match the state’s contribution. It also must still work out logis- tical details, such as air-lifting equipment to the lake, which is in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. “We’ve got some big hills to climb,” Jantzer said. The projects funded Monday are: • The Kennewick Irrigation District will receive $28,872 to promote water conserva- tion among 23,400 customers in Kennewick, Richland, West Richland and incorporated Benton County. The district has been advertising on television and radio for several months and hired a code enforcement officer in June. The district has imposed mandatory limits on when lawns can be watered. The district — which has pro-ratable rights to the Yakima River — has about 500 agricultural users. The district’s manager, Chuck Freeman, said Tuesday that the district has issued more than 700 warnings about illegal water use. Growers have been getting about half their normal water supplies, but without the mandatory restrictions, “there wouldn’t have been any water for anyone.” • The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe will receive $74,430 to install temporary dams in the Dungeness River to concentrate flows to help spawning salmon migrate upstream. WDFW an- ticipates the return of 1.3 million pink salmon. • The Stevens County Pub- lic Utility District will receive $47,000 to drill a well to replace one that has been failing since last fall. The well will help sup- ply drinking water to 385 resi- dents, according to DOE. USDA extends drought disaster relief to 30 more PNW counties The U.S. Department of Ag- riculture on Thursday designat- ed farmers and ranchers eligible for federal drought relief in 18 Washington counties, seven Oregon counties and five Idaho counties. Producers in many of the counties were already eligible for assistance because they live in counties that border areas declared disaster zones in prior declarations The USDA declares disas- ters in counties that have had severe drought conditions for at 33-4/#04X least eight weeks. The designation makes pro- ducers eligible for low-inter- est loans and other programs through the USDA’s Farm Ser- vice Agency. The Washington coun- ties declared disaster areas Thursday are Asotin, Chelan, Douglas, Grays Harbor, Jeffer- son, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Lin- coln, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohom- ish, Thurston, Whatcom and Whitman. The Oregon counties are Benton, Coos, Curry, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln and Tillamook. The Idaho counties are Boundary, Idaho, Lewis, Nez Perce and Valley. Farmers and ranchers in 38 of Washington’s 39 counties are now eligible for relief. Only San Juan County has not been in- cluded in a disaster declaration. Some 31 percent of the state is in “extreme drought,” the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday, unchanged from the week before. Oregon and Idaho also were unchanged. Some 41 percent of Oregon and 22 percent of Idaho are suffering an extreme drought. 33-2/#18 will supply water to the end of September, said Scott Revell, district manager. The 1 percent boost in supply may add a few days to the end of the season, he said. Pears and apples are smaller and trees are stressed from in- adequate water and some hops didn’t reach trellis wires by the Fourth of July, he said. Wine- grapes should be OK but grow- ers won’t know for a while yet, he said. Group says Boise River plan won’t harm ag By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press MERIDIAN, Idaho — A di- verse group that is developing a plan to improve the health of the Boise River watershed told leaders of the region’s irriga- tion community that their pro- posal will not harm agriculture. Three members of the Boise River Enhancement Network’s 12-member coordinating team explained the plan to the newly formed Treasure Valley Water Users Association Aug. 10. TVWUA represents irriga- tion districts, canal companies and farmers in Southwestern Idaho. Association members have concerns about the BREN plan, which suggests several changes to irrigation, farming and grazing practices. “We’re not attacking irriga- tion,” said Derek Risso, prin- cipal for Ecosystem Sciences, a member of BREN’s coordi- nating team. “We understand that very few people would be here in the valley without irri- gation.” Risso said BREN members took data from all existing lo- cal, state, federal and private studies and reports on the Boi- se River watershed from the last 60 years and used the best available science to offer solu- tions to improve the health of the watershed. Risso said the group has no jurisdictional power, the solu- tions are voluntary and BREN needs the farming communi- ty’s involvement to make the plan work. “You guys are big players; we need you to make these kind of things work,” he said. After the meeting, TVWUA Executive Director Roger Batt said he still has several concerns with the group’s draft plan. A final plan is due this fall. “Whether we agree with (the plan) or not, we do appre- ciate being included in the dis- cussion,” he said. However, he added, “There are some con- cerns and we’ll definitely con- tinue to monitor it ... as things progress.” Major BREN members include Land Trust of the Treasure Valley, Idaho Rivers United, Trout Unlimited, South Boise Water Co. and Ecosys- tem Sciences. A draft summary of the plan suggests removing or improv- ing diversion dams and other irrigation structures to allow for more natural river flow, fish passage and sediment trans- port.