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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.