September 11, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Drought
Irrigators unclog outlets to increase water supply
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
PESHASTIN, Wash. —
Icicle Irrigation District has
switched gears on a drought re-
lief project for Wenatchee Val-
ley pear growers because heli-
copters were too busy fighting
wildfires to the north to help.
In early August, the state De-
partment of Ecology approved a
$41,000 grant to pay half of the
project. The district isn’t using
that but is applying for $12,500
to pay half of a less ambitious
plan, said Tony Jantzer, man-
ager of the Icicle and Peshastin
irrigation districts.
The districts serve about
8,000 acres, mostly Wenatchee
Valley pear orchards. The Pe-
shastin canal draws from Pe-
shastin Creek and is supple-
mented by the Icicle system in
drought years. The Icicle has
rights to 8,070 acre feet of wa-
ter in five lakes in the Alpine
Wilderness some 2,500 feet
above Icicle Creek.
The week of July 20, the
Peshastin district reduced wa-
ter to growers one-third, from
6.75 gallons per minute per
acre to 4.5. The Icicle district
began drawing on the lakes.
In order to get an additional
800 acre feet from Eight Mile
Lake, the district planned to
have a helicopter fly pumps to
the lake for temporary use.
Because it couldn’t get a
helicopter, district workers
are manually digging out par-
tially clogged outlets from
Eight Mile and Colchuck lakes
which should gain about 250
acre feet of water, Jantzer said.
The Icicle district also reduced
its growers from 6.75 to 4.5
gallons per minute on Sept. 1
with hopes both districts will
have water through Sept. 25,
he said. That’s still ending the
season about a week early.
Growers are in full swing
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Peshastin Creek along U.S. Highway 97 at Campbell Road south of Peshastin, Wash., on Aug. 27.
Low flow because of drought caused irrigators to get more water out of wilderness lakes.
of d’ Anjou pear harvest and
mostly shut off water during
harvest, watering trees again
after harvest, Jantzer said.
“Growers seem pretty hap-
py. There’s some sun damage
and other issues but I haven’t
heard anyone say they are
damaged from lack of water,”
he said.
Pears are a half to one size
smaller because of excessive
heat, but less water shouldn’t
affect them that much more,
said Jim Koempel, a grower
and Peshastin Irrigation Dis-
trict board member.
“We limped through with
what water we had. We just
had to manage it more tightly,”
said Randy Smith, a Cashmere
grower on the Peshastin district.
There may be more water-
ing than usual after harvest be-
cause things are dry, Koempel
said.
“We will get through this
year, my concern is next year,”
he said. “We’ve got to get
snow this winter because the
lakes won’t carry us another
whole season.”
The 8,070 acre feet will be
mostly used up by the end of
this season and won’t be re-
plenished without a good win-
ter, he said.
California crop yields faring Rain washes away ‘extreme’
better than expected in drought drought in Western Washington
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Capital Press
Some sectors of California
agriculture are showing surpris-
ing resilience in the midst of the
most severe drought in nearly
120 years of recorded weather
history.
A new analysis of the
drought’s impacts on agricul-
ture by Pacific Institute shows
record-breaking crop revenue
and employment but also shows
those successes came at the cost
of massive and unsustainable
groundwater pumping.
Crop revenue continued to
grow in 2012 and 2013, the first
two years of the drought, post-
ing a record $34 billion in 2013
and dropping just 1.4 percent
in 2014 to its second highest at
$33.4 billion.
Ag employment increased
an average of 9,000 jobs a year
from 2010 to 2014, although
the actual increase in 2014 was
less than the other years, reach-
ing a record high 417,000 in
2014.
While the study shows re-
siliency in the crop sector, it’s
important to point out it did not
analyze impacts on the nursery
or livestock sectors, produc-
tion costs or regional dispari-
ties, said Heather Cooley, lead
author of the study and water
program director at Pacific In-
stitute.
Lack of available data at the
time of the study prevented the
inclusion of those elements,
but they will be assessed and
brought into the discussion of
response strategies to build a
more resilient future for the
state, she said.
The Institute has been as-
sessing the impacts of every
drought in California over
its 28-year history to identify
Unusually heavy rains in
late August eased drought con-
ditions in Western Washington
from “extreme” to “severe,” the
U.S. Drought Monitor reports.
The reversal may be tempo-
rary. The U.S. Climate Predic-
tion Center predicted a cool and
wet stretch in late August and
early September for Western
Washington. The center fore-
casts a return to above average
temperatures and below normal
precipitation for Washington —
as well as Oregon, Idaho and
California — as a strengthening
El Nino in the Pacific Ocean re-
asserts itself.
“By no means is the drought
over,” Washington Assistant State
Climatologist Karin Bumbaco
said. “What we had at the end of
Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
Despite dried irrigation canals in California, a new analysis of
the drought’s impacts on agriculture by Pacific Institute shows
record-breaking crop revenue and employment. It also shows
those successes came at the cost of massive and unsustainable
groundwater pumping.
what strategies are working
and what aren’t and encourage
those that are beneficial, she
said.
While there’s been a long-
term trend toward increased
revenues on fewer acres, sev-
eral factors contributed to agri-
culture’s resiliency during the
current drought, including an
accelerated shift to higher-val-
ue crops, implementation of
water-management efficiencies
and the sale and transfer of wa-
ter, Cooley said.
The drought also exacer-
bated groundwater overdraft to
tremendous rate, which is very
concerning, she said.
A NASA study released last
week showed land subsidence
of 13 inches over a period of
eight months in some areas of
the state, including major agri-
cultural areas, she said.
Those are alarming num-
bers, but the drought is only
highlighting water-management
problems that have persisted for
decades, she said.
There is compelling evi-
dence that too much water is
being taken from rivers, streams
and reservoirs even in a normal
year. Communities are strug-
gling with meeting safe drinking
water requirements and coastal
areas are experiencing sea water
intrusion in groundwater, she
said.
While drought response
strategies have reduced the
economic impact to agriculture,
continued groundwater over-
draft has shifted the burden to
others. It will force current and
future generations to dig deeper
wells, find alternative drinking
water sources and repair infra-
structure damaged by subsid-
ence, the study found.
Groundwater
overdraft
needs to be mitigated, Cooley
said. Legislation passed last
year will move the state to a
more sustainable balance but
not until 2040, she said.
Impacts of other ag strate-
gies are less clear, including
the risks of shifting to higher
value crops, such as fruits and
nuts, which are permanent and
cannot be fallowed on a year-
to-year basis, Cooley said.
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August was a bit of an anomaly.”
The percentage of Washing-
ton in extreme drought dropped
to 68 percent from 85 percent
between Aug. 25 and Sept.
1. Roughly, the eastern two-
thirds of the state is in extreme
drought, while the western one-
third is in severe drought, the
next lowest classification.
Western Washington re-
ceived 200 to 800 percent more
rain than normal between Aug.
26 and Sept. 1, according to
the state climatologist office.
Eastern Washington, with the
exception of a small portion of
Stevens County, received be-
low average rainfall.
The rain caused stream
flows west of the Cascades to
jump dramatically. In some
cases, rivers went from record
lows to above normal flows for
late August, according to U.S.
Geological Survey gauges.
Some 93 irrigators in the
Chehalis River basin in south-
west Washington were able to
irrigate for the first time since
having their water rights cur-
tailed in late July, according to
the state Department of Ecology.
Oregon, California and Idaho
have seen only minor fluctuations
this summer in drought condi-
tions as classified by the drought
monitor, a partnership of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and the Universi-
ty of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Washington, however, has
seen big week-to-week chang-
es, with large chunks of the state
rapidly slipping into “severe”
and then “extreme” conditions.
Thursday was the first week this
year that drought conditions im-
proved in Washington.
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Kubota M9960, 150 hrs, Open Station, ROPS, MFWD,
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JD 9630, 2138 hrs, 4WD, PS trans, Auto Track ready, 800/
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remotes, Bareback.....................$125,000 Colfax #31662
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remotes, fresh engine............$180,000 Moscow, #30510
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JD 8630R, 759 hrs, ILS Axle, IVT Trans., 4 Remotes,
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straw chopper.............................$197,500 Salem #85401
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JD 9650STS, 3343 hrs, Small Grain, 914P BPU Platform,
straw chopper........................$87,000 Tangent, #685747
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platform..........................$210,000 Walla Walla #303583
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straw chopper........................$80,000 Tangent, #686102
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John Deere 568 Round Baler, mega tooth, silage wrap,
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