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4 CapitalPress.com December 4, 2015 Water Idaho ups water enforcement efforts By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press BOISE — The state in the past few years has upped its efforts to prevent the unauthorized use of wa- ter and those enforcement efforts will continue to increase. Most Idaho Department of Water Resources staff members use Geo- graphic Information System data in their day-to-day work efforts and that has led to increased discovery of unauthorized uses of water without a valid water right, said Rob Whitney, the department’s water distribution section manager. “That leads to increasing discov- ery of problems,” he told several hundred people during Idaho Water “It’s sort of an issue of fairness to them,” he said. IDWR has dedicated more re- sources to water enforcement in re- cent years and might seek additional funding to expand them, Whitney said. The department in 2012 added a full-time position to coordinate en- forcement efforts and developed an enforcement data base in 2013. Luke said the goal of the depart- ment’s enforcement actions is to cor- rect unauthorized water users,not to punish people. “We’re not trying to be punitive,” he said. “We’re trying to stop (unau- thorized water use) and get them into compliance, if we can.” But the department will take for- Users Association’s annual meeting in November. “The more we look, the more we find.” In the past, formal enforcement actions against unauthorized water use were rare and complaints were addressed at the regional level, Whitney said. But as water supplies and water rights have become more limited, that has led to increased pressure to take enforcement actions against people who use or store water with- out a water right or exceed the pa- rameters of that right, he said. Most of the complaints the de- partment receives come from other water users, IDWR Water Compli- ance Bureau Chief Tim Luke told the Capital Press. mal enforcement action if a problem isn’t corrected. Between 2013 and 2015, IDWR issued 89 notices of violation and collected $314,461 in civil penalties. IDWR plans to do more area-spe- cific audits to flush out problems. During a pilot project in the Up- per Big Wood River basin in 2014, IDWR staff reviewed 490 parcels, issued 30 notices of violation and collected about $20,000 in civil pen- alties. Other large-scale audits are planned for or are ongoing in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, Raft River and Mountain Home areas. IDWR issued a memo to staff in October that outlines the depart- ment’s policy on the enforcement process. The memo came as news to Boise water attorney Dan Steenson, who asked Whitney during the IWUA meeting why water users weren’t in- volved in creating it. “I do have a lot of questions about this,” he said. “This is the first I’ve heard of this and this does seem rath- er significant.” “Why didn’t they talk to us about it beforehand?” Steenson said later. “Is this something they should only be doing by rule-making?” Luke said the memo documents existing department policy on the is- sue and is meant to ensure consisten- cy in the enforcement process. “It’s just guidance to staff on how to implement that process,” he said. Rain ends drought in Western Washington, federal monitors say Drought still ‘extreme’ on eastside Dan Wheat/Capital Press Keechelus Lake along Interstate 90 on Snoqualmie Pass is shown on Nov. 24. It was at 67,880 acre-feet of water that day, 124 percent of average. Recent storms brought the Yakima Basin’s five reservoirs up to normal levels for this time of year on Nov. 18. Yakima Basin water reservoirs catching up Capital Press YAKIMA, Wash. — Re- cent rain and snowstorms have brought Yakima Basin reser- voirs back up to where they should be at this time of year after hitting their lowest levels in years because of drought. The reservoirs reached 100 percent of normal on Nov. 18, increased to 105 percent on Nov. 21-23 and then dropped back to 100 percent by Nov. 30, said Chris Lynch, hydrol- ogist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Yakima Project. LEGAL SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE OF TEMPORARY RULE MAKING & EMERGENCY QUARANTINE ORDER Oregon Department of Agriculture, Market Access & Certification Program, Administrative Rules Chapter #603, Sue Gooch, Rules Coordinator, (503) 986-4583. Adopt: 703-052-0052 RULE SUMMARY: On October 30, 2015, the Oregon Department of Agriculture detected the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa in perry pear (pyrus) plants grown near Corvallis, OR. This is the first officially confirmed detection of X. fastidiosa in the State of Oregon. This pathogen is considered a quarantine pest because it causes Pierce’s Disease on grapevines and blueberries, and infects many other plants grown in the state. This infestaton poses a serious danger to Oregon’s environ- ment and wine grape, blueberry, black- and raspberry, and nursery industries. The Department has determined that potentially infected Pyrus plant material was shipped to 22 locations in nine counties, including Benton, Hood River, Jackson, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill. To date, infections have only been found in pear plants. This temporary rule immediately places under quarantine all pears grown in the nine counties listed. No pear plants or other propagative materials may be sold or shipped within or outside of the counties until one of the following conditions has been met: 1) an official survey within the county determines no infected plants have become established in the county, or 2) a nursery or growing location has been established as a pest-free place of production with the Department. On sites where the bacterium is detected, the Department shall work with the affected landowner to develop a response plan to eradicate the pathogen and to mitigate risk of further spread. Violation of this emergency quarantine may result in civil penalties of up to $10,000 as provided by ORS 570.995 and/ or suspension or revocation of a nursery’s license (ORS 571.125). To become effective November 18, 2015 through May 15, 2016. 49-2/#4 “I’m pleased that we’ve gained that much storage. We dramatically gained ground in the past month, so that’s a pos- itive,” Lynch said. It’s not particularly surpris- ing because a few good storms can do that, he said. Similar gains occurred a year ago from a few early-season storms, he said. The five reservoirs — Keechelus, Kachess, Cle Elum, Bumping and Rim- rock — have a combined capacity of a little more than 1 million acre-feet of water. Usually, they don’t fill until May or June from melting snowpack. More rain than snow at low elevations this winter could cause the peak level in April or May to be short of full, Lynch said. Sufficient snowpack is more critical for enough ir- rigation water next summer than having the reservoirs full at any given point. Irriga- tors on 464,000 acres, mostly farmland, in the Kittitas and Yakima valleys depend on 1.7 million acre-feet of water an- nually. Usually 1 million acre- feet is stored in the reservoirs and 2.3 million acre-feet is in the snowpack that melts in spring and summer and mostly feeds the reservoirs. The reservoirs hit a sea- son-ending low of 107,000 acre-feet on Oct. 28, compared to 330,000 last year and a 30- year average of 270,000. Capital Press Heavy November rains have at least temporarily KO’d the drought in West- ern Washington, including on the Olympic Peninsula and Skagit Valley, where farmers faced irrigation cutbacks last summer, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Nov. 25. While most of Eastern Washington remains in “ex- treme” drought, the westside of the Cascade Curtain has become almost drought-free. Some 36 percent of the state no longer has drought status. The entire state was in a “severe” to “extreme” drought in early October. As recently as two weeks ago, all of Washington was in at least a “moderate drought.” Sections of Western Wash- ington have received 15 to Don Jenkins/Capital Press 20 inches of precipitation Water covers a field Nov. 18 in southwest Washington. November storms washed away the drought in since Nov. 1, according to Western Washington, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which reports current conditions but does the Drought Monitor, which not make long-term projections of water supplies. provides a snapshot of current conditions, but does not proj- ington. Olympic Peninsula ow has kept precipitation time a year ago. Ample pre- farmers who draw from the below average this month in cipitation swelled reservoirs ect future water supplies. More importantly for snow-fed Dungeness River Central and Eastern Wash- last winter, but low snow- the 2016 growing season, were among the growers most ington. With the exception of packs led to water rationing in the Olympics and North Cas- the Yakima Valley. the Olympic Mountains and affected by drought. The snowpack in the North cades, snowpacks in Wash- North Cascades are accumu- There has been little lating snow, and the five Ya- Cascades on Nov. 27 was ington are smaller than nor- change in drought conditions kima River Basin reservoirs 116 percent of average. The mal for late November. this month in Oregon, Idaho Some 46 percent of and California. have caught up to normal snowpack was less than half of normal last winter. Low the state is still in extreme levels. Some 96 percent of Or- It’s early and the U.S. summer flows led to irrigation drought, 14 percent in severe egon is in some drought Climate Prediction Center cutbacks for some northwest drought and 4 percent in mod- stage, including 60 percent erate drought. reaffirmed last week that El Washington growers. in extreme drought. In Idaho, The precipitation has ben- 67 percent of the state is in Heavy rain in the Chehalis Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean are likely to warm the River Basin flooded farmland efited the Yakima River Ba- drought, including 9 percent Pacific Northwest’s winter. this month. Some farmers sin reservoirs in the South in extreme drought. Some 97 But the Olympic range snow- there were cut off from irriga- Cascades. The five reservoirs percent of California is in a pack was, encouragingly at tion water after a dry and hot on Nov. 27 held 102 percent drought, with 45 percent in of their average amount for “exceptional” drought, the 161 percent of normal Nov. spring and early summer. With their reservoirs fill- the date, according the U.S. most-severe classification. 27, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Ser- ing up, Seattle, Everett and Bureau of Reclamation. The The Drought Monitor is a Tacoma declared Nov. 23 that reservoirs were below 40 per- partnership between the U.S. vice. The snowpack was less their municipal water supplies cent of normal by the end of Department of Agriculture, than 5 percent of normal at were back to normal and end- the irrigation season in late National Oceanic and Atmo- the end of last winter and ed a voluntary conservation October. spheric Administration and The reservoirs still have the University of Nebras- was the most visible sign of program. The Cascades’ rain shad- less water than they did at this ka-Lincoln. drought in Western Wash- Yakima Valley irrigators want more Kachess Lake water By DAN WHEAT Capital Press SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — Roza Irrigation District is pushing ahead with a $58 mil- lion project to get more water out of Kachess Lake if the Central Washington drought continues next summer. The district, one of the larg- est in the Yakima Valley, is do- ing so despite a possible law- suit from some lake residents who don’t want the lake drawn down another 18 feet below it’s current lowest level. Kachess, just a few miles east of Snoqualmie Pass, is one of five reservoirs feeding 464,000 acres of mostly irri- gated farmland in the Kittitas and Yakima valleys. Loss of crop production in the valleys due to drought this year was preliminarily estimated at $1.2 billion by the state Department of Agriculture. The lake can store 239,000 acre feet of water. The proj- ect would enable the Roza to get up to 50,000 acre feet of that water that it can’t get now because it’s below the LEGAL LEGAL PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 87 Notice is hereby given that the following vehicle will be sold, for cash to the highest bidder, on 12/14/2015. The sale will be held at 10:00 am by AJ’S AUTO REPAIR 1858 13TH ST SE, SALEM, OR 2002 BMW 325Ci VIN = WBABN33462PG58524 Amount due on lien $1,855.00 Reputed owner(s) Sherodi Dallman Northwest Comm CU PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 87 Notice is hereby given that the following vehicle will be sold, for cash to the highest bidder, on 12/ 7/2015. The sale will be held at 10:00am by ABNER TRUCK TRAILER REPAIR 1395 INDUSTRIAL WAY, WOODBURN, OR 2001 KENWORTH W900 VIN = 1XKWDB9X11R872568 Amount due on lien $17,535.00 Reputed owner(s) TRAVIS FLY GENERAL ELECTRIC CAPITOL GIBSON DREXEL AK TRUCK/TRAILER SALES Legal-49-2-2/#4 legal-48-2-1/#4 By DAN WHEAT By DON JENKINS lake’s outflow. The Roza received 47 per- cent of normal water this past season due to the drought. An additional 50,000 acre feet would have raised that to 55 percent, said Scott Revell, dis- trict manager. The U.S. Bureau of Rec- lamation is now estimating junior water right holders, in- cluding the Roza and Kittitas Reclamation District, could be as low as 27 to 35 percent of normal water next year if there’s a repeat of low snow- pack this year, Revell said. “In that case, we would probably have two shutdowns of two weeks each in the spring (instead of the one this year) and a trickle all summer and end the season early,” Revell said. “It would be far worse than what we just went through.” Revell sent a letter in Au- gust to the Bureau of Reclama- tion which manages the five reservoirs and water deliveries to irrigation districts. Revell proposed floating pumps for Kachess to get more irrigation water. The bureau is holding meetings to gather public com- ment at the: Hal Holmes Cen- ter in Ellensburg, Dec. 7; the USFS ranger station, 802 2nd Ave., Cle Elum, Dec. 8; and at the Best Western in Sunnyside, Dec. 9. All meetings are 4 to 7 p.m. The Roza has to work through about a dozen local, state and federal agencies to gain approval and is on a very tight time line to have pumps operational by July 1, Revell said. “There are a lot of moving parts, but so far they all appear to be moving in the same di- rection,” he said. One exception maybe some Kachess Lake residents con- cerned about their wells and bull trout. “There likely will be a law- suit. They’ve hired lawyers,” Revell said. Some dairy owners in the Roza also don’t favor the proj- ect because it’s not cost effec- tive for them, Revell said. The same is true for some growers in Kittitas Valley. The Kittitas Reclamation District hasn’t joined the proj- ect. Its manager is trying to figure how to assess just those who want it. Revell is trying to do the same in the Roza, but said it is difficult to separate out users from non-users for assessments and water deliv- eries. So far, the plan is for Roza growers to pay $85 per acre per year over 10 years to pay for a loan for the project. Costs and assessments are being fine tuned and there could be sav- ings in acquiring slightly used pumps from the Southern Ne- vada Water Authority in Las Vegas. The project would be sim- ilar but not the same as a Ya- kima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan to pump more water from the lake several years from now.