March 23, 2018
CapitalPress.com
3
Oregon water supply in better Federal spring outlook favors
shape than before 2015 drought S. Oregon drought deepening
Snowpack levels
below average but
reservoir levels
still decent
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon’s current water
supply outlook doesn’t evoke
optimism but early spring
conditions were even worse
before the severe drought of
2015, experts say.
The average snowpack
level is now at about 64 per-
cent of average statewide,
compared to about 17 percent
of average three years ago,
said Scott Oviatt, Oregon
snow survey supervisor for
USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service.
“We really had no snow,
especially in the northwest-
ern part of the state,” he said.
Oregon got off to an ex-
cellent start last autumn —
with snowpack levels at 236
percent of average statewide
before Thanksgiving — but
the situation has since deteri-
orated, Oviatt said during the
March 15 meeting of the Or-
egon Water Resources Com-
mission.
Precipitation is at 90 per-
cent of average, which is sim-
ilar to 2015, he said.
The water supply outlook
would have been gloomier
this year if not for below-av-
erage temperatures in Feb-
Natural Resources Conservation Service
A heavy early snowpack drapes Oregon’s Mount Hood. While the
snowpack in Oregon got off to a promising start, it is now just 64
percent of average statewide.
ruary, which allowed snow
levels to build up somewhat,
said Andy Bryant, hydrolo-
gist with the National Weath-
er Service.
Snow accumulation is
much better in the northern
Columbia River basin of
Washington and British Co-
lumbia, Bryant said. “We’ve
been kind of left out of the
storm activity for most of
winter.”
Looking to future weather
conditions, there’s “not a lot
to hang your hat on” in Or-
egon’s long-range forecast,
Bryant said.
There’s an equal likeli-
hood that temperatures and
precipitation will be above
average, average or below
average in April, May and
June, he said. In July, August
and September, though, the
projection is for rainfall to be
below average and tempera-
tures to be above average.
Fortunately, major water
storage reservoirs across Or-
egon are in respectable shape
— from about 81 percent of
average in the Willamette ba-
sin to 131 percent of average
in the Owyhee basin, said
Ken Stahr, OWRD’s surface
water and hydrology manag-
er.
“Through wise man-
agement, we had a decent
amount of carryover,” Stahr
said.
Diminishing snowpacks
are a long-term trend in the
West, said Kathie Dello, as-
sociate director of the Oregon
Climate Change Research In-
stitute at Oregon State Uni-
versity.
Since 1955, the region’s
snowpack level on April 1
has fallen by the equivalent
of Lake Mead — a major
storage reservoir on the Col-
orado River — as measured
in water content, she said.
Drought likely will inten-
sify in Southern Oregon and
California over the next three
months, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administra-
tion reported March 15.
The odds favor warm and
dry weather for the next three
months in the two states, ac-
cording to NOAA’s Climate
Prediction Center.
Some 38 percent of Ore-
gon and 47 percent of Califor-
nia are already in a drought,
according to the U.S. Drought
Monitor. Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown declared a drought
emergency in Klamath Coun-
ty on March 12.
NOAA said drought, while
worsening, probably will be
modified by a wet second
half of March. Also, Oregon
and Northern California are
enjoying carryover from the
2016-17 water year. While
snowpacks are small, most
reservoirs are at or above
historical averages for mid-
March, forecasters noted.
NOAA’s three-month out-
look assesses the chances that
a region’s precipitation and
temperatures will fall below,
above or within a normal
range. Washington, for exam-
ple, has an equal, or 33 per-
cent, chance of having a wet,
dry or average spring. In some
other places, the odds are tilt-
ed one way or the other.
The new outlook pegs the
odds at 40 to 50 percent that
NOAA
Shades of green mean that odds favor a wet spring and shades
of brown indicate that chances are spring will be dry on this map
released March 15 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
the next three months in Or-
egon will be drier than av-
erage. There is a 40 percent
chance the temperatures will
be above normal in Southern
Oregon, according to NOAA.
In California, the odds
range from 40 percent in the
north to 60 percent in the
south that temperatures will
be above normal. There’s a
50 percent chance that most
of the state will be drier than
average.
NOAA’s outlook leans
heavily on higher sea-surface
temperatures along the equa-
tor in the Pacific Ocean.
Temperatures are still low-
er than usual, but La Nina is
giving way to temperatures in
the normal range, according
to NOAA.
Average, or neutral, ocean
temperatures are expected to
last at least through the win-
ter.
After that, forecasting
models disagree about wheth-
er the ocean will warm, cool
or stay average, according to
NOAA.
La Nina generally brings
colder and wetter weather
to the northern U.S. and the
opposite to the southern tier.
La Nina conditions have pre-
vailed the past two winters.
State agency wants to boost dam inspection authority
Current dam safety
laws are considered
to be outdated,
OWRD says
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Laws governing dam safe-
ty in Oregon have become
outdated, prompting state
regulators to seek upgraded
authority to inspect and order
repairs to the structures.
In the next legislative ses-
sion, the Oregon Water Re-
sources Department plans to
ask lawmakers to revise dam
safety statutes that were orig-
inally written nearly 90 years
ago.
The ability to enter prop-
erty without a warrant to con-
duct dam inspections is one
request the agency is consid-
ering, said Racquel Rancier,
senior policy coordinator for
OWRD.
Currently about a dozen
dams in Oregon haven’t been
inspected by OWRD in re-
cent years because the land-
owners denied entry to their
property, said Keith Mills,
the department’s dam safety
engineer.
Oregon has jurisdiction
over dams that are at least 10
feet high and store more than
9.2 acre-feet of water, he said.
The state inspects 969 such
structures, while the feder-
al government inspects 285
dams.
More than 25 percent of
state- and federally-inspected
dams in Oregon are rated as
high or significant hazards,
which is based on their po-
tential to cause lost life and
property damage, rather than
physical condition.
Following are other dam
safety laws under consider-
ation:
• Landowners may be re-
quired to obtain OWRD’s per-
mission to modify or remove
dams under the supervision
of an engineer, to ensure such
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Karen Sowers, right, Washington State University Extension
outreach specialist for oilseed crops, is serving as executive
director of the new Pacific Northwest Canola Association.
Sowers serves as
canola association
executive director
EO Media Group File
An excavator breaks a log jam in April 2013 above the Three Mile Dam on the Umatilla River
north of Hermiston, Ore. The Oregon Water Resources Department is considering seeking tough-
er dam inspection laws.
changes are done safely.
• The agency may im-
pose a requirement for peo-
ple building lagoons — such
as those storing manure or
wastewater — to submit their
final designs to OWRD before
starting construction. The de-
partment now lacks authority
for structures that don’t in-
volve water rights.
Currently, OWRD must
automatically schedule an
administrative hearing when
dam repairs are needed,
which the agency considers a
time-consuming process that
could endanger public safety.
The agency may instead
require the dam owner to get
an “engineering analysis” of
the structure without sched-
uling a hearing, or to hold a
hearing only if the owner ob-
jects to the repair plans.
Under another proposal,
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the agency may order the im-
mediate correction of unsafe
conditions at potentially haz-
ardous dams by reducing wa-
ter levels, opening valves or
taking similar actions.
“That is something we
can’t currently do if we know
it needs to be done,” Rancier
said.
Imposing civil penal-
ties for dam safety problems
would provide an “intermedi-
ary” approach to induce need-
ed repairs, rather than the only
current option of imposing an
order, she said.
“They really only provide
a hammer,” Rancier said of
current laws.
At this point, these ideas
are only in draft form and will
be refined based on feedback,
she said.
New organization
seeking members
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
RITZVILLE, Wash. —
Karen Sowers, Washington
State University Extension
outreach specialist for oil-
seeds, is the executive di-
rector of the new Pacific
Northwest Canola Associa-
tion. For now.
The job does not affect
her position with the univer-
sity. Sowers works roughly
85 percent of full-time for
WSU, and will work 20
hours a month as the asso-
Weekly fieldwork report
Wash.
Idaho
• Snow water equivalent*
64.8%
107.7%
93.5%
63.2%
• Percent area in drought
76.1%
11.7%
44.3%
88.9%
Normal/
50% below
Normal/
40% below
40-50% below
Normal/
40% below
40-50% below
33-40% below
33-40% below
40-60% below
Normal/
Below normal
Normal/
Above normal
Normal/
Above normal
Below normal
Item/description
• Avg. temperature, 6-10 day outlook
(Percent chance deviation from normal)
(Percent chance deviation from normal)
• Soil moisture anomaly
(Monthly deviation from normal)
Alan Greenway,
Seedsman
12-1/108
*Aggregate average percent of median as of March 13. Medians calculated for the period from 1981-2010.
Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman
Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342
Calif.
Ore.
• Precipitation, 6-10 day outlook
GREENWAY SEEDS
ciation’s executive director.
A full-time executive di-
rector is being sought for the
association, Sowers said.
The association is also
looking for members. Mem-
bership levels range from
producers at $75 per year,
agencies at $100 per year
to various industry levels,
from associate at $500 to
platinum at $5,000. Plati-
num level membership enti-
tles the member to a voting
seat on the association’s
board of directors.
The association became
operational at the end of
2017.
Contact the association
at pnwcanola@gmail.com
Sources: USDA, NRCS; NOAA, www.ca.gov/; www.drought.gov/