Friday, February 11, 2022
CapitalPress.com 9
Boise River’s Water District 63
under new leadership
Economist: Russia-Ukraine confl ict may
have ‘huge’ impact on natural gas prices
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
STAR, Idaho — The orga-
nization that delivers water
to farmers and other cus-
tomers along the 102-mile
Boise River system has new
leadership.
Mike Meyers has suc-
ceeded Rex Barrie as Water
District 63 watermaster. Bar-
rie, who served more than 13
years, will stay on through
February to assist, and then
remain available as a consul-
tant for the district.
Meyers has been training
with Barrie for three years.
Daniel Hoke, who started
Nov. 1 as a trainee, has suc-
ceeded Meyers as deputy
watermaster.
Meyers and Hoke both
came from the Pioneer Irri-
gation District in Cald-
well, along the river’s lower
section.
Meyers said he doesn’t
plan to make any changes
except to continue to auto-
mate water measurement to
aid conservation.
“Rex has been invaluable
and an excellent trainer,” he
said. Barrie has extensive insti-
tutional knowledge, and “I can
only hope to learn it all.”
Barrie said Meyers “has
really excelled, and really
picked up on all of the subtle-
SPOKANE — Political
confl ict between Russia and
Ukraine could have a small
impact on the international
wheat market but a “huge”
impact on natural gas prices
worldwide, a Washington
State University economist
says.
The confl ict has two
potential outcomes, Randy
Fortenbery, small grains
economist at WSU, told
farmers Feb. 2 at the Spo-
kane Ag Show.
The Russian military is
currently occupying a large
wheat-producing region for
both Ukraine and Russia.
If the confl ict prevents that
wheat from being exported,
prices would be pushed
upward in the short-term, he
said.
Russia and Ukraine are
major wheat producers.
“On the other hand, the
natural gas impact could be
really signifi cant,” he con-
tinued. “If the Europeans,
especially Germans, don’t
buy natural gas from Russia,
the eff ective world supply
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
Rex Barrie, left, with Mike Meyers and Daniel Hoke at
the Water District 63 offi ce in Star, Idaho.
ties of the job.”
Water users “are going to
be left in good hands,” he said.
The
district’s
advi-
sory committee hired Mey-
ers in part to bring in oper-
ation of the river’s upper
basin. The Idaho Department
of Water Resources direc-
tor in 2014 ordered adminis-
tration of all Boise River sur-
face water rights. Previously,
the only administration was
below Lucky Peak, the far-
thest downstream of the three
reservoirs.
Hoke, 35, has been learning
the upper basin as he develops
a systemwide view. He works
with data and “a lot of diff erent
people and entities” through-
out the district.
The Boise River system
has 38 space holders who
contract for reservoir water.
The U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation owns the Ander-
son Ranch and Arrowrock
dams. The U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers owns Lucky
Peak, below which lie
325,000 irrigable acres.
The three reservoirs have a
combined 963,468 acre-feet of
storage space.
Anderson Ranch, slated for
expansion, is the biggest res-
ervoir. Barrie said it typically
fi lls seven years out of 10.
Management is much more
challenging when reservoir
supplies and runoff are below
normal, he said, though daily
communication with users is
required even in banner years.
The district takes orders
for water deliveries. It reports
remaining availability, import-
ant as users plan usage and
conservation.
“You have to be a good
communicator and you have to
be able to think on your feet,”
said Meyers, 45.
would be reduced and the
price would explode, and
the chemicals we’re already
seeing rising to record
prices would just continue
to escalate.”
Initial
input
price
increases of 5% to 7% won’t
be sustainable, but Forten-
bery predicts infl ationary
pressure will be about 4.5%.
“I don’t think it’s going
to go away, I don’t think it’s
just transitory,” he said.
In addition, Russia plans
to limit wheat exports this
year. That’s been known
since November, Fortenbery
said, and likely won’t push
wheat prices higher unless
it doesn’t export any wheat.
Fortenbery doesn’t see
much room for wheat prices
to trend much higher.
“Wheat is a bit of a par-
adox for me right now, for a
couple of reasons,” he said.
“USDA has actually been
increasing ending stocks the
last several months, decreas-
ing the export expectation
and simultaneously raising
the ending price. That seems
really counterintuitive to
me.”
Soft white wheat ranges
from $10.50 to $11 per
bushel on the Portland
market.
In the absence of any
production
problems,
futures prices are likely to
trade between $7 and $8 per
bushel, Fortenbery said.
The price isn’t likely to
hit $5.50 per bushel, so the
Price Loss Coverage crop
insurance program isn’t
likely to pay farmers at this
point, he said.
Higher input costs could
reduce yields, which means
higher prices, indicating the
Agriculture Risk Coverage
program is more likely to
pay, Fortenbery said.
Fortenbery expects net
farm income to be down in
2022, due to lower govern-
ment payments, higher input
costs and lower commodity
prices.
China has come nowhere
near meeting its phase one
trade deal commitments,
and no one is seriously dis-
cussing phase two, Forten-
bery said. But China has
been an “aggressive” pur-
chaser of U.S. feed grains,
particularly
corn
and
oilseeds.
Reclamation transfers federal water
facilities to Washington irrigation districts
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
The U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation has transferred
ownership of federal water
facilities to two Washing-
ton state irrigation districts
— the Greater Wenatchee
Irrigation District in Cen-
tral Washington and Ken-
newick Irrigation District in
the Tri-Cities area.
The transfer of the water
infrastructure and land will
allow for more localized
ownership and management
of water, which experts say
will trim costs and layers
of bureaucracy. Irrigation
district managers say the
greater local control and effi -
ciency will benefi t farmers.
“It allows the districts
greater autonomy in operat-
ing and managing the water
more directly,” Michael
Coff ey, public aff airs offi -
cer for the Bureau of Recla-
mation’s Columbia-Pacifi c
Northwest region, told the
Capital Press.
The transfers, she said,
are a “win-win” for every-
one — the American tax-
payer, the federal govern-
ment, irrigation districts and
farming communities.
The two transfers —
the fi rst of their kind in the
state — were made possible
under the John D. Dingell Jr.
Conservation, Management
and Recreation Act passed
in 2019.
The law allows the fed-
eral government to trans-
fer water infrastructure to
local districts without con-
gressional approval. It per-
mits the Bureau of Reclama-
tion to transfer rights of way,
canals, pipelines, diversion
dams, pumps and associated
infrastructure to districts.
While Congress has
authorized title transfers
in the West for decades,
the Trump administration
and Congress agreed in
2019 that streamlining was
needed through the Dingell
Act, which makes voluntary
transfers faster and cheaper.
Irrigation districts are
watching the law unfold
with these two transfers.
“I am very proud to see
the conveyance of these two
federal title transfers to the
Washington irrigation dis-
tricts as a direct result of
the 2019 Dingell Act,” Rec-
lamation
Commissioner
Camille Calimlim Touton
said in a statement.
The Act, she said, has
given Reclamation “a new
tool that benefi ts both
water users and the federal
government.”
The Greater Wenatchee
Irrigation District, in the
Columbia River Valley, is
receiving through the title
transfer all federally owned
facilities within the water
conveyance and distribution
system, including about 82
acres needed for the district
to permanently provide irri-
gation water to patrons.
The transfer includes fed-
erally owned facilities, land,
buildings, pumps, diver-
sions, control structures, fi x-
ture, improvements, drains,
laterals, pipelines, waste
wells, ponds and roads.
“Title transfer puts the
management of our region’s
most vital resource — water
— in the hands of those
who live here and know it
best,” said Craig Gyselinck,
Greater Wenatchee Irriga-
tion District secretary and
manager.
The Kennewick Irriga-
tion District title transfer
covers the federally owned
facilities within the water
conveyance and distribution
system, including about 100
miles of canals and appurte-
nant works, a 46-acre parcel
and 971 acres of easements.
“The benefi ts of title
transfer to Kennewick Irri-
gation District and our local
community will be substan-
tial,” said Gene Huff man,
Kennewick Irrigation Dis-
trict board president.
Huff man thanked Rec-
lamation, the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation, the
Yakama Nation and Rep.
Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.,
for their support.
By transferring Bureau
of Reclamation works to
local entities like the Kenne-
wick Irrigation District and
the Greater Wenatchee Irri-
gation District, “our critical
water resources can be man-
aged by those who know
our needs best, the men and
women who live, work and
farm right here in our com-
munities,” said Newhouse.
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