Friday, April 8, 2022
CapitalPress.com 7
Nine water rights tools for farms, ranches facing drought
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
As much of Oregon faces another
year of drought, water experts say
farmers and ranch-
ers should be aware
of all the tools avail-
able to them under
the state’s water
laws.
At a seminar
March 29, Elizabeth
Howard, Oregon
Elizabeth
water law attorney,
Howard
and Lindsay Thane,
natural resources
attorney, both of
Schwabe, William-
son & Wyatt, spoke
about nine tools for
farmers
through
the state Water
Lindsay
Resources Depart-
Thane
ment, or OWRD.
“There are tools
available to water users, especially
in drought years,” said Thane.
• Drought transfers: If Oregon’s
governor issues a drought declara-
tion for a county, water users in that
county can then access emergency
water use tools, one of which is a
“drought transfer.”
According to Thane, a farmer can
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Irrigation systems on a farm near Mount Hood.
apply for an expedited, short-term
drought transfer of their water right
to change its type of use, place of use
or location of the point of diversion.
• Temporary emergency water
use permits: This tool is also
only available to drought-declared
counties.
According to Thane, if an exist-
ing surface water right doesn’t have
enough water during drought — for
example, a stream dries up — then
the farmer can apply for an emer-
gency permit to temporarily tap into
groundwater.
These expedited applications
should take 10 days to process.
• Temporary transfers: A tem-
porary transfer allows farmers to
move water to areas of critical need.
Applicants need not come from a
drought-declared county.
A farmer can change the place
of use, point of diversion or type of
use of a certified water right and can
move water on their own property
or temporarily transfer to another
farmer.
Unlike the first two tools, a tem-
porary transfer takes longer to apply
for and process.
“This isn’t a particularly speedy
process most of the time,” said
Thane.
Howard said this tool “is really
good to think about for long-term
planning.”
• Agriculture water use trans-
fers: Howard said an agriculture
water use transfer can be useful
during hot and dry years.
The tool enables a farmer with
an existing irrigation water right to
use that right for purposes other than
irrigation — “incidental agricultural
uses” including dust control, keeping
farm animals cool or giving drinking
water to livestock within limitations.
• Limited licenses: A limited
license is a short-term tool for a
farmer who does not have water
right.
According to Howard, a farmer
can apply for a limited water license
to establish a crop for which further
irrigation won’t be required, such as
a vineyard or hazelnut orchard, or to
mitigate the impacts of drought when
water is needed “to avoid irreparable
damage to the user’s crop.”
• Exempt water uses: Howard
said it’s also useful for farmers to be
aware of exempt water uses in Ore-
gon — opportunities to use water
within limitations without applying
for a permit.
Farms may qualify for the surface
water stock water exemption, com-
mercial and industrial uses exemp-
tion and domestic water rights
exemption.
• Conserved water rights: A
conserved water right allows a
farmer to shrink a water right tempo-
rarily and move the balance to other
places, such as to in-stream flows
that benefit fish.
• New water right: A farmer can
also apply for a new water right, but
these are difficult to get.
“It’s pretty much impossible
to get a surface water right in Ore-
gon right now because basically all
the water has been allocated,” said
Howard.
Thane said getting a new ground-
water right is more plausible, but
OWRD has labeled some parts of
Oregon as “groundwater restricted
areas” where new wells can’t be
drilled.
• Stored water right: The final
tool is called a stored water right,
enabling a farmer to create a pond or
reservoir.
For this tool, said Howard, a
farmer needs two rights — the right
to store water and the right to remove
water from a reservoir or pond for a
specific purpose. The right to store
water is separate from the right to
use the stored water.
Drought looms in Washington;
no state relief funds set aside
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Owyhee Irrigation District
The Owyhee Reservoir near Adrian, Ore.
Owyhee Irrigation
District cuts allotment
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The Owyhee Irrigation
District’s governing com-
mittee has set this year’s
allotment at just above half
of normal.
The Nyssa, Ore.-based
district’s Joint Committee
on March 31 set it at 2.1
acre-feet. It was 3.0 acre-
feet last year, when a dry
spring and unusually hot
summer pushed demand,
compared to 4.0 acre-feet
when Owyhee Reservoir is
full.
The committee said it
will monitor conditions
through the start of irrigation
season and adjust the alloca-
tion if the water is available.
Clancy Flynn, the dis-
trict’s manager, told Capital
Press that the reservoir con-
tains enough water to sup-
port this year’s 2.1 acre-foot
allotment.
Snowpack in the Owyhee
River Basin was 47% of
the 30-year median as of
April 4, USDA’s Natu-
ral Resources Conservation
Service reported.
Flynn said in-district
transfers are allowed in
drought years.
For example, one field
could be left fallow and
its 2.1-acre-foot allotment
transferred to another field
and added to its allotment,
providing a combined 4.2
acre-feet.
“What we’ve heard most
of is people switching dif-
ferent crops,” he said. Some
farmers planned to plant less
corn and more small grains,
which use less water and are
harvested earlier.
Flynn said the current
allotment increases the risk
that a normal year’s crop
mix will fall short of water,
especially for irrigators
operating near a canal’s end
late in the season.
“It’s going to be a tough
year,” he said, “not even
close to an ideal year for
anybody in the Owyhee Irri-
gation District or anybody
in most of Oregon, for that
matter. But farmers are resil-
ient, and they’ll find a way.”
Southeast Oregon farmer
Bruce Corn said many irri-
gators in the district planned
for the short water year.
He said some spring
wheat has been planted, and
he expects some reduction
in corn acres. Some ground
totally dependent on the res-
ervoir will be fallowed, and
there will be some transfers
to higher-value crops.
“The key now is the
length of the season as much
as the quantity,” Corn said.
Usage could vary based on
summer heat, for example.
“Conservation is a big
deal in a year like this,” he
said.
Corn said that in recent
years, most of the district’s
large onion crop converted
to water-saving drip irriga-
tion and more growers of
various crops installed effi-
cient sprinklers. Both strate-
gies “stretch the supply lon-
ger than in years past.”
The district also pumps
from the Snake River. Flynn
said that allotment did not
change.
Irrigators receiving water
from both rivers use Snake
water where possible to help
reduce Owyhee usage.
Releases from Owyhee
Reservoir into the Owyhee
River increased April 2 so
Old Owyhee Canal could be
primed ahead of a planned
April 6 start of Snake River
pumps. The canal will con-
vey a mix of water from
both rivers for most of the
season.
Delivery from the dis-
trict’s four canals is expected
to be fully underway by
April 11.
Owyhee Reservoir can
store more than 1.5 year’s
worth of water. Most of the
carryover from the 2020 irri-
gation season was used last
year.
Drought likely will strike
portions of Eastern Wash-
ington, a state Department
of Ecology official said Fri-
day, catching the state for
the second straight year
without money for relief
projects.
The state’s snowpack
started strong, but was
down to 80% of normal on
Friday. Some basins, partic-
ularly in southeast Wash-
ington, probably will have
summer water supplies
below 75% of normal, the
threshold for a drought dec-
laration, Ecology drought
coordinator Jeff Marti said.
Ecology has no money
for drought-relief grants,
he said. Lawmakers didn’t
fund Ecology’s request
to establish a permanent
account that could be drawn
upon in an emergency.
Moses Lake Sen. Judy
Warnick, the top-ranking
Republican on the Sen-
ate agriculture committee,
sponsored the bill to set up
a $3 million account. The
NOAA
Washington Drought Monitor
bill passed the Senate unan-
imously, but was not voted
on in the House.
“That was extremely dis-
appointing,” Warnick said
Friday. “I’m going to try
again next year.”
April 1 is the traditional
date for sizing up the win-
ter’s snowpack. At 80% of
normal, the snowpack is
the 10th smallest in the past
33 years. It’s much health-
ier than the 21% of nor-
mal in 2015, the year of the
“snowpack drought.”
The snowpack was 95%
of normal on March 1. Nat-
ural Resources Conserva-
tion Service water supply
specialist Scott Pattee said
the snowpack has proba-
bly peaked and there is little
chance for a rally.
More likely, he said, it
will run off early, which is
especially concerning for
irrigators in basins without
reservoirs.
Above-average
tem-
peratures have ripened the
snowpack to melt and only
a cold snap can hold it back
now, Pattee said. “We’ve
got that train rolling,” he
said.
Yakima River Basin res-
ervoirs held 132% of their
normal volume of water on
Friday. The Bureau of Rec-
lamation in early March
forecast full or nearly full
water allotments for junior
water-right holders in the
basin. The bureau will
update the forecast in early
April.
Last year, a dry spring
drove much of Eastern
Washington into a drought.
Ecology had $700,000 for
three state agencies, but no
drought-relief funds for irri-
gation districts or cities.
Water agency funds repairs at Friant-Kern Canal
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
— The California Depart-
ment of Water Resources has
allocated almost $30 million
to help repair the Friant-Kern
Canal, which has lost more
than 60% of its original
water-carrying capacity in
eastern Tulare County due
to land subsidence — set-
tling or sinking of the earth’s
surface.
The 152-mile-long canal
is a major artery for water
delivery in the San Joaquin
Valley, delivering water to
about 1 million acres of farm-
land stretching from Fresno
to Bakersfield. It also brings
water to more than 250,000
Californians.
Segments along a criti-
cal 33-mile stretch in Tulare
County have been damaged
by land subsidence. Accord-
ing to the water department,
subsidence has been a long-
term challenge that recent
droughts have exacerbated.
The damaged segments
have threatened the canal’s
water-carrying capacity, a
problem for irrigators who
rely on the conveyance
system.
Ernest Conant, the Bureau
of Reclamation’s regional
director for the California
Great Basin Region, recently
told the Capital Press that fix-
ing the Friant-Kern Canal is
“very important” to farmers
and California communities.
Although Reclamation
owns the canal, the federal
agency’s projects usually
involve a cost-share aspect,
so the state’s commitment
this month to help with fund-
ing is significant. Phase one
of the project is estimated
to cost $292 million. Cali-
fornia Department of Water
Resources released $29.8
million in funding to help
meet this goal.
The first step in repair-
ing the canal started in Janu-
ary, and this additional fund-
ing will continue to move the
repairs forward. The project
is expected to be completed
in 2024.
Friant Water Authority
CEO Jason Phillips said this
funding is “a large part of the
reason that we were able to
break ground” on the proj-
ect early this year.