Friday, May 13, 2022
Washington’s
April third
coldest
since 1895
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington shivered
through its third coldest
and 10th wettest April in
the past 128 years, the
National Oceanic Atmo-
spheric Administration
reported Monday.
Average temperatures
were 4.4 degrees lower
than normal. Since 1895,
only April 1955 and April
2011 were colder. The
cold, rain, snow and wind
impacted
pollinators,
plants and people.
“It’s definitely unusual
to be this wet and cold,”
north-central Washington
orchardist April Clayton
said. “The problem we
have is we’re still deal-
ing with cold tempera-
tures, so the bees aren’t
as active.”
As expected in a La
Nina year, northern tier
states such as Washing-
ton, Oregon and Idaho
were cool and wet in
April, while southern tier
states were warmer and
drier than normal, accord-
ing to NOAA’s climate
report for the month.
Oregon had its 10th
coldest and seventh wet-
test April. Idaho had its
11th coldest and 36th wet-
test April. Montana had its
fifth coldest April, while
North Dakota its eighth.
Northern
Califor-
nia was cooler and wet-
ter than average, while
Southern California was
warmer and drier. New
Mexico, the Western state
most impacted by drought,
had its 11th warmest and
second driest April.
NOAA carves up Wash-
ington into nine cli-
mate divisions. Northeast
Washington was notable
for tying its coldest aver-
age nighttime tempera-
tures. The other record
years were 1909 and 2008.
Average temperatures in
three Central Washington
divisions were all near-re-
cord cold. Most areas were
wet, too, though there was
some variation.
Adams
and
Lin-
coln counties will need
above-average rainfall in
late May and June for wheat
yields to rebound from last
year’s drought-depressed
harvest, Washington State
University
Extension
director Aaron Esser said.
“We don’t have the soil
moisture to work with,”
he said. “There’s still a
potential for a good crop,
but we could be closer to
where we were last year,”
he said. “If we can have an
average crop this year, I
will be tickled pink.”
The cold, Esser said,
has slowed down plants
and made working out-
doors unpleasant. “When
you get this wind, it has a
bite.”
May has started wet and
cold, too. Over the first
eight days of the month,
rainfall at the five Yakima
basin reservoirs was 332%
of normal. Washington’s
snowpack was 125% of
average as of Tuesday.
It was 80% of normal on
April 1.
Clayton said cherry
trees in her Douglas
County orchards have
been more affected by the
cold and wet spring than
the apple trees. Worse
than this year’s cold was a
nighttime low in the teens
in the spring two years
ago, she said.
“It has been in the low
30s verse 18 degrees,”
Clayton said.
Washington State Cli-
matologist Nick Bond
attributed the state’s April
snowpack surge partly to
the La Nina. A La Nina
also prevailed in 1955 and
2011, the only two Aprils
colder than this year’s.
In an early outlook,
the National Weather Ser-
vice’s Climate Predic-
tion Center favors a La
Nina prevailing again next
winter.
CapitalPress.com 5
Interior Department spends $240M
to repair aging water systems
• $8,300,000 to line 6
miles of the New York Canal
near Boise with a geocom-
posite membrane capped with
steel-reinforced concrete.
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
The U.S. Department of the
Interior will invest $240.4
million in fi scal year 2022 to
repair aging water infrastruc-
ture in 11 states.
The money comes from
the infrastructure law Con-
gress passed last year, which
in total allocated $8.3 billion
for water infrastructure.
This $240 million portion
will be spent on 46 projects,
including repairs to canal lin-
ings, dam spillways, water
pipeline replacements and
other aging water systems.
“As western communi-
ties face growing challenges
accessing water in the wake
of record drought, these
investments in our aging
water infrastructure will safe-
guard community water sup-
plies and revitalize water
delivery systems,” Interior
Department Secretary Deb
Haaland said in a statement
Monday.
Reclamation
selected
projects for funding in major
river basins and regions
where the agency operates.
The investment includes
repair projects in Oregon,
California
Yakima Tieton Irrigation Distric
The Yakima-Tieton Project, which now encompasses
35,000 acres, was developed in the early 1900s by the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in partnership with the lo-
cal water district.
Washington,
California.
Idaho
and
Oregon
• $60,000 to rehabilitate
2,800 linear feet of the main
canal in Umatilla with geo-
foam lining and new concrete
panels; will also install drain-
ing systems.
Washington
• $100,000 for the Colum-
bia Basin, to replace 1,500 lin-
ear feet of the West Canal.
• $1,660,000 to install
aqualastic lining on 55,773
linear feet of the Yakima-Ti-
eton Main Canal, an interim
measure until the 111-year-
old canal can be replaced or
upgraded.
Idaho
• $2,500,000 to remove
and replace two large concrete
siphons – 4,000 feet of C-Lat-
eral West 11.0 siphon and
3,062 feet of Conway Gulch
4.4 siphon, Boise area.
• $4,200,000 for the Falls
Irrigation District Pump Sta-
tion upgrade, which will
refurbish and modernize the
pumping plant below Ameri-
can Falls Dam.
• $1,469,400 to replace
irrigation lateral 119.64-2.6 in
the Yuma Area to reduce risk
of failure and shrink losses.
• $6,448,650 to replace
irrigation lateral 102.3.
• $9,231,950 to replace
irrigation lateral 119.64-7.5.
• $8,173,450 to replace irri-
gation lateral 123.45-1.3-2.8.
• $8,975,640 to replace
irrigation lateral 123.45-1.3
and 2.8.
• $1,707,340 to replace
irrigation lateral 123.45-1.3-
2.2 Phase 2.
• $4,390,520 to replace
irrigation lateral 123.45-1.3-
3.2 RT.
• $4,195,225 to replace
irrigation lateral 2.2 Box.
• $10,607,000 to replace
irrigation lateral 99.8-0.51-3.
• $200,000 to replace a
maintenance and fabrication
building for infrastructure.
• $7,500,000 for the
Mid-Canal Storage Proj-
ect on the Coachella Canal,
which would repair the
canal’s lining and create 750
acre-feet of in-line storage.
• $75,000 to replace the
Navajo and Concow laterals
and concrete pipe.
• $637,172 to refurbish
check gates at Pilot Knob,
the last diversion off the
All-American Canal and
Colorado River.
• $1,368,111 to refurbish
two bypass and clarifi er inlet
gates on the Colorado River.
• $250,000 to repair
imbeds on the Gila Diver-
sion Gate, an Imperial Dam
project.
• $100,000 for supervi-
sory control and data acqui-
sition for major checks and
turnouts.
• $5,957,539 to replace
Sludge Pipe, an Imperial
Dam project.
• $3,000,000 to conduct
seismic upgrades and risk
reductions on the 3-mile-long
Terminal Check portion of
the Putah South Canal near
Solano.
• $3,000,000 to rehabil-
itate the Stony Gorge Spill-
way Gate near Orland.
These applicants received
the fi rst round of funding. A
second application period for
extraordinary maintenance
funding is planned for Octo-
ber 2022.
Groundwater users in south-central Idaho may face curtailment
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Some groundwater users
in south-central Idaho could
face curtailment May 20 as
the drought continues.
Idaho Department of
Water Resources Director
Gary Spackman predicts
in an order a 162,600 acre-
foot shortfall to senior-pri-
ority surface water users in
the 2022 irrigation season.
That’s for groundwater users
in the Eastern Snake Plain.
The department starting
May 20 will curtail more
than 328 groundwater rights
with priority dates junior to
Dec. 25, 1979, unless the
groundwater right hold-
ers join and
comply with
an approved
mitiga-
tion plan or
prove they
will
not
Gary
harm senior
Spackman users.
S t a t e
law prioritizes senior water
rights. The Eastern Snake
Plain for many years saw
confl icts between hold-
ers of senior surface water
rights and junior groundwa-
ter pumpers. Groundwater
pumpers in 2015 reached a
settlement with a coalition
of senior surface water right
holders including irrigation
entities and fi sh farms.
The state, for its Eastern
Snake Plain delivery call,
has approved mitigation
plans with Idaho Ground
Water Appropriators, South-
west Irrigation District,
Goose Creek Irrigation Dis-
trict, the Water Mitigation
Coalition and a group of par-
ticipating cities.
“By law, we have to keep
people with senior water
rights whole,” Mathew
Weaver, the department’s
deputy director, said in a
release. “We want to make
the junior groundwater
pumpers aware that despite
the settlement agreements
between the Surface Water
Coalition, IGWA and the
participating cities, if
junior groundwater pump-
ers are not participating
in an approved mitigation
plan, they could be subject
to curtailment this year.”
Joining a groundwater
district and complying with
a state-approved mitigation
plan off ers protection from
curtailment and litigation.
The Water Resources
director at the start of irri-
gation season determines
any shortfall to holders
of senior rights and how
groundwater pumpers will
make up for it. An updated
order is issued in July.
Bob Turner, Idaho
Ground Water Appropria-
tors executive director, said
the settlement agreement
calls for groundwater dis-
tricts to contribute 240,000
acre-feet per year.
He
said
the
162,600-acre-foot shortfall
the order predicts is based
on current conditions.
“If they worsen, that
number will increase,”
Turner said. “If there is less
(water) than anticipated,
there is going to be more
impact to canals and that
number increases. So you
go farther down the prior-
ity list to get that amount of
water.”
He said the order of July
2021 went back to rights
from 1977 to address a
shortfall of about 170,000
acre-feet.