A8
STATE
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
E. Oregon snow melting fast
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Eastern
Oregon’s snowpack is melting
faster than expected, worsen-
ing an ongoing drought and
pointing to a very dry year if
conditions continue.
Scott Oviatt, a hydrolo-
gist and snow survey supervi-
sor for the Natural Resources
Conservation Service Ore-
gon, a member of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
said snow started melting
almost two weeks earlier than
usual, and many sites across
the state hadn’t even reached
their peak available snowpack
levels before melt off began in
the lower elevations.
“Once the snowpack starts
melting out, it’s hard to stop,”
he said.
The information comes
weeks after many Eastern
Oregon snowpack levels
were reported to be in good
shape. The dramatic decline
in snowpack levels coupled
with the ongoing drought
has caused concern among
experts who are watching the
snow water equivalent levels
closely.
“The fact that we didn’t
reach a peak value and the fact
that we’re melting out early is
a concern because we are los-
ing the available water content
in the snow pack (earlier) than
we normally plan on,” Oviatt
said. “Depending on location
and elevation, we’re about
two or three weeks early, and
we didn’t achieve our peak,
and now we’re at 70% for the
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
The Strawberry Mountain range near Prairie City.
Grande Ronde/Powder area
and we’re dropping rapidly.”
Those who rely on water
irrigation channels should be
especially concerned about
the rapidly melting snow.
While snowmelt is generally
expected to hit its zero point
sometime in mid to late spring,
having the water runoff begin
and end earlier means that
resources will become scarce
as summer drags on — and a
heat wave event can further
impact water supplies and
leave farmers and agricultural
industries dry.
Last year’s heat wave
depleted water supplies and
caused some farms in Oregon
to run out of water entirely
by late June 2021, weeks
ahead of schedule. In one
instance, Plantworks, a nurs-
ery in Cove, had to purchase
new water storage containers
and fill them with city water in
order to keep their crops alive.
“Essentially, folks that
rely on irrigation water will
have less available, and there
will probably be some restric-
tions applied depending upon
where they get their water and
their water rights,” Oviatt said.
“There will be less available
surface water for instream
flows to support things. There
will be less available ground-
water storage because we’re
not recharging our system
with our ground soil mois-
ture and because we’ve been
in a long-term drought and we
didn’t really recover from that
over this winter.”
Union County watermas-
ter Shad Hattan agrees, stat-
ing that if the area doesn’t get
significant spring rain, “it will
be hard on everything. Agri-
culture, stream flows. If we
don’t get moisture for April
and May, that’s (going to be)
hard on everybody.”
One silver lining to the
early melt off and continua-
tion of the drought? Fire sea-
son might be milder com-
pared to last year.
“The biggest thing is how
fast the snow we have right
now comes off,” said Trevor
Lewis, assistant fire manage-
ment officer with the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National For-
est. “If we lose our snow real
quick, and it dries out fairly
quickly then our grass growth
isn’t as high, so we generally
see lower rates of spread with
our fires, even if we do have
significant fuel moistures that
are dryer. It really depends on
how this snow comes off.”
Lewis said that last
year’s slow runoff allowed
for above average grass and
brush growth — primary
fuels for wildfires that were
primed by the heat wave
that pushed temperatures to
record highs in most of Ore-
gon. That grass growth meant
that fires spread more rapidly,
and in the case of the Boot-
leg Fire resulted in one of the
nation’s largest wildfires for
2021.
“It’s kind of a catch-22
for us,” Lewis said. “Does it
come quickly and we have a
drought? Or does it come off
slow and we end up getting
the grass growth?”
Despite being a La Nina
year, the Eastern Oregon
snowpack wasn’t enough
to start turning around the
drought conditions in the
area. As of March 31, most
of Eastern Oregon remains in
severe or moderate drought,
and conditions are expected to
worsen over the summer.
“In order to recover from
that long-term drought we
need successive years and we
need excessive amounts of
precipitation, and we’re just
not getting it,” Oviatt said.
“It’s not going to happen this
year, we’re going to have to
make some sacrifices in terms
of surface water and available
water.”
9 water rights tools you can use
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — As much of Oregon faces
another year of drought, water experts
say farmers and ranchers should be
aware of all the tools available to them
under the state’s water laws.
At a seminar March 29, Elizabeth
Howard, Oregon water law attorney, and
Lindsay Thane, natural resources attor-
ney, both of Schwabe, Williamson &
Wyatt, spoke about nine tools for farm-
ers through the state Water Resources
Department, or OWRD.
“There are tools available to water
users, especially in drought years,” said
Thane.
• Drought transfers: If Oregon’s
governor issues a drought declaration 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
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 existing
surface water right doesn’t have enough
water during drought — for example, a
stream dries up — then the farmer can
apply for an emergency permit to tem-
porarily tap into groundwater.
These expedited applications should
take 10 days to process.
• Temporary transfers: A tempo-
rary 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 cer-
tified water right and can move water on
their own property or temporarily trans-
fer to another farmer.
Unlike the first two tools, a tempo-
rary transfer takes longer to apply for
and process.
“This isn’t a particularly speedy pro-
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Irrigation systems on a farm near Mount Hood.
cess most of the time,”
said Thane.
Howard said this
tool “is really good to
think about for long-
term planning.”
•
Agriculture
Lindsay
water use trans-
Thane
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” includ-
ing dust control, keeping farm animals
cool or giving drinking water to live-
stock 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 irriga-
tion won’t be required, such as a vine-
yard 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 Oregon — oppor-
tunities to use water within limitations
without applying for a permit.
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Farms may qualify
for the surface water
stock water exemption,
commercial and indus-
trial uses exemption
and domestic water
rights exemption.
Elizabeth
• Conserved water
Howard
rights: A conserved
water right allows a
farmer to shrink a water right temporarily
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 Oregon right now
because basically all the water has been
allocated,” said Howard.
Thane said getting a new groundwa-
ter 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 sep-
arate from the right to use the stored
water.
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Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
An aerial view of Ochoco Reservoir in Prineville on Wednesday,
March 30, 2022.
Reservoirs at
record low levels
By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
PRINEVILLE — As the
irrigation season gets under-
way, water authorities are tak-
ing stock of Central Oregon’s
reservoirs, and the reports com-
ing back are worrying. Four of
the five large reservoirs are at
their lowest levels ever.
“I would like to report some
good news, but it is hard to
find any,” said Jeremy Giffin,
Deschutes Basin watermaster.
The reservoirs in question
include Wickiup, Prineville,
Crescent Lake and Ochoco.
The fifth, Crane Prairie, is
higher than past low levels due
to federal requirements to pro-
tect the Oregon spotted frog.
Natural flow in the
Deschutes Basin was classi-
fied as extremely low last year,
but now rivers and streams are
down an additional 15% from
a year ago, said Giffin, whose
job duties include regulating
and distributing the waters of
the state and enforcing water
law.
River and stream levels are
not expected to rise substan-
tially this spring because of
low snowpack in the Cascades.
The low stream and reservoir
levels will once again mean
tight water allotments for irri-
gation districts, as well as calls
for people to cut their water use
at home.
“The vast majority of city
water that is delivered in the
spring, summer and fall goes
to outdoor landscaping, so that
is really a great place to make
adjustments to water usage,”
said Giffin.
The
Oregon
Water
Resources Department has
advice for Central Oregonians
who want to reduce their water
use and help alleviate stress on
the environment caused by the
drought. Everyday lifestyle
modifications can be consid-
ered, including shorter showers,
using less water when wash-
ing dishes and clothes, avoid-
ing hosing off driveways and
decreasing the amount of water
put on lawns.
Irrigation district patrons
can save water by investing in
more efficient sprinkler sys-
tems, or by leasing their water
right instream.
“There is no reason to waste
water. If you can conserve water
and make that your mission,
everyone should do that,” said
Kyle Gorman, region manager
for the Oregon Water Resources
Department.
As of Wednesday, March 30,
Wickiup Reservoir was 55%
full, a 5% decline from a year
ago and a 42% decline from
average, according to data from
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
website. Prineville Reservoir
was 26% full, a 49% decline
from a year ago and a 70%
decline from average.
Ochoco has been this area’s
worst-performing reservoir. As
of Sunday, it was just 11% full,
a 52% decline from a year ago
and an 83% decline from its
average height at this point in
the year.
Municipal water use is just a
small fraction of the water used
by irrigation districts in Central
Oregon so there is also water
that can be saved on larger
properties in outlying areas.
“If anybody in any of the
(irrigation) districts has thought
about not using their water, this
would be the year to either not
use it or to lease it instream, if
available, through the district
administration process,” said
Gorman.
The drought is causing
financial losses in agricultural
areas due to water allotment
cuts, which forces farmers to
leave large portions of their
farms fallow. Last year, farmers
in the North Unit Irrigation Dis-
trict, which holds junior water
rights, were routinely fallowing
half their acres in order to plant
at least a partial crop. The situ-
ation this year looks just as bad
as in past years.
“We anticipate that irrigation
districts will run out of water
again this year. We also antici-
pate extremely low flows in the
rivers,” said Gorman.
Historically, the picture is
equally bleak. The drought con-
ditions are the worst on record,
going back 127 years, accord-
ing to data compiled by Oregon
State University.
“The drought indicators in
Central Oregon uniformly show
the current drought is by far the
worst in recorded history,” said
Larry O’Neill, associate profes-
sor at OSU’s College of Earth,
Ocean and Atmospheric Sci-
ences. “It, unfortunately, looks
to continue throughout this
summer.”
O’Neill said climate mod-
els suggest cooler and drier
than normal weather for April,
with the weather in May to
July showing dry and warm
conditions.
On top of the record-low
reservoir levels, snowpack is
well-below average for the year.
Snowpack seeps into under-
ground aquifers in spring and
is a good indicator of how high
reservoirs will reach the follow-
ing year.
Below average snowpack
this year could result in even
lower reservoir levels in 2023.
As of Wednesday, snowpack in
the Central Oregon Cascades
was just 54% of normal and
precipitation for the year stood
at 81% of normal.
“Very disappointed and dis-
couraged,” said Gorman, when
asked about this year’s snow-
pack. “I was hoping for a much
better winter this year, a recov-
ery. But we just didn’t get it.
Our snowpack is way below
average.”
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4:00—Doors open
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Ticket Information:
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Date:
Time:
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