Latest Water Report Not Good for E WA Irrigators, Residents

The Bureau of Reclamation is the Federal agency tasked with monitoring and helping manage water supplies in WA, including irrigation and supplies for agriculture.

  The latest water update is not promising.

The latest forecast for the Yakima Basin is, the water supplies stored in mountain lakes and from other seasonal sources will not be enough to fully supply irrigation needs this summer.

The Bureau reported on Thursday:

"Storage in the Yakima basin reservoirs on July 1 was 60% full with 640,838 acre-feet, which is 67% of average. Precipitation for June was 26% of average and for October–June was 78% of average. On July 1, the amount of water in the snowpack, known as snow water equivalent, was 0% of average."

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There are five major water storage basins overseen by the Bureau. This will hit the irrigation districts in our region that have what are known as junior, or newer, water rights. Junior districts include Kennewick Irrigation District, Roza District--which serves 72,000 acres in Yakima and Benton Counties, and the Kittitas Reclamation District which serves 60K acres just north of Yakima County and includes the Ellensburg area.

Some view them as archaic, but water rights have traditionally been granted on a first-come, first-served basis.  Districts who are older or have been around longer, have higher priorities on the water delivery list.

The shortages will be divided between these three junior districts, so far, no word about any mandatory watering cutbacks.

Despite some record, or near-record snowfalls in the Cascades and other mountains at times over the last few years, the key is how fast the snow melts, and how much snowpack is retained into May, June, and even July.  We may get foot after foot of snow, but if it all melts off too 'soon,' then that spells trouble. The slower it melts. the more it feeds and replenishes the water basins.