West Faces Worst Drought in a Quarter Century

The summertime West is often dry as a bone, parched by sun and wind, its landscape made habitable only by the huge federal projects that harness rivers fed by melting mountain snows for electricity and irrigation.

As the weather warms and the snow melts, great gushes of water ordinarily fill the rivers, spinning turbines for power, carrying young salmon out to sea and soaking the roots of blossoming cherry and apple trees. Scores of dams across the region store water for use when rivers run low at summer’s end.

But scant winter snowfall and scattered spring rain have left much of the West facing the worst drought in a quarter century. From the Cascade Range south to the Sierra Nevada, east to the Rocky Mountains and out onto the High Plains, government agencies are issuing dire warnings:

Without care, conservation and cooperation, streams could run dry. There could be raging forest fires. Salmon struggling for survival. Withering crops. And insufficient electricity to keep all the lights on and the air-conditioning cranked up.

Even rainy Seattle, the Emerald City in the Evergreen State, may very well end up brown this summer; the city is considering telling its people they cannot water their lawns and gardens.

The drought ranges from extreme in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon, to severe in northern Washington, most of Idaho and western Montana, to moderate for the rest of the Northwest. Pieces of Wyoming, California, northern Utah and Nevada are classified as abnormally dry.

“For now, the biggest impact of the drought is on farmers who irrigate,” Washington Gov. Gary Locke said. “The agriculture industry feeds us all and provides thousands of jobs. It’s a major player in our state’s economy, so when it hurts, we all suffer.”

The troubles for growers come atop a series of market and economic problems that have left many farms on the edge financially.

“Drought is just kind of another blow to people who have been bludgeoned. They’re lying on the ground, writhing in pain, and someone comes up and gives them a good kick,” said Bill Brookreson, deputy director of agriculture for the state of Washington.

At the National Water and Climate Center in Portland, Ore., team leader Phil Pasteris has kept a close eye on the reports from observation stations at the headwaters of the Columbia River in British Columbia all the way to the Mexican border.

In the vast Columbia River Basin, the water supply volume forecast through September is 53% of average--just over half of the water typically available.

“This is a potential new record,” he said.

The composite snowpack in the Columbia River watershed above the Dalles Dam on the Washington-Oregon border is below the record minimum. As of April 1, it was at 54% of average. The previous record was 58% in 1977.

Drought emergencies have been declared in Washington state and parts of Oregon, a step toward seeking federal aid. Montana has declared a drought alert. More declarations may come in parts of California and Nevada.

Spring snows after the April 1 snowpack measurement have improved the outlook in some areas, but not enough to avoid drought this summer.

The times are different from 1977, sometimes called simply “the dry year.” There are more people in the West--up from 31 million to 45 million since 1980. With more people come greater demands for water and electricity. In addition, there are new demands to leave free-flowing water in the rivers for fish.

Even though fish don’t vote, they have acquired increased political clout in recent years through the restrictions of the Endangered Species Act. In Southern Oregon’s Klamath Basin, fish won the first round over farmers.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently announced that 90% of farmers who draw irrigation water from the Klamath Project will lose their water rights this year in an effort to protect endangered sucker fish in the Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River.

In Portland, the Bonneville Power Administration chose power generation over fish, deciding to run water through turbines rather than spill it over Columbia River dams to aid young fish migration this month.

“This was a very painful, difficult decision, but the drought has so depleted water supplies that the reliability of the region’s electricity system is in peril,” said Steve Wright, acting BPA administrator.

By declaring an emergency, the BPA isn’t bound by the rules of the Endangered Species Act, which protects 12 runs of Columbia River Basin salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates that young salmon survival will decline by up to 15% without the extra water.

The Northwest Power Planning Council said that the region will run short of electricity later this year without conservation and a reduction in the demand for power.

A total of 800 new megawatts of generation, mostly fired by natural gas, are expected to come online in the Northwest this summer, along with another 700 by winter. Additionally, several utilities are setting up temporary generating stations using diesel generators that will add about 500 megawatts of power for the region. But it may be too little, too late.

BPA has recommended that the Northwest aluminum industry--originally lured to the region by low-cost hydropower--shut down for two years to save electricity. Many producers had already done so or dramatically curtailed operations, finding it more profitable to sell power back to BPA than to make aluminum.

Warning of possible rate increases of 250% or more, BPA also has asked public and private utilities in the region to voluntarily cut back their power purchases from Bonneville by 5% to 10%.

BPA is paying farmers in Washington and Idaho not to irrigate, thus saving water and the electricity they would use to pump it to their fields.

Rick Derrey, who grows apples, pears and cherries in central Washington’s Yakima Valley, knows what it means to miss the water when the well threatens to run dry.

His “well” is the Yakima River in this high-desert country that on average gets only 8 inches of precipitation annually.

“It’s just very difficult to keep the water where it needs to be,” he said. “We have to hope for a cool summer. That would make a big difference.”

While the Columbia and Snake rivers are big enough to handle most irrigation water withdrawals in a low-water year, the Yakima and its tributaries are not.

“You can de-water them, essentially, with irrigation,” sucking the river dry and killing its fish, Brookreson said. “That’s the thing that makes it really tough.”

Derrey has a series of droughts under his belt--the last in 1994--so he’s doing what he can now, such as deep-watering the soil and filling a pond for future use. He also made efficiency improvements for delivering and using water last time.

“It’s very frustrating. The federal government put these irrigation systems in and encouraged people to come in and farm,” he said. “They shouldn’t have ever done that if there was going to be a continually short supply of water.

“They spread themselves too thin for the amount of water that’s available, and now we have to deal with fish, which seem to get the priority,” Derrey said.

Land managers throughout the West are bracing for another potentially brutal fire season, which last year blackened nearly 7 million acres of national forest.

This year could be worse.

“If things keep going this way, it will be,” said Jolyne Lea, a hydrologist at the National Water and Climate Center. Downed logs and other fire fuels are dry as tinder, and “any fire that does get started has the potential to be a devastating fire and get really hot. That’s why the fire people are so concerned.”

In Reno, Nev., an emergency declaration of drought may be inevitable, with little chance for nature to make up the diminished water supply this year.

Brimming reservoirs along the Truckee River system should ensure sufficient water supplies this summer, but dry conditions are already being felt in the Truckee Meadows, which had the second-driest winter since 1871.

“The soil is the driest I’ve seen it in at least 20 years,” said Jim Ross, an urban forester for the city of Reno.

In Oregon and Washington, reservoir levels have dropped so low that many boat docks are already high and dry, and tree stumps are showing at the bottom of the lakes. In Montana, where trout fishermen stalk their prey on sparkling mountain streams, fisheries managers say restrictions are likely on anglers to protect fish in low, slow-moving and dangerously warm waters.

Drought can also affect ground water, which supplies about 65% of the drinking water in western Washington and 85% in eastern Washington.

During the 1994 drought, ground water levels in the Yakima Basin dropped from 2 feet to 20 feet, and it can take years for aquifers to recharge themselves.

“People, farmers and fish are not going to have every drop of water they want this year,” said Mary Getchell, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Ecology.

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On the Net:

National Water and Climate Center: https://wcc.nrcs.usda.gov

Federal Drought Monitor: https://enso.unl.edu/monitor/index.html

Northwest Power Planning Council: https://www.nwcouncil.org

Washington Department of Ecology: https://www.ecy.wa.gov/

Bonneville Power Administration: https://www.bpa.gov

WSU Drought Alert: https://drought.wsu.edu