Water supply outlook bleak for E. Oregon farmers
ONTARIO, Ore. — Easter Oregon farmers’ hopes for a normal water year in 2015 are fading fast.
There is about 30,000 acre-feet more water stored in the Owyhee Reservoir than at this point in 2014, and snowpack levels are slightly ahead of where they were this time last year.
But last year was disastrous for farmers who depend on the Owyhee Project, which supplies water to 118,000 acres of irrigated land in Eastern Oregon and parts of Southwestern Idaho.
The annual allotment for farmers who get their water from the Owyhee Irrigation District was slashed from the usual 4 acre-feet to 1.7 acre-feet last year. Despite that, the system stopped delivering water in August, two months earlier than normal.
An estimated 20 percent of farm ground in Eastern Oregon was left idle last year in anticipation of the low water year.
“The good news is we’re a little better than last year,” said OID Watermaster J.L. Eldred. “The bad news is we’re still not in good shape.”
Basin-wide, total snowpack was at 74 percent of normal Feb. 2.
While there is about 114,000 acre-feet of available irrigation water stored in the reservoir, there is typically more than 300,000 acre-feet at this point during a normal water year, said Bruce Corn, a farmer and member of OID’s board of directors.
“We’re in a little better position than we were last year at this time but we still need a lot more snow to have an adequate irrigation season,” he said. “Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty and concern.”
High-pressure weather systems over the Treasure Valley area have mostly kept storms at bay this winter, said OID Manager Jay Chamberlin.
“We’re really losing ground out there pretty fast,” he said. “We need to ... get rid of these high-pressure systems and get some storms. It’s getting kind of serious.”
The only real good news is that Owyhee River flow levels near the reservoir have risen quickly following rain storms, which is an indication the ground is wet, Corn said. “That’s something we did not see last year.”
Owyhee basin snowpack levels aren’t terrible but three straight dry years have compounded the water supply situation, said Julie Koeberle, a hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service snow survey program in Oregon.
While reservoir storage levels are above last year’s totals, “That’s really just a drop in the bucket from what they actually need,” she said. “They really have a long ways to go.”
There is time for improvement, she said, but if the situation hasn’t improved by the first part of March, “the message will be to brace for a low water supply.”
Irrigators aren’t sounding the alarm yet, she said, “But they’re raising their eyebrows.”
Chamberlin said farmers are “hoping to pick up a couple of good storms in February and get this turned around.” But at the moment, he added, “It’s not looking good for us.”