Snow levels lag as spring nears

Water officials predict reliance on reservoirs

By DAVE WILKINS
Capital Press

Getting enough water to thirsty crops this summer could be a challenge for some Western farmers based on the latest snowpack readings.

Snowpack, or the snow-water equivalent as its also known, is barely half the long-term average in some basins, according to data gathered March 1 by electronic SNOTEL sites operated by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.

In central Oregon, for example, snowpack levels were just 57 percent of average in the Upper Deschutes and Crooked river basins.

"That's not good news for runoff," said Kyle Gorman, regional manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department. "Our natural flows will be lower."

The good news is that there was fairly good carryover in some reservoirs to begin the water year. That should help farmers stretch irrigation supplies come summer, Gorman said.

The Wickiup and Crane Prairie reservoirs should be full by the start of the irrigation season.

Gorman is much less certain about other reservoirs in the region. There's a chance the Prineville and Ochoco reservoirs could fill, but it's unlikely unless March is very wet.

Farmers should have enough water to squeak by this year, but reservoir levels could be depleted by the end of the irrigation season, he said.

"Overall, there will be a much greater drawdown of these reservoirs than we've seen in past years," he said.

Across the West, some of the lowest snowpack levels on March 1 were registered in Oregon and Idaho. Oregon's statewide average was 60 percent of average. Idaho snowpack levels averaged 64 percent south of the Salmon River and 56 percent north of the river.

The statewide level in Washington was 70 percent.

Some of the highest snowpack levels were in the Southwest, thanks to El Niño.

Snowpack levels averaged 92 percent of normal across California, 141 percent in New Mexico and a whopping 236 percent in Arizona.

In Idaho, some of the best snowpack levels, at 69 to 84 percent of average, were in the extreme southern end of the state.

But snowpack levels farther up the Snake River Plain near the Wyoming border were much lower and far more irrigators rely on that runoff.

Snowpack in the Snake River Basin above Palisades Reservoir stood at just 55 percent of average, a bad sign for many irrigators in the Southern portion of the state.

"Right now it's not looking too good," University of Idaho Extension Educator Steve Hines told farmers at a bean meeting in Twin Falls in late February.

"It could be a tough year when the Oakley Basin and Salmon Tract have as good of snowpack as any area in the state," he said.

Online

For more details on snowpack levels in the West, see the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Web site: www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snowcourse/snow_rpt.html