It takes more than a wet spring to end drought

Editorial

Capital Press

May 13. 2010

Is an increase from 30 percent to 40 percent a gain, or is it 60 percent less than the contract calls for?

That's the question for municipal and agricultural water contractors south of the Sacramento-Dan Joaquin Delta. It's also the question in a drought-racked Klamath Reclamation Project, where this season's water deliveries won't start until next week.

The answer, of course, is it's both a shortfall and a gain from what was predicted just weeks ago. But that doesn't help much if the planting window has gone by for your traditional crops, or you've rolled the dice to pump expensive well water on a few fields or are forced to pump to save permanent crops.

California isn't the only region in the West parched by persistent drought. In the Okanagan country of Washington's upper Columbia Basin, a couple of drought impacts are reported. Several Idaho counties clustered on the Upper Snake face shortages. Water is short all around the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California.

It takes more than a wet spring, or in California's case a moist winter, fueled by El Niño conditions, to undo years of drought.

If you factor in the impact of deep well pumping without adequate recharge, recovery can be decades away. Add wildlife protection constraints that are part of water delivery reality for both the Klamath Project and California's complex state-federal water system, and solutions get more difficult.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar put his finger on the problem May 4 as both the state and the feds announced 40 percent contract water deliveries south of the Delta.

"While this improvement is welcome news, California's Central Valley is still struggling to overcome the effects of three years of drought and water system operational constraints needed to address water quality and fish species of concern in the delta," he told The Associated Press.

There could be one more tweak for this summer's water contractors late this month after Sierra Nevada snowpack runoff is analyzed. It's a question of how much goes below the surface to replenish aquifers and how much melting snow turns into water available for use or storage. Either way, both the May 4 adjustment and what may come in a couple of weeks are far too late to aid most farmers but they could help the millions of urban residents who get drinking water through California's State Water Plan contracts..

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plan for the Klamath Project issued May 6 doesn't call for deliveries from Upper Klamath Lake until May 15, a full 45 days after the typical season's start. Allocations to that part of the project are pegged at 30 to 40 percent of contract amounts.

There's a glimmer of hope for the future in the computer models that track El Niño conditions. The El Niño, apparently responsible for weather patterns that drenched California and dried out the Pacific Northwest in recent months, seems to be weakening. In fact, a couple of the computer models give some probability to "neutral" conditions by mid summer and a chance of the cooler ocean surface water of a La Niña turning up this fall.

Make no mistake, neutral conditions mean normal precipitation patterns for summer. Normal around here is dry.

This is a tough year to farm in the arid West.