The Mountain Snow Is Already Gone: A Warning of Record Low Water
State hydraulic engineer Marvin Chase tells irrigators to clean every canal and lateral now, because this summer's ditches may run lower than any on record.
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Marvin Chase, state hydraulic engineer, has issued the following warning to farmers who depend upon irrigation for growing their crops:
"The unusually warm weather prevailing for the past month has depleted the watersheds of the snow which usually remains there until late in the spring, furnishing water for irrigation and other purposes during the summer months. This is particularly true over the watersheds of the state where direct storage has not been made available.
"I would therefore call your attention to the necessity for having all canals and distribution systems in the best possible condition so that the maximum amount of water may be delivered to the lands early in the season.
"Unless we are fortunate in having an unusual amount of precipitation during the balance of the winter, the coming season is going to show a new minimum stream flow. When deficiencies occur the effects of the [drought] are notably increased and an exceptional amount of water is needed.
"It is hoped that the officers of all irrigation companies and the owners or managers of small ditches will take this matter up with the farmers to the end that their laterals and lands may be in readiness to receive the water early in the season, so that the greatest amount of water possible may be stored in the soil. This, together with proper cultivation, will materially reduce the soil and crop demand later in the season."
“Unless we are fortunate in having an unusual amount of precipitation during the balance of the winter, the coming season is going to show a new minimum stream flow.”
A warm winter, a thin snowpack and a warning to prepare early: the Yakima Basin's irrigators still live inside this exact arithmetic, and the junior-versus-senior water-rights fights of the 2020s are the same shortage Chase described. The difference is that the state's long-range forecasts now come with drought declarations and curtailment orders attached.
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