Central Oregon’s largest reservoir
is draining ever more rapidly, resulting in an announcement July 7 that all dam
releases could end within six weeks.
The news from the North Unit
Irrigation District came only a few days after yet more cuts in water delivery to
its member growers who account for 55% of the region’s most productive cash
crops, including 40% of global hybrid variety carrot seed.
In a July 7 letter, NUID manager Josh
Bailey, wrote that barring significant rainfall Wickiup Reservoir, the region’s
largest impoundment which provides about 70% of its water to the irrigation
district, would reach, “the artificial ending pool of 2,500 acre-feet on or
around August 18.
That could mean that by August 20 the district’s ability
to direct water in canals fed by Wickiup discharges into Haystack Reservoir,
which in turn serves to distribute water to growers.
The
district also receives some water from the Crooked River but that would not
save the irrigation season.
Wickiup is at an alltime low for this
time in July in the reservoir’s 75 year history, and the present situation marks
another year of declining storage due to lower spring snowpacks and related
runoff into tributaries that feed the upper Deschutes River.
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| Source: Washington Post |
Throughout the western and southwest states the drought is taking its toll on many reservoirs that are experiencing record lows similar to Wickiup.
Lake Mead is reporterdly at its lowest level of 35% capacity since it was created by the construction of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. Lake Powell, farther up the Colorado River, is similarly at historic lows of 34% capacity since it was filled after construction of the Glen Canyon Dam.
Reservoirs in California have also drained to perilous levels, as dramatically illustrated by aerial photos of Shasta Lake in the northern part of the state.
A analysis the first week of July of more than a dozen California reservoirs showed severely low water. The continuing water shortage could have substantial future consequences for some California municipalities as well as impact agricultural production of major food crops for the nation.
