March 10, 2010
Third worst water year on record motivates drought declaration.
Though the writing has been on the wall for months, now it’s official: this is a bad water year. But not just a bad year - one of the worst in recorded history for eastern Idaho. And while many valleys are downstream of reservoirs that are nearly full from last year’s banner water year, Teton Valley could be in bad shape this year.According to the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), only 1977 had less snow in the past 50 years, and you have to go as far back as 1931 to find the second worst water year. For this year, the snowpack is 58 percent of average above American Falls and 56 percent of average above Rexburg for the Henry’s Fork. Not any better in Wyoming, the Hoback Basin is the worst at 47 percent of average, not much better than the Snake above Jackson, which sits uncomfortably at 51 percent of average.
“The highest snowpacks are along Idaho’s western and southern edges since they are affected by the major storms hitting the southwestern states,” said Ron Abramovich, Water Supply specialist for the NRCS. “That’s the El Niño weather pattern - where the southwest gets aboveaverage snowfall and the Pacific Northwest is dry.”
Teton Soil Conservation District President Lynn Bagley attended the regular meeting of the Teton County Commissioners to ask for official declaration of drought this year, something that has not happened since 2003. Drought declaration will afford some farmers in Teton Valley a few more options.
“With drought declaration, there will be a chance for individuals to shift a water right for this growing season,” Bagley said. “It will also open up an opportunity for some farmers to qualify for Farm Service Agency programs.”
Through the FSA, the United States Department of Agriculture offers the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program. It is a program that is the 2008 Farm Bill’s successor to prior ad hoc crop disaster programs, providing benefits through the 2011 crop year for farm revenue losses due to natural disasters.
Farms are eligible for the latter program if a portion of the farm is located in a county covered by a qualifying natural disaster declaration or the actual production on the farm is less than 50 percent of normal production.
Specifically for the Teton River, snow water equivalent is 58 percent of average.
“We are likely to start out from priority dates from the get-go,” Bagley told the Commissioners. “If we don’t have the opportunity to buy storage water things can get really critical here. Hay prices are bad, but we barely broke even last year.”
Prior to declaring a drought for Teton County, Commissioner Kathy Rinaldi asked why the process is started so far in advance of the growing season, and it was explained that the state and federal government needs plenty of notice to make sure farmers are able to qualify for programs.
"We have very junior water rights up here,” Bagley said. “Rexburg, Idaho Falls and Blackfoot have much better rights. If they call an 1890 priority date, it would only allow nine farmers water. Mother Nature’s been awful mean to us.”
“One last hope to salvage this year’s water supply would be to receive a cool and wet spring,” Abramovich added. “Above average precipitation and cool temperatures in April and May would delay snow melt, keeping the snowpack in the high country longer.”
