By Michelle Partridge, World staff writer , 3-18-01 - Wenatchee World
WENATCHEE -- The state's worst drought on record caused creeks and water wells to dry up, farms to shrivel and irrigators and residents to ration water. The newspaper headlines from 1977 painted a grim picture: A farmer sold off his cattle. Mission, Squilchuck and Colockum creeks dried up. The Mission Ridge Ski Area was still shut down in January. The North Cascades Highway didn't even close. "The ground was dry and powdery, and would just crumble in your hands," said Malaga orchardist Morris West, whose well ran dry that year. He laid 2,000 feet of pipe to bring water to his home from a pump supplied by the Columbia River.
Government agencies are now predicting that a drought this year could come close, or even surpass that devastation. "This already is the worst drought in our state since 1977," Gov. Gary Locke said on Wednesday, when he declared a statewide drought emergency. "We'll probably beat that record soon."
The 1977 drought is considered to be one of the top 20 natural disasters ever to hit Washington, according to the National Weather Service. The story got progressively worse as the months went by. In January, Mission Ridge ski lifts were silent. A month later, the Black Lake Reservoir on Wenatchee Heights was running dry, prompting around 20 homes to do laundry in town and limit dish washing and showers. Farmers appealed to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to turn on the canals in the Columbia Basin Project a couple of months early, saying their lands were too dry to plow or plant seeds.
In March, the Chelan County PUD announced that Lake Chelan would not fill to capacity, and the largest irrigators in the Wenatchee River basin talked about hiring security to police water rights in the valley.
Things were looking desperate by April. A Colockum area farmer was forced to sell his cattle when creeks and springs in the area dried up and grasses died. Mission Creek in Cashmere was nearly dried up. And public utilities said they couldn't spill any water down the Columbia River to help fish migrating to the ocean.
As spring turned into summer, the East Wenatchee Water District announced in May that residential development along Nile Street was stalled until the water outlook improved. Then an emergency was declared in the agriculture industry in early June, allowing farmers to get help from the state to feed and transport their livestock.
The Beehive Irrigation District south of Wenatchee cut water right allotments to irrigators in July, and then Squilchuck State Park closed when the spring that provided drinking water dried up. Farmers allowed their cows to eat hay crops, sacrificing any profits from harvesting the crops in order to save the animals.
By August, bad news came almost daily. Colockum Creek south of Wenatchee dried up. Mission Creek near Cashmere dried up. The Wenatchee River dipped too low to provide water to the Icicle Creek Irrigation District. Cashmere residents rationed their water, only sprinkling their lawns every other day.
The Methow Valley Irrigation District was rationing water to its members.
The Wenatchee River County Park at Monitor closed its day-use area and closed the campground to all but self-contained recreational vehicles.
Now, North Central Washington is bracing itself for another parched summer.
Near Malaga this week, West said Colockum Creek is not its normal bubbly self. "I can't hear the creek when I go outside," he said. "It certainly doesn't have near the amount of water it normally carries. I don't think there will be enough water to irrigate the lands up here this summer. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."
Much less water in the rivers than usual and dams are expected to produce less electricity than most summers. Dam operators have to buy more power at higher-than-normal prices on the open market, buy power back from companies such as Alcoa and preach conservation in order to meet demand. Water will still be put through the turbines to generate electricity for the Northwest and California. Blackouts or brownouts in North Central Washington and elsewhere around the Northwest possible in September and October.
Runs of endangered fish -- spring and fall chinook and steelhead -- won't get extra water they need to migrate to the ocean. Instead, they will have to go through dam turbines, which kill up to 6 percent of fish going through each dam. Low water is warmer, offers less spawning ground and increases the chances of fish being eaten by predators. Leavenworth, Entiat and Winthrop hatcheries likely won't have enough water for full operation this summer.
Some returning fish may be left in river. Eggs from salmon spawned at the facilities may be chilled to delay their hatching.
The holders of water rights dating before 1980 should get full allotment of water, including irrigators in the Columbia Basin Project and 9,000-member Wenatchee Reclamation District in Wenatchee Valley. Methow Valley Irrigation District is planning to use water just five days a week. Irrigators who received water rights after 1980 will likely go without water at times this summer in the Columbia, Wenatchee, Methow and Okanogan river drainages.
The regional water system that supplies the Greater Wenatchee Area draws from deep wells, not Columbia River, and should be able to handle dry summer without rationing. City of Wenatchee does not anticipate any restrictions on lawn watering. City of Leavenworth, which gets some water from Icicle Creek, will start with a public education campaign on water conservation, but may impose restrictions later in summer.
Whitewater rafting season is projected to end in mid- to late June, rather than the usual early August. Several reservoirs that are popular recreation sites, such as Banks Lake, are not expected to fill.
Summer's wildfire season is expected to be as bad as or worse than last summer, which was one of the worst on record. There may not be enough water in lakes, reservoirs and rivers for helicopters to get for fire fighting
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