News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Heavy snowfall in Sisters won't break a serious drought.
A winter storm dropped more than eight inches of snow on Sisters and more in the mountains.
That will not be enough to break what many believe is the worst drought in the region since at least 1992.
According to Deschutes County Deputy Watermaster Jeremy Giffin, the storm, though welcome, will make “very little difference to the snowpack.”
Giffin said “we’re still in (a) poor situation. We’re back to ’92 levels.”
Marc Thalacker, manager of Three Sisters Irrigation District, is looking even further back. Accurate snowpack figures were not available last week, but Thalacker said it was in the neighborhood of 70 inches. The worst drought year in recent memory — 1977 — was a year when the snow pack measured 70 inches.
“We’re kind of right in that realm right now,”Thalacker said.
In any case, Thalacker said, anything less than 150 inches is a bad water year and the snowpack is certainly well below that level.
Farmers in the district are totally dependent on runoff from the snowpack into Squaw Creek, since the district has no stored water.
That means that many farmers in the Sisters area will not get much irrigation water. Anyone with 1895 water rights — most of the district — will get water on rotation: a day on, a day or two off.
“With anyone without supplemental water (from wells), they’ll have to idle 80 to 90 percent of their acreage,” Thalacker said.
Those with wells will do a lot of pumping.
“Their electric costs will double,” Thalacker said.
That means a tough year for farmers.
Thalacker said the district will be forced to opt out of an in- stream leasing program that puts water back in Squaw Creek. In current conditions, that water amounts to about one to two cubic feet per second (CFS). According to Thalacker, “the farmers need every drop they can get.”
Squaw Creek will still have a few CFS running through it that are dedicated to in-stream flows. But it won’t seem like much come summertime, when the thin snowpack is long gone.
“We’re going to be basically working just on glaciers in that system,” Giffin said.
That has the deputy watermaster concerned about the creek’s long-term health.
He says that another year like this one “would be devastating for streams like Squaw Creek.”
Devastating for farmers, too.
Thalacker said there isn’t much to be done now except wait to see what spring weather brings, both in the higher elevations and on the flatland farms.
Anything that will boost the snowpack even a little is welcome. And spring rainstorms will help.
“We’re praying for snow,” Thalacker said. “And I hope for a wet spring.”
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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