
Washington Ecology Expands Drought Declaration
The Washington Department of Ecology has expanded the drought emergency declared in April. Ecology declared drought for the Yakima Basin watersheds on April 8, while issuing a drought advisory for Puget Sound region and portions of the Central and North Cascades. Since then, conditions in all of Whatcom and Skagit counties, and portions of Snohomish, King, Pierce, Lewis, Thurston, Okanogan, Chelan, Clallam, Jefferson and Ferry counties have deteriorated, thanks to "early and rapid snowmelt", as well as unusually dry weather in April and May. Ecology said the warmer-than-normal April led to that rapid snowmelt, anywhere from two to four weeks earlier than normal across the Central and North Cascades, meaning less water will be available in summer and early fall.
“With an especially early spring snowmelt, we saw the need to take action to protect water supplies for the hot months ahead,” said Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller. “Expanding our drought declaration will make more of our state eligible for tools and funding to deal with drought impacts, and help us protect Washington’s farmers, fish and the communities that depend on snowmelt for their water supplies.”
How Does Ecology Determine When A Drought Is Declared?
In Washington, drought is declared when there is less than 75% of normal water supply and there is the risk of undue hardship or impacts on water users and the environment. Both the hardship and water supply conditions were met in 19 watersheds – Nooksack, Lower Skagit-Samish, Upper Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Cedar-Sammamish, Duwamish-Green, Puyallup-White, Nisqually, Chambers-Clover, Elwha-Dungeness, Methow, Okanogan, Chelan, Wenatchee, Entiat, Nespelem, Sanpoil, and Kettle.
“Drought this year is driven both by snowpack and precipitation deficits,” said Caroline Mellor, Ecology’s statewide drought lead. “While it’s normal for snow to melt in the spring, what we’ve seen over the last two months is unusually rapid, with snowpack melting away as much as 33 days earlier than normal in some river basins.”
Mellor added the spring precipitation was also low in several portions of Washington. For example, April precipitation was 26% of normal in the eastern Cascade Mountains, 25% of normal in Central Puget Sound and 14% of normal in the Dungeness watershed.
Streamflow forecasts in multiple parts of the state are also low. The Chelan River is forecasted at 63% of normal, Methow River at 71%, Stehekin River at 68% and Okanogan at 48%, as of June 1.
Washingtonians Should Prepare For Additional Droughts In The Future
She added the longer-term forecast is also not predicted to help: Conditions are expected to be both warmer and dryer than normal for June through August, likely exacerbating current conditions in many watersheds.
“These impacts illustrate the ways that snowpack drought impacts our water supplies in Washington,” Mellor said.
Studies predict that Washington can expect to see snowpack drought to occur 40% of the time by 2050.
“Even in the Evergreen State, our water supply is now less reliable in the summer and early fall than it was historically,” Mellor said. “We see the need to build resilience not for the possibility of water shortages, but the reality.”
Declaring a drought emergency allows Ecology to distribute drought emergency response grants to public entities and to expediate processing emergency water right permits and transfer applications. Ecology said it has made up to $4.5 million available in drought emergency response grants to eligible public entities to respond to water supply impacts from the current drought conditions.
“While today’s drought declaration unlocks tools to deal with the immediate emergency, the frequency of snowpack droughts in Washington is increasing – so we also need to continue planning for our long-term water supply needs,” Mellor said. “Even in western Washington, snowpack droughts are becoming the new normal, so we need to be prepared.”
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