Yakima July Water Supply Forecast Looks Good
The Bureau of Reclamation’s July water supply forecast in encouraging news for central Washington Growers. According to Reclamation, the Yakima basin water supply will fully satisfy all senior and junior users this irrigation season. June completed three months of significantly above average precipitation in the Yakima basin with 144% of June’s normal amount.
The precipitation total for April, May, and June was 167% of average and was fourth highest on record—boosting the water year, which runs October through June, to 117% of average. As of July 1st, Yakima Project reservoirs were full with 1,065,000 acre feet of stored water. The stored water in the Yakima system reservoirs will start to decline in early July as the system goes on “storage control” to maintain sufficient flow in the river and downstream diversions.
Reclamation manages the water in the five Yakima Project storage reservoirs, along with the basin’s unregulated inflows to fulfill water rights, water contracts and instream flow obligations.
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