The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced on May 12 that the Klamath Irrigation Project’s “A” canal, which carries irrigation water to roughly 130,000 acres of farmland in southern Oregon and northern California, will remain closed for the 2021 season due to worsening drought conditions.
“This year’s drought conditions are bringing unprecedented hardship to the communities of the Klamath Basin,” said Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “We have closely monitored the water conditions in the area and the unfortunate deterioration of the forecasted hydrology. This has resulted in the historic consequence of not being able to operate a majority of the Klamath Project this year.”
The May 20 U.S. Drought Monitor showed severe-to-extreme drought conditions covering nearly all of southern Oregon and northern California, with smaller patches of exceptional drought showing up in both states. Much of California received less than half of the state’s average precipitation since October, with the past two years representing the second driest on record for most of Northern California.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides about a third of California’s water, fell to just 5 percent of average in May, and the reservoir level at Lake Oroville has dropped to just under half of its historic average for this time of year. “Above-normal temperatures over much of the West over the past 60 days have resulted in rapid snowmelt and, due to dry topsoil, much of the melt water has not made it into the rivers, lakes, and reservoirs,” the Monitor said.
The bureau had earlier announced that it was reducing this year’s water supply allocation to just 33,000 acre-feet for the Klamath Project. With the estimate of inflows to Upper Klamath Lake dropping by 85,000 acre-feet from April 1 to May 1, however, the bureau said the projected remaining Klamath Project water supply would not be sufficient for operating the “A” Canal.
The bureau also announced that a Klamath River surface flushing flow to benefit out-migrating salmon will not be implemented this year. That decision was reached in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries.
To help mitigate the impact of this year’s historic low water supply, the bureau said $15 million in immediate aid is available to project water users through the Klamath Project Drought Response Agency, and an additional $3 million in technical assistance will be available to tribes for ecosystem activities in the Klamath Basin. The distribution of drought relief funds is expected to begin next month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also previously announced the availability of funding for the Klamath Basin drought relief efforts.
Bloomberg reported on May 17 that some farming operations north of San Francisco have opted not to plant crops this year because of the lack of available irrigation water. According to news reports, current drought conditions in California are on track to rival the historic drought of 2012-2015, when more than a half-million acres of farmland were taken out of production and the state’s agricultural industry suffered $3.8 billion in losses from 2014-2016.
The impact is also being felt on fertilizer demand. “There is certainly growing concern around what to apply in the way of fertilizer given the lack of moisture,” one fertilizer industry source in the Pacific Northwest told Green Markets. “Right now, the extended weather forecasts do not show anything to get excited about, which will increase the rhetoric.”