Farmers fear historically low water levels during drought emergency

TULELAKE, Calif. — Last week, governor Kate Brown declared a drought emergency for Klamath County directing state agencies to coordinate and prioritize assistance to the drought-stricken region.

Driving across the Klamath Basin, the parched landscape is visible and farmer Ben DeVal of Tulelake said the drought conditions are significantly worse than last year.

"I'm frightened, scared to death actually. You know, I'm a younger guy starting out farming and I've got mortgages to pay, pay the landowners and without being able to produce a crop, and this year is looking to be devastating," he said. "I mean we're looking at zeroing fields out."

DeVal, a third generation hay farmer in Tulelake said this is the earliest that he has had to start irrigating his fields. Typically, in early spring he relies on the higher soil moisture from run-off and snowpack for his crops, but this year he is having to tap into that irrigation supply early. The issue with that is run-off from snowmelt into the upper Klamath Lake is running much later this year.

"Our irrigation water supply this year look to be around ten percent of what we needed to start. Right now, we need to start early and we're being delayed by the lack of run-off into Klamath Lake," he said.

Mark Johnson, deputy director for the Klamath Water Users Association said that Upper Klamath Lake levels are about a foot lower than they should be this time of year and the inflows to upper Klamath Lake are the lowest on record.

"We're scrambling for resources and it's looking to be a very difficult year. It's looking pretty dire, so we're gonna get very little run-off this year to fill upper and lower Klamath Lakes," Johnson said.

According to the latest drought monitor, upper portions of the Klamath and Lake Counties have been elevated to 'exceptional drought,' the highest tier possible while the remainder of the counties and Northern California are classified as an extreme drought. The city of Klamath Falls has only seen a little over 4 inches of liquid equivalent since the start of the water year in October, that's almost 6 inches below average.

In these drought emergency declarations by the governor like this year and 2020, Johnson said it allows the Oregon Water Resources Department to come in and provide resources to the producers that have existing water rights. Essentially easing water access to the consumer.

"We're coming off a second year drought and the ground just does not have the moisture to really support much right now," he said. "With our anticipated water supply, it's looking like it's really not going to be enough to irrigate one of our irrigation districts."

It's not just Klamath Falls, cities and towns across western Oregon, Washington and California have seen historically low snowpacks from lack of precipitation this winter. Typically, a weaker high pressure ridge along the west coast in the winter will allow the jet stream to drift further south, bringing both rain and snow to the West Coast. While there have been southerly storms this year, there have not been as many due to the stronger ridge.

Unfortunately, we're seeing this trend more and more every year the climate shifts and farmers like DeVal are worried for the future of farmers like him.

"This is how we provide for our family and this how we provide to the community and there's gonna be a lot of repercussions," he said.

The near-term forecast doesn't call for any relief. Dry weather is expected for the Klamath Basin and much of southern Oregon through the end of the month. Recent models are hinting at a possible active pattern that could bring more rain and snow for the month of May, giving some hope to farmers like Ben DuVal.