Idaho water watchers pray for snow amid drought

BOISE (AP) - Idaho's water watchers are hoping storms will dump enough snow onto the mountains to shore up a supply they say is lagging behind needed levels.

Reservoirs are low and current snowpack amounts are not where they need to be to ensure enough water in 2014, the Idaho Water Supply Committee announced Friday.

Idaho's agricultural economy relies on getting water either from streams and rivers or from underground aquifers to fields of potatoes, sugar beets and barley. If there is not enough water to go around, some farmers and ranchers with less senior water claims could face having their supply cut off.

Less water means lower yields and less money in growers' pockets and the state's coffers. Food prices could also see an increase as Idaho's staple crops become less plentiful or more expensive to grow.

"Some of the impacts we saw last year were not only all the wildfires, but some of the early shutdowns of the canals," National Weather Service hydrologist Troy Lindquist said, adding ranchers also had less forage for their livestock, driving up costs.

For the coming year, Lindquist predicted, "it's going to be a tight water supply for irrigators."

In Idaho's dry, southern growing region along the Snake River, the water outlook for the year is dictated by the snowpack created during the winter, which feeds regions' streams and rivers as temperatures rise and it melts. Too little snow now means Idaho residents - especially farmers - can't count on having enough water during the summer months.

Amid one of Idaho's last droughts in 2005, canal companies sued farmers who pump water out of the ground in southern Idaho, contending that they weren't getting enough of the water they were due. Those who use groundwater fear similar conflicts in the event of future droughts.

Rick Raymondi, the bureau chief for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, said lower-than-average snowfall last winter set up Idaho up for potential problems - if things don't turn around.

So far, they haven't: By April 2013, he said, Idaho was entering drought conditions. A lack of spring rain and long stretches of summer temperatures topping 100-degrees made the situation worse, he said.

"By the end of the summer, our water resources and reservoirs were significantly depleted, and our aquifers had been stressed," he said.

The Boise Basin is currently sitting at just 50 percent of normal precipitation levels - the lowest it's been since 1998.

Rain and snowfall in all 22 of Idaho's river basins trails the average. The Weiser River Basin has only 44 percent of the average precipitation to date. Things are a little better in the Snake River Basin above Palisades Reservoir in eastern Idaho, but precipitation there is only 86 percent of average.

Hydrologist Ron Abramovich of the National Resources Conservation Service said that it's not too late for enough snow to accumulate to meet the state's needs.

"There's still a chance for recovery," he said. "We're just a couple storms away."

One of those much-needed storms could be on the horizon: wintry weather is predicted to sweep the state over the weekend. Stanley could get up to seven inches of snow Saturday night, according to the National Weather Service.

This Legislature, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has made water and irrigation projects a priority and wants lawmakers to set aside $15 million toward construction of new dams, buying up water rights and recharging the Lake Erie-sized Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer in southeastern Idaho.