Area water managers respond to declining snowpack concerns

COLUMBIA BASIN — Declining snowpacks will present water-management challenges in the Northwest, according to a recent report on global warming.

The report, the second of four coming from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, points to the Columbia River Basin as one of the environmental dilemmas faced in North America.

The document includes a section examining the effects of shrinking snowpacks on the Columbia River system.

"Global warming and climate change have become the hottest topic in the utility industry for sure — it's generating more interest and attention than renewable initiatives are," said Tim Culbertson, general manager for the Grant County Public Utilities District. "As you deal with global climate change, you deal with renewable initiatives, all of these interests and initiatives are intertwined. They all have to fit together."

Prior to his retirement April 30, East Columbia Basin Irrigation District Manager Dick Erickson said many of the conferences he'd attended in recent years addressed the issue.

"This is going on throughout the whole Western U.S., so people in the water supply business are becoming sensitized that the nature of our supply is going to change," Erickson said.

In the Pacific Northwest and the Columbia Basin, a lot of water comes out of Canada.

"The expectation is over time the amount of precipitation is going to be about the same, but the snow will be higher and it will melt sooner, so you're going to have earlier runoff and not as much total snowpack," Erickson said.

It means water managers would have to learn to adapt, he added.

Culbertson said managers within the Columbia Basin region are concerned about the potential impact.

"In the last 15 years, under 12 of those 15 years have been below average water and runoff tends to be coming, some early," he said.

It means less energy production and an effect on price, depending on how the shortage is shaped and when it comes, Culbertson said.

"It makes it critical on how you manage your power supply," he said. "If you think you have above-average water, you have to manage your surplus energy to try to optimize your price."

Below-average water year could leave the district in a deficient position.

"You have to pretty effectively manage that position so you are not taking undue risk in managing your financial parameters," Culbertson said.

It may also lead to more storage places, Erickson noted.

"The big part of storage is in the snowpack, because the snow melts relatively slow," he said. "In your spring and earlier summer, a lot of that water's up in the hills. If it's going to come down in the winter time and very early spring, you're probably going to have to find more places to put that water."

In some areas, such warming may lengthen growing seasons, Erickson said, and might be a good thing, but he thinks it will be a water supply challenge, and worse in some areas.

"Irrigation managers in the Southwest are more sensitized to it than we are, because they struggle now," he said. "If their precipitation has the same thing happening, they may be more challenged than we are."

Culbertson said the district begins volume runoff forecasts in late December to early January which indicate the snowpack in the mountains.

"This year it is looking to be right around average," Culbertson said. "But that's the upper Columbia River. The lower Columbia River is also fed by the Snake River system. The Snake River system is looking to be one of the worst water years on record, so that's having a pretty significant impact for Idaho and the lower Columbia River."

Because of the overall impact, prices are rising. It's not having a significant impact on residents in Grant and Adams counties, Culbertson said.

When and if events do occur, they will take place slowly, Erickson said.

"It's not like you can say, this is going to happen so let's do this, this and this including build this, this and this," he said. "Society doesn't build big things like that way in advance. Usually you have to wait for the problem to develop and then you respond to it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.