Yakima River farmers accept early water cuts as drought deepens

For an unprecedented third year in a row, an irrigation district in the Yakima River basin will shut off its water for more than a week in the early growing season to conserve the resource before the looming summer drought settles in.

This basin is one of Washington's most fertile and a cornerstone of the apple, grape and hop industries. The region produces some $4.5 billion in annual agricultural value, more than a sixth of the state's overall market.

The water problems there are an early indication of how bad the statewide drought emergency might become. Much of the rest of the state is bracing for not only substantial wildfire risk but also potential water cuts and a painful summer for already suffering salmon runs.

And the first day of summer is still a month away.

Washington didn't see nearly enough snowpack this winter, said Scott Revell, manager of the Roza Irrigation District in the Yakima River basin. Rainfall helps only so much, wetting the region's soils and pouring water into its reservoirs.

Roughly four-fifths of the basin's waterways aren't connected to a reservoir, so the vast majority of that rainfall couldn't be captured, Revell said. Without snowpack acting as a natural reservoir, slowly releasing meltwater into June, that water is essentially lost.

"Snowpack's the killer," he said.

Generally, snowpack peaks in Washington around April 1 and then melts gradually, sometimes well into June. But already this year snow reserves have all but melted away in portions of the Yakima River basin and atop the Olympic Mountains. Traces remain along the Cascade range up and down the Puget Sound region, but even then, levels remain well below normal, data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.

Revell said his district turned off the faucet Thursday for their nearly 95-mile irrigation district, which serves farms and orchards across some of Washington's most fertile lands. The water will remain off for about 10 days, perhaps longer.

The idea is to conserve water early in the season when crops can withstand the shortage more easily, Revell said. The practice will save millions of gallons of water, which they'll need when it's much hotter and drier. This used to be a rare strategy, he said, though the district has had to do it seven times since 1994.

Revell said he hopes to stretch the district's water, which covers some 72,000 acres of the state's apple, berry, cherry, peach, pear and corn crop, until the end of September. A year ago their water lasted until Sept. 24, and while a few days might not seem like much, they can mean a world of difference for grape farmers who don't start harvesting until the middle of the month.

Even with the conservation measures, by the end of the season the irrigation district will likely only have enough water to flow at a "trickle," Revell said.

Not only does the lack of snowpack or early melt-off start the year off on the wrong foot, but summers are growing hotter and drier. Summers are also starting earlier and lasting longer. Put together, that means Washington's cities, farms, ranches, fish, animals and plants have less water at a time when it's needed the most.

Last year, the drought grew so dire that state officials cut off surface water rights to the entire Yakima River basin, including whole cities. That stopped irrigation and lawn watering but not drinking water in homes. It's too early to tell whether that situation will repeat this year.

While drought conditions worsen on the ground, the amount of money available from the state has remained constant. Washington's Department of Ecology declared an unprecedented fourth consecutive drought emergency last month, unlocking about $3 million in grants to help local governments, tribes, irrigation districts and utilities to take on emergency projects. The move also expedites a smattering of requests for permits, water rights transfers and other relief funding. Not only is that pot of money relatively small, it's also limited to emergency actions and can't be spent on much-needed, long-term fixes.

Precisely what those fixes might be, across Washington's many microclimates, is not yet fully clear. Gov Bob Ferguson asked Ecology earlier this month to launch a series of roundtable discussions across the state. These conversations will center on the challenges presented by this ongoing drought and those yet to come and considering possible solutions.

The biggest possible solution that comes to mind for Revell is more storage. That could be building a new reservoir (or several), expanding existing ones, or pumping water back into underground aquifers, he said. The Yakima River basin needs a way to capture water falling in the form of rain rather than snow.

Already one such reservoir is under consideration upstream from Roza. But these things take years and vast amounts of money, as do many of the other options on the table. None of them will be in place before the full force of the summer drought arrives.

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 6:44 AM.