黑料福利社

Four irrigation districts are calling on the Department of Ecology to enforce water right priority this summer as the Yakima Basin enters its fourth year of drought.聽

Naches-Selah Irrigation District, Selah-Moxee Irrigation District, Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District and the Yakima Tieton Irrigation District signed on to a letter sent May 1 to Ecology, according to a news release.聽

"Last season鈥檚聽early curtailment of senior rights prompted significant concern聽among district board of directors and water users," the release said.聽

The letter is similar to one sent last fall by the Roza Irrigation District and the Kittitas Reclamation District and another by the Yakama Nation.聽

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation operates the dams that supply the Yakima, Naches and Tieton rivers that feed the basin as a whole. Ecology has an administrative role as to who gets what water, as laid out in a decades-long court case known as聽.

The irrigation season starts April 1 and finishes in the fall, but the water year starts on Oct. 1. On Oct. 6, 2025, Ecology issued a notice for all surface water use to cease, as reservoir storage was among record lows.

"We don't agree that waiting until October and curtailing seniors were the right actions to take," Justin Harter, manager of the Naches-Selah Irrigation District, said in an interview with the Herald-Republic.聽聽"The Department of Ecology is the referee, and we're calling on them to act."

Harter said irrigation districts are facing a lot of pressure from their water users to do what they can. A lack of water is not the only concern for growers, though it's a critical one.

"It's a tough time for agriculture. Profitability is low," Harter said.聽

In response, Ecology spokesperson Emily Tasaka said the agency is reviewing the letter and will reach out to the districts to address their concerns.聽

She said it is the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's job to determine pro-rationing dates, and Ecology's responsibility to send out curtailment notices.

Ecology made the drought declaration in early April this year to give water users extra time to prepare for a challenging summer, Tasaka said.聽

"Right now, it is too early to tell how senior water rights could be affected in October. To be safe, we are preparing for the possibility that some senior water rights may need to be restricted at that time to protect even more senior rights," she said.聽

Ecology also launched a new webpage for water users to receive information about curtailments, after receiving feedback from last year's water restrictions: .

Reclamation expects non-senior water users to receive 52% of their normal water allotment this year, with another forecast planned Thursday.

Anyone who is not using a water right can donate or sell it to protect instream flows for fish. More information is available from the .

Kittitas County towns

Most municipal water systems either use wells for their domestic drinking water, like Ellensburg, or both a surface water and a well system, like Yakima.

After the curtailment orders last fall, the agency took a discretionary role in enforcement in the Upper Kittitas area, where towns like Cle Elum and Roslyn rely on surface water to supply their drinking water. Irrigation use ceased, but kitchen taps kept flowing.聽

Roslyn and Ronald use surface water from Domerie Creek. Cle Elum, South Cle Elum and Suncadia use surface water from the Yakima River but have emergency wells that cannot meet full demand alone.聽

In anticipation of another curtailment order, Ecology is working on a pilot program to retime 50 acre-feet of water to offset for indoor use in Upper Kittitas County. In exchange, those Kittitas County towns will need to provide metering records to show that they have conserved more during the irrigation season than they will use in October, Tasaka said.

Some towns have already come aboard, and meetings with others are scheduled.聽

"We鈥檝e been encouraged by Cle Elum and Roslyn鈥檚 plans to conserve water and coordinate with us in the coming months. They plan to conserve significantly more than the minimum we鈥檙e asking for," Tasaka said.聽