By Cindy Snyder, Ag Weekly correspondent

Friday, January 4, 2008 6:49 PM CST

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — With all of the legal talk surrounding water issues in 2008, the only thing that can actually generate wet water to irrigate crops or turn hydropower turbines is snow.

And that’s why the relatively slow start to the 2008 water year, which began Oct. 1, has so many water users anxious.

The Upper Snake reservoir system, which provides irrigation to much of eastern and south-central Idaho, ended the 2007 calendar year 30 percent lower than the same date in 2006. With the reservoir system essentially emptied at the end of the 2007 irrigation season, the 2008 season is dependent on the snowpack.

Until the end of December, most of the precipitation that had fallen year to date had come as rain in primarily October. The snow water equivalent — the amount of water that would come from melting an inch of snow — has been poor so far.

On the other hand, the long-lead forecast continues to be the best seen in several years.

The El Nino pattern that held sway over last winter’s weather changed over to moderate La Nina but never gained enough momentum to become a strong La Nina. La Nina is associated with colder, wetter winter weather in the Pacific Northwest.

Without a clear signal, unsettled is probably the best word to describe the weather pattern for the next few months. One of the wettest periods for the winter so far is expected between Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, said Jan Curtis, a climatologist with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Water and Climate Center in Portland, Ore.

A drier and cooler pattern is expected to set up in the middle of the month followed by another stormy period later in January. The Pineapple Express should arrive by mid-February, bringing storms from northern California to the Pacific Northwest.

Beyond February, Curtis said the Pacific Northwest should see near normal precipitation.

Ted Diehl, manager of the North Side Canal Company in Jerome, is watching another forecaster. According to one legend he’s heard, years when the rock chucks are feeding late are years with long, hard winters. Rock chucks were observed grazing along roadways in the Magic Valley in mid-December.

“We’ll have to wait and see if the Good Lord gives us some moisture,” he said. “Things could get real tough otherwise.”

In Shoshone, Lynn Harmon is also watching the snowpack. Harmon is manager of both the Big Wood Canal Company and American Falls Reservoir District #2. Magic Reservoir ended the season with about 3,000 acre-feet of water in storage. That’s swelled to 15,000 acre-feet since the season ended, but there’s still a 180,000 acre-feet deficit to make up before the start of the 2008 season.

But Harmon remains hopeful.

“In the Wood River Valley, if it starts storming late, it usually holds into spring and we don’t get those dry February-March periods that get us in trouble,” he said.

While irrigation managers are hoping existing reservoirs fill, others believe 2008 may be the beginning of a push to build more storage reservoirs in Idaho. With conjunctive-management issues, possible Endangered Species Act requirements, growth issues, and environmental pressures, water users seem to be coalescing around the idea that more reservoir space is needed.

“People seem ready to act,” said Norm Semanko, executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association. “You can’t live in a state that’s growing and maintain the traditional ag base and meet the new competitive demands for water and not plan to build new storage.”

Semanko said 36 million acre-feet of water leaves the state each year.

Building new reservoirs would allow some of that water to be captured and used and even reused before going downstream. A proposal to raise Minidoka Dam is just one of the possible new storage projects being discussed around the state.

“I hope two-thousand eight is the year of storage,” he said.

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