If You Go
What: Klamath Basin
Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation's annual water
meeting
Where: Exhibit No. 2
building, Klamath County Fairgrounds, 3531 S. Sixth St.,
Klamath Falls
When: 1 p.m. Friday
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The Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office is
holding its annual hydrology meeting at 1 p.m. on Friday
in the Exhibit No. 2 building at the Klamath County
Fairgrounds.
The meeting is geared toward Klamath Project irrigators
and irrigation districts representatives, but is open to
anyone interested in the 2018 water year, including
media and the public.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service,
and Klamath Water Users Association will also be
present.
“It’s a meeting with specific information for the
Project irrigators,” said Laura Williams, public affairs
specialist for the Klamath Basin Area Office of
Reclamation.
Natural Resources Conservation Service releases a
forecast every other month throughout the winter, and
March 1 is the report Reclamation uses to estimate the
upcoming water year, according to Williams.
“We’re just going to talk about the expected hydrology
for the year,” Williams said. “Last year was such a
cream puff of a year — it was really a nice water year —
and this year we’re starting out with what seems like
some additional challenges; nowhere near as heavy
snowpack.
“But we have experiences with these kinds of years and
we’re hoping that together as a water community we can
find a way to survive the lower water year, that is if
we don’t get a miracle March, which is what we all dream
of,” Williams added.
With recent accumulations of snow in the mountains, snow
pack has already increased to about 46 percent of
average for the year compared with 28 percent of average
in recent weeks, according to Scott White, executive
director of the KWUA.
“The March 1 forecast — in my mind — is an indicator of
what is going to be available for the 2018 season,”
White said. “The April 1 forecast is really what locks
in the allocation for the Project and the river as well.
“I
think without a doubt, the snow has helped,” White
added. “Hopefully it keeps coming ... it’s a bright
sunny day, and beautiful, and I hope that that changes,
and we continue to get these storms coming in. Any bit
is going to help at this point.”
