NYSSA, Oregon — The Owyhee Irrigation District's water manager told Idaho News 6 that he expects about a 15 percent reduction in the basin, but that could change depending on what happens this spring.
The water manager said they had three bad years from 2013 to 2015, but none of those compared to this winter, as the Owyhee sits at 21 percent of average for the snow water equivalent.
WATCH | See how full the reservoir is and how the river is flowing—
This past winter is setting records for warmth across Idaho, but most of Idaho had normal precipitation; the same can't be said for the Owyhee River Basin.
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"The Owyhee Basin is really rough, this is an extremely warm year," said David Hoekema of the Idaho Department of Water Resources. "We are right on track for the warmest year on record, which is 1934."
The good news is that the Owyhee Reservoir, which stretches for 52 miles, is 63 percent full. The carryover from previous years will help, as the prior two years had enough water that managers opened the ring gate spillway, but there's hardly any snow to add from this winter.
"We don’t expect a lot of runoff from that basin because it is super dry," said Hoekema. "It will be interesting to see because it's the hardest one to forecast in the state, it is such a large basin with so much low elevation, and that has no snow at all."
Neighborhood Reporter Steve Dent ran into some anglers below the dam who told him they are just wishing for a normal year instead of the feast or famine. The river is flowing at 26 cubic-feet-per-second, and it brings different challenges than a high-water year.
Normally, at this time above the reservoirs rafters would be putting on at Rome for a multi-day expedition. However, the water is flowing at 286 cubic-feet-per-second, and the minimum recommended flow is 750. In previous years, the Owyhee ran well into May, but this year it is looking like it might not run at all.
"There is going to be some low stream flows just because the snow pack is not there to melt and bring those stream flows up with the warmer temperatures," said Troy Lundquist, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. "If we don’t get spring precipitation, we are setting ourselves up for a pretty dry summer."
It should be noted that the snow usually falls in the mountains in Idaho, but most of the river, the reservoir, and the dam are all in Oregon.
