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Editorial: Drought puts required river flow levels to test

Wed., May 20, 2015

Yeah, it’s dry.

Water flow at the Avista Utilities Post Falls dam was 3,630 cubic feet per second on Tuesday, perhaps the lowest for the date ever recorded at a gauge that has monitored the volume of the Spokane River at that point for more than 100 years.

Northeast Washington may be late to the drought declarations issued by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, but it was just a matter of time.

Inslee’s first declaration, in March, encompassed just the Olympic Peninsula, the east front of the Cascade Mountains, and the Walla Walla area. From those isolated islands, the distress has spread to all 39 counties.

Unless rain offsets the lack of snowpack in the Spokane River basin, much of it in Idaho, this year could test the ability of Avista to fulfill the discharge requirements at Post Falls while keeping Lake Coeur d’Alene at full pool. The flow levels were set during the 2009 relicensing of Avista’s Spokane River dams by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

This drought could also test the goodwill of the dozens of stakeholders who worked to balance hydropower generation, recreation and aesthetics for a river treasured by half a million Inland Northwest residents, but not necessarily for the same reasons.

The Spokane River’s Tuesday flow at Post Falls was about 20 percent of the roughly 18,000 cfs that would be recorded for a typical May 19. The spring runoff that swells the river, and others around the Northwest, occurred in March.

Avista may close the dam gates at Post Falls next week instead of the normal date, around June 22, to fill the lake up to summer levels. That will start the squeeze on river flows that, even during a less unusual year, can dwindle to less than 1,000 cfs through downtown Spokane.

If inflows from the St. Joe, Coeur d’Alene and other sources cannot keep the lake up to within 3 inches of summer recreation levels, Avista can cut outflows at Post Falls from 650 cfs down to 500 cfs. That may have happened one day, one year, before this year.

Look at the river today, and picture it at perhaps 15 percent of what it was Tuesday. If river advocates had not insisted on a minimal flow, the Spokane falls might be dry during some summer hours.

The Washington Department of Ecology has tried to stabilize flows as much as possible by adopting instream flow rules earlier this year. Those who hold rights to water from the river and Spokane Valley- Rathdrum Prairie aquifer will not be affected, but the water reserved by the state for fish and recreation will be safeguarded before additional rights are granted other applicants.

The aquifer will spare this area the pain water users in the Yakima and other basins are already experiencing. Without speculating over whether climate change will make this year the rule rather than the exception, an appreciation for the unique resources of the river and aquifer is always in order.

Accompanied, this year, by a vigorous rain dance.