‘Water year’ dry, but not as bad as expected

The drought wasn’t as bad as expected for the Spokane River, but it was still pretty bad, water managers said.

The “water year” that ended Sept. 30 was the seventh driest year since study of the Spokane River began in 1891, and continues a long downward trend.

Cool, wet spring weather countered dire drought predictions for the Spokane area. But other areas in Eastern Washington, such as Columbia, Lincoln, Garfield, Walla Walla and Whitman counties, did suffer drought-related problems.

The state Department of Ecology took seven consecutive days of readings to determine the amount of water in the river.

Flow in the river dropped to 601 cubic feet per second this year at the downtown gauge. In 2003 and in 1994, the flows were even lower, at approximately 500 cfs. About 7.5 gallons are in a single cubic foot of flowing water.

A “water year” is a term used by water managers. The current water year started Oct. 1, and ends Sept. 30, 2006.

Six of the seven lowest years on record for the Spokane River have come since 1988.

The downtown gauge is the oldest continuous-operating flow-measuring device on any Washington river, according to Ecology water resource manager Keith Stoffel.

“We know more about flows in the Spokane River than in any other river in the state,” Stoffel said. “While 600 cfs is a bad year, it fortunately wasn’t as big a problem as the first part of the water year indicated it might be.”

Gov. Christine Gregoire declared a statewide drought emergency on March 10 due to warm, dry winter weather that limited the accumulation of the state’s normal mountain snow pack and caused what did accumulate to melt much earlier than normal. The drought declaration expires Dec. 31.

“If you look at the long-term trends, the river has significantly declined over the past 100 years, but the rate of decline has slowed down in recent decades,” Ecology senior hydrogeologist John Covert said. “Over the decades, water use in the watershed has changed. Instead of growing crops, we’re growing subdivisions.”

In 1900, the river flowed at more than 2,000 cfs, and in 1976 it was 1,800 cfs.