‘Unprecedented times’: Drought is the norm as Dept. of Ecology makes statewide declaration in Yakima

Unprecedented times.

Those were the words Washington Department of Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller used when he declared a drought emergency in the state of Washington for the fourth year in a row. A statewide declaration of drought, like what was announced early Wednesday, hasn’t happened since the calamitous and smoky summer of 2015.

“Under state law, we declare a drought when water supply drops below 75% of normal and creates hardships for people, farms or the environment,” Sixkiller said at a news conference in Yakima. “This year, every watershed in our state has met that threshold.”

Sixkiller said that April 1 is typically when snowpack reaches its peak. But this year, the snowpack was 52% of normal.

Given the frequency of droughts over the past decade, it would seem that “normal” has a new meaning. Climate change is reshaping our water system in real time, Sixkiller said, and the state’s water supply infrastructure, which heavily depends on snowpack, is “no longer a reliable resource.”

He said the Yakima Basin reservoir is a perfect example. The reservoir can only store about a million acre-feet of water. But surrounding communities, farms and fish need around 2.5 million acre-feet of water every summer. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land to a depth of 1 foot.

“Even in a well-managed system, like Yakima, storage alone is not enough,” Sixkiller said. “We need a healthy snowpack.”

Karin Bumbaco, the deputy state climatologist for the Washington State Climate Office, said 2005 and 2015 are the only other years with a lower snowpack since 1985. Not only that, but the start of the water year’s (October 2025) average temperature ranked as the third-warmest since records started being collected in 1895.

“Last year’s drought was mostly due to low precipitation,” Bumbaco said. “This year we’ve had near-normal to above-normal precipitation for the water year, but warmer-than-normal temperatures led to low snowpack.”

Droughts spurred by low snowpack are expected to occur more frequently as time passes, she said. In the past, snow droughts occurred about twice a decade on average. Now they happen about four times per decade. A study from the Climate Impact Group at the University of Washington predicts that snow droughts will occur about seven years per decade on average by 2050.

Bumbaco said the latest predictions for this summer include below-normal precipitation and higher-than-average temperatures. That estimate coupled with low snowpack means parts of the state will experience major water supply issues this summer.

Jaclyn Hancock, a water resources scientist for the Department of Agriculture, said that in years with similar conditions, irrigation challenges have had an impact on crop yield and quality. She said they expect similar challenges to farming this year, but it’s too early to know any specific impacts for 2026.

Because parts of the state have experienced drought over the past four years, including areas noted for robust apple, hops and cherry production, Hancock said challenges to agriculture are compounded because of the frequency of the droughts. The Yakima River Basin alone, which makes up just 10% of the state and produces 75% of the nation’s hops, generates $4.5 billion in revenue every year.

“We’re already entering the year in a water deficit,” Sixkiller said. “We’re never getting to a place where we’re replenishing and starting anew. We just continue to make less and less progress in making up for that lack of water supply.”

Hancock highlighted the need for more adaptive and strategic water management solutions and called for further investment into resilient agricultural practices.

With the early declaration of drought, about $3 million in grants can now be used to ease the burden on local governments, tribes, irrigation districts, utilities and more. But this money can’t be used on long-term projects, like building new reservoirs, and can only be used on emergency projects, such as bringing water into parched communities and supplementing water levels in rivers so fish can survive.

In order for entities to receive the emergency aid, the state demands that grantees match 50% of the money requested. For small governments and other organizations, that much money could be impossible to match.

Jaime Short, the section manager for the water resources program with the Department of Ecology’s Eastern Regional Office, said Washington doesn’t typically see many grant applications from the region. She oversees the 13 easternmost counties in Washington and said most of the crops in the area, like alfalfa, are more forgiving and flexible than the tree fruits grown in central and western Washington that require a lot of water.

“We’re a little less married to that here in terms of the economics and irrigation, but we definitely are going to see that impact from lower snowpack,” she told The Spokesman-Review. “We’re getting lower stream flows. We already have groundwater declines throughout the region.”

Short said the City of Spokane has “a very robust water-right portfolio,” meaning it’s highly unlikely that it gets to a point where the state has to regulate the city’s water use. She said people can help the situation by being thoughtful of their water use, especially when it comes to things like watering the lawn.

In addition to impacts to agriculture, the environment and local communities, there’s a much higher chance for fires with a drought. Dave Upthegrove, the Washington Commissioner of Public Lands, told the assembled crowd in Yakima that fires are also going to spread faster than normal because of the foreseeably arid conditions.

“Just weeks ago, the legislature fully restored our funding for wildfire prevention and forest health,” he said. “That was our agency’s top priority … This is critical funding. As a result, the Department of Natural Resources is able to continue our work, not only positioning fire equipment and being prepared to put out the fires, but we have the funding needed to invest in forest health, fuel reduction, and the thinning work needed to help reduce the risk that only increases because of these drought conditions.”

He said 90% of the wildfires in the state of Washington are human caused. Because of this, Upthegrove emphasized the importance of being careful when burning on private property, extinguishing campfires properly and being cautious of motorized vehicles in dry areas.

Sixkiller said they are in an active conversation with Gov. Bob Ferguson on potential legislative solutions and exploring what the future looks like based on projections from their scientific partners. He said they are looking at water supply, water infrastructure and other ways to ensure people have access not just to irrigated water, but drinking water and other surface water needs.

“We’re too early to tell on what legislative solutions or proposals the governor may come forward with,” Sixkiller said. “But we’re in an active conversation now about that, and I think we’ll have more to talk about in the near future.”

Short said they have been doing regional water planning throughout parts of the state for decades. There are some ideas that have been investigated and fleshed out, she said, and now just need funding. But in order to be “shovel ready” for any sort of project, they need to do the appropriate investigations and ensure that whatever project they choose does not have cascading negative effects on others in the region.

“There’s a lot of different pieces to the puzzle that can come together and help build more resilient communities in face of this ongoing drought situation that we seem to be facing,” Short said.