Even after two years of drought, central WA irrigation district can point to successes

Employees remove stems and leaves from apples at Valicoff Fruit Company on Sept. 26, 2024. (Questen Inghram/Yakima Herald-Republic)

This was first published by the Yakima Herald-Republic .

Sometimes, it's good to focus on the positives.

Yes, we've had two consecutive drought years — the first time that's happened in 30 years.

Yes, estimated losses for growers during a prorated water year like this one can be between 18.1% and 30.4%, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

And yes, drought years are becoming more frequent.

But there were plenty of things to celebrate Thursday during a tour of the Roza Irrigation District organized by the Yakima Basin Joint Board , which is a partnership between seven irrigation districts and the City of Yakima. It supports the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, which works to resolve water issues among otherwise competing interests.

Joining irrigation leaders were representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the state Department of Ecology and the state Department of Agriculture, among others. On the itinerary were Valicoff Fruit Company's packing plant in Wapato, the Sunnyside Diversion Dam, the Roza Re-Regulation Reservoir, and the hop-growing CLS Farms near Moxee.

Valicoff Fruit

Conveyor belts haul thousands of apples to sort by color and weight. Robotic arms load boxes for cold storage or transport, some bound for Mexico, India and Vietnam. Last year's Cosmic Crisps sit patiently waiting in a 34-degree Fahrenheit warehouse. It's in a place like the Valicoff Fruit Company packing center in Wapato, the scale of the Yakima Basin's agricultural output can be fully appreciated.

Brett Valicoff, president of the company, is a fourth-generation grower. He also manages the family's busy fruit packing plant. The company began in 1921 and grew vegetables before shifting its focus o fruit production in 1977. It's now one of the biggest suppliers of fruit in the Northwest.

"We've invested a lot in technology — the goal there is providing the best eating for our customers," Brett Valicoff said.

But that eating depends in part on water supply in the Yakima Valley.

"This year we starting out realizing we'd have a problem in the Roza," said owner Ric Valicoff.

Drought can decrease the size of the fruit, to the point where money would be lost if they were to pick it. It can also shrivel stone fruit like peaches and nectarines.

"We left stuff behind," Ric Valicoff said. Some of that was due to market overproduction, which also led to a decline in a return in sales.

"Mother Nature does a good job on throwing us curve balls," Brett Valicoff said. But he sees a wide scale effort to conserve water among fruit growers.

"Everybody in our industry is doing our part," Brett Valicoff said. "People see produce at the store. The hard work and science to get it to them, I think a lot of people are unaware of that."

Sunnyside Valley Dam

At an idyllic location on the Yakima River is the site of a fish passage improvement project. Walter Larrick, a biologist and Yakima Basin Joint Board consultant, stood next to a cobblestone house perched to the side of the Sunnyside Diversion Dam. The house is the enviable residence of the dam tender .

"You saw all the product at the packing plant — the beginning of that product is diverting this water," Larrick said.

But the water diversion was hurting fish populations.

A study beginning in 2018 showed that migrating fish were ending up in the irrigation canal instead of continuing along the Yakima River. It was a problem that stakeholders wanted to solve quickly.

A fish passage improvement project placed a new sluice gate and a fish guidance boom meant to divert migrating salmon and steelhead molts from the canal and back on their way south to the Columbia River.

"Because of cooperation, we got this done in two years. It's impressive," Larrick said. The project was completed in 2021.

Three ladders at the dam allow fish to pass during their return upriver.

Re-regulation reservoir

Roza's re-regulation reservoir is a 70-foot-deep, concrete pool surrounded by orchards and arid hills.

"I like to call it the biggest public works project nobody knows about," said Scott Revell, district manager of the Roza Irrigation District.

It's in the kind of spot, about four miles north of Sunnyside, that's great for a teenage kegger — a fact that necessitated a security fence.

The reservoir has served an important role since it began operation in 2017. It has a maximum capacity of 1,600-acre feet of water (over a half billion gallons) that would otherwise be lost downriver during times of low demand, like rainy days, nighttime, and weekends.

When water demand ratchets back up on a Monday, this extra water ensures there is no fluctuation in delivery, said Dave Rollinger, Roza watermaster.

"We run in a deficit a lot of the time — more water is ordered that what is delivered," Rollinger said. There was only one time this year when the demand was greater than could be delivered, and that's all thanks to this reservoir, he said.

When full, it can provide the lower district with four full days of water, Revell said.

A few other factors helped the Roza district.

Crop overproduction has led to a weaker produce market, and many farmers had reduced their acreage anyway. Revell said that 30% more acreage was fallowed than the drought year of 2015, and 50% more than 2021.

Growers also pool their water resources with neighbors, even forming "mega pools" of 20 growers.

The use of the reservoir aids in conservation by saving 8,000 acre feet of water, or 2.6 billion gallons, he said.

"It's good for the river, it's good for the fish," Revell said. "This really is the crown jewel of our water conservation system."

CLS Farms

This year's hop harvest is in full swing.

At CLS Farms in Moxee, a night shift crew and day shift crew work long hours during the harvest season, getting the hop bines into machines that strip off the cones and bring them into a kiln for drying.

The Desmarais family settled in the Yakima Valley in the early 1900s. They're now fifth-generation farmers.

"Little did they know at the time that this would become a big hop-growing region," said Claire Desmarais, customer relationships manager. Since the craft beer boom around 2010, the family has been able to reinvest in its facilities and efficiency projects like storage ponds and computer-optimized watering.

The company grows over 20 varieties of crops near Moxee, Toppenish and Wenas, she said.

This year has been hard, but not just because of water allotment in the Roza fields. Hops are fairly resilient crop, and can survive after being left idle for a year. It's the spider mites that do the damage, and this was a bad year for them, as they love to travel in the dust that hot and dry summers bring.

"That's something we fought this year. With the drier weather there were more bouts of them," said owner Eric Desmarais, who is Claire's father.

CLS Farms and other hops growers were strategic in how they handled the drought this year, said Eric Desmarais.

Overproduction in recent years has shrunk the industry 25%, so growing was scaled back already. The hop fields that growers idled first typically were the ones in proratable districts like the Roza, as they expected the water allotment to drop. Growers also collaborated on the sharing and purchase of water.

Despite all the challenges, the harvest has been good.

"We've seen average to above-average yields, despite water access and dust," Eric Desmarais said. "No major thing fixed it; it took many little things."