Water shutoffs are happening earlier than usual for some irrigators in the Yakima River Basin.

Reservoir levels are at the lowest seen since 1971. Non-senior water rights holders in the Yakima basin are expected to receive 40% of their allotment this year, an estimate that has held since August’s meeting, according to a release from the Bureau of Reclamation. Senior water rights holders will continue to receive full allotment.

Storage in the reservoirs on Sept. 1 was 20% full with 218,000 acre-feet of water, or 44% of average.

The Yakima Basin has been in a drought since 2023.

A decline in snowpack and early melt-off, especially this past winter, have led to current conditions. Sometimes called the “sixth reservoir,” snowpack makes up the difference in water supply and allotments. Reclamation’s Yakima Project has about a million acre-feet in storage, but there are about 2.5 million acre-feet in water rights allocated in the basin.

Scott Revell, manager of the Roza Irrigation District, estimates deliveries will end on Sept. 23, about a month earlier than usual.

“It’s better than it could have been. I’m glad that the percentage didn’t drop further,” Revell said.

There wasn’t enough precipitation to help the storage situation this year. April through July rain was a little less than half of average, Revell said. “It’s been terrible,” he said.

The early shutoff has implications for the late harvest crops of the Roza. About two-thirds of the district’s crops, such as apples and wine grapes, are harvested after Sept. 15.

Growers like to “put the crop to bed wet” because a plant’s cold tolerance is diminished when dry, he said. Not having late season water is already a disadvantage for the following growing year.

But Revell looks at bright spots in challenging years like this one, such as the conservation efforts taken and strong relationship the district has with the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Bureau of Reclamation saw staff cuts at the start of the year, but “they did a really good job keeping everybody up to speed,” Revell said, including giving mid-month updates so that districts can adjust and plan accordingly. “Our communications with the Bureau are very strong.”

The Kittitas Reclamation District shut off on Aug. 13, about two months early, because of the lack of water. The Ellensburg-based district supplies water for hay and tree fruit growers.

District Manager Urban Eberhart said that the year was “tremendously difficult” for the district’s growers.

Kittitas Reclamation District and Roza Irrigation District are working with state agencies and Washington State University on a study to better understand the impacts to production and quality of crops in multiyear droughts, Eberhart said.

This article was first published by the Yakima Herald-Republic through the Murrow News Fellow program, managed by Washington State University.