03/13/07 Enough Water?

Enough Water? I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Growers all over are asking the question, will there be enough water this year. In the northwest, it appears the answer is: GARNER: As of March 1, it looks like we're going to have an above normal water supply. That situation could change. If we have a weather system moving through that's warm and dry, it could degrade but right now it's looking rather healthy. That's Chuck Garner Yakima Project river operations supervisor with the Bureau of Reclamation. The Bureau has just released the March 2007 forecast for irrigation water supply in the Yakima Basin. The forecast is based on flow data, current snow pack, and this year`s precipitation data. GARNER: System storage is real healthy it's above average. Snowpack is above average, precipitation is above average. It was a little warm over the weekend but it's going to start cooling off again and we should get some more snow up in the mountain so we've looking okay right now. Garner adds that it's unlikely that we'll see a drought in the Northwest this year. GARNER: If we get a real warm system moving through and it melts off the lower snowpack early, I wouldn't say we are going to look at a drought, I would say there may be a chance of pro-rationing but at this time it's too early to tell. Even looking at a 50% subsequent precipitation from here on out we're looking at a full supply. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.