08/02/07 Just enough water for the season

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what's happening to the reservoirs across southern Idaho. They are dropping as demand increases. Ted Day with the Bureau of Reclamation says it was the reservoir carryover from last year that saved us this year. DAY "We do have enough water in storage to make it through this year. That's not to say there won't be some tight supplies. I know there will be some shortages but we will limp through the rest of this season." To complete the second part of the story Day says you have to look to the future, namely this winter. One area of concern is the upper Snake River Valley. DAY "It will probably take about an average snow pack, not necessarily an average snow pack but an average runoff. This year the runoff actually came in lower than the snow pack percentages were. Not a very cooperative melt pattern this year, let's put it that way. So really to insure adequate supplies next year we need above average." Only in two years this decade, 2005 and 2006, did southern Idaho get what's considered an adequate snowpack. 2007 is more like the other dry years of this decade. Boise, for example, had the hottest month on record in July with an average daily temperature of 83.1. In fact 14 days last month had temperatures of 100 degrees or better. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott