Washington is once more under a drought emergency, state officials announced Tuesday, marking the third such declaration in as many years and underscoring the damage wrought by year-after-year droughts.
Typically the start of April marks the peak of Washington’s snowpack season, but west of the Cascades and Central Washington are lagging behind, spelling trouble for the year ahead. State officials are already concerned for water supply and hydropower production. And farmers are planning for another year of water restrictions, an early end to their growing seasons and perhaps the loss of entire harvests.
For now, all of Kittitas and Yakima counties and a portion of Benton County are considered to be under a drought emergency, Casey Sixkiller, head of Washington’s Department of Ecology, said in a news conference. Fourteen other watersheds in Chelan, King, Okanogan, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties are considered to be under a drought advisory, and their conditions could worsen in the weeks ahead.
Sure, there’s irony in speaking about drought and lousy snowpack with rain in the forecast this week, Sixkiller said.
But the scale of these things matters. A couple of misty days west of the Cascades, bringing maybe a few tenths of an inch of rain, aren’t enough.
“Even if April is another soggy month, we still won’t catch up,” Sixkiller said.
The drought declaration will unlock $4.5 million in emergency funding for communities and people suffering under the drought.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
