U.S. Water News Online
BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho hydrologists say the state's 2005 outlook for water is deteriorating.
Ron Nova, general manager of Schweitzer Mountain Resort above Sandpoint in northern Idaho, said this winter is already one of the worst on record.
Just four of Nova's six lifts are running. Skier visits are running at 48 percent of average because, according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service, "winter is nearly nonexistent across the Pacific Northwest."
The service's water-supply specialist, Ron Abramovich, says the likelihood is growing that the February through April period will be warmer than average, increasing chances of a sixth year of drought.
Streamflow forecasts for the state remain in the 60 percent to 80 percent range, according to a recent conservation service report, making spring flooding unlikely.
The Weiser, Payette and Boise river basins received the least amount of January precipitation, and reservoirs in central and southern Idaho -- in the state's most important agricultural region -- are near minimum levels.
"Most notably, there's no low-elevation snowpack over a large portion of the state," Abramovich told about two dozen water scientists and professionals at a meeting of the Idaho Water Supply Committee meeting in Boise.
There was below-average January precipitation in every region of the state except for Bear Basin in Idaho's extreme southeastern corner, where 112 percent of the average fell to earth. But Bear Reservoir is filled to just 13 percent of its 30-year average after bearing the brunt of the drought in preceding years.
Still, the long-term forecast offers some reason for optimism.
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