Staff in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Portland District are watching their 13 reservoirs in the Willamette Valley closely as summertime approaches after an historically warm winter left the area with little to no snowpack in many places.
During a May 19 online town hall, staff addressed the lack of snowpack, saying it has already caused them to adjust their normal practices for this time of year.
Those adjustments are intended to ensure Corps hydroelectric dams stay above the minimum levels for conservation and power generation while also maintaining temperatures in tributaries.
But that can be difficult when there’s not much snow melt, thus limiting the ability to release water during the low flows of the summer.
"Not having snowpack means that those natural flows are much lower, so that means there’s more storage that would be needed to offset that,” said Salina Hart, the chief of the Reservoir Regulation & Water Quality Section. “But, then, because of those low conditions our storage is less, so it’s kind of a double-whammy."
That lack of snowpack is causing drought conditions to intensify. Almost 3% of the state is classified as being in extreme drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Much of the area with that designation is in the area where Lane, Douglas and Deschutes Counties meet.
Lane and Douglas Counties have not seen that level of drought since September 2023. Lane County has seen severe drought this early in the year once since 2000, while Douglas County has seen it twice in that time.
Deschutes County has had multiple stretches of severe drought lasting more than a year since 2000.
Hart said she doesn’t see a risk of shortages for drinking water and irrigation needs this summer, but this year could provide helpful information should that ever become an issue.
