Photos by Tony Overman/The Olympian
Leo Crippen of Yelm casts his fishing line from the bank of the Nisqually River on Wednesday afternoon as Seth McDonald of Kent wades into the water in search of salmon returning upriver to spawn.

A tribal fisherman hauls in a salmon in his net Wednesday afternoon along the Nisqually River.

Salmon forecast: stormy

Drought's effects felt statewide

PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published August 30, 2001

OLYMPIA -- If this summer's brown lawns and low stream flows seem familiar, you might be having flashbacks to 1977.

That was the year of the worst drought in Washington state's history, and officials at the state Department of Ecology are drawing parallels between this year's dry spell and its predecessor.

"We keep comparing this year's drought to the 1977 drought," said Doug McChosney, the drought response coordinator for Ecology.

It's too early to tell which one is worse, said Mary Getchell, spokeswoman for Ecology. A more diverse industrial base in 2001 has lessened the impact, as opposed to 1977, when agriculture was more prominent in the state's economy.

"We don't rely on agriculture as a whole to nearly the level the state did in 1977," Getchell said. "That means fewer people are going to directly feel the impact of a drought on their bottom line."

Salmon struggling

The salmon industry is taking a hit as the spawning fish are, in many cases, finding it difficult to traverse the state's drying stream and river beds.

"We're running about two weeks late" in the salmon harvest, said Richard Wells, administrator of the Nisqually tribe.

Many of the salmon that normally would have been harvested from the Nisqually River were instead caught in Puget Sound, where they stayed longer than normal, Wells said.

Because those fish were on the market earlier than normal, salmon prices have dropped drastically in the last few days, Wells said.

"We're starting to get the fish now, but the price has dropped," Wells said.

It's difficult to measure the exact impact of the drought on salmon runs, said Doug Williams, an information officer at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. But there definitely is an impact, he said.

"We've had to do a number of kind of creative things just to keep the runs going," Williams said.

A few weeks ago, Fish and Wildlife workers had to divert a portion of the Gray Wolf River on the Olympic Peninsula -- it was so dry that the salmon couldn't swim around a pile of rocks blocking the streambed, he said.

"You literally had hundreds of fish beating themselves to death trying to get to their spawning grounds," Williams said.

Also on the minus side, forest fires aggravated by dry conditions had burned only 6,600 acres in 1977. By contrast, this year's forest fires had burned nearly 221,661 acres as of Tuesday.

Regardless of its severity, there's no doubt this year's drought is being felt in sectors of the economy beyond agriculture and fish.

Water supplies

Some local municipalities eased the effects of the drought through a combination of planning, circumstances and good luck. The cities of Olympia and Tumwater reported Wednesday that water supplies are at normal levels.

"We're not seeing a problem right now," said Tikva Breuer, a senior program specialist with the city of Olympia.

City residents have responded to the drought by conserving water, Breuer said.

But Olympia and Tumwater have benefited because their water supplies come from groundwater.

"Groundwater takes a lot longer to be affected by drought conditions than a surface water supply," said Anne Marie Finan, a coordinator of Tumwater's water resource program.

Another dry winter could begin to wreak havoc with the water supply, Finan and Breuer said.

That's why it's important for city residents to keep conserving even if supplies stay steady the rest of this year. The 1977 drought, after all, really started in 1976, and lasted for almost two years.

"We're not only conserving for today," Finan said. "We're conserving for tomorrow."

Patrick Condon can be reached at 360-753-1688 or at condonpatrick@hotmail.com.

By the numbers

- Olympia rainfall for year to date: 20.29 inches

- Olympia rainfall for Jan.-Aug. 1977: 21.30 inches

- Normal rainfall for year to date: 27.73 inches

On the Web

Department of Ecology: Drought (www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/drought/droughthome.html)

Gov. Gary Locke: Drought (www.governor.wa.gov/drought/drought.htm)

Department of Fish and Wildlife (www.wa.gov/wdfw/)

Governor's Office of Indian Affairs: Nisqually Tribe (www.goia.wa.gov/tribalinfo/nisqually.html)

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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