Yakima River basin irrigators with junior water rights ended the season receiving 52% of their normal water allotments, the worst water shortage in the Central Washington region in nearly a decade.

Grape grower Jim Willard said Oct. 3 he left ground fallow, partly because of market conditions and partly anticipating a drought last winter.

“The decisions I made back in January and February were effective,” he said. “I’ve had enough water to cover the crops I had.”

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s five reservoirs supply water to irrigate about 464,000 acres. In water short years, farmers with junior water rights are cut back equally.

In 2015, irrigators received 47% of their full allotments. Drought losses in the 72,000-acre Roza Irrigation District were $75 million, the Washington State Department of Agriculture estimated.

Roza manager Scott Revell said this year’s drought coincided with an oversupply of apples, grapes and hops.

“The big thing that helped us this year was there was so much land fallowed,” he said. “Just on the Roza, we had 30% more fallowed land than we did in 2015.”

The months from February through May were especially dry in the Yakima River basin. Less than half the normal amount of rain fell at the reservoirs in March. September was also drier than normal, failing to ease the water shortage.

Junior water right holders were allotted no water in October. The Roza district, however, shut its canal down for 10 days in May to conserve and extend the season. The district will deliver water until Oct. 14.

More than half the district’s crops are harvested after Sept. 15 and need last-season irrigation, Revell said. “That’s really what drove the shutdown back in May,” he said.

Willard said he anticipates grape harvest will end the last week of October. He said he likes to have the ground wet headed into the winter to prevent it from freezing too hard.

“If we receive a goodly amount of rain in November we would be OK, but it’s rolling the dice,” he said.

The Kittitas Reclamation District stopped delivering water Sept. 13. It normally operates until Oct. 15. Some farms who need late-season irrigation have been able to use wells, district manager Urban Eberhart said.

“I could see throughout the summer a patchwork of green fields and brown fields,” he said. “This year, there was a lot of prioritization of fields.”

The reservoirs ended the irrigation season with only 35% of their normal volume of water, the lowest carryover since 2001. Climatologists predict a La Nina will prevail this winter, improving the odds the reservoirs will refill.

“We have a lot of catching up to do between now and April,” Eberhart said.