Two irrigation districts face being cut off from water unless Gov. Jay Inslee declares a drought emergency in northwest Washington’s fertile Skagit Valley.

Irrigation Districts 15 and 22, which collectively provide water for about 14,000 acres, have had to turn off pumps that draw from the Skagit River just upriver from Puget Sound.

If the governor declares a drought, the districts could get an emergency-water transfer from the Skagit Public Utility District, which also draws from the river.

The PUD supplied water to farmers during declared droughts in 2015, 2019 and 2021, letting water flow past its diversion point to irrigators downriver.

The PUD and irrigation districts do not have an agreement to transfer water outside an official drought, PUD General Manager George Sidhu said Thursday.

“Since 2015, we have always been there to help in an emergency,” he said. “We will continue to be the safety net if there’s a drought declaration.”

The Department of Ecology-led executive committee that reviews drought conditions and makes recommendations to the governor will meet July 18.

Ecology is gathering information about drought-caused hardships in the state for the meeting, department spokesman Jimmy Norris said.

In the meantime, irrigation ditches are emptying during a critical period for potatoes, corn, vegetable seeds and other crops, Skagit County farmer Jason Vander Kooy said.

“We’ve got our crops drying up, and we can’t do anything about it,” he said.

Ecology issued a statewide drought advisory July 5, alerting residents to developing water shortages. The advisory does not authorize any drought-relief actions.

Even without a drought declaration, Ecology has offered to quickly process — within a day or two — a water-transfer between Skagit PUD and the irrigation districts, Norris said. “They don’t need a drought declaration for that,” he said.

The PUD and irrigation districts have discussed non-drought water transfers, but no agreement is in place, Sidhu said. The PUD needs a drought declaration to transfer water, he said.

PUD commissioners will have a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the terms of transferring water to the irrigation districts if the state declares an emergency.

The two irrigation districts must stop pumping when the Skagit River falls below the “in-stream flow rule,” a level Ecology set to protect fish.

The river has frequently dropped below the in-stream flow rule this summer, including Thursday morning, according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge near Mount Vernon.

The governor can stop short of declaring a statewide drought emergency and limit declarations to particular watersheds. Conditions vary statewide. “A statewide declaration may come too late for us,” Vander Kooy said.

Irrigation districts may petition the governor to declare a drought emergency in the Skagit Valley, said Jenna Friebel, executive director of the Skagit County Drainage and Irrigation Districts Consortium.

“The delays have been really impactful,” she said.

The governor’s office is working with Ecology and other agencies to monitor water supplies and evaluate the need for a drought emergency, Inslee spokesman Mike Faulk said in an email. “This has included monitoring and tracking water supplies in the Skagit and the impact to local irrigators,” he said.