Idaho Irrigators Still Hoping To Squeeze By

A mid-July look at Idaho's Snake River storage and stream flow shows that with a little luck most potato and sugarbeet growers will have enough irrigation water to be able to squeeze by this season.

Although numbers still look bleak, for example, Palisades Reservoir is at 37 percent of average and American Falls is at 32 percent, stream inflow amounts are holding surprisingly close to normal.

The entire Upper Snake River storage system fell below 40 percent to 39.8 percent full this week, signaling to irrigators that their plight for the year is far from over.

Intermittant rain showers and cooler weather for parts of June and early July coupled with some surprising rain showers and having grain crops made all helped ease the pressure. But temperatures climbed into the 90s across Idaho this week, signaling the need for careful irrigation monitoring for the remainder of the growing season.