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July 27, 2015

State cuts water rights to farmers

UNION GAP, Yakima County (AP) — Extreme drought conditions have caused state ecology officials to curtail water rights on tributaries of the Yakima River that date back to 1873.

Flows in Cowiche Creek and the Teanaway River are so bad that they told irrigators that they must stop watering their orchards, hay and alfalfa crops on more than 2,000 acres.

Officials say record-breaking heat and a lack of rain have reduced mountain streams to a trickle.

Stan Isley, the state's court-appointed stream patroller in the Teanaway River Basin, says the tributaries that feed the Yakima River are at historically low levels.

Isley says it's unlike anything they've seen before.

He says if stream flows don't improve, they might have to cut off more senior irrigators well before the end of the season.




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