BONNERS FERRY, Idaho (AP) — A group of farmers along the Kootenai River in Idaho’s Panhandle blamed a rainy June for causing millions of dollars of damage and losses to their wheat, bluegrass, chickpea and barley crops.
Recommended Stories
Some growers also took aim at the management of Libby Dam in Montana, criticizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for caring more about managing flows to help threatened salmon and sturgeon than avoiding flooding the river valley downstream.
“There are some farmers who have taken a hell of a hit,” Bob Olson, who farms 3,000 acres in the valley, told the Coeur d’Alene Press (http://bit.ly/PZoh5N ).
So far, Olson said, flooding and seepage from the river has damaged about 50 acres of his crops. Other farmers in the area estimate the damage to cropland in the valley to be more than 5,000 acres, mostly in winter wheat crops valued at an estimated $4 million.
“Every one of the farmers in the valley has some problems. Some are worse than others,” Olson said, adding some growers may have trouble overcoming the financial loss.
“If some of them had crop insurance, they’re probably going to be OK,” he said. “Crop insurance is something we don’t normally buy in this valley because you don’t normally need it.”
The valley — bounded by steep mountains to the east and west — provides ideal conditions for farming. Growers benefit from the soil, altitude, latitude, temperature and annual precipitation, and the valley has long been known for its hops farming and connection to beer giant Anheuser-Busch Co.
The Kootenai River flows out of the reservoir behind Libby Dam. The flows travel downstream to Bonners Ferry and north into Canada, eventually dumping into Kootenay Lake.
June brought record rainfall to the area. Bonners Ferry recorded 5.24 inches of rain last month, topping the old record of 3.96 inches.
Along with the wet month, dam managers were dealing with high inflows into the reservoir from heavy winter snows and spring rains. Inflows were the highest recorded since the dam was built in the mid-1970s, officials said
“The real wild card that we saw this year was the intense precipitation we saw through the month of June,” said Army Corps water manager Kevin Shaffer, at the Army Corps’ Seattle district office.
Precipitation that month in the watershed was up to five times the average, making it a challenging year for the Army Corps to do forecasting, he said.
Seepage can occur in the Kootenai River valley even when the river is below flood stage, but it’s still something the Army Corps works to minimize, he said.
Still, seepage was a reality in some parts of the valley.
Tim Dillin, who has been farming in the valley since 1982, said the damage from seepage is the worst he has seen. He reported seeing water in some fields for the first time.
“They’ve kept the river high a long time this spring, and then we’ve had just so much rain. It’s a combination of the two,” Dillin said.
___
Information from: Coeur d’Alene Press, http://www.cdapress.com
