Don’t think of it as rain, think of it as hydropower
Posted on January 17, 2006 by oregoncub
Tags, Climate and Conservation
A joke occurs frequently, and with increasingly deadpan delivery, in the family of this particular CUB staff member, every year that we have lived in the Pacific Northwest. “Look, it’s raining. The crops are saved!” Moving from the Midwest made Oregon winters something we needed to joke about to get through, having traded the high winds and more extreme temperatures of the plains for a LOT of light gray rain.
The rain has been more present in the past few weeks than in past months or even the past few years, which have been more dry than usual in this part of the world. In fact, in a news release from March of 2005, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) states: “Another winter of low precipitation makes six in a row—the lowest cumulative runoff on record…” According to BPA Administrator Steve Wright, even the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s were not as dry as 2000-2005.
This winter and spring may see more precipitation due to a cooling of the Pacific Ocean, a climate pattern called La Nina, which “tend[s] to encourage wet weather in the Pacific Northwest.” In a another article devoted to the rain in last Thursday’s Oregonian, the paper asserts: “A warm front moving in from the Pacific will dump more water on Oregon beginning this afternoon, and there’s little hope for dry weather in the next six days. Although forecasters don’t anticipate a crippling deluge, it will be enough to frustrate metro commuters, push swollen rivers in western Oregon to flood stage and punch portions of the Oregon coast especially hard.”
Yes, but… If you can keep your head and feet dry, there’s an upside to all that rain. First off, it’s hydropower, and the more there is of it, the less expensive it will be on your electricity bill. More water in the Federal Columbia River Power System makes it less likely the utility companies will ask for higher rates based upon low hydro conditions, and makes it less likely that additional power will need to be purchased from the more expensive “spot market.” The increase in rain has resulted in raising the water supply at the majority of Pacific Northwest dams to between 90 and 125% of average water levels. Compared to past years, snowpack is also looking good, and that will matter significantly as temperatures increase and we head into summer. (Information from the Northwest River Forecast Center of the National Weather Service.)
Secondly, the more rain and snowpack there is, the less likely it is that we will suffer a drought later in the year, and that is good for the populations of salmon, steelhead and other native fish which form a large part of the economy and the culture of the Pacific Northwest. The Federal Caucus (a group of nine agencies that includes BPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) put out a Citizen Update from 2001 entitled Conservation of Columbia Basin Fish. Among the list of habitat strategies on which they focus, the Caucus lists “water quantity” as Number One, ahead of (but working in conjunction with) water quality, passage improvements, and watershed health.
So, yes, we all may suffer from a bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder by March. Yes, it’s hard to keep track of enough hats, boots and umbrellas to stay dry. But on the other hand, it’s great for keeping our bills down, our machines humming, and the salmon successfully swimming upstream. That’s worth a lot.
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03/10/17 | 0 Comments | Don’t think of it as rain, think of it as hydropower