Photo courtesy of Ferron City
By Julie Johansen
Ferron City Mayor Adele Justice called an emergency city council meeting on Monday evening to discuss the drought situation facing all users of the Ferron Canal irrigation system, which also includes Clawson.
The city is facing a bleak water situation. Tracy Behling, President of the Ferron Irrigation Company, reported the forecasted water runoff was at 18,000 acre feet. That meant that users would be allocated .50 acre foot per share of water, but because of the drop in predicted runoff to 9,000 acre feet, the allocation was dropped to .25 acre feet per share.
One half of the season’s water has now been used by everyone, including farmers, industrial, commercial and individuals. Adding to the predicament is the drought situation in all of the western United States, meaning that hydro plants in the northwest are not receiving water from the dams, so PacifiCorp is running at maximum capacity to fill the electric gird. This means that PacifiCorp is using more of its leased water to produce the additional power.
Gordon Bennett reported on how the accounting for the water is all done on computers and data is gathered regularly. Accounts are kept and monitored for all users.
Mayor Justice reminded the council that they were elected to serve the citizens and needed to decide what course of action to take. The golf course watering has already been cut to watering the greens only once per week, as well as the public parks and cemetery. The mayor reported that she has drafted a letter to all the citizens to be mailed immediately.
The council also decided that because of the critical situation, an immediate town meeting needed to be scheduled as soon as possible. A meeting for all citizens is scheduled for Wednesday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Ferron Elementary. Everyone is encouraged to attend.