Lake Chelan, Its Water Feeds Us!

Moving water around to irrigate crops or to drink has been around for 1,000’s of years. Waters history is fascinating as is how advanced the modern day systems have become. (Scroll to the bottom for some fun historical pictures from the Lake Chelan Reclamation District).

by Chad Steiner

We irrigate and drink from it. 50.5 mile long and 1,500 feet deep Lake Chelan is fed by numerous glaciers in the North Cascade range. If you’ve had the opportunity to travel to Stehekin, along the way you’ve seen the many creeks fed by glaciers and snow melt that run into the lake. Besides tapping into ground water, how much fresher and pure can you get? No doubt Lake Chelan is an amazing natural resource and without it or other water sources around the world, life would look very different. I’d like to use this week’s blog to describe a bit of water history – both drinking and irrigation water and highlight modern watering systems by focusing on the Lake Chelan Reclamation Districts (LCRD) irrigation system. I’ve been fortunate to serve on the LCRD board for the last 5.5 years and learned a lot. Plus, I’ve farmed in two different locations in California and worked with farmers all over the world and in the last 10 years built the irrigation on our farm here in the Lake Chelan Valley. Without a doubt, modern irrigation systems are fascinating and the LCRD system is one of the most advanced.

Imagine yourself in the year 1870. You’ve decided to move your family from the East Coast of the United States to Washington State. Your method of travel – oxen and wagon (about the end of this type of travel). It’s not possible to carry all the water you need to drink, so your route would depend upon fresh water sources along the way. Your destination would be Wenatchee, a developing area. The Cascade Mountains capture much of the moisture coming from the Puget Sound as it moves to the East. The water trickling down from Cascade glaciers & snow melt into streams and rivers make living in Wenatchee and Chelan with as little as 8” of annual rainfall possible. And for your move to a new area from across the country, access to reliable, clean, fresh water is a necessity. You’re also inspired by the potential to use this water to grow food, maybe even apples. In other parts of the world and throughout history, access to fresh drinking water may have been from a well, or in Roman times, via an aqueduct traveling over a great distance. But the major point here is “access” to clean water. Something we may take from granted living in the Northwest.

Clean water is equally important for irrigation. But even more important for irrigation is a reliable supply.

Many irrigated societies no longer exist. The Roman’s and the Anasazi Indians of Chaco Canyon were all marvelous at harnessing water for use as irrigation. In the case of the Anasazi, it’s thought the weather patterns changed, ultimately removing their water source and way of life (interested in more, read Jared Diamond’s Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed). [Note: consider two main sources of irrigation water – 1. surface water, often stored in reservoirs or pulled directly from rivers or lakes & 2. ground water via drilling wells]. I personally experienced the impact of weather pattern changes. From 2014 to 2018 I managed a small fruit tree nursery. We grew trees on the West side of Fresno County, in Cantua Creek (The Westlands Water District) and later in Davis (just South of the town of Davis). Irrigation water in a large part of the San Joaquin Valley of California is totally reliant upon Sierra Nevada snowpack. Two seasons of low snowpack in the Sierra’s and we had a large water shortage in Cantua Creek and many other parts of California. The water delivered to this area was surface water that traveled in large canals. There was ground water available but unfortunately the quality was very poor – high in salt and boron the trees couldn’t handle. In years of drought in California, water can sell for over $2,000 an acre foot (yes it’s possible to sell water). If a typical crop needs 3.5 acre feet of water per acre, that’s $7,000 an acre in water. If you’re farming 100 acres that’s a $700,000 water bill. It doesn’t pencil. We survived the California water crisis, but it was eye opening. Why am I sharing all of this? 1. To share a couple of primary irrigation water methods, 2. To frame up how unique and special Lake Chelan is as a water source (reliable and high quality).

The Southeast end of Lake Chelan is the primary area where farms exist, and people live. It’s about 10 or less miles up the South Shore and about the same up the North Shore. The dam at the end of the lake was put in place to help regulate the lake level and manage flooding, generate power and the 21 feet it adds to the lake in summer is what we can all pull from for irrigation. The farms we see along these shores and on the foothills, all manage their water source differently. There are some landowners who have water rights to pull directly from the lake. Today, the Lake Chelan Reclamation District pulls water directly out of the lake. With over 6,000 acres served and over 70 miles of pipelines and many reservoirs, the LCRD is an incredibly unique system. It literally shows up to our farm pressurized. No need for pumps. If we need more pressure, we just call the office. And it’s all underground. Next time you’re in the Manson area, look for the water towers – the water gets pumped up to them where it can then go back downhill under pressure. The LCRD wasn’t always this advanced. Throughout its history going back to 1906, the irrigation system in Manson was not nearly as sophisticated. One of the benefits of the current underground system is avoiding evaporation as well as contamination compared to an open water or “surface water” system. Throughout its history LCRD was a series of wooden flumes running from Antilon Lake down to the Manson area. Talk about a lot of work…! For more information on the amazing technology in our LCRD system, visit their site here. The last thing I’ll emphasize is how pristine our irrigation water source is. Glacial and snowpack fed, crystal clear – a scientist monitoring the lake updated the LCRD Board a couple of years ago on the lake’s status. He said (I’m not recommending this), its so clean, you can basically go down 1 foot anywhere on the lake and the water is drinkable. We’re so blessed to have such an amazing natural resource and amazing water feeding our crops. We know it helps bring higher quality wine and produce to you every year.

As always, as I get to writing these, they end up longer than I intended. There’s a lot to say when it comes to talking about irrigation. This article only scratches the surface (no pun intended, get it “surface” water) on the nuances and complexities of irrigation. Simple, yet complicated. I didn’t dive into how we apply our water to our crops or how we measure and manage when to water. Maybe there’s room for another article. But, I hope this has given some historical perspective, provided some modern day examples of how irrigation is managed and delivered and inspired you with how awesome the Lake Chelan Reclamation District is. A testament to the investment and foresight of farmers in our rich history here in the Lake Chelan Valley.

Have a great weekend all!

Cheers,