Drought and Unknowing

Boat ramp. Reservoir full pool elevation 3235'. Ramp extends down to 3210'. Level last week 3158'.  Vertical drop 48'. 

Tree cut down for reservoir; underwater since 1961.

All photos and data week of Sep 19-23 2021; click to enlarge.

Prineville Reservoir, Crook County, Oregon, impounds Upper Crooked River. Looking east from the dam. 21% full.

Spillway from dam. 

Ochoco Irrigation District operates the dam and Prineville reservoir, owned by the US Bureau of Reclamation, primarily for irrigation. OID, which set October 1 as the end of the 2021 water season, also operates the older and smaller Ochoco Reservoir, currently 12% full, inflow zero.

Past-Present-Future envisioned as Now.

A hazy Unknowing: changes in the watershed in the last 60 years: clear cutting, fires, diversions, expanded cattle grazing, plantings, etc. Unknown patterns will determine water availability and uses as we move deeper into the 21st century.

John Berger distinguishes between the unsaid and the unsayable.  Following him, we distinguish between unknown and unknowable. What is unknown can be known over time and within parameters yet to be determined.  What is unknowable cannot be known. We wonder, what times these in this prickly thicket of precarious negotiation?

How will Future emerge bearing a tenuous Present and a weighted Past? How similar; how differ? In this light, the expanse of a watershed and the life of a river becomes emblematic.

Crook County, in the center of Oregon, mapped as Exceptional Drought: Exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses; Shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies. Assessment derives from: Drought severity, soil moisture, streamflow, and precipitation, with estimated short term and long term durations.

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/About/AbouttheData/DroughtClassification.aspx