California is about to launch an experiment to cover aqueducts with solar panels, a plan that if scaled up might save billions of gallons of otherwise evaporated water while powering millions of homes.

OLYMPIA — According to an announcement from the Columbia Basin Development League, CBDL, in collaboration with the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District, Quincy-Columbia Basin Irrigation District, and South Columbia Basin Irrigation District, are celebrating the signing of House Bill 1752 by Gov. Jay Inslee. According to the announcement, this legislation addresses technical challenges in managing water resources within the Columbia Basin Project. HB 1752 authorizes the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to apply for and obtain approval for water right modifications, an adaptation allowing more acres to be irrigated within the CBP without compromising the watershed. The statement said the bill was sponsored by Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, and actively supported by the CBDL and the CBP irrigation districts.

With farms, ranches and rural communities facing historic drought, a worrying trend leads to a critical question: Who owns the water?

Statistics confirm what your eyes have already told you as you look at the higher elevations across Washington. The snowpack across the Evergreen State is almost non-existent for this time of year.

Washington Department of Ecology plans to adopt a policy stating that livestock owners whose animals drink from a creek need a water right.

The Pacific Northwest has a Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and very dry summers. Thus, it is important for us to approach summer with full reservoirs, ample mountain snowpack (which provides melt water during the summer and early fall), and a nice late spring dousing to wet down the vegetation and soils. And it looks like we will have all three.

If you lived in Twisp after the town lost its water rights, irrigated spawning salmon in your farm fields or waited in vain for water to appear at the empty end of the Methow Valley Irrigation District’s ditch, you understand water trouble.

With about a month left in winter, Washington’s mountain snowpack is close to or above normal levels.