CANYON CITY — The Grant County Court declared a drought emergency Wednesday, April 6, and called on Gov. Kate Brown to declare a state emergency, which would open the door to state and federal aid.

The county also declared a drought emergency in 2021. So far this year, Brown has issued drought declarations in 10 counties. Under a state declaration, Grant County could get state and federal resources to deal with the water shortage.

Serious drought conditions are expected to worsen in Grant County and across the West, with higher-than-average temperatures and a reduced chance of rain, causing the county to face economic hardship and heightened wildfire risk, county officials said.

According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, a multi-agency drought monitoring system, roughly 85% of Grant County is currently under extreme drought conditions.

Extreme drought is the second-worst category in the national monitoring system. In regions facing extreme drought, pastures are brown and barren, hay yields are low, prices are increasing and producers are selling cattle to avoid expensive supplemental feed and pasture.

Eric Julsrud, Grant County’s watermaster, asked the county for a drought declaration.

Julsrud said a drought declaration allows the Oregon Water Resources Department to approve temporary transfers of water rights, emergency water use permits and the use of existing water rights options available locally.

A drought permit allows users to replace water outside the existing water right temporarily. The most common drought permit allows someone to use groundwater as a substitute for an existing water right.

A temporary transfer of water rights allows a user to modify the type of use, place or the area of a water diversion under the existing water right.

Julsrud said county landowners he has spoken to are concerned.

“I’m hearing it’s bad,” he said.

Local ranchers, according to Julsrud, are telling him they have never seen creeks, rivers, and reservoirs so low.

What the ranchers have seen on the ground indeed lines up with the U.S. Geological Survey. The agency reported that as of Friday, April 9, most of the streamflow levels in Grant County are low compared to the historical daily streamflow for this time of year. Moreover, the USGS reports more than half of Oregon’s stream levels are below average.

For his part, Julsrud said that while he is not a hydrologist, be believes conditions could be as severe as — if not worse than — they were last year.

He said that the county is seeing low stream levels and lower precipitation overall.

“Those problems,” he said, “manifest themselves into bigger and bigger problems.”