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Kittitas County proposes postcards, online outreach as drought curbs irrigation supplies
Summary
County staff said the region is in its fourth consecutive drought year, the Kittitas Reclamation District is receiving about 52% of its normal supply and may stop irrigation deliveries by late August; staff proposed postcards to mitigation-package holders, digital outreach and a renter-focused communication push.
County staff briefed commissioners on the county’s drought outreach plan and asked for direction to proceed with stepped-up communications to mitigation-bank customers and the wider public.
“We are in our fourth consecutive year of drought,” the resource manager said, and noted that proratable users such as the Kittitas Reclamation District are getting “52% of their water supply.” The resource manager said that in a normal year deliveries would run into October but that this year the district expects to cease irrigation deliveries by the end of August.
Staff reviewed mitigation rules established by the county’s settlement agreement and said the program provides notification to mitigated preexisting well users that they are at risk of curtailment, except for indoor domestic uses and irrigation of up to 500 square feet of exterior yard. The resource manager said the county prepared a suite of outreach products—website updates, a press release, a Board of County Commissioners Facebook post and a brochure—plus two mitigation-package mailings: one for indoor-plus-up-to-500-sq-ft irrigation packages and another for indoor-only packages for customers served by irrigation districts.
Staff said the postcards would reach roughly 350 mitigation-package households (a subset of total users) and recommended modifying postcard language to ask landlords to notify renters. Commissioners raised concerns about reaching renters and the use of mailing addresses that may not correspond to the physical property; staff said they would evaluate sending to the physical site address where possible and would update the website and press release to instruct renters to call the office with questions.
Commissioners expressed general support for moving forward with the outreach while asking staff to reassess mailing lists and possible budget impacts of sending postcards to multiple addresses per property. Staff said they would make changes to address renter outreach and mailing-address concerns before printing and sending postcards.
Next steps: staff will refine postcard language, evaluate whether to mail to physical site addresses versus mailing addresses on file, update the county website and press release, and field public calls to determine whether individual households are included in mitigation packages.
Notes: the transcript records staff-provided estimates (52% supply, roughly 350 postcard recipients) and the mitigation rule limit of 500 square feet; these figures are from the staff briefing and were presented as approximate.
