According to the DOE's Water Right Tracking System, there are close to 175 water claims for ground and surface water in Tunk Valley. These include certified water rights.  

The USGS has established connectivity between ground and surface water in Tunk Creek.  The flow in Tunk Creek, in July, August and September, ranges from only  0.2 cfs to .02 cfs.  The annual mean is around 7 cfs.

The total certified water rights to surface water in Tunk Valley,  is 2.2378 cfs. Additionally, there are water rights to ground water in the amount of 337 GPM.  This would convert to  approximately 0.75 cfs, bringing the total surface water rights to 2.98 cfs. 

 Tunk Creek is over-appropriated. 

There are, as well,  surface water claims for 828 cfs.  703 cfs of these claims are for stock water and are dated prior to 1/02/1917 These  do not require adjudication, as do other claims.  Additionally there are ground water claims for 75 GPM, not including the certified claims for  groundwater withdrawals.  There are also several claims to water to irrigate over 150 acres, but do not provide details about the source of the water or the amounts.

Associated with the surface and groundwater claims are Acre Feet.  Claims with priority dates from 01/02/1917 and earlier, are in excess of 1,717 Acre Feet.  Since that time, only an additional 47 Acre Feet have been claimed.  Water Rights include 266 Acre Feet.

To summarize, most of the claims were made before 1917, and the majority were for stock water.

The history of water claims provides testimony to historical land use in the valley, which  has been grazing and timber, not residential.

More recently, the source of impacts on water resource in Tunk Valley has been the exempt well. Water scarcity was established by the DOE, in 1974, in a report that stated that existing wells in Tunk Valley were barely adequate for domestic purposes. 

 As recently as the 1980's, there were only a handful of residences in the 53,000 acres that make up the Valley.  There are now over 150 exempt wells.  The potential impact of this exponential increase in exempt wells is not fully understood because many wells are associated with properties that are used only briefly during the year.

The only source of water in Tunk Valley is precipitation. There is very little precipitation in Tunk Valley as is indicated by the landscape which is predominantly shrubbe-step. This high box canyon is semi-desert and very dry. 

 Withdrawals are now  exceeding annual precipitation. 

When homesteaders moved up into the Tunk Valley 100 years ago, they dug their own wells.  Now people are drilling hundreds of feet to find water.  Whatever water accumulated in the Valley's Aquifer, over centuries, is being depleted.  To allow additional unlimited exempt wells in Tunk Valley would have negative impacts on senior water rights as well as habitat and  wildlife, including sharp-tail grouse which were listed in 1998, as a State Threatened Species.  Healthy riparian habitat is crucial, if they are to survive.  

Tunk Creek is an important tributary to the Okanogan River, which provides habitat for endangered species of salmon and steelhead.

Okanogan Water Future

Tunk Valley & Water Rights

Over-Appropriation