U.S. Water News Online
RUPERT, Idaho -- The negotiated agreement that kept 1,300 southern Idaho wells from being shut off last year expires in six weeks, which would allow competing water users to proceed with litigation.
Negotiations had been based on a plan that included the state buying water from some farmers and making it available to other users, and to compensate senior water right holders.
But surface water users, including several local irrigation districts and canal companies, filed a call for full allotment their senior water rights -- some of which date back to the early 1900s. They made the claim in January, saying their water has been diminished by as much as 30 percent over the past two years.
That stalled negotiations between groundwater users and spring water users. The two sides have been trying to develop a permanent plan to restore spring flows from groundwater from King Hill northeast to Ashton.
Regional groundwater pumpers are impacted by the spring right holders in the Hagerman Valley while pumpers to the east are impacted by the various canal systems operating in the area, Lew Pence, Middle Snake Regional Water Resource Commission chairman, aid in a letter to Minidoka County Commissioners.
He said canal companies hold senior rights to the springs feeding American Falls and the commission, which includes representatives appointed by Cassia, Minidoka, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln and Twin Falls county commissioners, supports their call for water. The commission must also support the call made by the spring right holders in the Hagerman Valley, Pence said.
Pence, in his letter, concluded the state should provide matching funds for a federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program that would pay farmers to dry up 100,000 acres of land.
But he said the program would impact the region's economy, with a financial loss of $60 million.
"Laborers would no longer be hired by the farms being taken out of production and various industrial, commercial and retail labor forces would see an impact as well," Pence said.
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