U.S. Water News Online
BOISE, Idaho -- Southwestern Idaho's rapidly growing urban center has sufficient water resources to meet its needs for the next quarter century, experts agree, but they are looking to science and technology to head off a crisis after that.
"Ultimately, we in the valley have to decide how best to use our water," said Jerry Gregg, who manages the Snake River area for the federal Bureau of Reclamation.
His agency has financed the state Water Resources Department's computer modeling study that looks at the region's economic growth and the interaction with water resources depending on the decisions policy makers come to on water allocation.
"These models should help us make better choices," he said.
The study predicts demand for domestic, commercial, municipal and industrial water will jump 74 percent in the next two decades. It outlines two ways of dealing with the pressure &emdash; new reservoirs and aquifer recharge to increase the annual supply of stored water or improved water efficiency and a market for transferring water from farm to residential and industrial uses.
The computer models assess the impact of those kinds of decisions.
If less water, for example, is used in irrigation where some of the flow goes back into the aquifer, there would be less water available to those relying on the aquifer.
If demand from all water users keeps rising, then those who can afford to pay more for water would be able to buy it from those whose own use of the water generates less cash. That could increase efficiency and reduce the need for boosting supply, the experts suggest.
"When you're charged more for water, you are going to use less," said Garth Taylor, an economist at the University of Idaho.
Gregg acknowledges that some farmers realize that kind of market threatens their future because it will prove that water is worth more supporting industry than it is growing crops.
But Gary Chamberlain, a Challis rancher who serves on the Idaho Water Resource Board, said those realities must be made clear and tools like the new computer models are critical to reaching the tough decisions that will come with growth.
"I know some hotheads in my country who won't like it because they know what it means," he said. "L.A. doesn't have orange groves any more because the water is worth too much to grow oranges."
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