It's your call

Eastern Idaho users ordered to shut off pumps or buy water

By KATHLEEN O'NEIL
koneil@postregister.com

BOISE -- More than a thousand groundwater users over the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer will have to turn off their pumps or buy water to provide seven Twin Falls irrigation companies with 133,400 acre-feet of water.

That's the meat of a 63-page order issued by Karl Dreher, director the Idaho Department of Water Resources. The order was made public Wednesday.

About 860 people, businesses or organizations with water rights dated later than Feb. 27, 1979, will be affected in Water District 120, which extends along the western side of the Snake River from American Falls to north of Idaho Falls.

Another 437 individuals or groups who own water rights will be affected in Water District 130, which extends from west of Twin Falls to American Falls. That's 28 percent of all groundwater users in the two districts.

Although it's not the first time groundwater users have been ordered to give up water to provide more to surface water users with senior rights, it's the first time it has affected an area of this size anywhere in the West, Dreher said.

The Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer is about 60 miles wide and 200 miles long, and Water Districts 130 and 120 envelop 80,810 acres of land within that area.

Both the canal companies and groundwater users said they were happy that a decision had been made.

But the additional burden of paying for replacement water could put some farmers out of business this year, said Lynn Tominaga, executive director of Idaho Ground Water Appropriators.

"With a 20 percent increase in the price of fertilizer, 25 percent increase in fuel prices and electricity, combined with costs of mitigation, we'll have people who will have to declare bankruptcy," he said.

The impact to the region's economy is still hazy.

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb said he didn't think the order would be very difficult for the state to absorb. A state-sponsored economic impact report that said a curtailment of water rights after 1949 could cause losses of $204 million to the state's economy and of 3,000 jobs.

"I don't see a huge consequence to the call," because it only affects groundwater rights after 1979, he said.

Craig Evans, president of the Bingham Groundwater District, said there are pumpers with very old groundwater rights and some with newer rights that might be more vulnerable.

But he said the purpose of the groundwater district, which covers 136,000 acres and includes about 450 people, is to distribute costs evenly, and that won't change with mitigation.

"Everybody shares in the pain, and nobody goes down," he said.

While other canal companies have managed to deal with limited supplies in the past without issuing a call for water, this one is the result of six straight years of drought, Dreher said.

"This is the result of what has been called a 500-year event," Dreher said.

The order states that the director will make a similar assessment after April 1 each year to determine the extent of mitigation necessary. That will only stop if more water becomes available, or if the affected water users are able to come to a long-term agreement.

While it may seem like a big change, Dreher said, it's been a long time coming. His predecessor started writing conjunctive use rules in 1994, requiring groundwater and surface water to be managed together.

It took the state years to put in place districts to manage the water, he said, adding that it took a while for the drought to prompt the change.

Water users outside organized water districts are not yet included in this water call, Dreher said. The state has not finished determining how much groundwater users are entitled to in areas outside the existing water districts, and so could not enforce curtailments there.

However, the state is progressing with efforts to quantify those rights, and those users will soon be required to join water districts and help pay for mitigation, as a result of legislation passed this year.

Dreher said he expects his decision to be appealed in court, which he said made sense.

"When long-lasting decisions are made, they often need to be tested in court," he said.

A court could intervene and prevent his order from taking effect midseason, or it could order changes to go into effect in 2006, if water shortages continue.

There are three more water calls pending that Dreher will have to rule on, including one from an aquaculture owner who uses spring water. He plans to make those decisions within two weeks.

Dreher said he determined how much injury the Twin Falls irrigators would likely suffer, and did not include past crop injury in his decision since the surface water users did not demonstrate that.

John Simpson, an attorney for the Twin Falls Canal Co. and the surface water coalition, said he was still reviewing the order to determine how the director arrived at the amount of water his clients were due. But they were glad to finally have the order made, he said, so they would know how much water they could count on.

Tominaga said they, too, were happy to have the order released and also were going to consider it carefully.

"You're never happy to hear the word 'curtailment,' but we'll comply," Tominaga said. The group had already developed a mitigation plan for both water districts, he said, and they will review it to see if it will provide enough water.

The water group plans to buy or rent surface water from other irrigators in the area, high-lift pumpers along the Snake River, and to use a Department of Agriculture program that pays farmers to take land out of production.

The groundwater group has until April 29 to file a mitigation plan for Dreher's approval.

Energy and Environment reporter Kathleen O'Neil can be reached at 542-6763.

''You're never happy to hear the word 'curtailment,' but we'll comply.''

Lynn Tominaga

Idaho Ground Water Appropriators

executive director