Beginning the dialogue

By J. Robb Brady
Idaho Falls Post-Register editorial

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter deserves credit for bringing Idaho's warring water users to the peace table last week.

The governor's daylong Idaho Water Summit in Burley sought solutions to a bitter water dispute between lower and upper Snake River water users.

No, it didn't produce a deal. The caucuses representing five different water user and community groups did not change their stance. Surface-water users in the Magic Valley with senior water rights continue to press for curtailing groundwater pumpers in eastern Idaho with junior rights. The summit gained momentum after the Idaho Supreme Court earlier this year upheld the state's policy of balancing the Magic Valley's senior rights with the economic use of water in eastern Idaho.

But here's what Otter's conference generated: For the first time, each side listened to each other. Speaker after speaker called for "certainty" in a state water management solution. And everybody had to know this fight over water, left to fester in the courts, could shipwreck eastern Idaho's economy. No sector of the state could avoid the economic fallout.

Otter outlined an action plan that includes:

n Relying on the state's existing model for the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer for both surface and groundwater users but reviewing it regularly.

n Working with the state's congressional delegation to expand the federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in Idaho. Under the program, farmers would sign up to retire 100,000 acres. Water withheld from that acreage would be applied to replenish the declining aquifer. The estimated 200,000 acre-feet of water the program would generate toward aquifer recharge during 15 years would deliver a meaningful benefit.

n Having the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality accelerate the permitting process for recharging the aquifer.

It's a good start, but there are gaps. For instance, there's been no challenge to Idaho Power Co., which insists on being paid before heavy spring runoff could be applied to aquifer recharge. Former Idaho Water Resources Department Director Karl Dreher had challenged the utility's posture.

Otter's plan didn't mention how to pay for some of these measures. One source frequently cited was the 2007 Legislature's decision to leave $15 million in an account that Otter and four legislative leaders could tap.

And there are suggestions that Otter's water summit advisory board tilts politically toward the Magic Valley's surface-water irrigators.

Following the summit will be a series of forums. Odds that these sessions will lead to a settlement this year are remote. But David Tuthill, who is replacing Dreher, could say that a dialogue had begun. That at least offers hope to match Otter's resolve.

J. Robb Brady

''A broad understanding that a healthy aquifer should be the sum and substance of all our efforts ... because the aquifer is the health of Idaho's economy.''

Butch Otter

Idaho governor