Local water district weighs in on water curtailment discussion amid settlement negotiations

REXBURG — Economic concerns associated pinch nan caller h2o curtailment bid person been brewing for weeks now.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources issued nan curtailment connected May 30 because it wished groundwater users successful Bingham, Bonneville, Jefferson and Clark counties were not successful compliance pinch a authorities mitigation plan. The scheme maintains privilege for aboveground h2o users successful Magic Valley, who person elder h2o authorities complete groundwater users successful eastbound Idaho.

It besides requires groundwater users to reconstruct h2o levels successful nan Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer, which has been declining for decades.

RELATED | IDWR pauses h2o curtailment inspections owed to “substantial progress” made successful colony negotiations

As of Friday, nan IDWR paused its curtailment bid arsenic some parties made “substantial progress” successful nan speech process. Department spokesperson Steve Stuebner tells EastIdahoNews.com a impermanent statement was reached connected Tuesday to get them done nan increasing season. The specifications of that statement are expected to beryllium released Thursday.

If nan curtailment would’ve been enforced, it would’ve impacted astir 500,000 acres of Idaho farmland.

RELATED | Will 500,000 acres of Idaho farmland suffer entree to water?

The curtailment bid comes astir because of a projected h2o shortage of 74,100 acre-feet of h2o for nan Twin Falls Canal Company. During times of predicted shortfall, those pinch elder h2o authorities want to guarantee they person nan h2o they need. Under Idaho law, they tin make “water calls” complete inferior h2o authorities users.

Whenever location is simply a imaginable h2o shortfall, Fremont-Madison Irrigation District Executive Director Aaron Dalling says groundwater users are required to travel a methodology order, which falls nether a 2016 authorities h2o agreement.

Dalling says nan methodology bid is tally successful April and July each year, and location are 2 exemplary types: nan Steady State Model, and nan Transient Model. This year, nan Transient State Model was used.

“One of nan large issues is that nan section changed nan measurement they ran nan methodology order,” Dalling says. “Prior to 2023, they based nan methodology bid connected nan Steady State Model.”

RELATED | Local crushed h2o districts still astatine nan negotiating array arsenic threat of h2o curtailment continues

Some h2o districts, peculiarly those that would’ve been curtailed, find nan mitigation scheme nether nan methodology bid unsustainable.

The Madison Water District, nan Henry’s Fork Water District, on pinch h2o districts successful Aberdeen, American Falls, and Magic Valley were not taxable to curtailment this twelvemonth because nan section wished they were compliant pinch a mitigation plan. These districts consciousness nan scheme nether nan caller methodology bid is feasible.

“The Madison Groundwater District, and nan Henry’s Fork Groundwater District notified nan section backmost successful May they would mitigate nether nan 2016 colony agreement, and that protected america from curtailment,” Dalling says.

For nan Madison and Henry’s Fork h2o districts, nan mitigation scheme involves buying retention h2o from Henry’s Lake and delivering it straight to Magic Valley canals to offset a information of nan pumping.

“We besides acquisition h2o and person it recharged astatine nan Egin Lakes recharge site,” Dalling says.

Throughout this conversation, different h2o districts person talked astir building caller recharge sites.

Dalling says nan IDWR, which is simply a committee of group that includes hydrologists, geologists and engineers, has to make decisions based connected tribunal rulings and Idaho State Law.

“All of these things person been challenged successful court, and nan aboveground h2o users proceed to triumph successful court. The section would show you that they do what they do because … that’s what nan tribunal has directed them to do,” Dalling says.

Despite nan antagonistic emotion towards nan IDWR, Dalling doesn’t judge it is retired to get anyone, aliases that it wants to unopen of nan water.

“I deliberation they’re trying to make nan champion decisions they tin pinch nan accusation they have. I deliberation it’s akin for nan groundwater districts,” says Dalling. “On some sides, group are moving astir nan timepiece (and) they’re emotion a ton of weight connected their shoulders.”