THE IDAHO GROUND WATER APPROPRIATERS

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THE IDAHO GROUND WATER APPROPRIATERS

• An Overview of Our Current Water SituationThe
  Need to Manage the Snake River Plain Aquifer

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Who we are

• IGWA members include agricultural, industrial and
  municipal ground water users across southeastern
  Idaho
• Farmers dairymen
• 13 cities
• Members of the 10 groundwater irrigation
  districts
• Industrial users, food processors
• In all, IGWA represents more than 1 million acres
  of agricultural land and 120,000 residential and
  business customers
• IGWAs mission is to represent their interests,
  including the promotion of efficient use and
  economic development of water resourcesIdahos
  Lifeblood

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Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer

• Provides 97 percent of the water used by Idahoans
  who live on the Eastern Snake River Plain
• One third of Idahos population lives in the
  Snake River Plain region
• Consists of all or part of 20 counties
• 9,000 square miles or 35 of the state
• The Aquifer itself underlies 10,000 square miles
  or 13 percent of the State of Idaho
• It holds as much water as Lake Erie

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The Snake River Aquifer
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Under The Surface

• 90 of the aquifer is made of basalt lavas

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The Eastern Snake River Plain

• Remote sensing tools show the basalt lavas are
  4,000 to 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the
  Plain.

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Who Uses The Aquifer?

• Municipal and domestic water wells
• Agriculture-Irrigation with groundwater
• Agriculture-Irrigation with surface water that is
  fed by spring discharge into river
• Springs-Aquaculture and other uses
• Commercial and industrial uses
• Tourism
• Wildlife/environmental benefits

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What Recharges Our Aquifer?

• Direct Precipitation
• Underflow from Tributary Basins
• Seepage from streams overlying the aquifer
• Leakage from canals
• Deep percolation of irrigation water

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What Recharges Our Aquifer?
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A Complicated Issue

• Its counter-intuitive, but more efficient use of
  water on the surface has caused a decline of
  aquifer levels since the 1950s.
• Sprinkler irrigation
• Lined ditches
• Land/field layout improvements
• the curtailing of winter water diversions
• increased spring water applications
• deep well pumping
• These practices became strongest after the 1977
  drought
• Recently, six years of drought added to the
  problems without additional supplies replenishing
  or making recharge water more available to the
  aquifer

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Prior Appropriation Doctrine

• Water law in Idaho and the West is based on a
  simple idea first in time, first in right --
  this means Senior water rights holders have
  priority over Junior water rights holders
• Yet, Idaho water law stipulates that Idaho water
  must be used to the maximum economic benefits

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Thousand Springs Situation

• In 2005 Blue Lakes Trout Farm and Clear Foods
  Springs Snake River Farm made water delivery
  calls. This is when a senior water right holder
  experiences a shortfalls in water they are
  beneficially using and are entitled to receive.
• The Director of the Idaho Department of Water
  Resources, who administers water rights issued a
  curtailment order on junior water rights holders.
• These orders ended up in litigation with a ruling
  that IDWR could proceed with issuing the
  curtailment order.

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Most Recent Actions

• On June 15, IDWR issued a curtailment order
  affecting affects 591 groundwater rights that
  included approximately 16,638 acres of southern
  Idaho farmland in Blaine, Butte, Gooding, Jerome,
  Lincoln and Minidoka Counties
• On July 6, that order was lifted when the IGWA
  and the Idaho Dairymen's Association, with the
  help of upper Eastern Idaho irrigators, provided
  mitigation water satisfying IDWRs goals of
  supplying water to senior water rights holders

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A few recent headlines

• Magic Valley farmers wrestle with uncertainty
  over water
• Water Fight Restraining order lifted
• Water chief Shut offs will be enforced
• Deadline set in fight for groundwater
• Farmers, industry brace for curtailment
• Will state cut off water Friday?
• Magic Valley headed for an Armageddon summer in
  08
• Water Resources director accepts mitigation
  plans, cancels curtailment

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A Crisis AvertedFor Now

• If the curtailment had become a reality
• Estimated direct losses of 1,200 for every acre
  lost
• The direct economic damage to Idaho farmers and
  their families would have been tens of millions
  of dollars
• Devastating loss for many
• Indirect impacts? No one really knows
• Bank loan defaults
• Retail businesses
• Dairies
• Food processing plants
• Property taxes, sales taxes
• Safe for 2007but with no solution in sight, what
  about 2008?

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A Path Forward

• State leaders unveiled the comprehensive ESPA
  Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan Framework
  earlier this year
• Its goal
• To sustain the economic viability and social
  and environmental health of the Eastern Snake
  Plaine by adaptively managing a balance between
  water use and supplies.
• An advisory committee and aquifer users of the
  aquifer are working together to further develop
  that framework

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Advisory Committee Working For a Solution

• Municipalities
• Businesses
• Land Developers
• Surface Water Users
• Ground Water Users
• Springwater Users
• Hydropower
• Domestic Well OwnersEnvironmental/Conservation
• Mixed Use
• County Assessors

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A simple water solution?

• We believe the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer holds
  the key to the resolving the water supply
  conflicts of the past 50 years.
• If systematically managed, it essentially becomes
  the largest reservoir in the West an even more
  valuable resource

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Active Adaptive

• Systematic, targeted aquifer recharge and storage
  program
• An opportunistic recharge program
• Identify and implement additional water supply
  enhancement projects
• Maintain or enhance programs and personnel
  necessary to monitor and manage supply demand
• Revise state water bank to provide appropriate
  incentives and policies for water storage
  management

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Water Management Objectives

• Increase predictability for water users by
  managing for reliable supply
• Create alternatives to administrative
  curtailment
• Manage overall demand for water within the
  Eastern Snake River Plain
• Increase recharge to the Aquifer
• Reduce withdrawls from the aquifer

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IGWAs Underlying Principles

• Maximize the beneficial use of water resources to
  the fullest potential
• Protect water rights and personal property rights
• Periodic drought should not drive permanent
  policy
• With aquifer management, spring discharges can be
  sustained at historic levels

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Maximizing Beneficial Use

• No one use should be allowed to command entire
  aquifer
• Long term sustainability is possible through
  active and adaptive aquifer management
• Maximizing retention of water in Snake River
  basin above Milner is vital

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Protect Property Rights

• It is essential to honor and sustain personal
  investments of stakeholders based upon water
  rights
• All water rights are property rights, regardless
  of their priority, and must be mutually respected
• Protecting the investments of all stakeholders is
  vital to the health and viability of surrounding
  communities and the regional economy

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Droughts are not permanent

• Periodic drought conditions should not be allowed
  to dictate the permanent dislocation of
  water-based economies
• Active aquifer management can support all
  beneficial uses during below-normal water years
  and increase water supply certainty for all users

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Historic Spring Levels

• Spring discharges can be sustained at historic
  levels
• But artificial discharge records of the 1950s can
  never be reached again even with the complete
  curtailment of all ground water pumping
• IGWA believes spring discharges can be stabilized
  at the current above-average levels
• Improvement is possible with proper aquifer
  management

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Whats Next?

• ESPA Advisory Committee will continue seeking a a
  long-term resolution
• Idaho Department of Water Resources will hold
  hearings October 10 in an effort to avert a
  situation like we just experienced and have a
  curtailment order issued by the IDWR.
• Only as a last resort will IGWA will seek a
  court-mandated resolution to protect our private
  property water rights and keep Idaho farmers in
  business

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Critical Times for Water Users

• This is one of most critical times for water
  users in the state of Idaho and we all use
  water
• Two different paths
• One leads to the development of a negotiated
  resolution tailored to accommodate all interests
  to the maximum extent possible
• The other leads to continued contentious
  litigation to further define the relationship
  between the principles of the prior doctrine
• Both lead to the same place development of a
  comprehensive aquifer management plan
• The question is whether we want to define our own
  destiny or leave it to the courts to do so

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Websites of Interest

• Idaho Water Policy Group www.idahowaterpolicygroup
  .org/index.html
• Department of Agriculture  www.agri.state.id.us
• Department of Environmental Quality
  www.deq.idaho.gov
• Food Producers of Idaho  www.foodproducersofidaho.
  org
• Idaho Association of Commerce
  Industry www.iaci.org
• Idaho Council on Industry and the
  Environment www.icie.org
• Idaho Supreme Court www.isc.idaho.gov
• Legislative Services Office  www.legislature.idaho
  .gov
• Public Utilities Commission www.puc.state.id.us
• Soil Conservation Commission  www.scc.state.id.us
• Department of Water Resources  www.idwr.state.id.u
  s
• Idaho Water ResourceBoardwww.idwr.idaho.gov/water
  board/
• Idaho Water Resources Research Institute
  www.iwrri.uidaho.edu
• Idaho Water Supply www.idwr.idaho.gov/water/supply
  

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• For More Information
• Contact
• Idaho Groundwater Appropriators,
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• P.O. Box 2624
• 1109 W. Main, Suite 300
• Boise, Idaho 83701-2624
• www.idahowaterpolicygroup.org