Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Water funding bill in the works?

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, dropped a somewhat tantalizing hint as she was pitching the Idaho Department of Water Resources budget bill to the Senate this morning. She had noted that the budget includes funding for a feasibility analysis of adjudicating water rights in the Coeur d’Alene Basin. That brought a question from Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, about the rest of the water projects recommended by a North Idaho working group that met over the summer and fall, as part of a giant interim committee looking at statewide water problems.

Keough acknowledged that the rest of those projects – along with other projects around the state – aren’t in the IDWR budget. She told the Senate, “It is my understanding and I believe there is a commitment that we will take a look at those projects missing from this budget in an end-of-the-session water omnibus bill.”

Eye On Boise

News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.