Senators reach for middle ground on adjudication
Three bills were approved, one will be amended, and five were killed in the Senate Resources Committee this afternoon, as the panel struggled to find middle ground on a split in North Idaho over a proposed basin-wide water rights adjudication. In the end, the solution that emerged from the committee was this: The adjudication won’t be canceled. It will move forward, but the northernmost basin, the Kootenai-Moyie river basin, will be deleted; fees will be cut in half, and Avista Corp.’s fees will be cut from $1.9 million to $300,000; and domestic and stock water rights will be “deferred,” meaning it’ll be voluntary for those water rights holders to participate. They make up half of the water rights involved.
“None of us who cosponsored the original legislation ever intended to make this an effort that was pushing down to the people something that they didn’t want,” said Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint. Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, said her constituents would prefer to delay or cancel the adjudication, but the changes “will help.” Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, told the panel that Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene need their water rights adjudicated so they can continue to drill wells and serve customers in their growing cities.
The Panhandle senators praised Senate Resources Chairman Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, and his committee for all their work on the issue. “They really listened to all sides,” Keough said. “Really, at the end of the day, that’s what you hope for. It was a fair process.”
The bills that passed – SB 1418, 1352, and 1354 – now will head to the full Senate, while SB 1353 goes to the Senate’s 14th Order for amendment. That’s the bill to ban measuring devices on domestic wells. State Water Resources Director David Tuthill said the department has no intention of installing meters on everyone’s wells, but it occasionally does install a meter when two users are disputing their share of a single spring, and the bill as written would have foreclosed that option. He and Keough will work on amendments to cover the North Idaho situation while leaving the department the flexibility to deal with disputes between users.
Hammond said in his fast-developing area, adjudication will allow individual water users to secure their water rights against someone coming in upstream and taking away their water. He’s just finishing up a new home, and its water source, while good now, could be compromised by some future user who hits the same source. “As soon as I can, I’m filing my claim and getting my water right adjudicated,” he said.
