Chenoweth Fears A ‘Water Grab’ But Feds Say Allocating Water For Salmon Recovery Efforts Won’t Drain The State

U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth is sounding an alarm that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation could grab Idaho water in the name of endangered salmon.

Reclamation officials respond that her warnings are off-base, and the Endangered Species Act requires them to take certain steps.

The federal agency has filed 17 applications with the state Department of Water Resources to add increasing flows and salmon recovery as approved uses for water stored in 13 of its reservoirs.

The bureau’s current water rights are for irrigation and power generation only. If Water Resources and the Legislature approve, the bureau could release up to 427,000 acre-feet of water to increase the flows of the Snake and Columbia rivers for the fish migrations.

The applications cover water rights for 5.2 million acre-feet of storage water, although the bureau has vowed not to release more than 427,000 during any water year.

“The bureau is claiming now that they simply want the right to purchase water from willing sellers to use for salmon recovery,” Chenoweth said in a Tuesday statement.

“I am concerned at the Pandora’s box that might be opened if the river flow augmentation for salmon becomes an approved beneficial use of Idaho water.

“There may be enough water available this year from willing sellers, but what if there isn’t next year?”

But Ken Pedde, bureau deputy regional director, responded the agency does not want 5.2 million acre-feet for salmon recovery as Chenoweth suggests.

The agency is looking at using the water it owns outright as well as that rented through water banks, he said. For example, he said, it might look to rent more water out of the Boise and Payette basins if there is a drought in eastern Idaho next year.

In any given year, there could be a different mix of availability of water banks, Pedde said.

Reclamation Regional Director John Keyes on Monday rejected Chenoweth’s request the department abandon its efforts.

The Idaho Republican claimed Reclamation cannot apply to change its water use because it does not hold a water right, citing the Reclamation Act of 1902 and a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

“To take a decision that was handed down in the mid-1940s and to ignore the body of law that has accumulated since then doesn’t reflect the true picture, necessarily,” Pedde said.

“We need to do this as a federal obligation under the Endangered Species Act. Until that law is changed or repealed, it is the law we have to operate under,” he said. “This is Idaho water being used to restore Idaho fish.”

Chenoweth said she fears the bureau might use other measures under the Endangered Species Act to take water and push irrigators lower on the priority list.

The deadline for filing formal protests with Water Resources is June 26. Five already have been filed. The department plans public hearings.

Three years ago, the Legislature approved an exemption to allow the bureau to release rented water downstream for salmon for two years, Water Resources spokesman Dick Larsen said. A year ago, it extended the exemption through Jan. 1, 1996.