No Extra Water For Salmon

The men who control the spigot for Idaho’s Snake River water doubt they can find much extra for endangered salmon this year.

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Wednesday it wants 427,000 acre-feet of water from upper Snake River reservoirs. Since the agency decided to buy from willing sellers, it will have to stand in line.

“Agriculture will have to be satisfied first,” said Claude Storer of Idaho Falls, chairman of Water District One’s Committee of Nine, which decides who can lease upper Snake water.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has been looking for willing sellers since last year, with only modest success. Earlier this year it bought 6,500 acre-feet of water from the Salmon River Canal Co. for $150 an acre-foot.

It is pinning its hopes on Water District One’s water bank. Farmers and canal companies put up for lease extra storage water through the bank, but farmers have first call on the water at $2.95 an acre-foot.

Water owners who sell to buyers downstream also face the threat of losing their place in line for the storage water the next year if the reservoirs don’t fill.

“Hopefully we can get enough water through rental, but frankly it’s too early to tell,” said Rich Rigby, who heads water purchasing for the Bureau of Reclamation.

He will be competing with the state for the little lease water available. The Idaho Legislature passed a plan this week to pump 300,000 acre-feet of extra Snake River water into the aquifer.