Deadline set in fight for groundwater

BOISE – The state’s top water official has given hundreds of farmers, dairymen and other groundwater users in Southern Idaho until July 6 to quit pumping or satisfy the demands of two trout farms that say they’ve been forced to slash fish production because they aren’t getting water they’re legally due.

The Friday order from Dave Tuthill, state Department of Water Resources director, covers 591 water rights over 16,638 acres, fewer than the 771 water rights on 33,000 acres discussed when Tuthill announced a proposed curtailment in April.

Still, representatives of Magic Valley groundwater pumpers say economic losses on fields already planted with crops such as sugar beets and potatoes could approach $20 million.

Tuthill’s shutoff order is the latest development in Idaho’s water woes, exacerbated by aggressive groundwater pumping and another year of drought. Though Gov. Butch Otter called a water summit April 17 to discuss broader solutions to conflicts between Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer groundwater pumpers and holders of century-old water rights, this order seems to indicate that sometimes shutting pumpers down is the only way.

“Curtailment is a last resort, but we are obligated under Idaho law to follow through with enforcement when mitigation is not provided,” Tuthill said. “The parties involved so far have not presented an acceptable solution to get through 2007, so I have no choice but to issue these curtailment orders.”

The aquifer is a Lake Erie-size underground reservoir stretching from Elmore County to Rexburg that feeds the Snake River at the Thousand Springs area near Hagerman.

Drinking water won’t be affected by the order, but gardeners and those with lawns in towns like Wendell and Shoshone could be forced to turn off their sprinklers. Some commercial, industrial and municipal water users also would be affected.

Pumpers have until July 6 to deliver a mitigation plan – or shut off their pumps.

Otherwise, they’ll face state fines of as much as $300 per acre.

Lynn Tominaga, director of the Idaho Ground Water Appropriators, estimates the cost of the shutoff to farmers could be as high as $1,200 an acre, meaning their economic losses could be $20 million, not including industrial water users in the region.