Hard choice for water users
MACKAY, Idaho – Roughly 350 water users in the Big Lost River Basin have been given a hard choice: either join a mitigation plan aimed at providing water to senior users or completely lose flow to their wells.
Three members of the Jensen family claim senior water rights dating to 1883 for their farms three miles south of Moore.
The families recently petitioned the Department of Water Resources, saying they will run out of water without intervention.
If the users don’t join the mitigation plan, watermaster Bob Duke would be expected to shut down their wells. But that’s something Duke isn’t prepared do, even if the Idaho Department of Water Resources tells him to.
“I know most of the people in this valley,” he said. “I see their side of it. I don’t see how I could put myself in a position where I would have to do something I’m not in agreement with.”
The department has the legal power to appoint a watermaster who would follow orders, said Gary Spackman, chief of the water allocation bureau.
“I don’t want to be mean-spirited,” Spackman told users at the Monday meeting. “What I’m telling you is you’re subject to the order until you hear something different from the office.”
Idaho law gives preference to those who hold the oldest water rights. If the water runs out, people with younger water rights have to give up their share.
The average cost to enroll in the mitigation plan is about $10 to $20 a year for each user, Spackman said. That would pay for a well to channel water into the property of one of the families with senior water rights.
But that solution doesn’t sit well with many other water users.
“The easy way out is to pay them $20,” said Mike Dotzenrod, adding he had not decided whether to join the mitigation plan. “You can pay the $20, yet it doesn’t make any statement to IDWR about anything.”
On July 12, the department told junior users – including scores of farmers, ranchers, and the Mackay School District – that they would have to shut down groundwater pumping July 23 in deference to the three Jensen families. Ten days later, the department said it would postpone the order until the Jensens actually ran dry, or the other users found another solution.
Gregory Moeller, a Rexburg lawyer representing scores of users, said he wants a future hearing that thoroughly explores the issue.
And Jack Jensen, one of those with senior water rights, said he wants to reach an agreement without hurting other users with junior rights.
“I don’t want anybody to have to shut their well off,” he said.