Bill to resolve water dispute stalls in Senate

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Legislation to resolve one of the largest water rights disputes in the West has hit a roadblock in the U.S. Senate, an obstacle that a state lawmaker says casts doubt on the Idaho congressional delegation’s power.

Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Michael Crapo said the hold put on the bill by an unknown senator is evidence of increasing opposition to the deal that involves the federal and state governments, the Nez Perce Tribe and tens of thousands of Idaho water users.

Senate procedures allow a member to single-handedly block a floor vote on legislation without identifying himself or herself.

That move, Craig and Crapo agreed, means there is no chance of passing the bill during next month’s lame-duck session, especially with opposition from environmental groups and others who question the deal’s precedent on future water rights claims.

The agreement announced last June after years of negotiations gives the Nez Perce annual rights to 50,000 acre-feet of water in the Clearwater River and $80 million in cash and land in return for dropping their claims to nearly all the water in the Snake River and its tributaries.

The state and federal governments also pledged tens of millions of dollars for fish habitat and other environmental improvements.

Former Idaho U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, who now lives in Nevada, recently said the deal was an “audacious and blatant water grab” because it calls for the state to establish minimum flows on rivers and streams to protect salmon, eliminating that water for use by landowners. She contended that reduces the value of private property.

The deal has to win government and tribal approval by March 31, and Craig maintained the opposition at the federal level now requires state endorsement first.

“It needs to have a full vetting before the Idaho Legislature,” Craig said.

But state Sen. Laird Noh, the Kimberly Republican who heads the Resources and Environment Committee and has been deeply involved in the water rights dispute, questioned that assessment.

“I don’t see what the Idaho Legislature has to do with this. Congress doesn’t give a whit what the Idaho Legislature thinks,” Noh said. “It raises the question as to whether our congressional delegation has the clout to get it through.”

Noh, who is retiring this year after 24 years in the state Senate, called the procedural bar to U.S. Senate action a complication but “it’s not insurmountable.”

He said the deadline for approval of the deal may have to be extended beyond March 31.

But he agreed with the U.S. senators that the deal is critical to Idaho water users avoiding the uncertainty of a court ruling, especially on a case likely to reach the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Noh and most other state officials have been leery of what they see as the federal appellate court’s extremely liberal environmental views.

The Nez Perce claim has been a major issue in the 20-year effort to put over 180,000 water right claims in Idaho in order of priority. It has been the largest water rights adjudication in western history.