Nez Perce water pact won’t tap N. Idaho

BOISE – Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has given North Idaho lawmakers his pledge that the Nez Perce water rights agreement won’t increase demands for water from North Idaho lakes and rivers to help fish downstream.

“That gives me and my constituents up north some confidence,” said Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover. “I’ve got the governor’s commitment that he’s going to be just as concerned with our water issues.”

Eskridge and Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, were among 18 House Resources Committee members sitting through hours of testimony Wednesday on three bills enacting the complex agreement. It was the second day of the hearings, which drew close to 300 people and stretched into Wednesday evening.

“I think there are a lot of genuine concerns, and there will be some individuals who will be negatively impacted by this, that’s probably true,” Sayler said. “But I think overall, it’s a good agreement for the state. … I think some of the fears of the public, though genuine, are probably overstated.”

Wednesday’s hearing featured everything from former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage saying she’d “never seen such far-reaching legislation that has so many holes in it,” to leading business lobbyist Dick Rush calling it “truly a historic document … that is written to benefit the state of Idaho from north to south, from east to west.”

A few of the more than 100 speakers started shouting. Several tried to yield their time to give a lawyer from the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is opposing the agreement, additional chances to speak. Some farmers and ranchers supported the agreement, while others opposed it.

Sayler said the night before the hearing, he read through a thick stack of letters, many of them filled with misinformation and inflammatory language.

“I think a lot of it is just based on lack of understanding of the agreement,” he said.

The agreement, which has been negotiated behind closed doors for the past nine years and was unveiled last May, settles the Nez Perce Tribe’s claims to virtually all the water in the Snake River. The tribe agrees to give those claims up forever, in exchange for money, 50,000 acre feet of water to use on its reservation, some parcels of federal land, and protections for salmon and other fish.

The agreement also calls for the federal government to issue a 30-year biological opinion on Snake River operations, settling the issue of how much Idaho water can be taken to help endangered fish downstream. It also sets up a voluntary program for landowners to enhance habitat around streams in the region, in exchange for protection from lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act.

Eskridge had been concerned that establishing the amount of Idaho water to be taken from the Snake to augment flows for fish might cause downstream interests to look northward if they want more water, and try to draw more from Lake Pend Oreille, the Kootenai River or Lake Coeur d’Alene.

His strong concerns expressed to the governor’s office brought him a signed letter pledging that that would be “an unacceptable outcome” of the agreement, and that Kempthorne’s support for the agreement is based on it having no such impact.

The Pend Oreille and Priest Lakes Commission recently sent a letter to the governor and lawmakers asking for companion legislation to accompany the water rights agreement, pledging that it won’t tap Panhandle water.

“I didn’t get the companion legislation, but I did get a signed letter from the governor,” Eskridge said, adding that he’ll have the letter placed into the formal record of the hearings on the agreement.

Sayler said he was pleased to see the letter. “I was assured with the letter from the governor that North Idaho, Pend Oreille and Coeur d’Alene are not going to be affected negatively by this,” he said.

Most of the comments at the hearing Wednesday, which included hours of open public testimony, came from supporters of the agreement who said it would ensure Idaho’s water rights into the future, and from opponents who said they thought it raised unresolved questions and threatened private property rights.

Angie Lee Morrow of Harrison, speaking for the North Idaho Citizens Alliance, told the lawmakers, “It startles me that the governor and even our federal senators and congressmen are ramming this through, when even our legislators do not know all the details.” She said the agreement is “allowing a small party of people to have what they want at the expense of all of our citizens.”

Tim Dillin of Porthill, speaking for the Idaho Grain Producers, urged support of the agreement, which he said grain farmers helped negotiate. The 30-year determination of endangered species water needs is “very important to us in the north,” he told the lawmakers.

Pat Holmberg of the Idaho Independent Miners told the committee, “We believe that anything decided in secret is not good for the people. … Those of us in north-central Idaho kind of feel like the stepchild at the family reunion.”

Lloyd Hicks, who spoke for a canal company that has operated in Jefferson and Bonneville counties since 1886, said he and other irrigators have been fighting the tribe’s water claims for five years and have spent $5 million on litigation. The agreement ends that struggle, he said.

“Important things are always hard, and this is hard,” Hicks told the legislators. “We trust you to do the right thing.”

The House Resources Committee has scheduled its debate and vote on the agreement for Friday. The agreement, already approved by Congress and signed by the president, needs final approval from the Legislature and the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee by March 31 to take effect.