Water rights deal endorsed by House
BOISE – The landmark Nez Perce water rights agreement passed the Idaho House on Wednesday on an overwhelming 55-14 vote.
“This is one of the most significant pieces of legislation we will do this session,” said Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, one of the bill’s three House sponsors.
Clark touted the timber program that’s included in the far-reaching agreement, which offers incentives for voluntary habitat enhancement by timberland owners in the Clearwater/Salmon basin, in exchange for protection from lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act.
House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, urged the House to support the $193 million agreement, which already has been ratified by Congress and signed by the president.
“When I can define what my water right is for now and for the future forever with regard to the Nez Perce, that’s a good thing in my book,” Newcomb said.
The agreement settles the Nez Perce Tribe’s senior water rights claims for virtually all the water in the Snake River and its tributaries. The tribe agrees to give up those claims forever in exchange for 50,000 acre feet of water to use on its north-central Idaho reservation, money, land and protections for endangered salmon.
The agreement also settles the issue of how much Idaho water is needed to help endangered salmon, through a 30-year biological opinion to be issued by federal officials.
Backers of the agreement said it will end years of court battles that already have cost southern Idaho irrigators more than $5 million as they’ve fought the tribe’s claims in court. Pressing on in court could take many years and cost millions more.
“I haven’t seen anybody yet that wants us to go back to negotiations and go back in court that has brought their checkbook with ‘em,” said Rep. Dell Raybould, R-Rexburg, the measure’s lead House sponsor.
Opponents included three Panhandle lawmakers: Reps. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries; Phil Hart, R-Athol; and Mary Lou Shepherd, D-Prichard.
Harwood told the House, “If they had a really good case like their lawyers are saying, they’re gonna beat the snot out of us in court. Why would they initiate the agreement? … Why would they come back (to the negotiating table)?”
Shepherd, who didn’t speak during the debate, said she voted against the agreement because people in her district sent her close to 200 messages asking her to oppose it. The messages came mostly from Benewah County, she said.
“They know that I always vote for my district,” Shepherd said. “I have this entire bottom drawer of my filing cabinet, nothing but messages.”
Hart said he voted no because “in the debate, the people who were against the agreement tended to be the people that lived in the area most affected. We’re a Republican form of government, and in a Republican form of government, the rights of the individual rise above the rights of the majority.”
However, the 14 “no” votes included just two from north central Idaho, where the Nez Perce reservation is located: Reps. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, and Paul Shepherd, R-Riggins. Roberts spoke out against the agreement and said people in his district oppose it.
“It is a tough day for us,” he said.
Five of the “no” votes came from Eastern Idaho representatives, four from the Treasure Valley and three from the Panhandle.
The rest of North Idaho’s representatives voted in favor of the agreement, including Reps. George Eskridge, R-Dover, and George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, who supported the bill in committee after receiving a signed letter from Gov. Dirk Kempthorne promising that the agreement won’t increase downstream demands for more water from Panhandle lakes and rivers.
The three bills implementing the Nez Perce agreement now move to the Senate. To take effect, the agreement must have formal approval from both the state and the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee by March 31.