Eastern Idahoans wary of ruling

IDAHO FALLS – Officials and farmers in eastern Idaho say that if they are banned from pumping underground water, thousands of acres of farmland would go dry, cities would struggle to find drinking water, and the area’s economy would blow away.

“This is something that is very convoluted,” Craig Evans, an eastern Idaho farmer who pumps groundwater to irrigate his 670-acre farm, told the Post Register. “And the state has got a big part of solving this problem.”

At odds are surface water users with older, senior water rights, and groundwater users with more recent water rights who pump water from a decreasing supply in the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer. By state law, water users with senior rights must be allocated their water before people with younger water rights receive water.

Surface water users contend that pumping from the aquifer causes a decrease in flow from the hundreds of springs that feed area rivers, thus leading to reduced water for surface users.

They formed the Surface Water Coalition and sued the Idaho Department of Water Resources in August 2005, and in June, 5th District Judge Barry Wood agreed with them.

In August, Wood refused to halt his earlier ruling, and the Idaho Supreme Court refused to stay Wood’s ruling but is holding an expedited hearing on Dec. 8. In asking for the stay, the Water Resources Department estimated 55,000 acres of farmland could go dry if groundwater users were forced to stop pumping, and some towns could face water shortages.

The Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer is 60 miles wide and 170 miles long, covers about 10,800 square miles and holds about 250 million acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre a foot deep.

Michael Keckler, public information officer for the water resources department, said about 7,500 of Idaho’s 10,000 irrigation wells pump from the aquifer, as do about 47,000 of Idaho’s 70,000 domestic wells.

“So you can see this is a vital source to a lot of people,” Keckler said Monday. “In southern Idaho, the entire economy is based on water in one way or another. The fact is, the eastern Snake River Plain is a high desert, and that makes water extremely precious.”

Keckler said that senior water rights holders have requested delivery of water.

By law, the department is obligated to respond to these requests. That could lead to shutting off some groundwater users.

Keckler said Karl Dreher, the department’s director, is working on the requests.

“The director is basically preparing a series of orders in response to this,” Keckler said. “Until he completes those orders, we just don’t have any comment at this point.”