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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Water adjudication advances

Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer

BOISE – Three bills were approved, one will be amended, and five were killed in Idaho’s Senate Resources Committee on Wednesday, as the panel struggled to find middle ground on a split in North Idaho over a proposed basin-wide water rights adjudication.

In the end, the solution that emerged from the committee was this: The adjudication, or legal sorting-out, of all the region’s water rights won’t be canceled. It will move forward, but the northernmost basin, the Kootenai-Moyie, will be deleted; fees will be cut in half; and domestic and stock water rights will be “deferred,” meaning it’ll be voluntary for those water rights holders to participate. They make up half of the water rights involved.

“None of us who co-sponsored the original legislation ever intended to make this an effort that was pushing down to the people something that they didn’t want,” said Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint.

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, said her constituents would prefer to delay or cancel the adjudication, but the changes “will help.”

The changes also will cut Avista Corp.’s fees for the water rights adjudication from $1.9 million to $300,000. Avista lobbyist Neil Colwell worked with Keough to include that provision in SB 1352, the bill that also cuts everyone else’s fees in half.

Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, told the panel that Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene need their water rights adjudicated so they can continue to drill wells and serve customers in their growing cities – and protect their water against future claims from downstream in Spokane County.

The bills that passed – SB 1418, excluding the northernmost basin; SB 1352, cutting fees; and SB 1354, making domestic well participation voluntary – now will head to the full Senate, while SB 1353 goes to the Senate’s 14th Order for amendment. That’s a bill to ban measuring devices on domestic wells.

State Water Resources Director David Tuthill said the department has no intention of installing meters on everyone’s wells, contrary to rumors, but it occasionally does install a meter when two users are disputing their share of a single spring, and the bill as written would have foreclosed that option. He and Keough will work on amendments to cover the North Idaho situation while leaving the department the flexibility to deal with disputes between users.

Hammond said that in his fast-developing area, adjudication will allow individual users to secure their water rights against someone coming in just a bit upstream and taking their water.

He’s just finishing up a new home, and its water source, while good now, could be compromised by some future user who hits the same source. “As soon as I can, I’m filing my claim and getting my water right adjudicated,” he said.