Budget reductions slow water rights arbitration

BOISE – Budget cuts at the Idaho Department of Water Resources won’t stop the long-planned North Idaho water rights adjudication, but they’ll slow it down, state Water Resources Director David Tuthill told state lawmakers Monday.

Among the casualties of the department’s budget cuts are five of the 11 employees working on the adjudication, Tuthill said.

The adjudication is a sorting-out of all the water rights in the region, many of which have never been recorded, are outdated or conflict with one another. It’s been scaled back, however, to make it voluntary for holders of small domestic water rights.

State Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, said he has no problem with the delay, which will push the process out to 2018 before it’s completed. “It’s probably OK, because there was so much apprehension,” Hammond said. “As more people get their rights adjudicated, other people will see that it’s not as invasive as expected, that it’s really good protection for a low cost.”

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, who co-sponsored legislation last year to scale back the adjudication, said, “It’s not going to be a noticeable delay to most of the folks. … Even if it’s a slowed-down pace, they don’t feel they’re going to lose anything in the long run.”

Tuthill told lawmakers that about 100 claims have been received by his department. About a third of those were filed online, a new capability for the department that’s allowed for efficiencies in the process, he said.

“This process is working very nicely,” he said. “We’re at a point now where we can reduce the effort and still be OK. We can slow down in our claims-taking.”

In response to questions from North Idaho lawmakers, Tuthill said there may be some added cost with the longer time frame, but the process appears to be moving along adequately.

Hammond said his major concern is that Idaho act in time to show the state of Washington that it’s protecting its water rights claims. “My concern was that the Washington (interests) were complaining and asserting it’s their water we’re using,” he said. “I think it’s imperative that we stay ahead of them.”

Tuthill said, “We’re really leading the way with Washington. … I think this level of effort will maintain that.”