Idaho looks to catalog Palouse Basin water rights

BOISE – Idaho is set to begin a lengthy adjudication process to identify and catalog existing water rights in the Palouse River Basin.

Judge Eric Wildman told lawmakers this week that the state will likely file a Notice of Commencement by May.

Wildman was appointed administrative judge of Idaho’s 5th District Court in 2009. He presided over the final few years of the Snake River Basin Adjudication, which was completed in 2014. He also presides over the ongoing North Idaho Adjudication, which began in 2008 with the Coeur d’Alene-Spokane River basin; it will also address the Palouse River and Clark Fork-Pend Oreille basins.

The Notice of Commencement is the first step in a process that could take three or four years, Wildman said. The ultimate goal is to identify all surface and groundwater rights in the Palouse Basin.

“What we’re really doing is creating a comprehensive inventory of existing water rights,” he said. “Anyone with a claim has to come forward,” including the federal government and American Indian tribes.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources will hold public meetings in Moscow and Potlatch at the end of March to explain the process, Wildman said. He’ll be there with agency employees. They’ll “try to give a good overall perspective,” he said, and let people know where to get information online.

Public hearings are required at various points throughout the adjudication process, he said. There are also multiple opportunities to file objections, including objecting even to commencing the process.

“If the court decides to move forward (with adjudication), the agency will start taking claims,” Wildman said.

Water right holders file claims with the Department of Water Resources. The agency then investigates each claim, including priority date, quantity and location, and issues a preliminary recommendation.

Claimants will have an opportunity to “iron out any differences” with the agency or with other water right holders before a final recommendation is issued, Wildman said. After that, any objections would be resolved by the court.

“It might take a year or two for the agency to complete the investigations,” he said. “Once the final report is issued, there’s a 180-day objection period.”

How long it takes after that depends on the number and type of objections that are filed, Wildman said. Ultimately, the court will issue a final decree that identifies the complete inventory of claims.

The Palouse Basin adjudication will be much simpler than the Snake River Basin adjudication, which was the largest basin adjudication to be completed in the United States. It took almost 30 years, covered 85 percent of the state and handled 158,000 claims.