Groundwater users avoid curtailment after reaching temporary settlement, but it isn’t over yet
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IDAHO FALLS – A temporary agreement in the water curtailment discussion has been reached and has been submitted to the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
The settlement will allow groundwater users in Bingham, Bonneville, Jefferson and Clark counties to get through the growing season without having the water shut off, according to a news release from Idaho Ground Water Appropriators. The settlement involves a groundwater mitigation agreement that has been submitted to the department for final approval. Once the board signs it, the curtailment order issued on May 30 for nine groundwater districts throughout the state will be lifted.
“This is a huge relief to our members, who have had their livelihoods threatened over the past month,” TJ Budge, attorney for Idaho Ground Water Appropriators, says in a news release. “We want to thank Governor Little, Lt. Governor Bedke, Senator Van Burtenshaw and, especially, all of our groundwater district members for their sincere and significant efforts to get a deal done before it was too late.”
If the order would’ve been enforced, about 500,000 acres across the state — much of it in eastern Idaho — would’ve lost access to water. Groundwater users say this would’ve had a devastating impact on Idaho’s economy.
The curtailment order came about because of a projected shortage of 74,100 acre-feet of water for the Twin Falls Canal Company, which has senior water rights. Surface water users in Magic Valley have senior water rights over groundwater users in eastern Idaho under Idaho’s prior appropriation doctrine.
In order to avoid curtailment in times of shortages, groundwater users have to participate in a state groundwater mitigation plan, which aims to recharge the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer and reverse the decades long decline in its water supply.
The department originally determined about 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders who pump off the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer were not compliant with a state mitigation plan.
Under the new plan, groundwater districts will conserve 240,000 acre-feet of water and deliver 50,000 acre-feet of storage water to the Surface Water Coaltion, as stated in the 2016 mitigation plan.
The parties also agreed to recognize groundwater districts’ prior water conservation efforts, which the SWC disputed in the past.
Although this mitigation plan temporarily avoids a curtailment in 2024, it does not address longterm concerns with how the state manages the aquifer. IGWA Chairwoman Stephanie Mickelsen says in a news release water users across the state need to agree to a permanent water right plan or be in the same position again next year.
“The way the Idaho Department of Water Resources currently goes about managing the ESPA is not working,” Mickelsen says. “Without meaningful change to how water resources are managed, we will find ourselves right back in this same position and all of Idaho will end up paying the price.”
During a public meeting with the Bonneville-Jefferson Ground Water District last week, its attorney Skyler Johns said the deadline to come up with a new plan is Oct. 1.
“We look forward to working with state leaders to chart a path that is in the best interest of the state moving forward,” Mickelsen says.
In a statement sent to media outlets statewide, Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke expressed appreciation to both parties for working together and making compromises to avoid a curtailment.
Bedke says the difficult negotiation process over the last several weeks has “highlighted areas of agreement as well as areas of deep disagreement among water users in the region.”
“I appreciate that our southern Idaho surface water and groundwater users were able to put aside their differences and come together to create an equitable solution that guarantees no water is shut off, no Idaho laws are broken, and the crops already in the ground will be ready for harvesting,” Bedke says. “But it’s imperative that those same parties understand their work is not finished.”
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Little expressed a similar sentiment, calling on water users to continue working together “to ensure we have a sustainable supply of water for this generation and future generations.”
He also addressed repeated requests from eastern Idahoans during this discussion for him to stop IDWR Director Mathew Weaver from carrying out the curtailment order.
“Doing so would violate the Idaho Constitution and create a risk of handing control of our water over to the state courts, or worse, the federal courts, or U.S. Congress,” Little says. “Instead, we chose to work together on a solution. I sincerely appreciate all the stakeholders and user groups for their hard work.”