Gov. Little confident farmers will resolve water dispute as state provides millions for aquifer recharge
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POCATELLO — Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Tuesday that millions of dollars will be given to projects aimed at recharging the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.
During a speech in Rigby, the governor announced he has directed the Idaho Water Resources Board, which runs the Idaho Dept. of Water Resources, to allocate $10 million towards projects that improve the long-term health of the aquifer. That’s in addition to another $30 million provided by the Legislature and the governor himself, which brings the total to $40 million.
Earlier Tuesday in Pocatello, he gave a speech to community leaders in Pocatello expressing his confidence in the ongoing negotiations between junior and senior water rights holders.
“Above all else, we’ll protect the water sovereignty in Idaho, and we won’t have to worry about Congress, and we won’t have to worry about some federal judge in a long black robe telling us how to manage our water in Idaho,” Little said.
Little said he’s had conversations with a number of other western governors who have been in the position where the federal government intervened in the state’s water management. Little realized that something like this could happen to Idaho if the state didn’t move in the right direction towards recharging the aquifer, which he said declines by 250,000 acre-feet — an acre-foot is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of land one foot deep — in an average year.
“If the agricultural community here in Idaho doesn’t do something, we’ll be in the same place as a lot of our western neighbors,” Little said.
The agricultural community saw a contentious spring, when the state issued a water curtailment order that would have removed water access for 330,000 acres of farmland owned by junior water rights users in eastern Idaho. It was averted when the Idaho Surface Water Coalition, Ground Water Appropriators and the Idaho Department of Water Resources reached a temporary agreement to get through the growing season.
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But the governor and other officials are stressing long-term solutions. The governor signed an executive order in June requiring the parties to reach a long-term solution by Oct. 1. By Sept. 1, the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Groundwater Management Plan Advisory Council must submit a management plan for review.
The state groundwater committee was terminated last week after failing to reach an agreement with surface water users after a year of discussions. James Cefalo, IDWR’s eastern regional office manager in Idaho Falls who was overseeing these meetings, is working on a summary of the advisory council’s efforts over the last year to submit to IDWR Director Mathew Weaver in Boise.
Local farmers and groundwater districts are still involved in the discussion, which TJ Budge — an attorney who represents Idaho Ground Water Appropriators — said last week was going well.
Little expressed confidence in the ongoing negotiations during Tuesday’s address.
“I’m really quite optimistic about where they are. I gave them two timelines. They may go over a few days, but I am confident that those recommendations are going to come to fruition,” Little said.
Little also spoke to the importance of committing state funds to the recharge effort.
“Going forward, this is going to make a difference, as has everything else,” Little said.
These negotiations and the state funds committed to aquifer recharge are intended to turn Idaho’s declining aquifer around and secure a future for agriculture in the state.
“My goal is to never have another instance where there isn’t certainty, whether it’s for farm families, whether it’s the farming community or whether it’s the business community,” Little said.
Little also spoke to the current recharge efforts, saying that Idaho can turn the problem around.
“It has been something that we’ve done in conjunction with canal companies, with entities all over the state of Idaho, and it has been successful. What it proves is that we can do this,” Little said.