Surface users hail judge's water ruling

Dave Wilkins
Capital Press

May 9, 2008

Attorneys for a coalition of Idaho surface water users praised a recent water rights decision that they said supports their claim that the group has been harmed by groundwater pumping.

"We are very pleased. The coalition has believed all along that its case was legally sound," said Tom Arkoosh, an attorney for one of the canal companies involved in the case.

Retired Idaho Supreme Court Justice Gerald R. Schroeder, acting as an administrative hearing officer for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, said in a written decision April 29 that seven canal companies and irrigation districts had shown that groundwater pumping had reduced their flows and that there have been crop losses resulting from water shortages.

Schroeder said evidence presented during a three-week hearing in late January and early February in Boise showed that "groundwater pumping has affected the quantity and timing of water available to surface water coalition members.

"Natural flow rights have been exhausted earlier and storage has been used earlier and more extensively, limiting the application of water during the irrigation season and diminishing the amount of carryover storage to which the surface water users are entitled," Schroeder said.

Surface water users are entitled to a reasonable amount of carry-over storage water as part of their water right, he said.

Members of the coalition said the decision reaffirms Idaho 's historical "First in Time - First in Right" prior appropriation doctrine.

The decision means that surface water users are entitled under Idaho law to a full allocation of irrigation water to adequately meet their needs, coalition representatives said.

"We feel vindicated by the decision, but we are certainly not gleeful," said Travis Thompson, a Twin Falls attorney who represents several coalition members.

"After all, groundwater users are our neighbors and friends," Thompson said. "We are hopeful we can all look beyond this decision and find a way to work together to fix the aquifer."

Schroeder's decision isn't the final say in the case. His written opinion was forwarded as a recommendation to IDWR Director Dave Tuthill, who will issue a final order. That order, in turn, could be appealed in court.

Members of the surface water coalition are the A&B, Burley, Minidoka and Milner irrigation districts; the Twin Falls and North Side canal companies and the American Falls Reservoir District.

Staff writer Dave Wilkins is based in Twin Falls . E-mail: dwilkins@capitalpress.com. 

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