Water fight gets hearing

Senior rights holders want to restrict groundwater pumps

Dave Wilkins
Capital Press

November 23, 2007

A public hearing with big implications for Idaho water users gets under way next week in Boise .

The hearing, which pits senior spring water users against groundwater pumpers with lesser water rights, begins Nov. 28 at the Idaho Department of Water Resources offices.

The case could eventually decide whether hundreds of groundwater pumps used for irrigation, dairy farms and municipal water usage will be shut down.

"There's a lot at stake," IDWR spokesman Bob McLaughlin said.

The case began several years ago when aquaculture operations in the Thousand Springs area noticed a drop in spring flows. They placed much of the blame on groundwater pumps drawing water from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.

Fish farms in the area depend on aquifer-fed springs along the Snake River canyon walls to raise rainbow trout and other freshwater fish.

In 2005, Blue Lakes Trout Farm and Clear Springs Foods' Snake River Farms filed a "water call" or protest with the state. They alleged that reduced spring flows have harmed their ability to produce fish and that pumping by junior groundwater rights holders was a major culprit.

A separate but related case has been filed against groundwater pumpers by a coalition of surface water irrigators that includes the Twin Falls and North Side canal companies and the A&B Irrigation District. That case will go to a hearing in January.

In both cases, groundwater users say that prolonged drought and a sharp reduction in aquifer recharge since the early 1950s may have played a bigger role in the reduced spring flows than groundwater diversions.

Even if junior water rights pumpers are shut down, it wouldn't result in full water rights being restored to senior water users, groundwater users argue.

Neither side expects the upcoming hearings to provide a final resolution.

"Whatever decision gets made will be appealed," said Lynn Tominaga, executive director of the Idaho Ground Water Appropriators. "This isn't the end of it."

However, the hearings will be important because all of the evidence will be entered into the official record and that will form the basis for any appeals.

Tominaga said he expects the Thousand Springs hearing to last a week to 10 days "at least."

Several water experts are scheduled to testify, including former IDWR Director Karl Dreher and Ron Carlson, former watermaster of District 1 in the Upper Snake region.

Gerald Schroeder, a former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, will serve as administrative hearing officer.

Schroeder will issue his findings and a recommendation sometime after the hearings, but issuance of a state order will be left to IDWR Director David Tuthill.

The case could easily be tied up in court appeals for years after that, Tominaga said.

For more information about the hearings and to read documents related to them visit the IDWR website at www.idwr.idaho.gov.

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

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