By Shawna Gamache - Idaho Statesman

January 25, 2007

Gov. Butch Otter wants to consider building more dams in Idaho, making current dams bigger and recharging the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.

Keeping more water in Idaho will help improve water access across the state, he said Wednesday.

"Rather than looking at how to divide up scarcity, we ought to be looking at how we can get more to stay here," Otter told the Idaho Water Users Association state convention. "The more water that we can keep from getting past that head gate, the more water we can have."

Otter said he has met with the Bureau of Land Reclamation about two or three new potential dam sites in the state. He didn't say where they are.

But Bill Sedivy, executive director of Idaho Rivers United, said building new dams would cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. The federal government has said it won't help pay for them, he said. Even expanding existing dams could cost that much, Sedivy said.

"A much more cost-effective action would be to figure out how to use water more wisely and more intelligently, rather than throwing big money at dam projects that don't make sense," Sedivy said. "A way more prudent approach is teaching Idahoans how to use what existing water resources we have more prudently."

Sedivy said Idaho farmers have learned to be efficient with their water use, but Idaho residential users, especially those in the Treasure Valley, waste too much water. Idaho ranks third in the nation in per-capita water use, Sedivy said.

During his campaign for governor, Otter said one of his top priorities would be resolving disputes over water rights. On Wednesday, he said he still plans to hold a water summit to resolve those issues.

"A lot of people thought it was just campaign rhetoric, I know, but they thought the same thing about the wings on the Capitol," Otter told a packed ballroom of about 200 people at the DoubleTree Riverside in Garden City. "I will be the champion of the solutions you do come up with as long as they fit the state Constitution."

Otter also talked about the importance of recharging the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to help ease the tension over water rights there.

Water users are awaiting a decision from the Idaho Supreme Court on the fate of Idaho water law at the aquifer. That decision is expected as soon as this month or as late as April.

The court must decide how Idaho's "first-come, first-served" water doctrine is interpreted in a dispute between canal companies that hold older, senior rights and groundwater pumpers with younger, junior rights. No matter how the court rules, the Legislature may have to rewrite water laws to minimize the decision's economic impact.

Harold Mohlman, former president and board member of the association, said Otter's speech showed his understanding of the decades-old fights between water users and his commit-ment to helping them find a solution.

"If you have a governor who's basically saying he's for water, you're going to get something done," said Mohlman, of the A&B Irrigation District in Rupert. "There's groups of us here, we're fighting right now, the junior and the senior water users, and it's important to have a governor who supports us all."

Plans to pay for recharge have divided lawmakers in the past. Last year, then-Speaker of the House Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, tried unsuccessfully to get the Legislature to sign off on recharge.

Steve Howser, general manager of the Aberdeen Springfield Canal Company in Aberdeen, said many water users think a governor pushing recharge will make it happen.

"Every time we come up with a plan, the difficulty is funding," Howser said. "The leadership to acquire that funding has to come from the governor's office."

Water users said they were glad that Otter talked about keeping more water in state, but also that he seemed to understand the need for more money to make a statewide plan work.

"We've got to have some statewide money to help with all of the projects," said Mike Faulkner, director of the Big Wood Canal Co. in Gooding.

 

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