KETCHUM, Idaho -- Owners of trophy homes are illegally taking water to fill their private fish ponds and keep their lawns green, shorting farmers with senior water rights downstream, says a deputy water master in the resort area of central Idaho.
"Welcome to Sun Valley," said David W. Murphy, District 37 water master with the Idaho Department of Water Resources. "This is typical America, the land of greed, where people just take, take, take. There are so many (people stealing) up here. It's a runaway problem."
Under Idaho law, water right holders with senior, or older, claims are allotted their share of water before junior water right holders receive theirs. Most of those older water rights are south of Sun Valley in agricultural areas.
So Murphy recently shut off flows from the Big Wood River to everyone with water rights dated later than 1884. He later found a chain cut and the water turned back on, and has been threatened with legal action.
He said farmers respect the law on water rights, but he finds a different response in Sun Valley and Ketchum, where hundreds of small canals lead to private homes.
"Up here, people get mad and call their lawyers, and I get all these sharks after me," he said. "Eighty percent of people with ponds are violating their decrees. It seems to me people with money just do what they want. Meanwhile, the farmers suffer."
Rocky Sherbine, who owns a farm south of Sun Valley, said trophy homes in Ketchum and Sun Valley have been taking more and more water.
"I would like to see all the water users up north that shouldn't be using water taken care of," he said.
People who illegally use water can face fines of a few hundred dollars.
"In the Big Wood area with all the big trophy homes that penalty is not all that great," said Allan Merritt, the southern region manager for the Idaho Department of Water Resources. "So people run the risk."