18/06/2024
This involves more than just farmers, everybody born and raised in this state should be mad and looking for honest SOLUTIONS! Starting with holding the government agencies at fault to accountability.
Hopefully, we will shortly have an agreement that will temporarily suspend the curtailment order and we will be able to turn back on our water, free from the threat of outrageous fines. This will only be a temporary fix. We have all been amazed and humbled by the outpouring of support from our friends and neighbors, from our East Idaho community, and the rest of our great state. Social media has been very effective in spreading the news thanks to everyone who has posted and shared. National News has also shared our plight with two interviews that have garnered over 85,000 views from Americans across the nation. People are sitting up and taking note.
The Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) needs to acknowledge the efficiency with which East Idaho groundwater users irrigate and raise our crops. Our economy is of more value than allowing a single canal company in Southern Idaho to curtail groundwater users for personal gain and control. This is not the first water fight in Idaho. There was a massive fight in 1984, referred to now as the Swan Falls Agreement. This agreement led to the Snake River Basin Adjudication, which required the state and water users to go through every water right on the Snake River Plain. Each water right had to be evaluated to see if it was a legitimate water right or not. This curtailment needs to lead to something similar. Here are 6 points to consider.
1) We need a current survey of how much land has been taken out of agricultural production for housing and industry, yet is currently still being claimed as farm ground by canals. Due to urban growth, this will be a large number.
2) The canals in Southern Idaho need to get out of the Stone Age. East Idaho farms will raise the same crop of potatoes using inches of water vs feet of water used in Southern Idaho. A good analogy is East Idaho is driving a Prius Hybrid getting 52 miles per gallon, and Southern Idaho is driving a 1971 Cadillac and getting 10 mpg. While claiming we have to pay the difference in our fuel bills.
3) The Conjunctive Management Rules (CMRs) need to be finished by the Legislature. They were hastily thrown together back in 1994 after a lawsuit from, you guessed it, Southern Idaho canal companies. This forced the State to legally connect the surface water, rivers, lakes, and streams to the aquifer and the groundwater. The CMRs were never finished by the Legislature to benefit the entire state. Instead, they have been finished by lawsuits from, you guessed it again, Southern Idaho, and are extremely biased against East Idaho. Especially the groundwater users, which is why we are in this position in the first place.
4) The Water Court is in Twin Falls, which is the only location in Idaho that hears water law cases. We start off with extreme prejudice for the benefit of Southern Idaho. We also possibly need a panel of judges rather than a single judge to avoid conflicted verdicts.
5) Recharge and Reservoirs. If our pioneer ancestors had the same attitude that we have today, East Idaho would still be covered in sage brush with little to no growth. We would definitely not be the potato capital of the world. Instead, they built canals, ditches, and reservoirs to service the need to irrigate crops. Our more recent ancestors embraced the new technologies of electricity and pumps that launched us into the 21st century. Southern Idaho is still using pioneer-era irrigation practices. Our East Idaho ancestors did recharge even back in the day. They called them "Injection Wells." This allowed excess water in the fields to run down into wells, so the water didn't pool and kill the crop. We have been doing this via our current-day recharge sites. Unfortunately due to politics and greed, this has been a difficult thing to get done. Droughts years don't help either. St.George, Utah, is a great example of what can be done with small amounts of water. With the construction of 2 new reservoirs Quail Creek and Sand Hollow, which are relatively small, 51,000 acre-feet and 40,000 acre-feet, these two reservoirs have allowed the growth in St. George to flourish. Comparatively, the Teton Dam was going to hold roughly 300,000 acre-feet of water. The Quail Creek dam also broke in 1989, just 4 years after its construction. Utahns must be tougher than Idahoans because they rebuilt it and learned from what happened rather than just quit. It does pain me to write that last line. We can take a page out of their book. We have lots of places where smaller reservoirs would fit. Mostly off the main tributaries. Think about reservoirs slightly bigger than Devil Creek Reservoir near Malad. These can be used to control the runoff during the spring, as Driggs needs right now, and help out with times of drought. You fix surface water with surface water, not aquifer water.
6) Tame Idaho Power. We always refer to Idaho Power as the 800-pound gorilla in the room. They don't like that. They have spent a lot of time, money, and phone calls telling everyone that they have nothing to do with this fight. Unfortunately, they have a lot of past history with these same law firms in Twin Falls that the canal companies use. I cannot help but think Idaho Power has helped influence the direction we have been going, which is straight into a curtailment. Idaho Power vigorously fought House Bill 800 in 2006, which provided state support for aquifer recharge. They claimed they cared for the aquifer yet the facts show they cared more for the short-term certainty of power production than they did for the health of the aquifer.. It appears that after the Swan Falls fight of 1984, Idaho Power decided to let other entities fight their battles for them, namely the Twin Falls Canal and the rest of the Surface Water Coalition. So far it seems to be working in their favor.
By addressing these 6 items we can move forward with realistic solutions that would benefit all of Idaho's agriculture and the economy.
A few more items would help too. Such as firing Matt Weaver, the Director of IDWR, for so recklessly putting us in this curtailment position, and all the unintended consequences that have followed. Governor Little and Lt Governor Bedke need to be fired as well. We can do that via elections, so that will have to wait, but only for 2 years. They have proven their loyalties to Southern Idaho are stronger than their loyalties to the state as a whole. Lt Governor Bedke needed to quit being Representative Bedke from Oakley, Idaho, and be the Lt. Governor for all of Idaho. He of all the politicians rammed the 2016 agreement down our throats and promised us "Safe Harbor", a ridiculous term, and then sat idly by while it was slowly torpedoed by these canals from Twin Falls. Lt. Gov. Bedke, Gary Spackman the previous IDWR Director, and Gov. Little could have prevented changes to the agreement. Instead, they looked the other way as changes were made to the agreement that as groundwater users, were impossible to comply with.
Article 15, section 1, of the Constitution of the State of Idaho, reads, in fact, the very first words are, "USE OF WATERS A PUBLIC USE". Water has to go back to being "NON- PROFIT". Water is the State's resource, it is the most renewable resource the State has, every spring we get the opportunity to watch the snowpack fill the reservoirs. It is a blessing to have our resource replenished every winter. Unfortunately, we have those who want to capitalize and try and make the State's water their personal water. We make our money by using it not owning it. Water is not personal property to be hoarded or controlled to make an individual party rich. This is precisely what appears to be taking place. A single entity, Twin Falls Canal Company, is trying to capitalize upon its unique position to hold the entire East Snake Plain Aquifer hostage to their demands. They picked the wrong year to let their pit bull, Matt Weaver, run wild.
We have to take a different approach because we need growth and water security. We want our children to be able to have families and live in Idaho should they choose. They need industries, jobs, schools, housing, and all kinds of commerce. This all is the product of water in some form or another. I don't believe I am alone in this wish of having grandkids grow up nearby and have the opportunity to be involved in their lives. It is the American Dream, that the succeeding generations are better off than we were. This water fight will be worth it if, in the end, we can get back to common sense concerning water management in Idaho.
- Brian Murdock
