At the beginning of yet another good water year, Idaho finds a looming crisis | Opinion
On Thursday evening, the Idaho Department of Water Resources issued a curtailment order that could, as soon as Monday, cut off agricultural groundwater pumping in much of Idaho’s prime farmland.
The order has the potential to end the agricultural season on at least 500,000 acres — about 15% of the total irrigated farmland in Idaho. It threatens to turn off nearly every agricultural well between Blackfoot and Rexburg, along with parts of the Magic Valley, Big Lost River Valley and areas near Carey. It gives water users 15 days to join a mitigation plan or kill their pumps.
The curtailment arises as part of a decadeslong dispute between groundwater irrigators from Twin Falls to the Wyoming border and surface water irrigators in the Magic Valley. The surface water users’ water rights are some of the oldest in the state, meaning they have the right to get all the water they need before farmers upstream have a right to any. The East Snake Plain Aquifer has been in steady decline since the 1950s, reducing the flow of springs that feed surface water in the Magic Valley area.
There have been multiple attempts to quell the water war, culminating in a 2016 deal brokered by then-House Speaker and now-Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke. But this year, that deal seems to have splintered.
The details, as with all water issues in Idaho, are horrendously complicated. A few groundwater districts felt that the 2016 agreement served them well and signed on to continue this year, but most felt they had been misled and sought shelter under an older 2009 agreement. There’s disagreement about whether the amount of water groundwater users need to provide is being calculated accurately, and whether groundwater users are being given credit for mitigation they’ve already done.
Those are the kind of details that are likely to be sorted out in court, if at all. What should matter to you is this: Idaho is in a good water year, part of a string of unexpectedly good water years — and at the same time Idaho is at the beginning of an unprecedented water crisis. The question you should ask yourself is: What is going to happen when drought returns?
We are not ready for it.
In all, about 6,400 water rights holders would be forced to turn off the taps as soon as next week.
“You’re talking about a point now where everyone has already planned and made their investments,” said Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen, R-Idaho Falls, who also serves as chair of the Bonneville Jefferson Groundwater District, one of the districts subject to curtailment.
If curtailment goes into effect, she warned, the economic fallout could be catastrophic, hitting not just farmers but small banks and other businesses linked to agriculture.
The department laid blame for the crisis at groundwater districts’ feet in a news release.
“It is surprising to us that six groundwater districts would choose not to live by the terms of either of their approved mitigation plans and subject their members to curtailment,” said Brian Patton, Deputy Director of IDWR.
Mickelsen said that distorts what happened. She said the districts made repeated efforts to provide mitigation, including reducing water usage by 325,000 acre-feet (more than three-quarters of the total capacity of Anderson Ranch Reservoir) since 2016.
“We were willing to mitigate under an approved mitigation plan,” she said. “We secured expensive storage water from … canals and paid water district fees to send the water to the (Magic Valley surface water users.) However, the director continues to move the goal posts on districts.”
But who’s to blame isn’t the biggest concern.
The vast majority of Idaho, including all of the area affected by the curtailment order, is not in drought condition. There’s average or above-average water making its way into rivers and aquifers right now.
Spring rains have been strong, and there was plenty of snow last winter. Reservoirs all the way upstream to Jackson, Wyoming, are full or nearly full.
Saying Idaho needs to shut off one of every six acres it irrigates in a year like this to shore up the water system is saying agriculture needs to be downsized substantially. It’s saying we can’t sustain our current level of economic production, at least under current water policy.
If Idaho’s current set of farms can’t operate in a year like this, they won’t ever be able to run. And if several years of drought hit, as they will eventually, lots of farms will go under and not come back.
Sooner or later, policymakers are going to have to reexamine the foundation of Idaho’s water law — the “doctrine of prior appropriation,” which says the person with the oldest water rights is entitled to get all of their water before a person with a water right established one year later is entitled to any. It’s a system that can’t deal with crises like climate change.
In a statement, Gov. Brad Little emphasized the historic nature of the problem.
“We remain committed to working with all water users in Idaho to ensure we have a sustainable supply of water for this generation and future generations,” he said. “If we continue the status quo with water use on the Eastern Snake Plain, we are setting our children and grandchildren up for failure. Water curtailment is never desired, but the director must follow Idaho law and the Constitution in issuing this order.”
But a solution seems further away than ever.