Water users offer mitigation plan in final hour

By Carol Ryan Dumas, Ag Weekly editor
Friday, June 29, 2007 7:14 PM CDT

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- Idaho Ground Water Appropriators filed a supplemental mitigation plan with the Idaho Department of Water Resources late afternoon Friday to stave off curtailment of ground-water pumping set to go into effect July 6.

The group had until the close of business on Friday to make an offer in a contentious tug of war between senior spring-water users and junior ground-water pumpers.

IDWR received the document at about 4:50 p.m., said IDWR information officer Bob McLaughlin.

The curtailment stems from a water call by Blue Lakes Trout Farm and Clear Springs Foods in 2005. IDWR Director David Tuthill on June 15 issued curtailment orders for 591 water rights and on more than 16,638 acres in the Thousand Springs area -- fewer than the 771 water rights on 33,000 acres discussed when Tuthill announced a proposed curtailment in April.

Idaho Ground Water Appropriators, on behalf of members Magic Valley Ground Water District and North Snake Ground Water District, is offering up an additional 10,000 acre-feet of water on top of its original April 9 offer of 45,000 acre-feet.

“It’s with an understanding it will stay the curtailment,” said Tim Deeg, IGWA president and a farmer in the American Falls area.

Deeg said he’s pleased with the supplemental plan that will rely on water from some Upper Snake River canal users in eastern Idaho.

What he is not happy about is the department’s failure to schedule a hearing on the matter of curtailment, which he says IGWA has been asking for for two years since the water call was made.

“The department hasn’t provided due process for us, and that’s what really bothers me,” he said. “If folks can force curtailment before a hearing, that really jeopardizes that process.”

IGA attorney Candice McHugh -- with Racine, Olson, Nye, Budge & Bailey legal firm in Boise -- said Friday afternoon she would be filing the plan with the Water Department by day’s end.

The plan stipulates the water would go to late-season aquifer recharge, she said, and “is contingent upon no curtailment of ground-water users.”

When contacted about 2 p.m. on Friday, Lynn Tominaga, IGWA executive director, said he knew nothing of a supplemental plan and that individual pumpers would have to decide for themselves based on their specific situation how they wanted to proceed.

About two hours later, Tominaga called Times/News to correct his earlier statement.

“I’ve known for the last couple of days we were working on something to submit to the (IDWR) director,” he said. “But I thought we were going to file it next week because the director is in Alaska and won’t be back till Monday.”

He added that his organization’s attorney called Friday afternoon and told him she was going to file that day and said he “thought he better change his tune fast.”

“I didn’t really want to get people’s hopes up,” he said. “We don’t know if it’s going to go through, I didn’t want to give false hope.”

Whether the offered plan will be acceptable is yet to be known, said IDWR’s McLaughlin at about 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

“What will happen is we will receive this mitigation plan -- which the media tells us is coming -- and the director and technical and legal staff will take a look at it on Monday and Tuesday,” he said.

McLaughlin said the department should have a better idea on Thursday whether or not curtailment for the IGWA water users will go into effect the following day.

Phil Rassier, deputy attorney at IDWR, said it would be inappropriate to say whether the additional 10,000 acre-feet would be sufficient.

“The curtailment order sets out the shortfall for each of the rights” in cubic feet per second, he said. “You don’t really know what the acre-feet is going to translate in cfs.”

It also will depend on where the proposed injection site is for aquifer recharge, he said. The department uses a model to determine what impact it will have on the spring areas affected, he added.

The call is for 30 cfs in the Blue Lakes call and 23 cfs in the Clear Springs call, he said. The original plan IGWA offered left the Blue Lakes call 6 cfs short and the Clear Springs call 10 cfs short.

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