Ag Weekly Online: Twin Falls, Idaho

BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Water Resource Board will be faced with a full agenda when it meets next week. The work session will be held Tuesday, Nov. 27, and the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting will be held the following day Wednesday, Nov. 28, at the Idaho Water Center in Boise. Both sessions begin at 8:30 a.m.

Tuesday’s work session includes a discussion on funding for spring recharge projects and water project loan requests, said Bob McLauhlin, public information officer for Idaho Department of Water Resources. Snake River minimum streamflows and a progress report on updating the well construction rules will also be discussed.

Water Board staff technical experts will present preliminary strategies to accomplish a water budget change for the Eastern Snake River Plain of 600,000 to 900,000 acre feet annually. As part of the work session, an executive session will be held that will be closed to the public to discuss the potential acquisition of real property.

Items on the agenda for the Board’s meeting on Wednesday include:

• A report on the program to revise the state water plan. The state water plan establishes state policy that guides development, management and conservation of Idaho’s water resources. The plan was last revised in 1996.

• An update from consultants CDR Associates on the progress of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan.

• A discussion of the funding for 2008 spring recharge to pay canal companies for conveyance costs to transport water to recharge sites to increase flows into the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer and an update on post season recharge efforts.

• An update on the W-Canal recharge project near Wendell, Idaho.

• A discussion about coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation to evaluate additional surface water storage projects or the expansion of existing projects located in various locations in the state.

The complete agenda is posted on the IDWR Web site: www.idwr.idaho.gov

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