Supply worries, water rights, aquifer concerns flowed through 2008

By Cindy Snyder, Ag Weekly correspondent
Monday, December 22, 2008 1:14 PM CST

TWIN FALLS, Idaho - Even with a fairly average water supply, 2008 provided plenty of white caps for Idaho water users.

The water year started on the bleak side with snowpack lagging in southern Idaho. Snow finally started falling in late winter and early spring, followed by a cool, wet spring that delayed irrigation demand and allowed the Upper Snake reservoir system to nearly fill.

Nearly full reservoirs were not what any one was expecting given the snow depth on Jan. 1, said Mike Beus, hydrologist with the Bureau of Reclamation in Burley.

Moderate weather during the summer helped hold up base stream flows throughout the year, and the short growing season kept a lid on irrigation demand; so the system ended the 2008 water year with good carryover.

The Upper Snake reservoir system as of mid-December was 56 percent full at 2.375 million acre-feet; or 108 percent of the 30-year-average.

“We’re almost as good as we were two years ago,” Beus said.

A good water supply helped make a year of administrative hearings and meetings on a comprehensive aquifer-management plan easier to bear. Three administrative hearings were held during 2008 for the 1,000 Springs reach, the Surface Water Coalition and the A & B Irrigation District, which is expected to be completed before Christmas.

A water deal announced early in 2008 provided an example of just how difficult resolving water use conflicts across the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer is going to be.

Through the Pristine Springs deal, Blue Lakes Trout Farm received 10 cubic feet per second of water from Alpheus Creek, located on the north side of the Snake River near the Blue Lakes Country Club. The City of Twin Falls received 15.3 cfs of water from the same source.

But to free up that water, another aquaculture facility has given up 25.3 cfs of water and will be forced to curtail production. And critics contend the $26 million deal didn’t do anything to stabilize the aquifer.

Ground-water pumpers worked with Idaho Power to develop a new forward-dispatch program that may reduce irrigation demand during peak load times in the summer by as much as 200 megawatts.

But 2008 was also a year to look at how urban encroachment is affecting irrigation infrastructure. The Truckee-Carson canal break in Nevada brought the issue to the top of many minds across the entire West, Idaho included.

“There has been a lot of attention paid, Westwide, on canal safety and operations,” said Norm Semanko, executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association.

The IWUA hosted an Urban Encroachment Summit in Boise in early October. A working group was formed during the summit to address issues raised.

Salmon and endangered species issues were another large legal issue. Oral arguments regarding the downstream operations of the Columbia River and how those operations impact salmon were held in federal court in Oregon throughout 2008. But Semanko warns that attention will soon turn to the Upper Snake operations.

The Clean Water Act is another federal act that has implications in Idaho.

A move to broadly define “waters of the U.S.” that would have included canals did not move forward in 2008, Semanko said. But may come back in 2009 with a new Congress and a new administration.

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