All false, if had even bothered to research what you post about. You would know. Even after you were asked you failed to research, just made some crap up. The Federal government had nothing to do with it. Why would anyone make up such a lie? It's Idaho water management.
Will 500,000 acres of Idaho farmland lose access to water?
IDAHO FALLS – A curtailment order for eastern Idaho irrigators found to be noncompliant with a state-approved mitigation plan was scheduled to go into effect Monday.
As of 5 p.m., Idaho Department of Water Resources spokesman Steve Stuebner tells EastIdahoNews.com all the parties involved, including the director of the IDWR board, are discussing the issue in Sun Valley in hopes of reaching a deal.
“Water users are working behind the scenes today to work out a deal for this water season, but nothing has been finalized as yet,” Stuebner says in an email to EastIdahoNews.com,.
Additional information will be provided when it’s available.
The board issued the curtailment order on May 30 due to a projected shortfall of 74,100-acre-feet of water to the Twin Falls Canal Co, which has senior water rights. (An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons, and it’s enough water to cover an acre of land 1 foot deep). The Twin Falls Canal is part of that city’s water supply, which is fed by 10 wells out of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. The projected shortfall amount, according to a news release from the IDWR, is based on a number of factors, including mountain snowpack, reservoir content, irrigation need, and aquifer conditions.
The curtailment impacts about 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders who pump off the aquifer. The amount of farmland that could be affected is about 500,000 acres throughout the state, including four counties in eastern Idaho: Bingham, Bonneville, Jefferson and Clark counties.
A closer look at the issueThe Idaho Department of Water Resources said there are two plans water users can participate in to avoid curtailment when there is a water shortage. One is a 2009 plan submitted by the Idaho Groundwater Appropriators. The other is a settlement agreement from 2016.
The mitigation plan requires groundwater users to restore aquifer levels at the end of the growing season so levels of water in the aquifer don’t continue to decline.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little pushed that point home in a statement this week. He said although it may be a good water year, the aquifer’s supply of water continues to dwindle.
“Water from the aquifer feeds the Snake River. Like we do as Idahoans, we are coming together and building some momentum around efforts to get ground water users in compliance with an approved mitigation plan,” Little says. “If we continue the status quo with water use on the Eastern Snake Plain, we are setting our children and grandchildren up for failure.” |
