Investing in our Aquifer – Opening of the South-Fork Aquifer Recharge Basin
RIRIE, Idaho (KIFI) - Idaho water users are taking another step toward a healthy Snake River Aquifer.
Tuesday, September 17th the Progressive Irrigation District opened the new South-Fork Aquifer Recharge Basin.
"We all rely on the aquifer, for drinking water and for irrigation purposes," Chairman Lance Schuster told Local News 8. "The aquifer provides us with a source of clean water. So it's important for all of us that we have a good, healthy aquifer and we're able to sustain long term."
According to Cooper Fritz of the department of water resources water resources the basin will send over 250 acre feet into the aquifer every day.
"It's also enough to grow crops on approximately 100 acres for a season in east Idaho," said Fritz.
Crops like the potatoes farmed by Brian Murdock in Bingham County. After curtailment cut off his water in may, Murdock like many farmers has become invested in the health of the aquifer.
"They're trying to get a balance in the aquifer of what we're pumping out versus what is going into the aquifer," said Murdock.
He says this new project will not only allow members of the Progressive Irrigation district to contribute to the aquifer, it will als allow Bingham County farmers to purchase water for recharge efforts from their neighbors to the north.
"This site will impact me personally because I will be able to continue farming," said Murdock. "This is placing water back him into the aquifer and making it to where the water balance for the state comes back to a balance."
Brian Olmsted of the Idaho Water Resource Board says the new basin represents just one step on the path toward a sustainable aquifer.
"We've got to have at least 20 sites like this that will work, that will replace that incidental recharge that we're losing to all the other, all the other purposes that just the land is going to," said Olmsted.
According to Cooper Fritz of the department of water resources water from the aquifer returns to the snake river and adjoining canals less and less every year.
He says with additional infrastructure the state will be heading in the right direction.
"There is hope we can install infrastructure like this," Fritz told Local News 8. "We can work together from American Falls to engineer, to get new dedicated recharge infrastructure, to get additional water in the ground and hopefully increase those spring-flows."
"We are growing crops for the rest of the nation" said Murdock. "And this is how we will continue to do it by having a good source and supply of water."
