New water deal approaching deadline – Here’s what we know

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - The deadline for a new state water deal is Friday, November 1. Lt. Governor Scott Bedke said Monday that a new deal is close to being finished after months of negotiations.

This comes after members of the negotiation team failed to reach a deal by October 1 but agreed to keep working toward a new agreement.

The deal will determine how the state responds to a shortfall of water to surface water users in southern Idaho. They have first water rights.

Groundwater pumpers throughout eastern Idaho have been heavily involved in the talks. They are looking to avoid an all-out curtailment in the event of a water shortage.

We caught up with Lt. Governor Bedke, who served as a mediator during those negotiations. He spoke to us after meeting with the Natural Resources Interim committee. 

He confirmed farmers and irrigators will present their hard work to their peers in the next couple of weeks for approval.

"We have an agreement that we can be proud of. Period. Now it's up to the individual districts,” Bedke said. “And so, that means that, the farmers, the people that are going to have to live underneath the constraints here, the ones that are going to have to do the pumping reductions, the ones that are going to be doing the recharge. They are the ones that are going to be living within the agreement they came up with. They got to ratify it now."

Idaho Water Resource Board Chairman, Jeff Raybould, said groundwater pumpers will be responsible to conserve 205 thousand-acre feet a year, but that reduction will be accounted for every 4 years.

It means groundwater irrigators can still avoid a curtailment during a dry year.

"You'll get four years’ worth of water, and it's up to each individual water user to manage that water as they see fit,” Raybould said. “If they want to be extra conservative and make sure they have extra water to get through all four years, they can do that. If they have a little bit, extra, at least from the first four-year block to the second for your block, they'll be able to carry that over."

Lt. Governor Bedke adds that district aquifer recharge will be measured proportionally under the new agreement.

If one district meets their required portion of aquifer recharge, they will not be curtailed, even if another district fails to meet the terms of the agreement.

The new agreement will renew every 4 years, unless one party objects, at which point, all parties will have to return to the negotiation table.