Power County has one chance to pass $8 million bond

Power County has a rare bond up for vote on the upcoming ballot.

The bond is $8 million to buy industrial water rights. The water rights would be purchased from Magnida, a plant that was supposed to come to American Falls. But the company could not get financing, so now it’s selling it’s water rights.

Magnida is giving Power County first chance to buy the rights, but there is another buyer. So if the bond doesn’t pass with two-thirds majority in November, Magnida will sell the rights to the other buyer.

The water rights would allow Power County to buy about 6,000 acre feet of industrial water.

Power County commissioners and American Falls city council are both in support of the bond. Both feel buying the water rights will really help with economic growth for Power County.

Power County commissioner Delane Anderson said water is a precious and necessary resource, and any chance to buy water rights should be taken.

Those in favor of the bond said it will help agriculture, allow for expansion in the county, allow consideration for school and education water demands, and protect city water services. Anderson said it’s an investment for the future.

American Falls city council member Terrell Sorensen said the city supports it because it will benefit everyone. It said one of the issues the city is having is getting people to conserve water. The city is currently under reduced water usage. Water usage has been lowered 10 to 12 percent. So Sorensen said this is one solution to help with that problem. He said it benefits farmers, but also the city. It brings more water to the city and allows for more businesses to come in also.

Sorensen said in the last 5 to 15 years, Power County has lost several businesses and the city needs to build it back up and bring businesses back. He said the county has also struggled to bring in new businesses because there are no water rights to have companies.

“We need economic growth in American Falls,” Sorensen said. “We have a higher unemployment than a lot of the other areas do and the only way we’re going to do that is to get more businesses coming in if we’re going to lower that. So one of the things we need to do is when these businesses come in, we need to be able to offer them a chance to provide water to them.”

“If we would have that opportunity to provide water for a future development to come in, that would be great,” Anderson said. “If they leave, we have no other resource. We have our interstates, we have our power, we have our natural gas, but without water there’s no way we can attract any kind of a development.”

The total cost of the bond is $10 million, but $2 million would be paid for from county reserves. As for the $8 million the public is voting on, Anderson said it’s minimum increase to taxpayers. It would increase taxes a little more than $1 per month, costing $13.89 more per year for the next 30 years. That’s for homeowners with a value of $100,000. If people do not have a homeowners exemption, that cost doubles to about $27 increase per year.

But Anderson said the unique thing about this bond is that it has the ability to pay itself back through revenue. The county could lease out the water rights to farmers, mitigation, businesses, or wherever it’s needed. The projected revenue that would come from the water rights is about $200,000 per year. So the county feels it’s a great investment.

Anderson said it would also be devastating, and have some potential consequences, for those water rights to go to an outside buyer. The county doesn’t know who the other buyer is, but said it would still be a huge loss for Power County.

Timothy Deeg, president of the Idaho Ground Water Appropriations, said this is a great chance for Power County to invest in the future and get a great return.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it really is,” Deeg said. “And we have to capitalize now on it when we can.”

Anderson said he also wants people to know that if the bond passes and the county buys the water rights, they would never be sold. The county would maintain hold and control of the rights.

Anderson said he hopes people realize how important this is, and how rare of a great opportunity it is.

There will be two more open houses on the bond for the public to come and learn about it. The first is Wednesday night at Rockland City Hall at 6 p.m. The second is Thursday night at the American Falls Senior Center at 6 p.m.