Water diversion project concerns homeowners along Snake River
The idea is fairly simple. The Idaho Irrigation District and the New Sweden Irrigation District want to use existing water canals just north of the Bonneville/Jefferson County line, and build two small hydroelectric power plants where the canals enter back into the Snake River three miles down stream.
“We’d generate about 2.5 (megawatts) between the two projects. It will provide power for about 1,500 people,” said Louis Thiel, a board member of the New Sweden Irrigation District.
Thiel also said the irrigation districts would be able to sell the power and save their consumers money in the long run.
The problem some people have with the power generation comes with the amount of water flowing in the Snake River during the winter months. People living within the three mile stretch worry the water diversion proposal will negatively impact the wildlife along that stretch of river.
“What they want to do in the winter, when the flow is the lowest, they want to divert two thirds of the water around this portion of the river,” said Ward Whitmore, who live’s just below the proposed diversion point in Jefferson County. “Now the Fish and Game said we need at least three thousand cubic feet of water per second to maintain the long term health of the river. They want to take it down to one thousand cubic feet per second.”
The stretch of river bordering Bonneville and Jefferson counties is one of the few in the area that doesn’t regularly freeze over in the winter time. This open flow provides crucial winter habitat for the area fish and birds.
“It (the study) needs to be redone,” said Whitmore. “Some of the other criteria is suspect, at least in the opinion of any land holders. They absolutely need to address icing.”
Idaho Irrigation and New Sweden Irrigation Districts did hire a third party to perform a study on the three mile stretch of river. “He (the researcher) said that a thousand cubic feet per second in the river is better for the fish habitat than 25 hundred or two thousand in the winter,” said Thiel.
Even still, many area homeowners don’t feel the study addresses water fowl needs, and they worry the research results are over optimistic.
“We’re going to recommend strongly to the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) that they require wildlife and waterfowl impact studies to be done,” said Whitmore.
Two public meetings are scheduled for Wednesday, July 8 at 7 PM, and Thursday, July 9 at 9:30 AM. The evening meeting is primarily for public input, and the morning meeting is primarily for resource agency concerns. Both will be held at the Shilo Inn in Idaho Falls.
(Correction: the 9:30 AM meeting was announced on air for Tuesday, it’s actually on Thursday as stated above.)
