Eastern Idaho cities face water rights issues
It’s the never ending battle over water rights in the Gem State.
Many senior water rights belong to the Twin Falls area, leaving the upper valley with junior rights.
Cities didn’t dive into the fight for water rights until this year.
“In Idaho, the water molecules are owned by the state. A water right does not give you ownership of those molecules. It gives you the right to use those molecules for a purpose,” said President of Eastern Idaho Water Rights Coalition Roger Warner.
Since 1950, Southern Idaho’s largest aquifer, the eastern snake plain, declines every year by more than 200 acre-feet a year.
“It’s easy to get on one side and say agriculture is just being wasteful. They’re using it all up for our detriment,” said Warner.
Ninety-seven percent of water in the Gem State is used for agriculture, leaving 3 percent for cities.
Roughly 70 percent of people live in urbanized areas, meaning 70 percent of Idahoans are living off 3 percent of the water used.
“The cities wouldn’t exist. All of the businesses and everything that drive the economic engine in the cities exist significantly on the basis of agriculture,” said Warner.
“The one single word in all of this that changes it for cities and makes us different from agriculture is growth,” said Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper.
Mayor Casper said it is city leader responsibility to prepare for that growth.
“A farmer is not going to see growth in the number of fields he has to water with a water right or the size of his field, it doesn’t grow overnight. But the size of a city can grow within a year’s time, and then we do have more residents we need to serve, more people who need water to live. So, that’s the whole reason cities are thinking that we need to be acting together to protect that need that we have to be able to have water for growth,” said Casper.
Municipal water rights will be discussed during the 2016 Idaho legislative session.
Almost all water used by cities is ground water.
Idaho Falls puts about 10 million gallons of water it uses back into the Snake River everyday.
