Flooding risk continues to grow in eastern Idaho

BONNEVILLE COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) - The flooding risk continues to grow in eastern Idaho.

This comes as our crops are starting to sprout.

We talked to one farmer in Bonneville County to see how this irrigation season shaping out.

Doug Barrie is a grain farmer who just planted his crop just a few weeks ago.

He said the first irrigation they use for their soil doesn't come from the reservoir system. It instead comes from the snow that melted on top of it, and that means one less month to rely on an outside water supply.

"We're not irrigating with it. It's it's being put in the aquifer. Because if we don't put it in the aquifer, it'll it will just go out to the ocean. It's great news," Barrie said. "It's such a delicate balance between two years ago when we didn't even think we were going to be able to make a crop to this year that that we feel like we're going to be able to get through it well."

Other farmers will still be dealing with some flooding concerns. In fact, Doug has some friends across southeast Idaho in the Portneuf Basin who deal with flooding in years like this.

That means their work is likely to be delayed by at least a month or two, but for Doug himself here in Bonneville County, he's going to have himself plenty of water all the way at least until August.