19 new Aging Infrastructure Grants for $7.7 million approved

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) – The Idaho Water Resource Board approved 19 new Aging Infrastructure Grants (AIG) Friday at a cost of approximately $7.7 million at its regular bimonthly meeting in Boise.

The Board also approved spending $1.2 million on a 30% design plan for a collaborative Regional Water Sustainability Project with the Lewiston Orchards Irrigation District (LOID), the Nez Perce Tribe and the Bureau of Reclamation.

The 19 AIG projects approved by Board Friday represented the fourth round of awards in the last two years, bringing the total number of grant projects approved to 57 at a cost of approximately $43 million to help modernize Idaho’s water infrastructure statewide. Two more rounds of AIG awards are planned in 2024.

The fourth round of AIG’s approved by the Board are as follows:

• Black Canyon Irrigation District, Emmett, measurement modernization, $100,000 AIG, $463,397 total cost
• Sunnydell Irrigation District, Rexburg, canal lining project, $2M AIG, $6.9M total cost
• Jefferson Irrigation District, Jefferson County, open canal to pipeline project, $581,488 AIG, $2.5M total
• Twin Falls Canal Co., Twin Falls, high line measurement project, $51,332 AIG, $171,106 total
• Mud Lake Water Users, Mud Lake, canal lining and pump station reconstruction, $800,000 AIG, $2.4M total
• Jefferson Irrigation District, Jefferson County, measurement modernization, $145,648 AIG, $458,800 total
• Last Chance Canal Co., Grace, measurement modernization, $140,674 AIG, $211,000 total
• Farmers Land & Irrigation Co., Bancroft, canal diversion replacement, $89,667 AIG, $269,000 total
• Mountain Home Irrigation District, Mountain Home, Tunnel 13 and 15 repairs, $394,403 AIG, $1.19M total
• Parks and Lewisville Irrigation Co., Lewisville, SCADA Phase 2 projects, $83,852 AIG, $254,098 total
• Dalton Gardens Irrigation District, Dalton Gardens, irrigation transmission line rehabilitation project and pump house, $1.36M AIG, $4.1M total
• Fremont Madison Irrigation District, St. Anthony, Crosscut Canal modernization project, $26,680 AIG, $80,850 total
• American Falls Reservoir District No. 2., Shoshone, gate repair, $40,000 AIG, $135,051 total
• Teton Irrigation District, Driggs, open canal to pipeline conversion, $58,008 AIG, $175,780 total
• New Sweden Irrigation District, Idaho Falls, Martin Flume relocation/expansion, $672,891 AIG, $2M total
• Bilbrey Ditch Co., Emmett, canal automation, $40,173 AIG, $121,735 total
• Capital View Irrigation District, Eagle, pipe delivery modernization, $59,550 AIG, $198,500 total
• Moore Canal Water Users Association, Moore, conversion of open canal to enclosed pipeline, $1M AIG, $3.2M total

See the Board’s Aging Infrastructure Grants web page for more information on the criteria for eligible projects, how to apply and application deadlines.

The Board also approved approval funding for the 30 percent design study for the Lower Clearwater Exchange Project. The project is intended to fully enact a water exchange between Lewiston Orchards Irrigation District (LOID) and Nez Perce Tribe by allowing LOID to divert irrigation water from the Clearwater River to replace pumping from a declining aquifer and surface water streams that support imperiled steelhead and salmon stocks. LOID and the Nez Perce Tribe paid for the initial design work and are pursuing additional cost-share funding from the Bureau of Reclamation.

In other action, the Board funded two projects related to recharging the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer
(ESPA):

1. The Board approved spending $571,000 in ARPA funding to construct the Poitevin Injection Well
   Site Expansion project to increase recharge capacity along the main stem of the Snake River,
   near Roberts in Eastern Idaho. The funding will cover the costs of developing two recharge
   wells.
2. The Board approved $94,000 to conduct a System Capacity Improvement Study with the Butte
   Market Lake Canal Company to develop options for improving delivery capacity related to
   aquifer recharge and associated cost estimates for that canal system.

The Board has a goal of recharging an average of 250,000 acre-feet of water per year into the ESPA. The Board is actively working to add aquifer-recharge capacity in the Upper Snake River Basin to assist in reaching that goal. For more information the ESPA recharge program, go here.