Senate committee backs tapping Snake River to boost aquifer

BOISE – A state Senate committee took six hours Monday to approve a measure that would allow Idaho to use Snake River water to recharge the aquifer beneath the eastern Idaho desert, a plan being fought by Idaho Power Co., which claims it could boost electricity costs for the utility’s 455,000 customers.

The bill now goes to the full Senate. It’s already passed the House.

The Senate Resources and Environment Committee vote was 5-4 after more than 60 people testified on an issue that appears to pit the more urban western half of the state that’s concerned about higher power bills against the agrarian east.

Farmers say the dwindling aquifer — it’s been depleted by 50 years of groundwater pumping and six years of drought — threatens their livelihoods. Brian Murdock, a Blackfoot farmer, said the state needs to intervene in recharge efforts, lest the utility wrest control of Idaho’s most precious natural resource.

“You’re my only protection against a big corporation,” Murdock said.

Sens. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert; Stanley Williams, R-Pingree; Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum; Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth; and Don Burtenshaw, R-Terreton, voted for the plan.

Sens. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow; Brad Little, R-Emmett; David Langhorst, D-Boise; and Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, voted no.

Utility officials and other foes described the legislation as a “resource grab” being perpetuated by groundwater pumpers — including farmers, but also municipalities such as Twin Falls — who since the late 1940s have been given rights to more water than can sustainably be tapped from the Lake Erie-sized aquifer.

Industry groups including the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry are on Idaho Power’s side. So are Twin Falls Canal Co. and Clear Springs Foods, the world’s biggest rainbow trout farm.

The solution, in their view, lies in reducing consumption.

“The aquifer is overappropriated,” Randy McMillan, owner of Clear Springs, told the committee.

More than 50 years ago, farmers above the aquifer used so-called “flood irrigation” from canals, sometimes covering the land a foot deep in water. Only 10 percent went to the plants, however, with the rest seeping back into the aquifer and boosting it to high volumes where it emerged from the earth at Thousand Springs near Hagerman.

Just after World War II, development of electric pumps spawned more efficient sprinkler irrigation — an effort sponsored by Idaho Power.

This new technology, however, meant less water seeped back into the aquifer, and since the 1960s, the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer has been on the wane.

Whether Idaho now can use Snake River water for recharge hinges on interpretation of 1984’s so-called “Swan Falls Agreement” between Idaho Power and the state.

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley and the bill’s sponsor, says that pact gave Idaho the right to take water above established minimums from the river and use it for recharge. Earlier this month, Newcomb got an opinion from Attorney General Lawrence Wasden saying Idaho has a right to manage the water as it sees fit.

With all 19 Idaho river basins at above-average snow levels this year, Newcomb says the time is right to skim water from the Snake River and begin recharging.

“What we’re talking about here is something that’s only going to be possible about once every 10 years,” Newcomb said.

Meanwhile, Idaho Power has said taking water that otherwise might churn through its power-generating turbines could cost millions in lost electricity.

Estimates vary from the $120 million being touted by the company as a “worst-case scenario” down to $6 million.