A landmark effort to resurrect 12 miles of the Big Wood River south of Bellevue with consistent, year-round flows may actually float before the Idaho Legislature this year.
The lofty Wood River Legacy Project seemed to be a long shot, at best, when unveiled 11 months ago by Hailey resident and stream restoration expert Rich McIntyre, mainly because it relies on the alteration of Idaho's entrenched water laws.
But as McIntyre said last week, "The project has made fairly remarkable strides."
On Tuesday, the legislative committee of the Idaho Water Users Association, which monitors and sponsors state legislation, agreed to work with McIntyre to help craft his proposal.
Formed in 1938 as the Idaho State Reclamation Association and renamed in 1972, the association seeks to promote, aid and assist the development, control, conservation, preservation and utilization of all water resources throughout the state.
An eventual thumbs-up from the weighty committee could ensure the Wood River Legacy Project receives a hearing in the Legislature this session.
If the Legislature gives McIntyre the green light to proceed, the Legacy Project could serve as a pilot project for the rest of the state.
McIntyre was hoping to have enough of his ducks in a row to land a hearing with the Legislature in 2008. But securing bipartisan support from water user groups, municipalities, county governments and citizens—McIntyre's first, and possibly toughest, hurdle—materialized faster than expected.
In addition to Blaine County and its cities, the project has garnered conceptual support from Lincoln, Gooding and Jerome counties and the cities of Jerome and Shoshone, all of which are Republican leaning and heavily based in agriculture. The Big Wood and Northside Canal companies also have offered support.
"If we heard it once, we heard it a thousand times: You'll never get Republican support. You'll never (form) a bipartisan coalition. You'll never be able to change Idaho water law," McIntyre said in August. "Now we have Republican support. We've formed a bipartisan coalition, and we have a lot of support from down-basin.
"The project politically has come together much, much faster than we ever though it would."
While the project would increase the size of the Big Wood fishery by a third—12 miles—McIntyre, an avid angler himself, contends that its real jewel is that it will increase water supplies by providing more options to water users.
Current Idaho water law is based on a "use it or lose it" policy, meaning water rights holders must exercise their rights to the precious resource, or lose it all.
This even applies to people who don't rely on water to irrigate their crops, which means many are forced to use more water than they need. If approved, the project would give water users an option to keep some of the precious resource in-stream.
A similar attempt to alter Idaho's water laws in favor of enhanced options was spearheaded by the Idaho Department of Water Resources 15 years ago.
"It failed miserably because it had no bipartisan support," McIntyre said last fall.
In September, a group of farmers complained that the project appeared to be a smokescreen to enhance recreational opportunities at the expense of agricultural operations.
McIntyre has repeatedly stressed that existing water use and priority dates will not be impacted and that down-basin users will actually benefit from the project.
His proposal calls for an expansion of sections to the State Water Plan that would grant "water rights' holders the ability to leave all or a portion of their water in-stream ... to provide additional water for down basin delivery to agriculture, municipalities and counties."
Jim Walker, who owns a gravel operation in the southern Wood River Valley, expressed concern that the project would seek to shut down his business and others in the industrial area south of Bellevue.
But the project would actually bypass the industrial area, at least in the formative years.
Every spring since 1920 the entire Big Wood River has been blocked off and diverted into the bypass canal near Glendale Road to feed down-basin agricultural operations. The Legacy Project will not change that practice. But a certain amount of water—determined by how much is donated to remain in-stream—will be re-diverted back into the Big Wood River via the 57F canal near the northern edge of the Wood River Ranch.
