Just about everyone seems to support the Wood River Legacy Project—except the people it's supposed to benefit.
Farmers in the Bellevue Triangle, an agricultural hub south of the city, are opposed to the project due to fears that it will actually deplete groundwater levels and rob them of their allotted use of the fleeting resource.
The opposition drove Blaine County Commissioner Larry Schoen, who represents the 1st District, which covers the south county and the Triangle, to put his support of the project on hold.
"In its present form and without a good plan for implementation, I can not support the project without the support of the people I represent in my district," Schoen, who still serves on the project's steering committee, said Monday. "I still believe the Legacy Project has merit, and I will continue to work on it, but we have to have an open discussion about the plan and the implementation."
The overall goal of the Legacy Project, spearheaded by Hailey resident Rich McIntyre, is to keep more water in the Big Wood River by granting users more options. Current Idaho water law is based on "use it or lose it" policy, which means water rights holders must exercise their rights to use the precious resource, or lose it all.
McIntyre claims that many people do not need all of their allotted water but are forced to take it all to keep from losing it. If given an option to keep some of it in-stream, which would require a change to Idaho's water laws, many would, McIntyre claims. That means more water for the Big Wood River—specifically a 12-mile stretch that runs dry for most of the year—and for farmers.
McIntyre succeeded in snaring conceptual support from Blaine County and its cities and the agricultural, downbasin communities of Lincoln, Gooding and Jerome counties. The Big Wood and Northside Canal companies are also on board.
But farmers in the Triangle are not.
"Rich McIntyre is telling people he can do something that he can't. He's misleading people," said Dan Brown, who owns a farm near Glendale Road.
Brown said the Legacy Project will actually "take water out of the valley and deliver more to Magic Dam and cities down below. And we don't have any to spare."
Brown said every farmer he knows in the Triangle is opposed to the project.
Every spring since 1920, water has been diverted from the Big Wood River near Glendale Bridge into the bypass canal to feed downbasin agriculture operations. The practice was initiated partly because the soils in the riverbed south of Glendale are highly porous and water typically disappears into the ground during the summer months.
Brown said the canal systems' importance is twofold: It delivers water to irrigators, and it recharges the aquifer.
"We get more recharge from the canals then we do from the irrigation," Brown said.
Brown added that the water that seeps into the ground from the bypass canal feeds a series of spring creeks that form the world famous Silver Creek near Picabo.
McIntyre claims the Legacy Project will only add to the recharge. If the project is eventually approved by the Idaho Legislature and implemented, water would still be diverted into the bypass canal and delivered to downbasin irrigators, he said. The only change is that the surplus water kept in stream by up-basin users would be re-diverted back to the Big Wood River via the 57F canal, which slices through the northern edge of Wood River Ranch.
"We see aquifer recharge as one of the real benefits of this project," McIntyre said. "If you put more water in stream there will be more aquifer input, not less."
But Schoen, who owns a farm near Silver Creek, said "it's not that simple."
Water kept in stream will be lost, in effect, because it will not be consumed—by irrigating crops or lawns—and therefore it will not seep into the ground to recharge the aquifer.
Instead, water will overflow the canal system—reducing the recharge—and benefit downbasin irrigators south of the Triangle.
He said the complicated issue is compounded by the unique nature of the Big Wood Basin, which is physically narrow and gravely and relies on a series of intricate balances.
"The irrigation practices have been balanced over many decades," Schoen said. "Surface water and groundwater is very close, maybe more so than in any other basin I can think of."
It's so close that when water in the Triangle is turned off in the fall, Schoen said he can see water levels dropping on his farm near Silver Creek "within hours."
Still, McIntyre is convinced that "in all probability there will be more aquifer recharge."
And the legislative committee of the Idaho Water Users Association, which monitors and sponsors state legislation, seems to agree.
McIntyre presented his legislation to the committee last week and said he came away feeling optimistic. According to committee member Mike Faulkner, who is also director of the Big Wood Canal Co., the legislation needed some tweaking, but it otherwise looked promising.
If the committee gives the project a thumbs-up, which could occur by the end of the week, it could receive a hearing with the Idaho Legislature before the current session ends.
Faulkner said he doesn't think the project would deplete groundwater in the Big Wood basin and that farmers in the Triangle should not be effected.
That's not good enough for Schoen, who said the project "needs to do better work on the ground in the Triangle" and it should not go forward in the state Legislature this year.
"We should instead continue to work on the proposal including an implementation plan over the course of the next year," he said. "I do not oppose the project conceptually. I oppose the legislation in place this year because there are too many issues that need to be addressed. The principle one is aquifer recharge in the Triangle."
Schoen said there could be a "real benefit" for Triangle farmers "but that needs to be demonstrated."
"Those people need to be involved. They are the ones with the most experience here," he said. "There needs to be trust and confidence in any implementation plan before we go to the Legislature."
Water in the Big Wood River is diverted into the bypass canal near Glendale Bridge every spring to supply irrigators in the Bellevue Triangle. Photo by David N. Seelig
