By Greg Stahl and Jason Kauffman
Second in a two-part series about the Wood River Legacy Project, the groundbreaking legislation approved last month by the Idaho Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Butch Otter.
It's a water-dependent spread of summer green: a rolling expanse of alfalfa, malt barley and other crops tucked near the meandering sensibilities of Silver Creek.
The 1,500-acre spread is owned by Bellevue Triangle farmer Robert Gardner, a wiry Wood River Valley native who was among Blaine County farmers initially concerned by the Wood River Legacy Project, a law signed by Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter in March. The law will enable Wood River water rights holders to leave water in-stream rather than be required to use them, but it is questionable whether there's enough water to go around to begin with.
For Gardner, however, the evolution of the bill from its original form to what was eventually signed into law was also an evolution of his support—or lack thereof. The original version, he said, appeared to favor conservation interests at the expense of farmers and ranchers in the Triangle.
"I was totally opposed to it in the beginning," he said. "It could have significantly impacted the farmers. There was no way it was going to pass the Legislature or the governor."
The Triangle
To fully grasp what's at work in the pages of the Legacy Project legislation, as well as in the minds of those who support or scoff at it, at least a basic understanding of the Big Wood and Little Wood basins' hydrology is required. The sister rivers are uniquely interconnected via an underground aquifer that feeds one from the other.
Hyrdrologically speaking, the Bellevue Triangle is a unique chunk of land. Before people settled the area and began irrigating crops, the aquifer was fed in part by the Big Wood River, which seeped into the porous soil and eventually re-emerged in the tributaries that feed Silver Creek.
As irrigation was introduced to farms in the Triangle, water that was taken from the Big Wood River and put on fields there seeped into the ground and later resurfaced in Silver Creek. Irrigation, in effect, gave a boost to a natural process by which the Big Wood River helped give birth to Silver Creek.
The Big Wood has its origins high in the Smoky Mountains above Galena Lodge and is fed from the Boulder, Smoky and Pioneer mountains as its tumbles toward the irrigated desert below.
Alpine snowfields feed the aquifer, which surfaces in various locations along the serpentine river. The first of the springs, a mossy patch in the Smoky Mountains, isn't far from where state Highway 75 bisects the mountains at Galena Summit. From there, the stream gradually widens from 6 inches to 5 feet near Galena Lodge. In Ketchum, the stream is more of a river, at about 40 feet wide.
Between its source and Magic Reservoir, 56 miles downstream and 3,800 feet lower, 28 named creeks and rivers feed the steadily growing—and below Hailey, shrinking—Big Wood. The river's upper basin covers 881 square miles of rocky mountain terrain and high sagebrush desert.
Hulen Meadows, just north of Ketchum, is at the top of the food chain, so to speak. Residents of the suburban-style neighborhood have one of the first sizable cracks at use of water that could otherwise flow into the Snake, 100 miles downstream.
On down the valley in the towns of Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue, the Big Wood and its underground aquifer are used extensively.
"Blaine County's consumption is high compared to the rest of the United States," reads a 2001 report by Ketchum hydrologist Lee Brown called "Hydrologic Evaluation of the Big Wood River & Silver Creek Watershed."
"The typical American's annual use nationwide is much lower and is usually between 160 to 180 gallons a day in contrast to the upper valley where this figure ranges from 400 to 600 gallons a day."
Even so, the Wood River Valley, with all its golf courses, excessively manicured lawns and thirsty people, consumes only 3 percent of the entire upper river's water, writes Brown.
In an average year, 1.33 million acre feet of water flows into the Big Wood River system. Each year, the Wood River Valley's municipalities draw 1,960-acre feet back out.
Most of the river's flow—985,000 acre feet annually—goes to naturally water or unnaturally irrigate forests, rangeland and crops. Silver Creek is the recipient of 91,100 acre feet via the underground aquifer that transports Big Wood water to the fishing mecca's springs.
Magic Reservoir receives 223,000 acre feet from the Big Wood River channel, and 29,300 acre feet recharges groundwater beneath the sagebrush desert and lava fields of the Snake River Plain. But there's a section of river between Glendale Road, just south of Bellevue, and Stanton Crossing, at U.S. Highway 20, that runs dry for much of the year. That is the section of river originally targeted for restoration by the Legacy Project.
It is questionable, however, whether or not the final form of the measure will restore that section of river.
"I don't know anybody that's stepping up and saying they want to donate water," Gardner said. "Water is in such short supply in this valley. I can't imagine anyone wanting to give it up."
Collaboration
The collaboration that brought about the Legacy Project's passage largely included north valley conservationists and south-basin irrigators below Magic Reservoir. Those were the stakeholders who believed they had the most to gain, and, thus, were its staunchest supporters.
Blaine County Commissioner and Bellevue Triangle-area farmer Larry Schoen is a member of the Legacy Project's organizing committee, but when his Bellevue Triangle neighbors, also his constituents, barked, he backed off and withdrew his support.
In between the north-basin conservationists and south-basin water users, Bellevue Triangle irrigators had something to lose, Schoen said. They came to the table despite concerns about how the legislation may impact their livelihoods. Sharing similar concerns were north valley irrigators using the Hiawatha Canal and other ditches and canals as well as some municipalities, Schoen said.
South-basin irrigators below Magic Reservoir stand to benefit from the legislation because any water put back in stream will eventually benefit downstream flows in their area.
Simply placing all of the donated water in the Big Wood River—the original aim of Legacy Project backers—may have led to unintended consequences, Schoen said. In every one of the Big Wood Basin's ditches and canals, some portion of water flowing through actually seeps into the ground. It's water Bellevue Triangle farmers and other irrigators in the basin rely on.
"When you change the patterns of water diversion into the canals and ditches it does have an effect on ground water recharge," Schoen said.
Idaho Department of Water Resources interim Director Dave Tuthill agreed.
"Incidental recharge is what's of concern," Tuthill said. "If a District 45 (canal) right in the Triangle were foregone, incidental recharge might be lost. There was a concern that by taking water rights out of that canal, some of the incidental rights would be dried up. It's difficult to model that incidental loss, and in some instances it's difficult to replace incidental loss."
One important aspect included in the final version of the Legacy Project legislation was an agreement reached for water rights on the Diamond Dragon Ranch, also called the Sun Valley Ranch. As the holder of one the oldest and most significant water rights in the Wood River basin, the owners of the Diamond Dragon agreed to move the point where they measure their water right upstream on the Wood River, Schoen said.
The Diamond Dragon Ranch is located south and downstream of the District 45 Canal.
Moving their point of measurement upstream will mean less water is needed to satisfy the ranch's water right because less water is lost to seepage as it's transported a shorter distance over the area's porous soils, Schoen said.
"That really softened a lot of the opposition," he said.
The final legislation also included a measure precluding donation of water rights that go to the District 45 Canal, and that should keep water flowing into the Bellevue Triangle and recharging the aquifer there.
Schoen said he's not trying to reargue the merits of the Legacy Project legislation.
"Most concerns of valley water users have been addressed in the legislation in its current form," he said.
And Gardner agreed. The changes made to the legislation ultimately enabled him to become a supporter.
"I think it could have some benefits," he said.
Local state legislators, including Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, and House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, worked with Triangle agriculture interests to make the Legacy Project work.
"I talked to Clint quite a bit," Gardner said. "He wanted to make it work. He didn't want to harm the farmers in Silver Creek."
The farmers' interests wouldn't have been heard had they not raised their voices. Bellevue Triangle farmers—most of whom prefer to stay out of the limelight—were more or less forced to come to the table to protect their interests, Gardner said.
"If somebody doesn't step up and do it they'll be overlooked," he said. "I think it was a matter of necessity that we show up."
Gardner said the sponsor of the legislation, Hailey resident Rich McIntyre, came at the issue from a more idealistic point of view. Farmers, on the other hand, viewed the original legislation from a more pragmatic perspective upon first seeing it.
But what, if any, real impact the Wood River Legacy Project has on the Big and Little Wood river systems remains to be seen, Gardner said. There's only so much water to go around, and it will require effort to make it work in the real world.
The Big Wood River downstream of Glendale Road runs dry much of the year. The Wood River Legacy Project was conceived to, among other things, re-water this oftentimes de-watered section of river. Photo by Willy Cook
