Idaho Department of Water Resources Director David Tuthill Tuesday signed letters to groundwater users in the Thousand Springs area—including southern Blaine County—warning he intends to issue orders on May 14 requiring potential curtailment of their groundwater rights.
The warning letters were issued as part of a continuing response to water delivery calls made in 2005 by senior water right holders Blue Lakes Trout Farm and Clear Springs Food's Snake River Farm, located in the Hagerman Valley.
The delivery calls were made under IDWR's Rules for Conjunctive Management of Surface and Ground Water Sources. If required, the curtailment orders will affect certain ground water users with junior water rights in portions of Blaine, Butte, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln and Minidoka counties.
Water calls and curtailment orders are necessary to satisfy the director's duty under Idaho law to administer water rights in accordance with the prior appropriation doctrine in times of shortage.
"While we are forced to provide this notice, there is still an opportunity to identify additional mitigation," Tuthill said. "Curtailment is a last resort, but we are obligated under Idaho law to follow through with enforcement if mitigation is not provided."
If issued, given the present mitigation plan, the curtailment orders could affect ground water rights bearing priority dates junior to May 10, 1983, for the Blue Lakes call and junior to June 9, 1975, for the Clear Springs call. This includes 771 ground water rights for irrigation, commercial, industrial, municipal, non-exempt domestic and stock water, and other consumptive uses. Non-consumptive and culinary in-house uses of water will not be subject to curtailment under the orders.
A water call is made when the holder of a senior water right experiences a shortfall in the amount of water the holder is entitled to receive and is beneficially using in accordance with law. The call is made on the water source. Under the conjunctive management rules, IDWR will then require the holders of junior water rights to mitigate the effects of their diversions or stop diverting water in order to allow more water to satisfy a senior right.
