An in-depth review conducted by the Idaho Department of Water Resources indicates that as many as 1,700 acres are potentially being irrigated illegally in portions of the lower Wood River Valley and in the Bellevue Triangle area.
Using sophisticated software that layers aerial imagery indicating what lands are being irrigated on top of maps showing what lands have legal water rights attached to them, the IDWR turned up a number of anomalies, the agency's southern regional director Allen Merritt told the Blaine County Commission Tuesday.
Merritt's talk was given before a packed house of local farmers, ranchers and other interested parties gathered at the Old County Courthouse in Hailey to hear him discuss various water rights issues.
Merritt said the IDWR has already begun to send letters to those local landowners the investigation indicates may be misapplying water.
"People are applying water on lands for which they have no water rights," he explained.
Merritt said the letters tell the landowners they're suspected of misapplying water to their lands and asks them to explain why the IDWR's determination may be incorrect. He said Idaho law permits civil penalties to be assessed for landowners illegally using water on their land.
"We remind them that in Idaho it's illegal to irrigate without a water right," he told the county commissioners.
Merritt said the IDWR is already receiving responses from some of the landowners suspected of misapplying water to their lands. He said some of the landowners have claimed they do have water rights to irrigate their lands.
Merritt said that so far, the IDWR has only sent letters to the owners of properties greater than two acres in size that appear to be irrigated illegally. He said hundreds of other parcels smaller than two acres without water rights appear to be irrigated.
Merritt admitted that some of the anomalies could be due to errors. He said some of the highlighted areas may actually be naturally-watered riparian zones.
Choosing his words carefully, Merritt seemed to warn the county commissioners that Idaho law may restrict the county from proceeding with a proposed ordinance that would regulate the use of water in decorative ponds, which are prevalent in many areas in the valley.
The Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to begin reviewing the draft decorative ponds ordinance soon.
Although Merritt said a state law approved in the past few years appears to restrict all oversight of water rights to the IDWR, he didn't say whether the proposed ordinance would violate that law.
"I wanted to say, 'hey, take note,'" he told the commissioners.
Merritt also discussed a possible water curtailment that could impact the city of Carey as well as other water users south to the Magic Valley this summer. He said whether the water call happens will have a lot to do with how well snowpacks do this winter.
Merritt said while Idaho snowpacks look good right now, they will need more snowfall by spring if reservoirs are to fill this summer.
"If the snow stopped today we'd be below normal in terms of runoff," he said.
