When it comes to Idaho water rights, there is a saying: "First in time means first in line." That saying could haunt Hailey officials as they begin taking steps to avoid potentially drastic water shortages within the next few years due to expected changes in Idaho's water rights laws.
When "conjunctive management" comes to town within the next five years, the city's water rights for wells used during summer, dating from 1960 to 2001, may have to wait in line behind many water rights within the Big Wood River Basin dating from the 1880s.
Hailey Mayor Rick Davis is making plans to meet with the city's water attorney, Jim Speck, as well as the director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources, in order to assess the urgency of the situation, and what to do about it.
"It's important that we forge ahead with this," said Davis on Tuesday. "We need to know what the IDWR is coming down with and how it is going to effect our municipal water supply."
Conjunctive management is an innovative regulatory practice that manages surface water, or irrigation water rights, along with groundwater, or well-pumping rights. When priority dates of the two kinds of water rights are managed together, the well user typically loses if the water is used for "consumptive uses," such as watering lawns.
Hailey currently pumps 323 million gallons each summer from its four wells for irrigation purposes. All of that water could be taken by senior water rights holders under conjunctive management.
"There are consumptive uses in Hailey and there are non-consumptive uses," said IDWR Director David Tuthill last month. "Household uses are non-consumptive. Watering lawns is consumptive."
Tuthill said that during dry periods, Hailey wells could be shut down to protect water supplies for downstream use by senior water rights holders.
"It is worthwhile now to look into ways the city might mitigate senior water rights users for the diminishment of their water supplies."
The Hailey City Council heard results from a monthlong water study provided by Charles Brockaway of Twin Falls-based Brockaway Engineering Monday night on the city's water supply, and how to protect this supply against senior water rights claims under consumptive management practices.
The study points to the possibility of mitigating for the use of water the city pumps from its wells each summer for irrigation purposes by pumping water from elsewhere back into the ground, a process called "recharging."
The Brockaway study was funded by developer Harry Rinker, who owns the 160-acre Peregrine Ranch, a property north of Hailey slated for development. Following Monday night's meeting, Rinker told the Mountain Express that he hopes to hook up to Hailey's municipal water services in exchange for providing recharge mitigation water for the city's long-term use from Peregrine Ranch.
Hailey officials are using the Brockaway study to begin a plan for protecting and expanding the city's oldest water rights, including several dating from the 1880s associated with Indian Creek Springs and the Hiawatha Canal. Those water rights could also be used in recharge mitigation efforts under conjunctive management.
The 1880s right to Indian Creek Springs water, which the city relies heavily on during the winter months, is currently headed for the courts with the Indian Creek Ranch subdivision as part of the Snake River Adjudication. There are hundreds of other water rights objections associated with the adjudication, which is expected to come to the Wood River Valley this summer.
The Hiawatha water right, which measures 2.86 cubic feet-per-second is currently used to irrigate 15 acres within the city. City Engineer Tom Hellen said that volume of water could potentially irrigate as much as 143 acres, and therefore presents an opportunity for the city.
"Right now, if the city expands water usage based on the Hiawatha right, we are essentially buying time during the growing season."
Hellen said establishing increased usage of the Hiawatha water right soon will benefit the city in the long run.
"The Hiawatha water will likely be used in recharge mitigation efforts in the future to offset continued usage of the city's wells," he said.
Hellen also said the significance of Peregrine Ranch in terms of mitigation is still an "unknown."
Harry Rinker
