Wednesday, September 2, 2009

County approves Crystal Creek water project

Conditions designed to protect neighbors from potential impacts


By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

The Blaine County Commission is allowing developer George Kirk to proceed with a contentious wetlands project on a 1,619-acre ranch property south of Bellevue.

At a special meeting on Friday, Commissioners Larry Schoen and Tom Bowman approved an application for a stream-alteration permit and a wetlands conditional-use permit that pave the way for an approximately $4 million project to restore 12 miles of spring-fed stream degraded by grazing on the Crystal Creek Ranch.

Helping pay for the project will be $430,000 in federal stimulus funds approved for the unique stream restoration next to the Big Wood River.

However, the commissioners added a number of conditions to the approval, the most significant being that any adverse impacts on neighbors, or water users upstream or down, have to be mitigated by the developer.

As well, Kirk cannot begin with the excavation of large "oxbow" features, which are dug along streams to allow water to pool, until a water-rights transfer is approved by the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

The first phase of the project seeks to construct 12 "wetland cells" along the existing irrigation ditches that wind through the large property. Project backers say the cells would let the ranch's water managers use water for irrigation in a more efficient way.

In addition to helping irrigation, the project is aimed at restoring the streams to a more meandering and natural state that would allow aquatic life to thrive.

Always a hot topic for debate in Idaho, the issue of water rights and uses was at the forefront of this application.

Formerly known as the Diamond Dragon Ranch, the property has the oldest water rights in Blaine County, dating back to 1880. The ranch is located northeast of the blinking traffic light where state Highway 75 meets U.S. Highway 20 at Timmerman Junction.

The county approved a 38-lot development application for the ranch in 2008.

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Despite the water rights, it's still up to the Department of Water Resources to decide whether the second phase of the project would illegally harm neighboring landowners. They have expressed concerns that creation of the "oxbow" pools could disrupt underground water flows and that changing the historical water-use patterns could either dry up or even flood portions of their land.

Kirk, owner of the local development company that controls the property, Sun Valley Ranch LLC, already has the necessary permits and approvals from state and federal agencies to move forward on the first phase.

The commission was encouraged to approve the project by Dennis Mackey, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, who said the project offered "extremely high conservation value."

"This is exactly the type of project we should be encouraging property owners to do," Mackey told the commission. "It combines restoration, conservation and agricultural use."

Mackey said that if the commission didn't approve the project in the near future, then the federally stimulus money would go to another project, likely out of state.

Mardean Weston, who lives near the ranch, told the council that Kirk had visited her property to discuss her concerns and assured her that he would take care of any problems that arose from the stream work.

Commission Chairman Schoen said this was an important demonstration by the developer, and that the commission would take care to hold Kirk to his promise.

Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com




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