BOISE—Treasure Valley irrigators are assessing their options after a judge ruled that water released from Boise River reservoirs for flood control can be counted against their storage water rights.
Judge Eric Wildman, presiding judge of the Snake River Basin Adjudication Court, overturned a special court master’s 2015 ruling that the state can’t count flood control releases against the reservoir storage rights of water right holders.
Roger Batt, executive director of the Treasure Valley Water Users Association, which represents 300,000 irrigated acres, said irrigators respectfully disagree with Wildman.
Because flood control releases occur in the winter, when the water isn’t available to farmers and other irrigators, the water right holders never get a chance to put it to beneficial use, he said.
“That’s water we can’t use because it’s released during a period of time when it can’t be captured and be used on farms or somebody’s lawn,” Batt said. “We don’t understand how water can be counted against us if we were never able to use it.”
The issue has pitted the southwestern Idaho irrigation community against the Idaho Department of Water Resources, which claims it has counted flood control releases from Boise River reservoirs against storage rights since 1986.
Irrigators say it’s a new practice and have challenged it in court.
Source: www.capitalpress.com