Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Resources Camas Creek topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
House approves memorial asking federal agencies to permit maintenance of Camas Creek to restore water flow
Summary
The House passed Senate Joint Memorial 104 after extended debate over water access, tribal treaty protections and federal management; proponents say channel maintenance will restore irrigation water, opponents warned of legal and cost consequences.
BOISE, March 24, 2025 — The Idaho House passed Senate Joint Memorial 104 on Tuesday, urging federal agencies to permit maintenance of the Camas Creek channel through the Camas National Wildlife Refuge to restore seasonal flow to Mud Lake and support local irrigation. The roll‑call vote was 53 in favor, 15 opposed, 2 absent.
The memorial’s sponsor told lawmakers that sediment and debris have reduced the seasonal flow that once reached Mud Lake, noting that over nine years roughly 44,000 acre‑feet of water that entered the refuge did not pass through to the lake — enough, the sponsor said, to cover the 24,000 irrigated acres out of Mud Lake in multiple feet of water. The sponsor said the last authorized channel maintenance occurred in 1990 and asked federal partners to permit repair and cleaning of the channel.
Supporters said allowing limited maintenance would reduce expensive groundwater pumping and protect irrigated farmland that depends on the lake’s storage.
Opponents warned the memorial overreached by suggesting changes in management and raised legal concerns. Representative, Idaho House, District 33, an outspoken opponent, argued that turning refuge management to the state or reducing federal protections would raise costs for Idaho taxpayers and potentially conflict with treaty obligations. “A vote for this is not only increasing people's taxes, but it's also saying the Idaho legislature does not care about the supreme law of the land or the tribal rights of the people living in this state right now who have been here long before Idahoans,” the lawmaker said on the floor.
The sponsor and other legislators said the memorial does not seek to change water rights or tribal treaty protections; it requests federal agencies to permit maintenance activities to restore historic flows.
Ending: The memorial passed the House and will be transmitted to the Senate; supporters said it is intended to prompt federal partners to coordinate permitting and remedial work rather than order a transfer of federal lands to state control.
