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Senate approves change allowing officers to offer private land for aquifer recharge projects
Summary
Senate Bill 10-40, expanding eligibility for water districts to accept recharge land offered by officers who own suitable ground, passed the Senate 35-0 on Feb. 18, 2025.
Senate Bill 10-40 passed the Idaho Senate unanimously, 35-0, on Feb. 18, 2025. The measure amends state law to allow officers or board members of irrigation districts to offer privately owned land for aquifer recharge projects under specified conditions.
Sen. Cook, the floor sponsor, said the change addresses a current prohibition in section 43-320 that could prevent an officer who owns ideal recharge ground from making it available to a district because it could appear they were profiting from the arrangement. The bill allows such offers provided the landowner does not profit beyond fair compensation for land use and maintenance.
"This simply opens that up and allows me, even though I'm serving as an officer, allow me to... offer that ground to the district," Cook said, adding that owners may be compensated enough to maintain the land but not to profit. Supporters described the change as intended to increase opportunities to recharge the Eastern Snake River Plain aquifer and to ease administrative obstacles.
Floor debate was brief and without amendment. The roll call showed 35 in favor; the bill's title was approved and it will be transmitted to the House of Representatives.
