Committee backs sending resolution acknowledging 2024 ESPA mitigation plan to privileged committee

Senator Julie Van Orden, D-30, presented RS 32333 to the Senate Resources & Environment Committee, asking the committee to acknowledge a 2024 stipulated mitigation plan reached between surface-water users in the Magic Valley and groundwater users on the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.

The resolution “concur[s] therein that the legislature supports a 2024 stipulated mitigation plan,” Van Orden said, and includes language “establishing a state funded ESPA managed recharge goal of 350,000 acre feet.”

Van Orden said the 2024 agreement differs from a prior 2015 accord because it is a four-year plan with annual reviews and an explicit opportunity in year four to renew or revise the approach. She described multiple stakeholder meetings over the summer and fall that produced the stipulated mitigation plan after a curtailment order was administered on groundwater users in the aquifer last spring.

Committee chair brought a unanimous-consent request to send RS 32333 to a privileged committee for printing. Senator Harris moved the request; it was seconded and the motion carried on a voice vote with no recorded opposition.

The resolution, as presented, endorses the four-year mitigation framework and identifies a state-administered recharge goal of 350,000 acre-feet to support the agreement.

Committee members did not take a final floor vote on the resolution today; the item was forwarded for printing and further consideration.