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Idaho officials urge clarifying Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act after BLM interpretation delays recharge projects
Summary
Idaho water officials told the House Natural Resources subcommittee that a BLM interpretation of the Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act is forcing new rights-of-way for third-party recharge projects and slowing efforts to recharge the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.
The subcommittee considered HR 331, a bill to amend the Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act to clarify third-party use of existing Bureau of Land Management rights-of-way for managed aquifer recharge.
Wesley Hippke, water project section manager for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, testified on behalf of the Idaho Water Resource Board and described the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA) as a critical resource underpinning about 1,000,000 acres of irrigated farmland and municipal supplies. "This aquifer covers an area roughly the size of Lake Erie," he said, and…
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