Water resources officials seek staff, ongoing funds to expand recharge and administration

At a legislative budget hearing, the Idaho Department of Water Resources told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee it needs five new full-time positions to create a Water Administration Bureau and requested ongoing funds to support statewide water projects and recharge efforts.

The department’s director, Matt Weaver, and Idaho Water Resource Board Chairman Jeff Raybould described a portfolio of ongoing projects funded with a mix of state and federal dollars — including ARPA state fiscal recovery funds — and said the board has committed most of the cash in the water management account.

The request for five positions would create a bureau to pair with about 11 existing staff who now work on water administration, Weaver said. “Prior to this request, we had grown from 2 and a half FTEs, to about 11 FTEs department wide,” Weaver said. The new positions would include a bureau chief, technical records staff and other support to meet demand for creating and supporting water districts around the state.

Why it matters: lawmakers pressed agency leaders on whether additional staff would grow government or were essential to implement the Eastern Snake Plain settlement and manage more real-time measurement and administration of wells and water districts.

Weaver described three categories of projects the funds would support: aging infrastructure, water sustainability (including managed recharge), and flood management. He said the agency and private actors averaged roughly 600,000 acre-feet per year of aquifer-management activity from 2016–2024 (about 268,000 acre-feet per year of state-sponsored recharge plus 116,000 acre-feet per year private recharge and 212,000 acre-feet per year of pumping reductions). “I’m not going to stand up here and say that we’ve stabilized it or balanced it… but I am very hopeful,” Weaver said about the aquifer trend.

Raybould outlined projects funded or under contract from the water management account and other appropriations, including Mountain Home Air Force Base supply work, Anderson Ranch dam raise planning, a pipeline from Dworsha Dam to fish hatcheries, support for Lewiston Orchards conversion work with the Bureau of Reclamation, the Rift/Raft River pipeline, the Treasure Valley water supply assessment, and canal efficiency conversions. He said some funds were issued as loans and some as grants and that the board sometimes pays a portion of a project (example: roughly 50% for Lewiston Orchards, about 89% contribution to the Anderson Ranch raise under a Win Act agreement).

Account balances and commitments: Weaver told the committee the water management account had an ending cash balance of about $293 million for FY24, revenue through Dec. 31 of roughly $38 million and expenditures near $11.2 million; the board’s committed funds totaled about $290 million, leaving roughly $29 million uncommitted. Raybould estimated about $20–23 million of outstanding loans across programs (approximate figures provided during Q&A).

ARPA and appropriations: Miss Janet Jessup, budget and policy analyst with legislative services, highlighted that the department received a one-time $50 million ARPA appropriation and an additional $50 million added as ongoing in FY23; the ARPA funds have driven large spikes in expenditures in FY23–FY24 and are being expended over multiple years.

Recharge target: committee members pressed agency leaders about the goal to raise average annual recharge on the Eastern Snake Plain from 250,000 acre-feet to 350,000 acre-feet and whether that suffices for projected demand. Weaver and Raybould said increasing recharge capacity — including building basins or pipelines and acquiring property where needed — is costly and will require ongoing investment and coordination with local water districts and users.

Grants vs. loans: Raybould described board criteria for grants and loans and gave examples: the aging infrastructure grant pays up to one-third of project cost with a $2 million cap; regional sustainability and conversion projects can receive loans or grants depending on need and benefit analysis.

Committee concerns and next steps: several legislators expressed concern about the pace at which large projects move from engineering and design into construction, the size of the agency’s cash balances, and whether ongoing appropriations should be approved without project lists. Raybould and Weaver said much of the cash is already committed to projects or reserved for matches and that large projects advance only after engineering and agreements are complete. Weaver said the department will provide the committee a list of identified but unfunded projects that total about $213 million in needs that currently lack funding.

Weaver closed by saying the requested staffing and funding priorities were driven by water users’ reported needs for administration, recharge and infrastructure work. “These priorities were based on the needs of the water users as they reported them to me,” Weaver said.

The hearing moved next to the Department of Environmental Quality.