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Lawmakers press Idaho water officials on funding, capacity to stabilize Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer
Summary
Legislators questioned the Department of Water Resources and the Idaho Water Resource Board about progress toward a 350,000 acre-foot recharge goal for the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, use of prior $30 million allocations, and how budget holdbacks could force cuts to monitoring and maintenance.
Lawmakers in the Joint Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committee pressed the Idaho Department of Water Resources on March 26 about whether the agency has the funding and capacity to stabilize the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA).
In testimony and a question-and-answer session, Director Matthew Weaver and Idaho Water Resource Board Chairman Jeff Raybould described a multi-decade strategy that pairs reductions in groundwater pumping with active recharge and infrastructure projects. Weaver said a settlement requires groundwater users on the ESPA to reduce pumping by about 208,000 acre-feet, and the board is seeking to raise the state’s average recharge goal on the ESPA from roughly 250,000 to 350,000 acre-feet through pending legislation.
The director said the department and board are investing in recharge, conversion projects that shift irrigated land from groundwater to surface water and telemetry and monitoring grants to improve diversion reporting.…
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