A pivoting irrigation system waters a crop of barley on a farm located near Arco, Idaho, during a late summer day. Idaho is a top barley-producing state, growing both malting and feed varieties. (Johnathan Cohen/Getty Images)
Last week, Senate Bill 1128 passed the Idaho Senate by a wide margin. This bill provides essential funding for Idaho’s water infrastructure and has strong support in the House, yet is at risk of dying in the House’s Resources and Conservation Committee. After last year’s water crisis, our Legislature simply cannot afford to let that happen.
Last year, decades of water conflict in southeast Idaho came to a head in what was, for many Idahoans, the most traumatic situation we have ever faced. Hundreds of thousands of farm acres were faced with the threat of immediate curtailment (state-enforced cessation of irrigation), imperiling thousands of farms, businesses and communities across the region.
Last fall, after months of debate, discussion, and negotiation, water users across the Snake River Valley identified several actions and approaches to water management that hold tremendous promise for:
- improving aquifer levels,
- enhancing Snake River spring flows, and
- better managing our existing water supply.
Those solutions, which include groundwater recharge and monitoring, canal upgrades, and other projects to strategically manage our water resources, depend on the state’s commitment to ongoing investment in our water infrastructure. That’s why the Senate, with overwhelming support, passed Senate Bill 1128, which establishes an ongoing $30 million budget for water projects across the state (to support an industry that brings $11 billion into Idaho annually).
After months of negotiations, Idaho farmers reach new long-term water agreement
These funds will be administered by the Water Resource Board, which will establish guidelines for the application, evaluation and allocation of funds to eligible projects, including those that will help ensure the success of the recently-negotiated mitigation plan between irrigators in southeast Idaho. The bill requires transparency and accountability by directing the board to submit an annual report to both the governor and the state Legislature detailing the expenditures, progress and effectiveness of funded projects.
This bill, which was cosponsored by eight senators and 18 state representatives, has support in the House but is currently languishing in committee. As the legislative session nears an end, we cannot afford for our representatives to let this fall through the cracks.
Fortunately, this one should be a no-brainer. This bill, which represents a miniscule fraction of the state’s multi-billion-dollar budget, provides funds for crucial infrastructure in a way that is transparent and directly accountable to the governor and our legislators.
No one wants a repeat of 2024. Last year’s curtailment came dangerously close to precipitating an economic calamity that would have devastated communities across southeast Idaho and would have had ripple effects throughout the state. If there’s a silver lining to that crisis, it was that it forced water users and the state back to the table to negotiate a better way forward. We passed through the crucible of those difficult, debate-filled months with a plan that balances the needs of our communities with the health of the aquifer and the Snake River.
As far as the framework is concerned, we’ve already done the hard part. Now the ball is in our legislators’ hands. Our ancestors in the late 1800s and early 1900s had the vision to develop Idaho’s water resources for the public benefit. Let’s summon a portion of that vision to carry our water resources into the 21st century and beyond.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.