Teton Valley Water Rights: Whose water is it?

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

By Leigh Reagan

If an overflowing spring is meandering through your backyard, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s your water for the taking. The real question is: who has the water rights?

As Victor, Driggs and Swan Valley expand, Idaho is currently rewriting the rules regarding how Teton Valley residents acquire their water. A pending court case in the Idaho Supreme Court will dictate how ground and surface water will be managed.

According to Lou Christensen, the Mayor of Driggs, homebuyers should ask the developer if they have ownership of the water rights. Houses close to the city must connect to city water lines. For those off the city grid, well permits are only being issued for small houses. All well permits for irrigated wells are currently on hold.

Although this may appear to affect ranchers and farmers the most, “developers and cities will be somewhere in the middle of this,” says Christensen. “The water issue has become a big concern for us, because as we continue to grow, we need more water for cities,” said Christensen.

Roger Warner, Water Rights Supervisor for the Idaho Department of Water Resources said, “Ground and surface water used to be treated as two separate issues.”  “We now know that the relationship between ground and surface water is symbiotic, “If we take more water out of the ground, if affects how surface water flows.”

Snowmelt and surface water percolate down into the ground replenishing groundwater and eventually flowing out of the ground as a spring. Teton River is the perfect example of a spring-fed river. Surface water is therefore directly affected by the drilling of more wells.

People with Senior Rights – a system based on the date that water was first delivers to a home –  are the first to receive this water. An irrigation canal built to divert water from a stream in 1885 has priority over an irrigiation canal built in 1890. The 1885 canal must fill completely before the 1890 canal is allowed to receive water.

According to Joe Kaufman, Associate Engineer for Water District One, people are worried that Senior Canal Rights could limit development in this region, as those owning irrigation canals could claim they deserve more water, taking it away from new homes and developments. In turn, those with Senior Canal Rights are worried about new wells dug for development affecting their water flow.

“People are worried about how they’re going to be managed in relation to one another,” said Kaufman. The current system, which has historically worked for the valley, cannot keep up with recent growth.

“When farmers and ranchers diverted water to their land by a ditch, about half the water was used for cattle and to grow crops and the other half sunk into the ground to become part of the water aquifer,” Warner explains. New homes, roads and sprinkler systems draw on the groundwater that was continually recharging the water aquifer, he continues.

While the new guy pumping three wells next door may be affecting how the stream flows, Warner does not believe the future of water in the valley is all doom and gloom.
“We are facing change. The change will come with our practices,” said Warner. “Expect a new equilibrium to establish and this could create a deeper aquifer level. Developers will probably dig deeper wells,” he continues.

The goal of the Idaho Department of Water Resources is to reach some sort of balance and to negotiate development with downstream water users so that there is enough water to sustain the valley and its residents.
PERMALINK:
Teton Valley Water Rights: Whose water is it? | Planet JH News Article: Victor/Driggs, ID

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