Boise News

WATER LAW

Does Idaho Supreme Court Ruling Clear Up Dispute on Water Allocation

By Headwaters News, 3-06-07

A ruling by the Idaho Supreme Court yesterday both clarifies and confuses water law in Idaho.

The court ruled that conjunctive management, which is a system of rules used by the Idaho Department of Water Resources to allocate water between senior and junior rights holders, is legal and constitutional.

But the ruling does not end the dispute between senior, surface water-rights holders and junior, groundwater-rights holders — it only says the state has the authority to wade into the debate.

That still leaves the dispute between junior and senior water rights holders above the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer unresolved — which is the original source of this case. This chapter in Idaho water law began a few years ago when the former Director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources ordered junior rights holders, who were mostly groundwater users, to stop pumping water to allow senior water rights users, mostly canal companies and irrigation districts, to fill their needs.

But the former director also asked the senior water rights holders to declare what they thought they had used in past years, which the senior water-rights holders didn’t like. These senior water rights users said the state couldn’t ask them that, and couldn’t use the information to reallocate water, and hence the original lawsuit.

The basic question answered by the court is whether Idaho can step in and manage water allocation between senior and junior water rights holders. The answer according to the court is, yes, it can. That leaves the Idaho Department of Water Resources and Gov. Butch Otter in the driver’s seat.

Junior water rights holders are calling the decision a victory while senior water rights holders say the issue will likely end up in court again. Both are probably correct.

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