Official says wet spring boosted aquifer recharge

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Department of Water Resources administrator Hal Anderson says a cool, wet spring, above-average snowpack and good reservoir storage have boosted efforts to recharge the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.

The environmental factors sent more water traveling down the Snake River. That, Anderson says, allowed the Idaho Water Resource Board to use its water rights to send more than 80,000 acre-feet of water toward recharging the aquifer.

Anderson says the work has put the state within 20,000 acre-feet of its 10-year annual goal for aquifer recharge projects. That target was set as part of the Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan, approved by lawmakers earlier this year.

The recharge process involved six projects carried out by three irrigation districts and three canal companies. The Idaho Water Resource Board paid canal owners up to $3 per acre-foot to allow the recharge water to flow through the canals and seep back into the aquifer, instead of pulling it out for other uses.

With an overall cost of about $170,000, Anderson said the recharge projects were perhaps the most cost-effective tool in the Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan.

Drought and more than a half-century of groundwater pumping have depleted the Lake Erie-sized Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, causing surface water users to accuse groundwater users of illegally taking water rights, resulting in lawsuits. The management plan aims to recharge the aquifer through various projects and changing how water from the aquifer is used.

American Falls Reservoir District No. 2 is one of the organizations that worked with the water board on the recharge project. General Manager Lynn Harmon said the district used nearly 22,000 acre-feet of water for the project — but he doesn't expect to see that much water every year.

"We were exceptionally lucky," he noted. "There's a lot of years you wouldn't see anything."

Anderson and IDWR technical engineer Bill Quinn are more optimistic about the potential for future recharge work, noting that the region's snowpack was still considered largely average and more water flows past Milner Dam than people realize.

Anderson proposed that about 200,000 acre-feet could be available every other year for recharge purposes.

The spring recharge even extracted some applause from state Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, a member of the Legislature's Natural Resources Interim Committee that will help flesh out the management plan. Earlier this year, Coiner said he was skeptical of the plan's recharge goals.

Although Coiner still thinks recharge is an overhyped solution, he said this spring's results aren't bad. The challenge, he said, will be replicating what he considers a phenomenal water year in the future.

"The next 80,000 will be awful tough to get," said Coiner, who is also a Twin Falls Canal Co. board member.