09/08/08 Summit on rural-urban water delivery issues

Will there be enough room to accommodate all of those who want to attend next month's Summit on Rural and Urban Water Delivery Challenges? Norm Semanko of the Idaho Water Users Association says the October 8th summit in Boise is now sponsored or co-hosted by more than a dozen organizations, companies and government agencies. SEMANKO "We intend to bring in folks in Idaho who have worked cooperatively, canal companies and cities on some of these issues and then of course we've got examples of things that haven't gone so well and unfortunately some of those things are in court and our goal is to try to avoid that." IWUA is seeing more rural-urban interface conflict issues faced by irrigation entities. As the urban areas develop, issues of private property encroachment and dumping of urban storm water runoff into canals and drains are arising with increasing frequency across the southern half of the state. What would Semanko want to see come out of the summit meeting? SEMANKO "If we can identify each others interests and agree to talk and work together instead of talking past each other and arguing I think that would be the greatest outcome we could have for this event." The IWUA Summit is a response to a request from Pioneer Irrigation District in Canyon County. Pioneer has been wrestling for more than a year with problems of urban waste water runoff and encroachment into Pioneer ditches and canals by the City of Caldwell. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott