Aquifer Re-Charge

 430 Magic Valley users of groundwater have been put on hold by Idaho Department of Water Resources Director Dave Tuthill because of Idaho’s laws regarding seniority rights to water. The showdown results from a water delivery call made in 2005 by Clear Springs which raises a huge number of rainbow trout in their fish farm. Clear Springs Foods has seniority when it comes to water rights. Meanwhile, and outside the courtroom, the Surface Water Coalition, a group of Magic Valley canal companies and irrigation districts, has crafted a pilot aquifer recharge program. Everybody seems delighted by the proposal but before we go any further, how does one re-charge an aquifer. What does it mean?  Bill Quinn, Technical Engineer, with the Idaho’s Department of Water Resources. “Two basic ways to re-charge an aquifer. Number one you can do it through surface infiltration. Some people say percolation, but essentially you’re letting water migrate downward through the force of gravity until it reaches the aquifer, this is actually a preferred method because it’s less expensive, and the soil surface materials do act as a filter to purify the water. The second way of re-charging is through well injection. You are injecting water into the aquifer, here your injecting directly into the aquifer so water quality issues become very important, usually recharge by injection requires very stringent monitoring to safeguard the water quality of the aquifer.”