Water Donation

Approximately 6,300 acre feet of donated Snake River water will begin to flow into the Jensen’s Grove recreational area at Blackfoot thanks to an agreement between the Surface Water Coalition and the City of Blackfoot.

The donated water is intended to help recharge the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. The water, now in storage in Snake River reservoirs, belongs to Coalition members but has become available for donation thanks to above normal storage levels this late in the water year.    The recharge effort builds upon the aquifer recharge program  launched last year by the Coalition as part of the collaborative Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan (CAMP) adopted by the Idaho Water Resource Board earlier this year. Coalition member Tom Arkoosh: “We keep putting off aquifer rehabilitation which is the whole purpose of conjunctive administration between surface water rights and ground water rights…or it should be the whole purpose.”

Last spring the Coalition  launched an extensive public outreach program calling for a joint effort to move from litigation over conjunctive administration to solutions.  Coalition officials say  that Idaho must fix the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer if it is to ever arrive at any type of sustainable solution that will allow southern Idaho’s water-dependent economy to flourish.