04/11/05 Water bills set the ball in motion

86 days after it started the Idaho legislature wrapped up the 2005 session by quietly passing Governor Dirk Kempthorne's highway proposal and major water legislation. In addition to the Nez Perce agreement the legislature has given groundwater and surface water users in eastern Idaho some tools to help solve a potential crisis. Idaho Groundwater Appropriators Lynn Tominaga says the Water Resource Director has a mitigation plan in front of him. TOMINAGA "If we can do things that will provide replacement water for the senior surface water user or even come in and maybe do some things that will help the aquifer over the long term then that will be enough to where the director says they're doing something to correct any problems they might create." But with a 1900 water right call looming the potential impact on Idaho agriculture is enormous. There are no groundwater pumpers with rights prior to that. TOMINAGA "It could affect as much as 990 thousand acres of groundwater and it not only just affects irrigators but it means cities, industrial users, municipalities." Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott