12/06/07 IDWR says recharge was successful

The Idaho Department of Water Resources says the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer recharge project through the North Side Canal Company was 91 percent successful. ANDERSON "The absolute home run would have been to get every drop of it in the system but given the fact that this was the first time we had ever done this we had to kind of stage it, try to figure out how to make it happen." IDWR's Hal Anderson says credit has to go to the canal company for its effort in October and last month. The recharge was part of an agreement that allowed slow moving water from Milner Dam to seep into the aquifer via the canals in an attempt to increase water at Thousand Springs where trout farmers would be able to use it. Nearly 27 thousand acre feet of water reportedly leaked through the canals before freezing temperatures halted the project in late November. Will there be future recharge efforts? Anderson says yes. ANDERSON "The best facilities that we have in place right now, certainly the least expensive facilities are those that already exist and those are the existing canal systems." Groundwater pumpers spent a half million dollars to buy the water but it could be a couple of years before its effect can be measured at Thousand Springs. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott