TWIN FALLS (
Idaho Capital Sun
) — The Idaho Department of Water Resources has issued a new order finding that the Twin Falls Canal Co. may experience a water shortfall during this summer’s irrigation season.
The Idaho Department of Water Resources announced Friday that Director Mathew Weaver signed a methodology order forecasting the Twin Falls Canal Co. may face a shortage of 75,300 acre-feet of water during the 2025 irrigation season.
Acre-feet is a unit of volume expressing the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land in water one foot deep. For comparison, a football field without the end zones is a little bit bigger than one acre.
Water issues in Idaho are extremely important to farmers who depend on water to irrigate their crops.
Under Idaho law, surface water users with senior – or older – water rights like the Twin Falls Canal Co. have priority over water users with junior water rights who are pumping water from the
Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.
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Southern Idaho water users participating in 2024 settlement agreement should be spared from curtailment
However, Idaho water users who are participating and in compliance with the
2024 settlement agreement
will avoid having their water curtailed, which means shut off, state officials said.
“Idaho law and the constitution remain clear about first in time, first in right,” Brian Patton, Idaho Department of Water Resources deputy director, said in a written statement. “However, regardless of these facts, most water users will not face curtailment thanks to the hard work farmers put in last summer to create the 2024 water settlement. Compromises like this, and investments in our water supply, will benefit Idaho water users into the future and I applaud their foresight.”
Water users have until July 25 to demonstrate to the Idaho Department of Water Resources that they are participating in an approved mitigation plan, such as the 2024 settlement agreement, to avoid having their water curtailed to cover the shortfall.
Department officials encouraged any junior water users who are not part of an approved plan to join one to avoid curtailment.
Last year, farmers negotiated through the growing and harvest season
to reach the 2024 water settlement agreement
after the Idaho Department of Water Resources issued an order
requiring the holders of 6,400 junior water rights holders to shut off their water
to cover a forecasted shortfall.
