Idaho Retains Control of Water on the Snake River
An Idaho judge ruled Friday that the two-decade old Swan Falls Water Agreement remains valid, keeping Idaho in control of water on the Snake River, not Idaho Power Co.
John Melanson, presiding judge of the Twin Falls court that has been sorting through more than 180,000 water rights across the Snake River Basin, rejected Idaho Power’s claim that the 1984 agreement was flawed and should be rescinded.
He said the agreement, which settled an earlier decade-long court battle over water rights, was clear: Idaho Power had legally and knowingly relinquished a portion of its water rights to the state, which held them in trust.
Idaho Power argued that both the state and the power company had underestimated how much water was available for development in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, and that has caused the company and its customers to pay higher costs for hydroelectricity. But Melanson said the amount of water was irrelevant to the agreement because it transferred water rights, not water.
"There are no assurances that there will always be sufficient water to satisfy a water right," Melanson wrote.
The current court case is a continuation of a history of tension over control of water in Idaho.
Farmers have guarded their right to divert water from the Snake River and its tributaries since the first settlers arrived in the 1860s. Idaho law protects farmers’ right to use the water based on the date it was first diverted or pumped onto croplands.
The current battle began in 1977, when a group of Idaho Power customers sued the company over declining streamflows at dams on the Snake River.
They said the company wasn’t doing enough to prevent upstream farmers from reducing the flows through its hydroelectric turbines. That meant less electricity and, thus, higher prices.
Idaho Power then sued the farmers and their irrigation companies, contending they were using its water illegally. In 1983, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled for Idaho Power.
In 1984, Idaho Power and the state struck a deal, known as the Swan Falls Agreement for the name of the dam for which the company had historic water rights. Idaho Power took less water than it had a right to claim; the state agreed to determine who owned what water and decide whether any was left for new development.
Rocky Barker: 377-6484
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