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IDWR Director finds ESPA ground water districts’ mitigation plans deficient in addressing water shortfall
BOISE - (May 10, 2024) – In the ongoing Surface Water Coalition’s conjunctive administration delivery call, Director Mathew Weaver of the Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) issued a new order on Friday, finding that the mitigation notices filed by ground water districts in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA) region are deficient and fail to demonstrate that their actions, including securing storage water, meet the requirements of their approved mitigation plans. Director Weaver also found that two ground water districts are not seeking coverage under any approved mitigation plan.
In the order signed May 10, 2024, Director Weaver gave the ground water districts until May 17, 2024, to submit additional documentation to address their deficiencies and ensure that they were mitigating for the predicted 74,100 acre-foot shortfall to senior water users.
In past years, the Idaho Ground Water Appropriators (IGWA) cooperated with the Department on behalf of all ground water districts overlying the Eastern Snake Plain to submit documentation demonstrating the ground water user’s compliance with their approved mitigation plan. This year, in contrast to previous years, individual districts submitted documentation on their own. Because the ground water districts acted independently there was less consistency in their filings and more uncertainty by the Department as to what was actually offered.