Water rights focus set to shift north

BOISE - North Idaho will shortly become the state's hotbed for water rights adjudication cases, the chairman of the Idaho Water Resource Board said Tuesday.

Water Board chairman Roger Chase referred to predictions that work is scheduled to wrap up before the end of 2014 at southern Idaho's water rights court - a finish that will leave only the North Idaho cases for the adjudication judge.

The Twin Falls-based Snake River Basin Adjudication Court has neared completion of a docket of close to 160,000 water rights claims in its 26 years.

And the water rights judge, Eric Wildman - who testified Tuesday before the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee - said the water court is targeting September at the latest to wrap up its handful of pending cases.

"As you saw from the judge's presentation, North Idaho is quickly gonna become the center of much of the work that we do for the (water rights) adjudication," Chase told state budget writers.

Wildman currently oversees matters at both the southern and northern water rights courts.

So far, 10,881 Idaho state law-based claims have been received for the Coeur d'Alene-Spokane River Basin Adjudication, Wildman noted.

The deadline for federal and tribal claims is Friday, the judge said.

"People often ask us, 'Why do we have problems in North Idaho? Why are you worried about water in North Idaho? Well, the reason we're worried about water in North Idaho, number one, in my mind, is because the states of Washington and Oregon would love to have that water to help them," Chase noted.

Chase also emphasized to state budget writers that in his viewpoint, it's important that Idaho Gov. Butch Otter during his Jan. 6 State of the State and Budget Address included a $500,000 funding recommendation for studying water supply issues and doing planning on the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

If that line item becomes law, it has the potential for protecting Idaho against out-of-state attempts to appropriate water from the Gem State, Chase said.

Chase cited a proposal that originated in the state of Washington in recent years that would move water out of Lake Pend Oreille, then, "transfer it down to the Rathdrum Prairie, and run it down the Spokane River for Washington."

Said Chase: "We have to be in a position so that we can protect our waters in Idaho so that when they come and say, 'We want to take those waters,' we can say 'No, wait, we've got a plan. The city of Coeur d'Alene says they're gonna need this, the city of Sandpoint says they're gonna need this. In the future, we have a plan for our water. You can't take our water.' We all know that at the federal level we can lose our water rights unless we have a good way to defend them. So, it's critical."