April 22, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
U.S. House members urge union, ports to cooperate
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Southern Idaho farmers Kendall Jones, left, and Todd Garrett show the channel of the Raft River,
which they hope to flood with aquifer recharge water from a planned pipeline. The group of nine farm-
ers proposing the pipeline also intends to use it to provide surface water as an alternative to ground-
water, given that their Raft River Aquifer is in decline.
Idaho grower group proposes
irrigation and recharge pipeline
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
RAFT RIVER, Idaho —
Nine irrigators who draw from
the declining Raft River aquifer
have proposed building an 11-
mile pipeline, planning to switch
fields to surface water when it’s
available for lease and to con-
duct managed aquifer recharge
during the off-season.
The groundwater area, called
Basin 43, stretches from Idaho’s
border with Utah north to the
Snake River Plain. Though the
basin’s irrigators haven’t been
included in the recent Surface
Water Coalition call against
junior Eastern Snake Plain
Aquifer well users, the Idaho
Department of Water Resources
has warned they’ll also have to
make future changes to make
their operations more sustain-
able.
The project would cost $15
million to $18 million, and
the farmers — who represent
30,000 irrigated acres — hope
at least half of the project’s
cost will be covered by grants.
They’re in the process of apply-
ing for assistance from IDWR
and the USDA Natural Resourc-
es Conservation Service. Par-
ticipant John Spratling believes
the project would boost the local
economy by keeping farm acres
in production.
“That’s exactly why we want
to do this, so we can keep farm-
ing,” Spratling said. “I’ve got
grandsons and two boys who
want to farm, and that’s what I
did all my life.”
If the pipeline were to run at
capacity throughout the entire
irrigation season, an engineer-
ing study the growers commis-
sioned estimates they could
supplant 25,000 acre-feet of
groundwater with surface water,
known as a soft conversion. In a
best-case scenario, the pipeline
would enable them to inject an-
other 19,000 to 20,000 acre-feet
into the aquifer through winter
recharge.
“We have been talking about
it for a lot of years, and just re-
cently, it’s started to look like
something that could actually
happen,” said Todd Webb, a
participant who serves on the
board of the Raft River Ground-
water District. “It’s a very costly
project to those involved, but ul-
timately, our goal is to maintain
our livelihoods in that valley for
a lot of years to come.”
The pipeline would divert
water from the Snake River at
the east end of Minidoka Res-
ervoir and continue south along
the channel of the Raft River,
most of which has run dry in
recent years. Recharge wa-
ter would flood the river plain
where the pipeline dead-ends
and flow north in the river chan-
nel, filing nine planned recharge
ponds covering 277 combined
acres along the way.
Project participant Kendall
Jones said flooding the valley
would restore riparian habitat,
potentially bringing pheasants
back to the area. He’s met with
the Idaho Department of Fish
and Game to discuss the ecolog-
ical benefits. Growers have also
sought help from Rep. Mike
Simpson, R-Idaho, and Idaho
House Speaker Scott Bedke,
R-Oakley.
Participant Todd Garrett said
leasing surface water would
add at least $20 per acre to his
costs, but the engineering study
confirms the combination of
recharge and soft conversion
would more than offset the aqui-
fer’s declines. Garrett said the
group is applying for a private
recharge water right and could
also recharge water from a state
water right.
IDWR’s recharge coordina-
tor Wesley Hipke, said recharge
water would be available for the
project in about half of years,
given that a hydro-power proj-
ect downstream on Milner Dam
would have priority during the
off-season.
“If we can assist them, it’s
something the (Idaho Water
Board) is definitely very inter-
ested in doing,” Hipke said.
Nine members of Con-
gress, led by Washington
Reps. Dan Newhouse and
Dave Reichert, are urging the
International Longshore and
Warehouse Union and the
Pacific Maritime Association
to find ways to prevent port
disruptions.
A work slowdown crippled
container exports in 2014 and
2015.
At a conference in Long
Beach, Calif., at the end of
February, the presidents of
ILWU and PMA said they are
willing to raise the possibility
of extending the agreement
reached in 2015 beyond its
July 1, 2019, expiration.
In light of that, Newhouse
and Reichert, both Repub-
licans, authored a letter to
ILWU and PMA encouraging
them to discuss options to
preclude disruptions.
“Because workers, farm-
ers and businesses rely on the
efficient movement of goods,
we place great importance on
the normal and functional op-
eration of our ports,” the letter
states.
The 2014-2015 slowdown
cost farmers, manufacturers
and retailers across the West-
ern hundreds of millions of
dollars in losses because they
could not get their goods to
market, the letter states. For-
eign market shares were lost,
hurting businesses, ports,
workers and shippers.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson File
The Port of Seattle is shown in this file photo. Members of the U.S.
House have written a letter to port managers and the union urging
them to cooperate to avoid future work stoppages or slowdowns.
The letter was signed by
Newhouse, Reichert and
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rod-
gers, R-Wash.; Kurt Schrad-
er, D-Ore.; Mike Simpson,
R-Idaho; Mike Coffman,
R-Colo.; Doug LaMalfa,
R-Calif.; Devin Nunes, R-Ca-
lif.; and Amata Radewagen,
R-American Samoa.
“An extension of the
agreement would restore
confidence in port reliability
and some market share lost
to foreign competitors,” said
Will Boyington, a Newhouse
spokesman.
The letter encourages the
ILWU and PMA and puts
them on notice that there is
congressional scrutiny, he
said.
Last year, a New-
house-Schrader amendment
was included in the Port Per-
formance Program that was
part of a transportation bill,
the FAST Act, HR 22, that
passed the House and Senate
and was signed into law by
President Barack Obama.
The program requires the
reporting of port statistics by
the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics to serve as a baseline
in determining the economic
impacts of port slowdowns.
Newhouse and Schrader
last year also introduced HR
3932, the ECONOMICS Act.
It would establish economic
triggers that would require
a board of inquiry to recom-
mend to the president if in-
junctions should be sought to
end strikes or slowdowns.
Newhouse and Reichert
also introduced HR 3398,
the PORTS Act, last year al-
lowing governors of seaport
states and territories to initiate
boards of inquiry under the
Taft-Hartley Act in the event
of work slowdowns or strikes.
Both of those bills have
been referred to committees
and member support is being
built, Boyington said.
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