April 28, 2017
CapitalPress.com
Idaho
IGWA districts exceed 2016 settlement reductions
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Award
recognizes
potato truck’s
NYC float
Capital Press
EAGLE, Idaho — A
judging panel of journalists
has given the Idaho Potato
Commission an award for
its August 2016 publicity
stunt in which its Great Big
Idaho Potato Truck floated
the Hudson River around
New York City.
The 6-ton replica pota-
to, displayed on a flatbed
truck, floated on a barge
past national icons includ-
ing the Statue of Liberty,
Brooklyn Bridge and the
Freedom Tower.
IPC beat out more than
200 submissions to win
the Bulldog Reporter’s Sil-
ver Award for Best Special
Event. IPC President and
CEO Frank Muir said the
event generated more than
100 million media impres-
sions — which reflect the
collective audiences of out-
lets that carried the story,
according to a press release.
IPC supports local charities
at many of the stops on the
truck’s national tours.
The truck is now on its
sixth tour, which may fol-
lowed at www.bigidahopo-
tato.com.
Courtesy photo
The Big Idaho Potato Truck
visits New York City Aug. 24.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Flood releases from American Falls Reservoir, in excess of what
Idaho Power can use for producing electricity, roar through a natu-
ral spillway that was part of the American Falls before the reser-
voir’s construction. High flows following a wet winter have provided
recharge opportunities that should help groundwater users mitigate
for a settlement agreement with the Surface Water Coalition.
conservation was achieved ei-
ther by directly reducing well
irrigation or through managed
recharge, which involves in-
tentionally injecting surface
water into the aquifer to offset
impacts of well irrigation.
The performance report
must be submitted annually
by April 1 to a steering com-
mittee comprised of the chair-
man of each groundwater dis-
trict and a representative from
each Surface Water Coalition
member. The Idaho Depart-
ment of Water Resources is
also reviewing the report for
accuracy and will provide its
analysis to the steering com-
mittee by July 1.
“It was a pretty difficult
start for them last year to get it
erage of years, so districts and
individual water users that fell
short of their 2016 goals will
be expected to reduce more in
the future.
Budge said many growers
had to make “real sacrifices,”
such as drying land at a time
of low commodity prices.
“It’s a learning process,
and the pumpers will contin-
ue to learn as they go and find
out the most effective ways
to reduce their water use,”
Budge said.
IGWA Executive Director
Lynn Tominaga believes the
lessons of the settlement’s
first year are that reducing
well use is more challenging
than many envisioned, and
more infrastructure is need-
ed to recharge flood waters
during wet springs — both to
serve the state’s program and
private recharge efforts.
“Learning to manage wa-
ter to meet the settlement
agreement is different for
each individual farmer, and
we’re finding that out,” Tomi-
naga said. “There isn’t any set
system that applies to every-
body.”
Statewide poll shows significant support
for farmland preservation across Idaho
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — A statewide poll
found broad support for farm-
land preservation and that re-
spondents were willing to put
their money behind the effort.
A previous poll by Boise
State University’s School of
Public Policy found that res-
idents of the Treasure Valley
area considered agriculture to
be the region’s most import-
ant economic sector.
Those results came as a
surprise to many people be-
cause the Treasure Valley is
the state’s main urban area
and center of Idaho’s high-
tech industry. Respondents,
even those in Boise, favored
preserving farmland over cre-
ating more affordable housing
when asked to choose be-
tween the two.
BSU’s more recent poll
found high support for farm-
land preservation efforts
across the state, which is not
a shock given Idaho’s rural,
agricultural flavor.
What was surprising was
that support was equally high
regardless of age, gender, po-
litical party or geographic lo-
cation, said Corey Cook, the
public policy school’s dean,
who oversaw the poll.
“What surprised me is how
widespread the support is,
how it doesn’t seem to break
along any of the tradition-
al lines,” Cook said. “What
it suggests to me is that this
isn’t a liberal-conservative or
left-right issue or even a geo-
graphical issue. It really is a
state-level concern.”
Around the nation, when it
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
A field near Nampa, Idaho, is planted to seed peas on March 28. A Boise State University poll found
that residents across the state support farmland preservation efforts by wide margins.
comes to other issues such as
education or the environment,
there are wide differences in
margins of support along gen-
der, age, political affiliation
and geographical location, he
said.
“But around the issue of
agriculture and farmland
preservation in Idaho, there
is widespread agreement,”
he said. “That to me is a re-
ally interesting story that is
unique. It is very surprising.”
The poll was based on re-
sponses from 1,000 adults in
all parts of Idaho.
People were asked to rate
how concerned they are about
farmland being developed
into housing on a scale of
1-10, with 10 being extreme-
ly concerned and 1 not at all
concerned.
Thirty percent of respon-
dents voted 10, 35 percent
voted 4-7 and 9.4 percent vot-
ed 1-3.
When it came to saving
farmland for food production,
47 percent voted 10 and 72.2
percent voted 8-10.
“Those are huge num-
bers,” Cook said.
17-4/#4N
POCATELLO, Idaho —
Idaho groundwater districts
participating in a water call
settlement with senior sur-
face water irrigators exceeded
their water-conservation goal
in 2016, according to a new
report.
The major concession in
the settlement reached in the
fall of 2015 with the Sur-
face Water Coalition requires
Eastern Snake Plain Aqui-
fer well users to reduce their
combined consumption by
an annual average of 240,000
acre-feet. According to the
coalition’s call, well use has
led to diminished spring flows
into the Upper Snake River, at
the expense of surface irriga-
tors.
The eight participating
groundwater districts — Ab-
erdeen-American Falls, Bing-
ham, Bonneville-Jefferson,
Carey Valley, Jefferson-Clark,
Fremont-Madison,
Magic
Valley and North Snake —
collectively beat their goal by
nearly 35,000 acre-feet. Water
all organized, but I think they
showed a lot of good effort
and pretty much did what they
said they’d do, and some of
them even more,” said Brian
Olmstead, general manager
of the coalition member Twin
Falls Canal Co.
Olmstead noted the set-
tlement calls for milestones
to be met toward reversing
decades of aquifer declines,
as recorded by 19 “sentinel”
wells. He’s encouraged that
an IDWR program is on pace
to exceed its own 250,000
acre-foot recharge goal. A
wet winter should also help
the aquifer with incidental re-
charge, he said.
The report shows Fre-
mont-Madison Irrigation Dis-
trict/Madison Ground Water
District beat its individual
goal by the widest margin —
more than 24,000 acre-feet.
However, the Bonneville-Jef-
ferson and Magic Valley
groundwater districts fell well
short of their individual goals.
T.J. Budge, an attorney
with Idaho Ground Water Ap-
propriators Inc., explained the
settlement is based on an av-
A total of 67 percent of
respondents said they favor
state government funding a
farmland preservation pro-
gram in Idaho.
And 62 percent said they
would be willing to spend
their own money to support
farmland preservation efforts.
“That’s typically where we
see issues like this fall apart,”
Cook said. “That suggests
real support.”
Glen Edwards, who farms
near Meridian, Idaho, and
supports farmland Preserva-
tion efforts as a member of the
Ada Soil and Water Conser-
vation District, said the poll
results are encouraging but he
would like to see that support
turn into a viable farm ground
preservation program.
“People always say they
are in support of it but nobody
is doing anything to make it
happen,” he said. “If a devel-
oper came by right now and
offered me a big chunk of
money. ... I might just take it.”
Map will project
farm ground
loss in Idaho’s
Treasure Valley
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Researchers are
developing a map that will
project how much farmland
will be lost in the Treasure
Valley through the end of the
century and where it will oc-
cur.
The map will project farm
ground loss in southwestern
Idaho in 10-year increments
beginning in 2021, said Jodi
Brandt, an assistant professor
in Boise State University’s
Human-Environment Systems
Department. She is part of a
team of professors and stu-
dents developing the map.
She will use data on growth
patterns and development that
have occurred in the Treasure
Valley area from 2001 to 2011
to project future farm ground
loss.
The project sounds interest-
ing and could be useful to the
local agricultural community,
said George Crookham, chair-
man of the Coalition for Agri-
culture’s Future, which formed
in 2008 as a result of the rapid
development that is occurring
in the area.
“I think it could be very
beneficial,” he said. “I’m cu-
rious, and possibly horrified,
at what her projections will
show.”
According to the Ada Soil
and Water Conservation Dis-
trict, there were 244,218 acres
of farmland in Ada County in
1974 but that total dropped to
144,094 in 2012.
Total farmland in adjacent
Canyon County is holding
steady at about 206,000 acres
but some people fear the rapid
development will eventually
cause farm ground to disappear
in that county as well.
Crookham said Brandt
couldn’t have picked a better
range than 2001 to 2011 to
demonstrate the effects of what
he called “un-smart growth,”
which led to subdivisions
plopped in the middle of farm-
land.
“That was the un-smartest
growth we have ever experi-
enced,” he said.
He said CAF supports smart
growth, from the cities out.
Brandt said the project
came about as a result of recent
BSU surveys that show people
in the region “overwhelmingly
value agricultural land. It came
up that agriculture is something
people really care about.”
She said the cropland loss
map will be completed in about
a month. Over this summer, it
will be expanded to show how
specific crops will be impacted
by the projected loss of farm-
land.
For example, “It will show
that we’ll lose so many bushels
of corn production or so many
tons of alfalfa production,” she
said.
For that product, research-
ers will incorporate USDA data
that show what types of crops
are being grown and where.
The Treasure Valley is a
major seed-producing region.
Crookham,
CEO
of
Crookham Seed Co., said some
seed production in the region
has moved to other areas be-
cause many vegetable seeds
need minimum buffer zones to
guard against cross-pollination,
and that’s been a challenge be-
cause of rapid development.
ROP-40-42-4/#17
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