WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Water and Power Subcommittee, discussed the impact drought has had on Idaho and the importance of water conservation.
“Idaho does water management right. We are successfully implementing aquifer recharge, canal modernization, and water storage expansion projects,” said Risch.
To watch Senator Risch’s Opening Remarks, click here.
To watch Al Barker’s testimony, click here.
To watch Senator Risch’s questions to Al Barker, click here.
Of his Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act, which was signed into law in 2020, Risch said: “This bill was aimed at providing flexibility for the Idaho Water Resources Board to conduct aquifer recharge across federal lands and using federal facilities. Among other things, the intent was to facilitate the use of agricultural canals, many of which cross [Bureau of Land Management (BLM)] lands, for aquifer recharge without needing to seek additional easement authorizations from the BLM. However, despite the consent of easement owners and clear flexibility provided within the law, the BLM is interpreting that the law does not apply to the Idaho Water Resources Board and preventing this efficient form of recharge.”
Risch welcomed fellow Idahoan Albert Barker, a member of the Idaho Water Resource Board, to the hearing as an expert witness.
In his testimony, Barker spoke of the importance of aquifer recharge efforts.
“Over the last 5 years, the IWRB has been able to recharge on average 250,000-acre feet of managed aquifer recharge that allows water to infiltrate into the system that otherwise would have been dealt with as a flood situation. When you have that water in the aquifer it’s available for all these other resources like agriculture, 18 municipalities, 300,000 people who obtain their drinking water from that source. It also provides water for hydropower, recreation, and other environmental needs,” Barker said.
Senator Risch spoke with Al Barker (left) earlier in the day about the Idaho Water Resources efforts to support important water projects in Idaho.
“Like [R]anking Member [Risch] said, we have had interpretation issues with the BLM and the Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act. We hope we can work with Congress and the BLM to enhance our ability to continue to recharge in the Eastern Snake Plane,” Barker continued.
“The BLM has interpreted your statute as to not apply if the Water Board is doing the recharge. They are interpreting it as only if the owner of the canal is doing the recharge for the benefit of the canal owner. And most of those canal owners don’t use groundwater. They use surface water. So our goal is to recharge the groundwater for the groundwater users and for the benefit of the aquifer. The BLM’s interpretation is making that difficult to achieve,” said Barker.
Risch pressed the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Water and Science on the importance of aquifer recharge and asked for his commitment to follow up with BLM, “it would keep us from jumping through all the hoops of passing another statute when the language is pretty clear.”
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