18Sep 2023 by Nicole Rinaldi

New committee takes on Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer

Idaho News
By Bill Schaefer; Capital Press POCATELLO, Idaho — A diverse group of 13 water users met Sept. 13 to review the 2015 agreement between groundwater and surface water users and its impact on the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. The group's job is to draft amendments to the agreement or a new management plan that will help restore the aquifer without harming senior or junior water rights holders. IDWR Director Gary Spackman tasked James Cefalo, the IDWR eastern regional manager, with organizing the advisory committee. In 2016, Spackman designated the aquifer as a Ground Water Management Area. A GWMA designates all or part of a groundwater basin that may be approaching conditions of a Critical Ground Water Area. Idaho aquifer Under a GWMA, applications for new water appropriations may be approved…
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05Apr 2022 by Nicole Rinaldi

You asked: Where will Avimor get its water from?

Idaho News
By Margaret Carmel; BoiseDev The entrance of Avimor off of Highway 55. Photo: Margaret Carmel/BoiseDev Police, fire, and emergency medical services aren’t the only essentials a developer needs to sort out when building a subdivision in the Boise foothills. Avimor, a growing community spanning the Ada, Boise, and Gem county lines, hopes to build nearly 10,000 homes by its completion in the coming decades. Along with the necessary road improvements, businesses, a community center, and the homes themselves, developer Dan Richter also has to build a water system to serve the homes along Highway 55. Between the combination of wells, surface water rights on the property dating back over a century, and a boost from Suez, Richter says nearly the entire project will be served by water in the ground…
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08Feb 2022 by Nicole Rinaldi

To breach or not to breach the Snake River dams?

Idaho News
By Joel Mills; Lewiston Tribune The Little Goose Dam is seen Feb. 2 along the Snake River near Riparia, Wash. Pete Caster. Several Lewiston city councilors got behind a proposed resolution in favor of retaining the four lower Snake River dams after a presentation Monday from members of Citizens for Preservation of Fish and Dams, but one councilor said he wants a similar presentation from the other side before he casts a vote. Marvin Dugger, Dick Sherwin and Dan Caldwell from the dam preservation group offered their take in opposition to Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s $33 billion proposal to breach the dams to improve fish habitat. Several other area governmental entities have gone on the record in opposition to the plan, including Nez Perce County. And several city of Lewiston…
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