Irrigation bills come before Senate committee

Wednesday this week, the Senate Resources & Environment Committee examined several pieces of legislation dealing with irrigation issues. H136 made changes to existing processes in order to increase efficiency for the Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) and the irrigation districts. The bill proposed that when a water master is re-appointed in consecutive years, he does not have to re-take the oath each time which saves time and money for IDWR and the districts which don’t have to process identical paperwork every year. In addition, the bill allows the appointment of a water master without the requirement of a written petition; allows districts to present yearly budgets 14 days before their annual meetings and to submit only the final approved budget to IDWR. In addition, districts that have budgets of $7500 or less are allowed to have the water master also serve as the treasurer.

The committee sent the bill to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation.

H 137a dealing with channel alterations brought more questions from the committee. The legislation allows work by districts to repair diversions and keep water flowing to begin without a permit from the county. According to IDWR rules (which are 36 pages long), cleaning, maintaining, and clearing debris does not require a permit. This exemption has not been recognized in Blaine County which requires a separate permit process without any exemption for cleaning & maintenance type work. It can take 1-3 months to get such a permit from the county commissioners. This puts a burden in the way of water delivery. Recognizing the exemption for cleaning, maintaining and clearing debris does not wipe out the existing city and county permit system that requires permits for substantial work in streams.

According the Tom Bowman, Blaine County Commissioner, the county requires permits for substantial work that has an impact on the flood plain and threatens flood insurance. Blaine County does not see a need for this legislation and are concerned when routine maintenance turns in to substantial work that abuses the permit.

The legislation as amended is opposed by the Idaho Association of Counties (IAC) which agrees that removing debris and routine maintenance does not need a permit but constructing or using equipment in the water which could cause a possible loss of flood insurance under FEMA rules requires a permit.

The dispute seems to have been caused by work that was supposed to be routine rebuilding of a diversion and cleaning debris but did extensive modifications using heavy equipment in the stream and altered the flow of the stream. The committee voted 5-4 to hold the bill for one week to allow the parties to negotiate a compromise.