Idaho Water Negotiations Underway to Prevent Future Curtailments

BYU-Idaho Radio

Photo Credit: Fremont-Madison Irrigation District | Grassy Lake Outlet -Earlier this summer the Idaho Department of Water Resources issued a curtailment order calling for junior water rights holders to shut off their water because certain requirements weren’t being met according to a 2016 water mitigation plan. Some 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders who pump from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, our natural underground resource, had to shut their water off because of what’s called a threat of injury for senior water rights holders in the Magic Valley area. For those who fell under the curtailment order, including farmers, many of their livelihoods were threatened. Here's what's being done about it now.