A new state water plan will go into effect, it offers some new policy guidance over water use and management.
credit:
Aaron Kunz
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho has a new water plan — the first update since 1996 to the state’s principles for how water in streams, lakes and aquifers should be divided among users and how it should be conserved for fish and wildlife. The new plan goes into effect Friday. But not everyone is happy about it.
The Idaho Water Plan doesn’t have the force of law, but it does offer some guidance over state policy when it comes to water.
Under state law, the proposed plan automatically took effect because it’s been 60 days since it was first introduced to the Legislature and no changes were made.
Idaho Water Board Chairman Roger Chase says the new plan doesn’t reduce existing rights to withdraw water for agriculture or other uses. But he says it is updated to address concerns about salmon recovery, wetlands, and what the report calls “climate variability.”
And it calls for voluntary actions, rather than imposing more regulations. Chase said: “So by doing that in a totally voluntary program, we have one of the most successful salmon recovery programs in the nation.”
The Idaho Conservation League says the new plan isn’t perfect; it doesn’t like the push for new dams to meet future water storage needs.
But the league’s Marie Calloway Kellner says the plan is an improvement over the old one.
A handful of lawmakers say they want to revise the water plan later this year.
Correction: March 8, 2013. An earlier version of this story misstated the Idaho Conservation League’s position on the updated version of the Idaho Water Plan. The league considers the new plan an improvement but doesn’t like everything in it.
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