History of Idaho’s water

Here’s how it happened. The first concern of people moving into unchartered territory is the water supply. The timeline below begins in the early 1800s, nearly two hundred years ago. The text is modified from information provided by Google. Just enter “history of water Idaho” and you can find every reference preserved.

Here are some events from the earliest history of water in the high desert state of Idaho.

1805 - The famous explorers Lewis and Clark were the very first non-Indians to visit Idaho. In 1805, Clark started down the Salmon River, but he turned back after 50 miles of churning white water and sudden turns. Idaho’s Hell’s Canyon is North America’s deepest…
(From..Fun Facts About Idaha- The States – The History Channel
www.history.com/states.do?action=detail&state …)

1805. Sep 1805 – Dworshak Reservoir near Orofino Idaho The Corp. of Discovery arrived at the confluence of the Middlefork and Northfork of the Clearwater River in late September, 1805.  With the intention of constructing water craft to float the Clearwater to the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean, Clark identified five large Ponderosa Pine on the flat opposite the mouth of the Northfork suitable for canoes directly opposite the small village of Ahsahka. The site is now called “Canoe Camp.” http://www.lewisandclarkidaho.com/points_of_interest.htm

1811 – Shoshone Falls. First discovered by William Price Hunt in 1811, this waterfall is considerably higher than Niagara Falls. For many decades, this was the chief attraction in Idaho for the thousands of immigrants passing through to Oregon. The falls have since become one of Idaho’s scenic losses. Much of the water of the Snake River must be impounded for irrigation, robbing these waterfalls of their thunderous downpours. (Source--American Trails Revisited: Following in the Footsteps of the Western Pioneers, by Lynn Wilkerson; available from Amazon.com.)

1818. Donald Mackenzie, leader of the Snake country expedition (av), wishing to examine the country south of the Snake River, journeyed to Bear River and to the lake which drained into it. He called the body of water Black Bear Lake from the number of black bear (qv) which he saw in that vicinity. To Ashley’s men in 1818 it was known as Little Lake in distinction from the Great Lake farther west, and Bear River was spoken of by them as ..From Full text of “Idaho chronology, nomenclature, bibliography” – Related web pages www.archive.org/stream …

1819. Naming of Owyhee in Idaho. It is named for three (3) Hawaiian trappers who were members of Donald McKenzie’s Expedition and who were killed by Indians in 1819. Due to their courage, hardy nature, and water skills, Hawaiians were important workers in the success of the fur trade in the …The Owyhee River, a 200-mile long tributary of the Snake River, runs through northern Nevada, southwestern Idaho, and southeastern Idaho. Its name, “Owyhee,” is the old spelling of “Hawai’i.” It is named for three (3) Hawaiian trappers who were members of Donald McKenzie’s Expedition and who were killed by Indians in 1819. Due to their courage, hardy nature, and water skills, Hawaiians were important workers in the success of the fur trade in the Northwest.

From Kamehameha Schools: The Hawaiian Voyage – www.ksbe.edu/article.php?story …

1884. Settlers Irrigation District - Originally founded as the Settlers Ditch Company on October 50th, 1884, Settlers Irrigation District now serves thousands of water users in a large part of western Ada County in Boise, Idaho.

From dmoz.

1889. University of Idaho. The university was established in 1889. It is noted for awarding advanced degrees in fields such as water resources, environmental policy and resource management, and fish, game, and wildlife management. The university is home to the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, the Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, the Glaciological and Arctic Sciences Institute, the Aquaculture Research Institute, and the National Institute for Advanced Transportation. Source: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/281694 .

1890. Warm Springs Avenue began as a dirt wagon track to Kelly’s Hot Springs East of Boise. In 1890, the first hot water well was drilled just west of the Idaho State Penitentiary. The geothermal well was the beginning of Warm Springs Avenue and part of the pioneer exploration… …Source: Idaho Historic Preservation Council.

1892. Geothermal energy. Idaho has a long history of geothermal home and business heating, starting with the Boise Water Works wooden geothermal pipeline built in 1892. Today Boise has the largest direct use geothermal system in the country, supplying the Boise Capitol Mall Complex, the Fort Boise Veteran’s Hospital and surrounding homes and businesses with geothermal heat. The city’s current system appears sustainable, too. They now inject 100 percent of the water back into their aquifer. Source: Idaho Geothermal.

We’re going to stop now. If we hear from even ONE person who would like us to continue, we shall. Otherwise, this is just a taste of what is available on the history of Idaho. (Send email to hodi@mindspring.com)

Submitted by Griffith Publishing

Idaho water reservoir supply

The main reservoirs in southern Idaho report plenty of water, as follows:

Lake Lowell, 74% full

Cascade, 59% full

Arrowrock, 33% full

Lucky Peak, 28% full

Anderson Ranch, 65% full

Deadwood, 59% full

(The above numbers were provided by Rocky Barker for the Idaho Statesman, November 5, 2009, edition.)

But that’s not the whole story. Idaho’s agricultural businesses and families depend heavily on snow for irrigation and other water needs. An average snowfall and a slow steady melt would get us through next year just fine when combined with the reserves on hand now. But until the winter works through the calendar, we don’t know how much snow will fall, when it will fall, and whether it will be fast-melting heavy wet snow or powder snow that falls when temperatures and humidity are low.

Provided by Griffith Publishing

Drinking well water

In the 1960s my parents bought a house built in the mid 1850s. It was a small house surrounded by twenty acres of grazing and crop land. In back of the house was a well. Nobody knows how long the well had been there, but my parents relied totally on the well for most of their water needs for the two decades they called this place home.

My stepdad added onto the original house, including a big attached garage that covered the well. In 1981, after both my mom and dad had died, I took over ownership of the house but was nervous about drinking the well water.  So I boiled water for drinking or bought it at the grocery store until two years ago when I finally hooked up to the city’s water system.

I began drinking water right out of the tap. It still feels odd, and I usually pour my drinking water from the pitcher with the Pur filter in it. Tastes a lot better.

I made sure that the connection from the well to the faucet on the side of my house was maintained so I could water my lawn with well water. By then the twenty acres had dwindled to 0.43 acres, and middle or low-cost housing had filled the development. I was the only one getting water from my private well, and I was using it only for watering my lawn.

As soon as city water began flowing in my pipes, my water bill jumped through the ceiling. My friends were paying about $25 a month. I was paying $70. Why? Well, suddenly my water usage was being measured by the amount that was leaving my house to the sewer system. I’d been taking luxurious tub baths almost every day, not to mention soaking things and generally running a lot of water. It was measurable. And billable.

I went howling to city hall  got my bill lowered because of the circumstances, but the change to city water has changed my life in other ways. I’ve learned to love a quick shower every morning. I use the dishwasher every four or five days and am careful about how often I start up the washing machine.

I can  run water on my lawn any time I feel like it, as much as I want to. It’s free! I feel exceedingly rich turning on my sprinklers and not having anything to worry about as they shower my lawn for hours.  Of course it takes some electricity to run the pump, but not that much.

Now I’m starting to get worried. What if my well runs dry? What if it becomes polluted and the government asks me to shut it down? How many other residents in Idaho have private wells they use for their irrigation needs? Should private wells be tested and regulated? What is the best use of this resource? I’d like to know what you think.

–submitted by Griffith Publishing

How much water does Idaho have?

The latest water supply report issued by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is part of the US Department of Agriculture, is dated June of 2008. That was a long time ago, and the weather can change quickly. In those days, officials were concerned about cool spring temperatures and below-average rainfall.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources provides comprehensive data from a dozen or so government agencies about water, snow, runoff, drought, and other water-related conditions in Idaho. Some of the links do not work, and most of them take you out of the IDWR pages, but the information is valuable. For one thing, it gives you a link list to just about every agency related to water in Idaho.

If you’d like to know about the state of drinking water in Idaho, United Water Idaho has fascinating information about how they treat water from wells in the Boise area and from the Boise River.

—provided by Griffith Publishing

Let’s talk about Idaho’s water resources

This Friday, October 24, is the deadline to qualify for a discount when you register for the 25th annual Water Law and Resource Issues Seminar November 6-7 at the Doubletree-Riverside in Boise. The agenda for the seminar includes the following:

Shoshone-Bannock Counties and the Clean Water Act

The Latest in Water Right Takings Litigation

Life as an Administrative Hearing Officer

The Domestic Exemption: Is its End Coming Soon?

Dam Busters vs Best Available Science

Proposed Changes to ESA Consultation Regulations

ESA Salmon Litigation Update

Snake River Wild & Scenic Legislation

Boise River SRBA Decision

Transfer and Permit Applications: What’s New?

Is Recovery Possible Under Current Harvest Practices?

Proposed Changes to Modernize Idaho Water Law

Sustainable Development: When Do We Know that Enough Is Enough?

Ethics and the Water Lawyer

The seminar is presented by the Water Law Section of the Idaho State Bar. Participants include attorneys, government officials, and private water user organizations.

Interested? Call 208 343-1871

This message is brought to you as a public service at no cost or obligation to you by Griffith Publishing.

The Clean Water Act is not to be ignored

The above picture shows an extreme example (not in Idaho) of the harmful collection of water polluted by construction when no drainage system as required by the CWA was provided.

Businesses operating at three construction sites in Nampa are finding out that the Clean Water Act is being enforced in Idaho. Sites affected by $21,800 in fines levied by the EPA for the violations are as follows:

1. Dan Kropf Construction site, SC Construction
2. 65 K #2 Building, Ronald W. Van Auker Inc.
3. Empire Business Park, Freund Spencer, Knife River

An EPA press release states  that EPA inspectors checked construction sites and observed violations of the nationwide Construction General Permit, which is part of the CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, (NPDES). Inspectors found violations for failing to apply for the required storm water permit, failing to conduct self-inspection, and failing to install and maintain erosion and sediment controls. 

Rain and other storms can drench a construction site. Even a fairly small storm can create rivers and pools of water laced with oil and grease as well as water with a high pH (alkaline) content in the runoff from concrete at the site.

Water spilling into the streets and gutters near a construction site is polluted water. The EPA warns that after a storm, the water polluted by sedimention, chemicals, and stormwater runoff can harm or kill fish and other wildlife. Sedimentation can destroy aquatic habitat and high volumes of runoff can cause stream bank erosion. Debris can clog waterways and potentially reach the ocean where it can kill marine wildlife and impact habitat.

These pollutants “go with the flow” and end up in the city’s water system unless precautions are taken by the construction operators to handle storm water.  

The Clean Water Act requires all construction projects to obtain a permit proving compliance with EPA rules regarding the control and disposal of storm water.

If you are involved in any way in new construction, be sure to check out information provided by the EPA explaining the provisions. In general, if your construction site covers more than one acre, you are required to obtain a permit for discharge of storm water from the site. You need to develop a storm water plan for making sure polluted water is contained on site and does not flow into ditches, rivers, or other water flowing to municipal and state water sources.

The law is a nuisance in the minds of some construction operators in a hurry to get the job done. The public knows better. Any time laws are made to improve the quality of water in Idaho, they are worth following and enforcing.  

Presented as a public service of Griffith Publishing. No cost or obligation is required or implied.

When you have a well at home

I have a well in my house in space beneath the old house and my garage, totally enclosed from the outdoors and powered by my own pump. I’ve never used well water for drinking because the people who rented this place for a short time after my parents died got sick and claimed it was because of polluted water.

For years I bought drinking water at the grocery store or boiled my own. It was nice having all my other water, for bathroom use and watering the lawn, from my well. Except for electricity running the pump, it was free, or I considered it so. Now I pay $12 or so for city water and run it through a filter for drinking water. I am also paying several hundred dollars to set up the city line from my house all the way to the sidewalk running next to my property. But I’m glad to have drinking water quality at every faucet in the house.

And glad to have my well for all of my outdoor needs.

So are thousands of other Idaho folks. Apparently nobody knows how many. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, DEQ, just says “many,” and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, says that 15 percent of Americans rely on private drinking water supplies, but doesn’t give data for Idaho. The Idaho Department of Water Resources, IDWR, offers datasets with ESRA shape-file, whatever that might be. It was easier to find out that Idaho had one oil well in 1963, an unsuccessful one. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is concerned about nitrates and arsenic in our drinking water.

One of my favorite agencies, the US Geological Survey (USGS), states that southern Idaho boasts 1,300 wells, and they provide irrigation water as well as drinking water. The water, the USGS adds, comes from our state’s generous aquefer, an underground river of water that is the envy of most other states. I called the USGS and spoke briefly with Annette Campbell, who told me that the agency most likely to have those statistics was the Idaho Department of Water Resources.

Chad at the IDWR told me that was a logical assumption. He talked to me for several minutes about water issues from the agency’s perspective. They issue permits for wells, he said, so they “should” know how many wells there are. The problem is that there are wells that have been working for years before permits were required. And they don’t keep track of permits by region, although it wouldn’t be that hard to derive that information from the raw data. IDWR’s concern is the construction of wells and the permitting process, not the quality of the water. That’s up to the DEQ.

The short answer is that nobody knows how many wells we have in Idaho. IDWR could tell me how many permits they’ve issued year by year since 1955, but I’m not sure how readily available that number isI did learn from Chad that there is no limit on digging wells for water in Idaho. Anybody can dig a well on privately owned property and use the water for any purpose. You don’t need a permit unless you’re using more than 13,000 gallons of water a day, and then you need a permit for 1/2 acre or more of irrigating and other use. You don’t have to check the well for water quality.

Arsenic in Idaho’s drinking water

The arsenic in Idaho probably comes from volcanic activity through the ages, but when it settles in our drinking water and raises warning flags about increased risk of cancer and other diseases, we pay attention.

Officials for Kuna, Idaho, have shut down one of the city’s main water wells because it was found to have more than the amount of arsenic allowed by the EPA for drinking water. A fact sheet by the EPA explains the reasons for a higher standard of arsenic in drinking water, from 50 parts per billion in 1975 to 10 parts per billion in a recent action.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) summarizes how arsenic affects the human body, and Amethyst Galleries gives an interesting description of where this chemical comes from and how it reacts with other chemicals. If there’s an inquisitive student inside you, pay a visit to WebElements and see what they have to say about arsenic.

Enough water in Idaho? That depends…

Looking good…the water supply picture for Idaho this year.

Plenty of snow in the mountains. Cool enough to keep snow from melting too fast and flooding the valleys.

A few hot days in May could change the picture, but for now it looks good. Check out the complete report by the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) of the Department of Agriculture.

Water rights judge Schroeder’s recommendations

You can find the complete speech containing former chief justice Gerald Schroeder’s recommendations for harmony among Idaho’s water users. Unfortunately, there is no summary or list of recommendations, but it’s all there!