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S1003..........................................by RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT WATER RIGHTS - Amends existing law relating to water rights to allow temporary changes to water rights by transfer or exchange of water during a drought emergency; and to add a statutory reference to provide that the director of the Department of Water Resources is not required to publish notice or make findings in regard to these temporary changes. 01/15 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing 01/16 Rpt prt - to Res/Env
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO |||| Fifty-sixth Legislature First Regular Session - 2001IN THE SENATE SENATE BILL NO. 1003 BY RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE 1 AN ACT 2 RELATING TO WATER USE; AMENDING SECTION 42-222A, IDAHO CODE, TO ALLOW TEMPO- 3 RARY CHANGES TO WATER RIGHTS BY TRANSFER OR EXCHANGE OF WATER DURING A 4 DROUGHT EMERGENCY, TO ADD A STATUTORY REFERENCE TO PROVIDE THAT THE DIREC- 5 TOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES IS NOT REQUIRED TO PUBLISH NOTICE 6 OR MAKE FINDINGS IN REGARD TO CHANGES PURSUANT TO THIS SECTION AND TO 7 CHANGE A REFERENCE FROM ACT TO SECTION; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. 8 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho: 9 SECTION 1. That Section 42-222A, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby 10 amended to read as follows: 11 42-222A.EMERGENCY TRANSFERSTEMPORARY CHANGES DURING DROUGHT CONDITIONS. 12 (1) Upon declaration of a drought emergency for an area designated by the 13 director of the department of water resources and approved by the governor of 14 the state of Idaho, the director of the department of water resources is 15 authorized to allow temporary changes to the use of water rights consisting of 16 temporary transfers to change point of diversion, place and purpose of use of 17 valid existing water rights or temporary exchanges of water rights, as pro- 18 vided in section 42-240, Idaho Code, when the director of the department of 19 water resources determines that such change(s) can be accomplished in accor- 20 dance with the provisions of this section. 21 (2) Application for a temporary change shall be made upon forms provided 22 by the department of water resources and shall be accompanied by an applica- 23 tion fee of fifty dollars ($50.00) per application. 24 (3) The director of the department of water resources is not required to 25 publish notice of the proposed change pursuant to the provisions of section 26 42-211,or42-222(1) or 42-240, Idaho Code, and is not required to make find- 27 ings as provided in said sections. A temporary change may be approved upon 28 completion of the application form, payment of the filing fee and a determina- 29 tion by the director of the department of water resources that the proposed 30 change can be properly administered and there is no information that the 31 change will injure any other water right. If the water right to be changed is 32 administered by a watermaster within a water district, the director of the 33 department of water resources shall obtain and consider the recommendations of 34 the watermaster before approving the temporary change application. 35 (4) All temporary changes approved pursuant to the provisions of thisact36 section shall expire on the date shown in the approval which shall not be 37 later than December 31 of the year in which the emergency transfer approval is 38 made and thereafter the water right shall revert to the point of diversion and 39 place of use existing prior to the temporary change. Nothing herein shall be 40 construed as approval to authorize the construction of a new well as a new 41 point of diversion. 42 (5) The recipient of an approved temporary change issued pursuant to this 43 section shall assume all risk that the diversion and use of the water may 2 1 cause injury to other water rights, that the change constitutes an enlargement 2 in use of the original right, that the use is not consistent with the conser- 3 vation of water resources within the state of Idaho and that such use is not 4 in the local public interest. Any applicant for a temporary change who is 5 aggrieved by a denial by the director of the department of water resources of 6 a temporary change pursuant to thisactsection may request a hearing pursu- 7 ant to the provisions of section 42-1701A(3), Idaho Code, and may seek judi- 8 cial review of the final order of the director pursuant to the provisions of 9 section 42-1701A(4), Idaho Code. 10 (6) Temporary changes shall only be approved for the purpose of providing 11 a replacement water supply to lands or other uses which normally have a full 12 water supply except for a drought condition. Temporary changes may not be 13 approved to provide water for new projects or to allow expansion of the use of 14 water under existing water rights. If the right to use the water, the diver- 15 sion works or the water delivery system is represented by shares of stock in a 16 corporation or if such right, diversion works or delivery system is owned or 17 managed by an irrigation district, no change in point of diversion or place or 18 nature of use of such water shall be made or allowed without the written con- 19 sent of such corporation or irrigation district. 20 SECTION 2. An emergency existing therefor, which emergency is hereby 21 declared to exist, this act shall be in full force and effect on and after its 22 passage and approval.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE RS 10508C1. The purpose of this legislation is to broaden the scope of Section 42-222A, Idaho Code, which allows temporary changes in existing water rights, to include approval of temporary exchanges during a designated drought emergency. During the summer of 2000, drought emergencies were designated in five counties in south central Idaho thereby allowing expedited approval of temporary transfers to make effective use of short water supplies. Under a temporary transfer, the location of the point of diversion, place of use, and/or nature of use can be changed for the remainder of the irrigation season. However, a number of proposed changes could not be approved under existing law because rather than a transfer, an exchange in the use of water from the same or different water source, or under one or more water rights from the same or different water source, was proposed. Enactment of this bill would allow proposals involving temporary exchanges of water rights to be allowed if the proposal is otherwise approvable under the provisions of the existing Section 42-240, Idaho Code, which provides for approval of permanent exchanges. FISCAL IMPACT This change will not require additional appropriations to the Department of Water Resources. The filing fee of $50.00 per application will provide a small increase to the Department s Fee Account. The largest impact will be the positive effect on local economies from allowing available water supplies to be used more effectively during a drought emergency. Karl Dreher/Norm Young Department of Water Resources 327-7910 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE S100