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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 - 2001
IN 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 TRANSFERS TEMPORARY 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, or 42-222(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 this act
36 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 this act section 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