MINIDOKA, Idaho β Farmers in Minidoka County are seeing progress on a major water conservation project, just one year after reaching a landmark irrigation agreement to protect Idaho's agricultural future.
The Magic Valley Groundwater District is implementing a $34 million pipeline project designed to reduce the region's dependence on well water by delivering surface water from canals to farms that currently rely entirely on groundwater.
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"Out here is all groundwater, all well water. So we're going to take water in a pipeline from surface water out here and do what they call 'soft conversion,'" Dean Singleton from the Magic Valley Groundwater District told Idaho News 6. "And that means that we're going to take the water and shut off the wells and use surface water out here."
The pipeline represents one of the largest projects to emerge from a water agreement reached last November between groundwater and surface water users. The deal, brokered with assistance from Governor Brad Little and Lieutenant Governor Scott Bedke, focuses on reducing pumping and increasing efficiency across the region.
Singleton and fellow farmer Ryan Miller, who also serves on the groundwater district, explained how the project will benefit local agriculture. The Magic Valley Groundwater District covers parts of Blaine, Cassia, Jerome, and Minidoka counties, where farmers grow potatoes, sugar beets, barley, corn, and hay in rotation.
"But as a district, we've been very diligent and doing water reduction, and so we've planted crop rotations that we could reduce our water use but at the same time keep production going," Miller told Idaho News 6.
The pipeline project involves a partnership between the Magic Valley Groundwater District and the Minidoka Irrigation District. By providing surface water to farms, the initiative will allow agricultural operations to shut off their wells for much of the year.
"Between 12 and 15 thousand acre-feet of water that we're going to be able to not pump out of the ground and leave in the aquifer to help stabilize the aquifer," Singleton said.
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The overarching goal is to maintain the health of the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer while keeping farms productive and preventing future water restrictions across the Magic Valley region. Farmers in the area depend on both surface water from canals connected to rivers and reservoirs, as well as groundwater pumped from wells in the aquifer.
This pipeline is just one of several projects being implemented by groundwater districts around the state, according to the Idaho Groundwater Association
Miller noted that the groundwater district has spent years working to reduce water consumption while maintaining strong agricultural production through strategic crop rotation and conservation measures.
"We went through and kind of renegotiate those and fix some of the flaws, and I think we have an agreement that's probably a little more useful," Singleton said about the November agreement.
The water conservation efforts come as Idaho's agricultural sector faces ongoing challenges related to water availability and aquifer sustainability in the Magic Valley region.
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