TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Following the second-warmest winter in Idaho's history, Governor Brad Little signed an emergency drought declaration on Monday, impacting all 44 of the state's counties.
"It's going to be a tough year for all of us," Twin Falls Canal Company General Manager Jay Barlogi said.
In Twin Falls County, most municipalities rely on the aquifer to supply treated water to homes and businesses. Out in the county, thousands of acres of farmland are fed by the Snake River via the Twin Falls Canal Company.
WATCH: Twin Falls County farmers are preparing for severe water shortages and historical lows.
"Twin Falls County is the oddball," Barlogi said. "We’ve got about 80% of our water is that natural flow component from the Snake River, and about 20% of our water rights is our storage supply in the reservoir."
The region has already surpassed the normal spring snowmelt that kept water levels high for farmers to irrigate into April and May. The Idaho Department of Water Resources says from April 1 to Sept. 30, there is a 50% chance of irrigation shortages on the Boise and Snake rivers.
This means storage reservoirs like Murtaugh Lake will be severely impacted as warmer summer days approach.
"All the indications are that they are going to be setting new historical lows this year – so it makes us really, really concerned as to how we're going to get through this season," Barlogi said.
Shareholders in Twin Falls County have already started curtailment, limiting how much water they can use per inch of land.
"We started our shareholders at 5/8 of an inch per acre – typically, at the start of the season, we always start at 3/4 of an inch per acre," Barlogi said. "We are expecting that very, very likely we will have 1/2 inch per acre... by the time we get to the end of the season, that's 1/3 reduction in the water supply to these water users."
Twin Falls County Commissioner Brent Reinke said officials have been planning for this announcement for a few weeks, talking with local farmers to get an idea of their needs once the emergency declaration was announced.
"They have been through this before – especially in the Salmon Falls area in Twin Falls County," Reinke said. "They’ve already taken a lot of preemptive steps as far as trying to get things put together and just how that's going to look and what it might take."
Reinke said with the declaration, local farmers will be eligible for state drought assistance in one form or another.
"Whatever that may look like...we don't know what that may look like... that's going to be up to the governor's office and what may come from that area," Reinke said.
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