Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

Nevada State Engineer Jason King on March 26 issued an order declaring off limits any new groundwater appropriations in the Diamond Valley area.

He said that such applications “will be denied,” though he did offer a few exceptions: “Those applications filed for environmental permits filed pursuant to NRS 533.437 to 533.4377, inclusive. Those applications filed for diversion rate only with no corresponding increase in duty of water. Those applications filed for non-consumptive uses. Those applications filed to mitigate senior surface water rights that have been impacted by groundwater pumping under junior water rights.”

That followed up on his earlier designation of the Diamond Valley Hydrographic Basin, and declaring that within its bounds groundwater is being seriously depleted.

He went on to say, “the Nevada Division of Water Resources estimates the perennial yield of the Diamond Valley Hydrographic Basin at 30,000 acre-feet annually. … committed groundwater rights of record in the Office of the State Engineer greatly exceed the perennial yield. … the Diamond Valley Crop Inventory consistently shows the pumpage of groundwater within the Diamond Valley Hydrographic Basin is in excess of the perennial yield. … the State Engineer finds that conditions warrant the curtailment of new appropriations of groundwater within the Diamond Valley Hydrographic Basin.”

The Idaho Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey are partnering to develop a groundwater-flow model of Idaho’s Wood River Valley aquifer system. Agency representatives are holding a public meeting, March 19, at Wood River High School in Hailey to explain the project and answer citizens’ questions.

The groundwater-flow model will be constructed to simulate the effects of natural processes and human activities on the aquifer system. Particular attention will be given to how surface water features and the aquifer system interact. Groundwater models are important tools that resource managers can use for planning and managing water-use needs now and in the future.

The USGS has published a fact sheet explaining previous studies and the planned modeling work: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2013/3005/. More details are available on the USGS study website at

http://id.water.usgs.gov/projects/wood_river_valley/index.html.

The Bureau of Reclamation has announced the availability of up to $10 million in grants, under the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act, for groundwater banking or recharge projects proposed by local agencies within the Central Valley Project.

Eligible projects must reduce, avoid, or offset expected water supply impacts to the CVP’s Friant Division long-term contractors caused by the San Joaquin River Restoration Program’s Interim and Restoration Flows.

A Funding Opportunity Announcement invites applicants to cost share with Reclamation for planning, design, environmental compliance, and construction costs. The announcement, R13AF20008, is available at www.grants.gov.

A high stakes water rights case over declining drinking-water supplies that began with the expansion of Washington State University’s golf course is headed for the Washington Supreme Court.

The Washington Court of Appeals transferred the long-running case to the Supreme Court on Jan. 10. Parties now await a decision by the Supreme Court whether it will accept the case, and if so, scheduling of oral argument. The legal challenge could potentially protect water statewide now threatened by extensive over-allocation of water rights by the state’s Department of Ecology.

“Even here where we have a university and a very well-defined aquifer problem, we still can’t get it right,” said Scotty Cornelius, a resident of Pullman, private well owner, and leader in the legal challenge. “We still are pressured by our administrative and political leaders, rubber-stamped by Department of Ecology, to develop an amenity using water that cannot be replaced.”

In contrast to wetter western Washington, the Palouse country along the Washington-Idaho border is dry. Drinking water comes from wells that tap ancient aquifers. Groundwater levels in the Grande Ronde Aquifer supplying 50,000 people in the Pullman-Moscow area are dropping about a foot each year for the past 70 years when measurements began.

Despite the threat to communities’ water supplies, Ecology approved changes to WSU water rights to allow the university to expand its water use for an 18-hole golf course. In 2006 Cornelius, joined by the Palouse Water Conservation Network and the Palouse Group of Sierra Club, challenged the State’s decision.

The State’s Pollution Control Hearings Board, the first stop in challenging water right decisions, sided with the state agency and state university in its 2008 ruling. With water levels still dropping, conservationists appealed the decision. Because of the statewide significance for groundwater supplies, conservationists requested their case be heard at the court’s highest levels. Instead, for the past five years, the Cornelius vs. WSU has been slowly moving through the lower courts – until now.

Tribes, water utilities, and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy have filed amicus briefs with the state court.

Public interest water lawyer Rachael Paschal Osborn represents Scotty Cornelius, PWCN, and the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club. “People throughout Washington State who rely on groundwater may be impacted by how the Supreme Court decides the WSU golf course case,” said Osborn.

In 1999, the Texas Water Development Board began developing a groundwater availability model to help water planners working on their regional water plans assess how much groundwater was in a portion of the Trinity Aquifer. Largely due to the success of that model, in 2001 the Texas Legislature provided funding for the TWDB to develop additional models for the state’s aquifers and TWDB’s Groundwater Availability Modeling program began in earnest.

Known as GAMs in TWDB parlance, groundwater availability models are three-dimensional, numerical computer models based on hydrogeologic principles, various aquifer measurements and stakeholder guidance. Because groundwater is difficult to observe and measure, water planners need assistance in gauging how much groundwater is and will be available under various conditions. These models provide that critical information.

The first models proved so important to the water planning process that the legislature later mandated the development of models for all the aquifers in the state. There are nine major and 21 minor aquifers in Texas, and all but nine of the minor aquifers have now been modeled. Of those remaining nine, studies are underway for seven aquifers. These numbers, however, do not tell the whole story. Because many of the state’s aquifers are very large and complex, they required more than one model. Since 1999 our modeling team and other collaborators have developed more than 38 models for Texas aquifers, with an additional three scheduled for completion this year.

In 2005, the groundwater availability models became even more essential to water planning efforts when the legislature established a new process for managing groundwater. The process requires that regional water planning groups and groundwater conservation districts use modeled available groundwater values based on the desired future conditions of aquifers. Groundwater availability models are used to determine those values.

In the first round of this new process, our modeling staff assisted groundwater conservation districts by conducting numerous model runs on various aquifers to estimate groundwater availability values. All told, our staff performed 166 model runs to assist the districts with decisions on the desired future conditions for their groundwater resources. Since the program began in 2001, our staff has completed 450 model runs and related model exercises. In almost all cases, the GAMs are the default tool for estimating modeled available groundwater values from desired future conditions.

TWDB’s groundwater availability modeling program is the only one of its kind in the United States. No other state has attempted to model all of its aquifers. Given the size of Texas, the accomplishments of the modeling program are even more impressive. The models, though, are more than just nifty scientific tools. Armed with the models’ predictions, Texans can make more informed decisions about their water supplies and the fiscal resources necessary to manage them.

Water meter data complied through the Office of the State Engineer’s metering program, part of the Active Water Resource Management initiative, shows a dramatic increase in groundwater pumping by irrigators in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico in 2011.

Meter records indicate that 280,000 acre-feet of groundwater was pumped for irrigation in 2011, twice as much as in either 2009 or 2010. State water officials expected an increase in irrigation pumping this season as area farmers were forced to rely upon groundwater to supplement a dramatic reduction in Rio Grande Project surface water to the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. Reductions in the amount of Rio Grande Project water allocated to members of EBID are the result of the 2008 Rio Grande Project Operating Agreement compounded by the continuing drought. This agreement allocated 268,000 acre-feet of Rio Grande Project water to the El Paso County Water Improvement District in 2011, while only 77,000 acre feet were allocated to EBID.

State water officials confirm that local farmers did not increase the total water usage amount, despite the increase in groundwater pumping. On average in 2011, EBID farmers put about 4 feet of irrigation water on each acre of crop land, the same as in 2009 and 2010 years; however, in 2011 more of this water had to come from groundwater pumping. Other groundwater uses in the Lower Rio Grande remained stable. Municipalities and domestic water suppliers pumped 39,000 acre-feet, and pumping for industrial and commercial uses totaled about 7,000 acre-feet.

New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission Director Estevan López expressed concern over the consequences of the 2008 Rio Grande Project Operating Agreement upon New Mexico’s aquifers.

“Less surface water in the canals means less recharge to the aquifer,” said López. “EBID farmers are then forced to irrigate with more groundwater to survive the irrigation season. The result is a double hit to New Mexico’s aquifer.”

Over the past four years, New Mexico has collected data on irrigation, municipal, mutual domestic, and industrial and commercial groundwater pumping in the New Mexico part of the Lower Rio Grande.

“We have been successful in measuring groundwater pumping in New Mexico for the past four years. Unfortunately, despite repeated requests for data, Texas groundwater pumping amounts remain unclear,” said State Engineer Scott Verhines. “New Mexico data shows EBID farmers who were given less Rio Grande project water are obligated to pump from their wells. The drought combined with less Rio Grande project surface water has created an unsustainable situation for EBID farmers in the long term.”

Groundwater supplies are limited and we are reminding water rights owners not to exceed the limit of their water right. Limits for irrigation well pumping were agreed to as part of a 2011 Settlement in the Lower Rio Grande Adjudication. The Office of the State Engineer’s water master will begin comparing meter records to these pumping limits in 2012, in order to ensure that water users do not exceed their water rights.

Meters are required on all wells in the Lower Rio Grande, except for single-family domesticwells and small livestock wells. There are now about 2,500 metered wells in the Lower Rio Grande Water Master District.

The New Mexico State Engineer decided on April 2 to deny an
application submitted by Augustin Plains Ranch LLC.

In October, 2007, the application was filed to obtain a permit to drill 37 wells to pump 54,000 acre/feet of water per year for all purposes of use, including delivery into the Rio Grande.

The application was amended in 2008, changing the maximum depth of the wells from 2,000 feet to 3,500 feet. The application originally had over 900 protestants, including the NM Interstate Stream Commission, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, US Bureau of Reclamation; NM Dept of Game and Fish, Gila and Cibola National Forests, Catron County, Socorro County, Luna Irrigation Ditch, Monticello Irrigation District, several adjoining ranches, over 100 individuals and the Pueblos of: Santa Ana, Zuni, San Felipe, Isleta, Sandia, Acoma, Kewa (Santo Domingo) and the Navajo Nation. A motion hearing on Motions to Dismiss was held in Socorro on February 7, 2012.

The application was denied because it was vague, over broad, lacked specificity, and the effects of granting it cannot reasonably be evaluated; problems which are contrary to public policy.

Individuals who protested the application by Augustin Plains Ranch LLC argued that the drawdown of water could impact their wells and would have an adverse impact on their rural, agricultural lifestyle. Groups that protested, ranging from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District to the Navajo Nation to the Monticello Community Ditch Association, challenged the feasibility and reasonableness of transporting groundwater from a remote rural region of the state to the Rio Grande when no end user for the water has been identified.

The Kansas Legislature has passed and sent to the governor a bill changing the standards of abandonment in the case of groundwater rights.

House Bill 2451 was introduced by Representative Kyle Hoffman on January 12, and by February 16 had passed the Senate. It was delivered to the governor at the end of the month.

A supplemental note said that “HB 2451 would amend a section of law dealing with the abandonment of water rights by deleting a requirement that groundwater rights in areas declared closed to further appropriation would no longer be required to have a means of diversion available “to put water to beneficial use within a reasonable time” in order to avoid the abandonment process. Groundwater rights in these areas would have due and sufficient cause for nonuse and therefore not be subject to abandonment.”

A background note added that “This bill was introduced at the request of a
spokesperson from the Kansas Department of Agriculture. At the hearing on the bill, proponents included the Chairman of the Kansas Water Authority who is also the Chairman of the Ogallala Aquifer Advisory Committee. He indicated the bill was an attempt to remove barriers to conserve water from the Ogallala Aquifer by allowing water right owners to maintain their water rights while not using them or having diversion works in place. A spokesperson from the Kansas Department of Agriculture indicated abandonment clauses are common in other states’ laws and they tend to foster development and use, rather than conservation. Other proponents included representatives of the Kansas Farm Bureau, the Kansas Cooperative Council, the Kansas Grain and Feed Association, the Kansas Agribusiness Retailer’s Association, the Kansas Groundwater Management Districts, and the Kansas Livestock Association. In addition, Representative Wetta reviewed written support of the legislation from a constituent, who is a former legislator. There were no opponents to the bill at the time of the hearing.”

The Washington Department of Ecology so far has issued 167 new permits for the withdrawal of artificially stored groundwater within the Quincy Groundwater Management Subarea near Moses Lake.

The 167 permits issued in the past seven years authorize the use of 35, 219 acre-feet of water that will boost the local economy by providing more farmable acreage, new industrial growth and support construction jobs.

According to an economic analysis conducted by Ecology, the 167 permits support development that could add $14.8 million to agricultural property values and $70 million to commercial land values in Grant County. These values benefit property owners and developers, and contribute to the local tax base. In the long-run, development could support at least 400 commercial construction and design jobs in Grant County, and indirectly support at least 360 additional jobs statewide.

The Quincy Subarea artificially stored groundwater program currently authorizes a total of 170,469 acre-feet of water with a market value estimated to be about $350 million. An acre foot equals 325,851 gallons of water.

Benefits of this effort are flowing to the communities of Ephrata, George, Moses Lake, Quincy and Warden and to the farms, vineyards and businesses of Grant County. Agricultural producers, domestic water users and major employers acquiring the permits have included Cochran Farms, Maiers Irrevocable Farming Trust, Weber Family Farms, Willard & Sherry Lange Farm, Dieringer Dairy, Cross B Estate Homeowner Association and Potholes Reservoir Golf & Camping.

“Processing these water rights has been a major effort of our staff, and we’re seeing the results,” said Keith Stoffel, Water Resources section manager of Ecology’s Eastern Region office. “We can see where this water works directly to add jobs, create new industry and get land back to production in this part of the state.”

Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake said: “Water is the lifeblood of our area, but also is the key to creating more economic opportunities. This is especially true for agriculture, which employs 160,000 people across Washington. I’m glad to see local growers, producers, towns and small businesses benefitting from these new water permits. I hope we can continue work to manage our water in a way that mutually benefits the economy and encourages conservation of water.”

The Quincy Subarea was delineated in 1969 by the Washington Legislature because the characteristics of the aquifer there necessitated a more involved permitting process. The Quincy Subarea contains a mixture of naturally occurring public groundwater and artificially stored groundwater, which is a result of irrigation from the federal government’s Columbia Basin Project.

Ecology manages the permits for the artificially stored groundwater in partnership with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Columbia Basin irrigation districts. Ecology administers the water permits, and those who receive them must enter into a federal water service contract and pay an annual fee to Reclamation. The permits are issued with a requirement that the water must be put to full use within three years.

Ecology and Reclamation began to reconcile and cross check each other’s records in 2004. As a result, it was determined that the quantity of artificially stored underground water authorized was less than 140,000 acre feet per year. The job of getting the remaining 37,000 acre feet of the artificially stored groundwater in the hands of area residents was set in motion.

Although the artificially-stored groundwater program currently authorizes a total of 170,469 acre-feet, Ecology is allowed by regulation to issue permits for as much as 177,000 acre-feet of water. To reach this limit, the partnership is processing the waiting list of applications. Once the limit is reached, future permits will depend on water being returned to the water storage program due to reductions or cancellations of existing permitted projects.

The Bureau of Reclamation on January 23 released a Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact (Final EA/FONSI) for Pelger Mutual Water Company (PMWC) & Sutter Mutual Water Company (SMWC) Groundwater Production Element Projects, a Sacramento Valley Integrated Regional Water Management Program Grant.
The Draft EA and FONSI were released for a 30-day public review on September 28, 2011; two comment letters were received on the document, and those comments have been addressed in the FONSI.

Reclamation proposes to provide the Grant funding for the installation of one new groundwater production well in the PMWC service area and one groundwater monitoring well in the SMWC service area. This project would improve the flexibility and reliability of PMWC’s and SMWC’s water supply, particularly during dry and critically dry water years.

The Final EA and FONSI were prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and are available online at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=8341. If you encounter problems accessing the documents, please call 916-978-5100 (TTY 916-978-5608) or e-mail mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov.

For additional information or to request a copy of the Final EA and/or FONSI, please contact Shelly Hatleberg at 916-978-5050 or e-mail shatleberg@usbr.gov.