NOTICE: Loggers Curtailment

On October 23, 2023, the Boise River Watermaster ordered that the flow into Loggers Creek be reduced to 10 CFS.  This is the culmination of negotiations that began in the fall of 2021-2022, when the Company was initially notified to reduce flows into Loggers Creek to 10 CFS.

 

 

 After negotiations between the Company, River Run, Bureau of Reclamation, Idaho Fish and Game, and Idaho Department of Water Resources it was agreed to let the usual 35-40 CFS flow for that winter.  The main issue was a new interpretation of water rights.  Water Right 63-03618 in the name of the Bureau of Reclamation allows for the use of storage water from Lucky Peak Reservoir for streamflow maintenance in the channel of the Boise River, while the reservoirs are filling for the next irrigation season.  The water company has right 63-149A which allows for the diversion of 40 CFS for aesthetic and wildlife purposes all year, but which is subordinate to the Bureau of Reclamation’s storage right.

 

 

The Company, River Run and Idaho Department of Fish and Game had an agreement, signed in 1989, that provided for 40 CFS in Loggers Creek year around.  Fish and Game terminated that agreement this year.  The BOR right states that water right 63-03618 water was to be used only in the main channel of the Boise River which did NOT include Loggers Creek.  When there was only 240 CFS being released from Lucky Peak, this was all 63-03618 water and although the water company was allowed to divert 40 CFS for Loggers under 149A it could only divert 10 CFS of natural flow water, which had entered below Lucky Peak, not any of the 63-0618 water.

 

 

The company leadership realized that the arrangement for 2021-2022 was only a temporary situation and began discussions on a longer-term solution.  A key point was that River Run’s aesthetic water right 63-9385 was a 1980 right and was only good for a few days each spring, before it dropped out of priority.   The Boise River Watermaster has repeatedly stated that the diversion of aesthetic water to River Run by South Boise Water was legal only during flood release and the few active days of the River Run aesthetic right.  In order to respond to the Watermaster, to encourage a solution and to give River Run time to negotiate, on March 8, 2023, the Company board of directors passed a motion to cease delivery of aesthetic water to River Run at the end of 2023 irrigation season, unless authorized to do so by the Idaho Department of Water Resources and/or the Boise River Watermaster.

 

 

Prolonged discussions took place.  Finally, on October 12, 2023, River Run and Idaho Fish and Game requested additional flows to do a study during the winter of 2023-2024 on the effects of allowing flows in Loggers at certain levels.  It was expected that the results of the study would be used for a long term solution, probably a transfer request by Bureau of Reclamation for a certain amount of 63-0618 water to be allowed to flow into Loggers Creek.  Such an arrangement would pass legal muster and satisfy the Boise River Watermaster.  On October 23, 2023 Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Game announced that they were with withdrawing from their support of additional water to do the study.   Accordingly, the Boise River Watermaster has directed that the Company divert only 10 CFS from the Boise River and that all flows into River Run be shut down immediately.

 

 

The Company is pursuing ways to get more water into Loggers during the winter.  The  degradation to the wildlife in and along Loggers Creek resulting from the reduced flows will be studied.  For this winter the prospects of additional water do not look good.  If BOR can ultimately be persuaded to apply for a transfer to allow additional winter water into Loggers Creek, the Company will enlist shareholders to support the transfer.