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The above-described willing seller stipulation came about only after Idaho U.S. 

 Senators confronted Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt, about an opinion of John 

 D. Leshy, Office of the Solicitor, Department of Interior, dated June 14, 1993, in- 

 structing the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to consider "releasing water covered by 

 existing spaceholder contracts" as one of four options to obtain water in 1993. In 

 June, 1994, Mr. Fred Disheroon, U.S. Department of Justice, met with Idaho water 

 users in Pocatello, Idaho, and informed us that if the U.S. Government determined 

 that a need exists for flow augmentation from Idaho, above that already available 

 to the government from willing sellers, the U.S. Government would take the water 

 and Idaho water users' sole recourse would be with the courts for compensation and 

 damages. Secretary Babbitt's and Commissioner Beard's pledge that water will be 

 sought only on a willing seller basis is presently Idaho's only protection from a take. 

 Our concern is over future court directions and mandated consultations. We are also 

 deeply concerned about other federal claims for flows from this same reservoir sys- 

 tem. There are suggested water requirements for 5 microscopic Middle Snake River 

 listed snails. There are also downstream reserved water right claims in the Snake 

 River Basin Adjudication by the U.S. and the Nez Perce Tribes for the flood flows 

 of record in the basin for fish and wildlife habitat. 



Simply put, the ESA and possible U.S. Government actions on the taking of Idaho 

 water could significantly impact Idaho irrigated farms and those communities de- 

 pendent on farm incomes and local taxes. Agriculture is Idaho's largest commodity, 

 and I live in an area where agriculture is responsible for about 80 percent of the 

 gross income produced. 



Historically, we have never had salmon in this region above Shoshone Falls. The 

 falls are 212 feet high. Since 1905, when Milner Dam was built 25 miles upstream 

 from Shoshone Falls, flows over Milner have been zero in July and August. In the 

 upper SR area of Idaho, we irrigate 2.8 million acres because average annual rain- 

 fall is only about 8 inches. Irrigated agriculture is possible because there is 6.5 mil- 

 lion acre feet of water in storage reservoirs available. More than 99 percent of that 

 reservoir space is contracted, and under Idaho water rights, therefore, large quan- 

 tities of unappropriated water are not available. 



Irrigated farm land in the upper SR is valued at $1,200-2,000 per acre. Farm 

 land without a source of water is valued at $50-100 per acre. Whetner an assured 

 and adequate water supply exists for the next irrigation season is the question most 

 often asked by lending institutions in our region. Without reliable water and financ- 

 ing resources, agriculture will be devastated. The Idaho Power Company, the prin- 

 cipal and investor owned utility in our area, will be impacted by the drafts to the 

 1.0 million acre feet Brownlee Reservoir of 210,000-240,000 acre feet during the 

 spring and summer period. Brownlee is Idaho Power's main load following reservoir 

 and the company has yet to determine the impact of the newly established drafting 

 criteria. In addition, Idaho Power relies on BPA power exchanges to meet customer 

 demands. 



I hope I have not confused this Committee with numbers, but let me describe one 

 set of flow augmentation requirements and the estimated economic impacts of those 

 flows. The numbers are taken from the Supplemental Biological Assessment for 

 1994-1998, dated December 15, 1994, prepared by BOR, BPA and the U.S. Corps 

 of Engineers, and the Final Report of the NMFS Actions Work Group, released on 

 November 22, 1994. If 427,000 acre feet of storage was required to reliably (95 per- 

 cent of the time) meet flow augmentation requirements annually, as proposed in the 

 current Biological Opinion, BOR would need to secure 1.7 million acre feet of upper 

 SR storage at an estimated cost of $294 million and about 400,000 acres of irrigated 

 land would concurrently be removed from production. Indirect economic impacts are 

 estimated at $44 million annually for this specific case. Lost recreation values have 

 yet to be calculated. Other scenarios requiring more water have higher costs: up to 

 3.7 million acre feet of storage would be required to provide 1.927 million acre feet 

 of flow augmentation with a 95 percent reliability of refill; 925,000 acres would be 

 removed from production; the government would spend more than one billion dollars 

 acquiring the requested reservoir space; and the indirect economic impacts would 

 total $151 million annually. Less reliability of water supplies results in significantly 

 less costs and economic impacts. 



We have supplied flow augmentation from the upper SR of 1.5 million acre feet 

 since 1991 and, in my opinion, we shall work with the BOR to meet the 1995 flow 

 augmentation requirement of 427,000 acre feet. The Idaho Power Company is being 

 directed to provide another 210,000 acre feet from Brownlee. However, there is con- 

 cern that the soon-to-be-released Recovery Plan, or the courts, could require addi- 

 tional flow augmentation. In 1994, my canal company decreased water deliveries by 

 20 percent and shortened the irrigation season. Although this was done primarily 

 to guard against the possibility of the reservoirs not refilling this year, it will no 



