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Western States Water Council Water Resources Committee Minutes Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico October 28, 2004 . [A 1994 WSWC compilation of the kinds of fees states charged found that actual water use fees are rare.] Karl again raised the idea of some type of water use fee not long ago, and the response was overwhelmingly negative - primarily from domestic water users. "People believe it is their water, and they shouldn't have to pay to use it." However, the idea has come up again as a means to fund water-related services. The Snake Plain covers some 10,000 square miles. Surface water irrigation practices were relatively inefficient, and up to 30 acre-feet of water per acre was diverted for sub irrigation - bringing the water table up to the root zone. The excess water percolated into the porous ground, the eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, and water levels rose up to 60 feet. Thousand Springs is where much of the water returns to the Snake River, discharged water from the fractured basalt aquifer. Thousands of cubic feet per second pore out of the canyon walls. Thousands of appropriations were filed in the 1950s for ground water and surface water, and it is now clear it was a mistake to issue permits for the use of artificially enhanced spring flows that we now know are dependent of unsustainable actions. Two-thirds of the irrigation on the Snake Plain is now sprinklers, and we divert one million acre-feet less water from the Snake River. Use has dropped . to around five acre-feet/acre and this is leading to serious ground water level declines - and as a result spring discharges are declining. Without extensive administrative enforcement of use priorities - and litigation - to balance supply and demand, it is going to take some money to compensate users for the loss of their water rights. One option to raise that money is a water use fee. Dave Pope added that Kansas has adopted a voluntary incentive-based approach to reducing water use. Karl explained that the Prior Appropriation Doctrine assumes there will be shortages, administered by priority, but that doesn't mean that the resource has been "over appropriated." However, some people with a 1985 water right think they should get their water, even in a drought, and if they don't, then it's the State's fault. Garland Erbele asked, "How much have water levels declined?" Karl responded that with the drought, 60 feet or more is not uncommon. Between 1980 and 2001, water levels were largely unchanged. From 2001-2002, it dropped about 30 feet, and another 30 feet the next year. Ground water modeling showed that at the end of 2002 we had reached an equilibrium, without drought. If the drought continues, we're headed down further and will have "bigger problems than we are prepared to deal with." . 12