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. . . Western States Water Council Full Council Minutes Boise, IdlJho April 22, 2005 produce a meaningful amount of water. Typically, if the call is futile, there is no injury. Here there is injury, but the effects are delayed. There are 1900 priorities for surface water for irrigation districts now making a call. They are senior to all ground water rights. There is perhaps 2 Maf of pumping depletion. Say hypothetically the injury amounts to 100,000 af. If you shut off all pumpers, you may get that 100,000 ac ftthe first year, but eventually the 2 Maf also has an impact. Moreover, the Appropriation Doctrine also includes the idea of maximum beneficial use. In the "Schodde" case (which was a suit was over construction of Milner Dam), the river was usually entirely diverted for irrigation. The dam flooded upstream water wheels used to lift water to meet a senior right. The court found the senior was required to have a reasonable means of diversion, and was not entitled to the entire resource (river flow to run water wheels). In the Snake Plain, flow direction does not matter and flow lines are meaningless with respect to decisions regarding a cone of depression. It creates a void that reverses ground water flow that eventually interconnects with surface flows and spring discharges. We recognize that hydraulic connection effects ground water flows, but you can't see and follow ground water. A model is used for administration. Five years ago we got money for a ground water model for the Eastern Snake Plain. The old model was calibrated to one year (1980), which was inadequate. We spent $3 million - with other contributions from USGS, Idaho Power, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. We now have "incremental collaborative decisionmaking." We have a technical team of hydrologists vertical integrated - with people from the University of Idaho, Idaho Water Research Institute (IWRI), Idaho Power, a canal company, and ground water users. They all helped develop the model, and decisions are made by the group. It has forced them to work together, and over time respect grew for the model as the best they could do. The model is calibrated to 1,000 wells and 22 years with four snapshots of mass measurements. Everybody had to buy in, and now can't realistically challenge the model. Drought is alive and well in Idaho. I apologize for any misconceptions from the field trip. We really have been very dry! The Upper Snake drought still is in the extreme or exceptional category. It is not attributable to climate change. We have a collaborative relationship with the University of Washington, and we are trying to integrate climate models with surface water runoff models, but we are not there yet. We may in the future see more rain than snow, and more variability, and more weather extremes. The ramifications for water supply and flood control are significant. The old Corps project operation rules won't work in the future. It appears that less water will be stored as snow. 5