TWIN FALLS, Idaho — In Idaho, water is never a simple business. Cities have to serve their residents with water, but as the region continues to grow, securing new water sources can be fraught with time-consuming negotiation. And in Twin Falls, it's a topic now heading to district court.
Back in 2008, the Idaho water resources board approached the city of Twin Falls, looking for a solution to a water dispute that would help keep hundreds of thousands of groundwater-irrigated acres in southern and eastern Idaho from getting curtailed.
The board's solution was to purchase the pristine springs property — along with corresponding water rights— on the Jerome side of the Snake River Canyon.
The city agreed to front the water board $10 million to buy the land in exchange for a portion of the water rights.
For decades Twin Falls has pumped water from nearby Blue Lakes springs to get their water, so having a second source at that location would be ideal, as the infrastructure that would be needed to transport the water was already in place.
But with water rights, nothing is ever easy or straightforward, and the city of Twin Falls spent the better part of the last 17 years trying to get the water they thought they already paid for.
In 2015 the board told the city its settlement could not be accepted, and then in 2017, the water board sold the pristine springs property and conveyed none of the agreed-upon easements or water rights, leaving the city with none of what was agreed upon in 2008.
Now, the city filed a lawsuit against the Idaho Water Resource Board, asking for that $10 million dollars back, plus interest and fees.
Both the city of Twin Falls and the Idaho Department of Water Resources said they would not comment on pending litigation.
