The Idaho Department of Water Resources is halting applications to irrigate some 7,000 acres of farmland in southern Canyon County for five years while the state gets its head around what’s happening underground southwest of Nampa — and determines whether the issues are indicators of broader distress in the Treasure Valley aquifer.
IDWR Director Matthew Weaver ordered the five-year moratorium on new water rights between Lake Lowell and the north edge of the Snake River — an area spanning roughly 100 square miles — thereby stalling 21 pending applications while the department scales up monitoring.
The decision came after the department was petitioned by water users to get a “critical groundwater area” designation, which means there is not enough to supply users consistently. Weaver denied that petition, saying that existing data doesn’t support the claim…