Posted on 08/01/2005 3:03:15 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
Forty years ago farmers and developers stood on a rolling bench along the Snake River between Buhl and Hagerman and envisioned productive farmland where sagebrush was growing. Today that farmland is headed back to grass and sagebrush.
In a landmark deal that took nearly a year to pull together, the state of Idaho purchased the water right granted to Bell Rapids Mutual Irrigation Co. in October 1963. It's the first time the state has purchased a water right from a willing seller since the Idaho Water Resource Board issued its "Invitation for Offers to Sell" earlier this year.
For John O'Connor, whose father filed a desert entry application in April 1967 to become one of the first landowners on the newly created Bell Rapids project, it's a bittersweet time. He remembers years when his fields yielded 40-ton-per-acre sugar beets, over 600 sacks-per-acre potatoes and 8-ton-per-acre alfalfa hay.
After the state signed a letter of intent to purchase the Bell Rapids water rights in March, O'Connor planted 520 acres of oats hoping to get enough germination that the oats would compete with the weeds and keep the soil from blowing until he could seed the entire farm to crested wheatgrass this fall. Instead, good spring rains meant he harvested 500 acres of oat hay at 1.25 tons-per-acre and 1.5 tons-per-acre first cutting alfalfa hay -- all without irrigating a drop and making this one of the most fun years O'Connor has had farming on the tract for several years.
Deep soil and a long growing season has blessed the Bell Rapids bench with excellent growing conditions. The only downfall was that all the irrigation water had to be lifted 620-feet from the nearby Snake River.
"We have 18 inches of soil here. You could put a v-ripper in the soil and not lift if for a mile until it was time to turn around at the end of the field," O'Connor said.
Increasing power costs coupled with low commodity prices took the fun out of farming land that wasn't plagued by rocks or fences. For many years, farmers on the tract paid 3.5 cents a kilowatt hour for the electricity to run their pivots and hand lines. Then power rates crept up to 4 cents.
"Once power got between four and five cents a kwh, farming got to be a lot less fun up here," O'Connor said.
Three years ago O'Connor spent between $150,000 and $200,000 to irrigate about 900 acres for the season.
"Power went up enough that it more than motivated us to take a look at this opportunity," he said.
On top of the cost of operating their sprinkler irrigation systems, land owners and operators also paid between $100 and $150 an acre to pressurize, operate and maintain the mutual irrigation company. Actual water costs were determined by their crop rotation and consumptive use.
For example, in 2003, the company figured an alfalfa crop consumed 2.9 acre-feet of water per acre compared to a miserly 1.42 acre-feet for a barley crop. Sugar beets were the largest water user in the rotation, taking 3.75 acre-feet of the 4 acre-feet per acre allowed under the company's water right.
Under the agreement with the state, land owners retain title to the land and can use it as they see fit. O'Connor is lucky that his family has domestic wells, and he is looking at renting the land for grazing once the crested wheat is established. Some may erect windmills to generate electricity on land that once required so much electricity to raise a crop.
"We will do our best to be responsible land stewards," O'Connor said of his fellow shareholders.
The total purchase price of the 100,000 acre-feet of water rights is $24,375,000, which works out to about $225 per acre-foot. Shareholders received 65 percent of the total purchase price in the first payment made in July. Payments will be made each June for the next five years.
The 2005 Legislature appropriated general funds for the purchase, but those funds will mostly be repaid through a lease agreement with the federal Bureau of Reclamation. The Bureau will now lease most of the water from the Idaho Water Resource Board to augment river flows for salmon and steelhead recovery required under the Endangered Species Act. Lease payments will be used to payback most of the purchase cost.
End of an ere
In announcing the purchase late last month, House Speaker Bruce Newcomb called the deal a win-win for all citizens of Idaho.
"State taxpayers benefit because the federal government is contributing to the purchase of this water that will be used to meet federal policy objectives. Irrigators will benefit because this purchase helps to reduce the demand for water from the upper Snake River in drought years. The environment will benefit because of additional flows through the mid-Snake River," Newcomb said. "Finally, the impact on the local economy is reduced because the shareholders will be able to reinvest in their lands and local economy."
O'Connor finds it ironic that Speaker Newcomb was instrumental in putting the deal together that ended irrigation on the Bell Rapids tract when it was Newcomb's uncle, G.T. "Bud" Newcomb that helped create the project.
Bud Newcomb was an engineer who had developed other irrigation projects, and O'Connor's father was an executive for Idaho Power.
"Bell Rapids was created because of the teamwork of Bud Newcomb and my dad," O'Connor said.
And while he is proud of his family's involvement on the project; he is also at peace with the decision to quit irrigating the nearly 20,000 acres of farmland on the tract.
He remembers 1971, the first year his family's land was in production. The entire 900 acres was planted to potatoes even though the irrigation systems were still being installed as the planters were in the fields. Timely spring rains saved the crop until the irrigation systems were completed.
And timely spring rains have allowed the O'Connors to harvest one last crop. In addition to the oat and alfalfa hay he cut, he expects to harvest about 100 acres of volunteer wheat, and that's after sheep grazed the plants for a month this spring.
"We haven't had much spring rain in the years between the first one and this one, but we got spring rains when we needed them," O'Connor said. "It feels like this was meant to be, it feels like it was meant to end. I feel honored to have been part of this from beginning to end."
READER BOX
* Water right granted to Bell Rapids Mutual Irrigation Co. for 5,728 cfs in Oct. 1963
* Original project encompassed 26,000 acres; approximately 19,000 acres were in production at time of water right sale.
* The name, Bell Rapids Mutual Irrigation Co., reflects the company's non-profit status.
* Supplying the water required 120 miles of mainline pipe, 620-feet of high lift and 20 megawatts of power demand at the pumps.
* At peak production, there were 97 pivots on the tract.
* It took two to three years to install the infrastructure to irrigate the Bell Rapids tract and shareholders estimate it will take about the same amount of time to dismantle the infrastructure.
* Water right was purchased by the Idaho Water Resource Board in June 2005.
FedGov has retained ownership of navigable water in Alaska. That includes authority over water that feeds navigable water and runoff that drains into creeks that feed navigable water. Which is to say, authority over design of parking lots that abut creeks and drainages.
"How about from looking at the trillions spent yearly in farm subsidies?"
Maintaining the farming base in this country is a matter of national security. American farmers can't compete with products from third world countries which are pouring into the U.S. Just remember, if you control the food, you control the people. If we have no agriculture in this country and the transportation was disrupted you would strave to death in a month, if someone didn't kill you and take your food before that.
PS. the "Trillions" number is ridiculous. Hell, we're subsidizing the oil industry too.
You are absolutely right. When did the state ever trade a state's right for the feds and come out ahead? Never is normally the answer that is given.
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