“How can they tell farmers that they can’t draw water from their own wells?”
I do not know Idaho law, however here in Montana actually have a system of courts ‘The Water Courts’ which adjudicate water rights.
We drilled our well on ‘95 and have water right #12,xxx. We keep our certificate in a safe deposit box at our bank.
Our water right gives us the RIGHT to pull water from our well for any purpose we desire up to a maximum of X amount of acre/feet per year (I did the math once and we can pump out 10 gallons per minute 24/7/365 - a lot of water!).
If we have a drought the highest numbers water rights could be curtailed - - this has never happened.
The #1 water right ‘in my county’ is Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, I know but we have to drive through YNP to get to the southern part of our county).
Idaho must NOT have the legal protection that we enjoy here in Montana...
Excllent! Thank you for that informative reply! It explains a lot if Idaho doesn’t have a Water Court like Montana does.