IDWR and How Water Is Administered

When people say "the state shut off my water," they usually mean one of three different things. The director of IDWR issued an order. A watermaster closed a headgate under the priority system. Or a canal company or irrigation district ran out of its own supply. Each has a different source of authority, a different record and a different place to take a question. This lesson sorts them out.

What IDWR is and what it does

The Idaho Department of Water Resources is the state agency with authority over the appropriation and administration of the state's surface and ground water. Idaho Code 42-201 gives it exclusive authority over appropriating the state's public surface and ground waters. In practice the department:

• Processes applications for new water rights and applications to change existing rights (lessons 3 and 4).
• Keeps the water right records: permits, licenses, decrees, claims and the maps and databases built from them (lesson 6).
• Supervises water districts and watermasters and issues orders for administration of rights in shortage.
• Regulates well construction and well drillers, and issues drilling permits (lesson 5).
• Does hydrology and water supply work, including measuring and modeling of rivers and aquifers.
• Staffs the Idaho Water Resource Board, which is a separate body with its own role.

The head of the department is the director, who issues the orders that decide applications, approve transfers, set administration of rights and handle protests. Many day-to-day decisions are made by staff in the state office or the regional offices under the director's authority. IDWR has a state office at the Idaho Water Center in Boise and four regional offices: Western (Boise), Northern (Coeur d'Alene), Southern (Twin Falls) and Eastern (Idaho Falls). The contact page lists the current phone numbers and counties served, and you should check it rather than rely on a memory of where a county falls.

Water districts and watermasters

On most of Idaho's major streams and some ground water sources, the water is delivered by a water district, a legal unit created under Idaho Code Title 42, chapter 6 to distribute water among the rights on a source. The district's watermaster is the person on the ground. Idaho Code 42-607 describes the duty: the watermaster distributes water from the source to users according to their prior rights, in whole or in part, and in shortage closes or fastens headgates or other controlling works to protect senior rights, under the direction of the department.

That same section adds two points that matter in practice. Users who claim a right that has no adjudicated, decreed, permitted or licensed basis are treated as junior to documented rights, and their headgates can be closed if needed to supply documented rights. And while a duly elected watermaster is administering a district, one user cannot gain a right to another's water by adverse possession. How a watermaster is chosen sits in other sections of chapter 6. Under 42-605, people who own or use water rights in the district elect the watermaster at an annual meeting (held the first Monday in March unless the users vote another date), with votes weighted by the average annual assessment on each right, and the director then appoints the person elected (42-608). If no one is elected, the director may appoint a watermaster, and the director may remove one who fails to perform after a written complaint, an investigation and a hearing.

A watermaster's day in a dry August looks like this. The river is dropping. The watermaster checks the measured flows, looks at the list of rights in priority order, calculates which ones can still be served and goes to the headgates of the juniors to close or reduce them. The watermaster records what was delivered and to whom. Those records are public and are what a reporter or a neighbor asks for when a dispute arises.

Who pays for the watermaster

Districts are funded by assessments on the users. How the assessment is divided is set by statute and by the district's rules, so the example below uses an invented, simplified split.

The director's orders, notices and hearings

IDWR acts through orders. An order might approve a transfer, deny an application, require measuring devices, curtail junior users in a shortage, or set a mitigation plan. Notices go to the people who will be affected, and some orders are published. Hearings before the director follow the Idaho Administrative Procedure Act, Title 67, chapter 52, and the director's procedural rules. The director may assign a hearing officer, who creates a complete record of the evidence and prepares a recommended or preliminary order.

Idaho Code 42-1701A has the key deadline for people who object to a director's action. A person aggrieved by an action of the director who has not already had a hearing must file a written petition for a hearing within 15 days of receiving written notice or actual notice of the action. The section does not itself set the time to seek judicial review; it says review of a final order follows chapter 52 of Title 67. Any person aggrieved by a final decision or order of the director may seek judicial review. The point of the short windows is that water administration depends on finality: a farmer cannot plan a season on an order that stays open forever.

The Idaho Water Resource Board

Article XV, section 7 of the Idaho Constitution creates a State Water Resource Agency, composed as the Legislature prescribes. It can build and operate water projects, issue revenue bonds that are not a state obligation, hold public waters in trust for its projects and prepare a state water plan. The plan is subject to review by the Legislature, which can amend or reject it, and a later change takes effect unless the Legislature amends or rejects it within sixty days of its submission. Under Idaho Code 42-1732 the Board has eight members appointed by the governor with Senate consent, four at large and one from each of four districts, serving four year terms. In practice the Idaho Water Resource Board carries out these functions, with IDWR staff. The Board's public meetings are where Eastern Snake Plain managed recharge, water supply planning and some natural river designations are discussed. Lesson 7 returns to recharge.

For a resident the useful distinction is this. If your question is "does my right exist, and is it being honored," start with IDWR and the watermaster. If it is "what should the state do about long-term water supply," the Board is the forum, and its meetings, agendas and minutes are public.

Where to call and what to bring

1. Write down the water right number if you have it, or the parcel number, the source name and the legal description. IDWR can find a right from the parcel in many cases.
2. For a delivery concern, call the watermaster first. If the water district does not have a watermaster, call the regional office.
3. For an application or a notice, call the regional office and say the application number from the notice.
4. Keep a log: dates, measured flows if you have them, names, and what was said. If an order results, those notes show what you knew and when.
5. Read the notice for the deadline, and mark it on a calendar the day it arrives.

Questions and answers

Is IDWR a regulator or a service agency?

Both. It issues rights and enforces limits, and it also supplies records, maps, measuring data and help through the regional offices.

Can the director change a water right?

The director decides applications and administers rights under the statutes. Changes to a right require an application and a decision under 42-222 (lesson 4). The director does not rewrite a decree at will.

What happens when there is no water district on my stream?

Not every source is in a district. Whether yours is, and how it is administered if not, is something to confirm with the regional office.

Do watermasters have to follow a particular order?

They distribute water according to the prior rights in their district under the direction of the department. If an order changes how a right is administered, the watermaster follows it.

How do I find out if a hearing is scheduled?

Notices go to affected parties, and IDWR posts notices and orders on its site. If you are a party, the notice states the date and place. Confirm with the regional office.

Can I attend a Water Resource Board meeting?

Yes. Meetings are public, with agendas posted in advance. Check the Board's page on the IDWR site for dates and how to submit comments.

What is the difference between a petition for a hearing and a lawsuit?

A petition for a hearing asks the director to hold an administrative hearing on an action. A lawsuit-style review in court, called judicial review, comes after a final order. The first is the agency's own process; the second is a court looking at what the agency did.

Who funds IDWR?

The department is funded through the state budget, including general funds, fees and other sources, which appear in the Legislature's budget documents. Check the current budget books for the amounts.

Hard questions

"A single state agency decides who gets water. Isn't that too much power in one place?"

The director's decisions are not final in the way a ruling by a king would be. They follow statutes, can be challenged in hearings and reviewed by the courts. People who want more local control argue for stronger roles for districts and counties; people who want uniform administration argue that a source crossing county lines needs one set of rules. Both views have real reasons behind them.

"Why do water districts exist if IDWR could just do it all?"

Someone has to be at the headgate every day, and a state agency cannot. The watermaster lives where the water is and measures it daily. The district pays for that person through assessments, and IDWR supervises.

"Why are the deadlines so short?"

Water use runs on a season, and a long uncertain period would leave users guessing. The tradeoff is that busy residents can miss a window. The best protection is to open notices when they arrive and call the regional office early.

"Can't the Board just fix the aquifer with a project?"

The Board can build and fund projects such as managed recharge, but a project adds water to a system in which rights still have priority dates. Whether recharge is enough depends on measured results, which later lessons discuss, not on the existence of the project.