Water agency to study potential SE Boise plans

The recently formed Elmore-Ada Water Project aims to bring a sustainable water supply to certain areas of Elmore and Ada counties while enabling Idaho to keep water resources in the state, Project Manager Bob Taunton said.

The group just launched a feasibility study to evaluate water supply and delivery opportunities along Interstate 84. Taunton said he expects the study — of an area encompassing Mayfield, Orchard, Simco and Kuna-Mora roads — to take a year to 15 months.

“This is not a land-planning exercise, it’s an infrastructure feasibility study,” he said. “Any economic or residential development is for the future, and is not being considered in the study. That’s for other land-use approving agencies to consider when and if they see applications.”
Fourteen entities have funded the study. It aims to evaluate opportunities and constraints associated with bringing additional water supply to the area.
“It has limited groundwater resources,” Taunton said of the area. “We have a pretty good idea that natural recharge is somewhat limited, meaning you can’t take much out before you start, in effect, mining the aquifer.”
A concept the Elmore-Ada Water Project feasibility study aims to look at is the prospect of transporting un-appropriated Snake River water, during winter, into an in-ground aquifer storage-and-recovery system, he said. Another idea is to buy water rights from existing rights holders, though money is not available for that purpose now, he said.
“We have to investigate and study this,” Taunton said. “There is an initial belief that water is simply flowing out of the state, and there may be an opportunity to do a new appropriation of that water through IDWR (Idaho Department of Water Resources).”
The feasibility study must be completed and findings assessed before the Elmore-Ada Water Project makes any recommendations, he said.
Karl Dreher, former director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources, is an advisor for the project. He is now vice president of water resources for Brown & Caldwell, an environmental and engineering consulting firm.
He said in a statement that the project would promote efficient, regionalized water-supply planning and provide for maximum utilization of available water supplies.
Steve C. Swanson of Orchard Land LLC said in a statement that  his group is part of the regional planning effort along with landowners and municipal and private entities.
Elmore-Ada Water Project LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of SPF Water Engineering. SPF is a Boise-based engineering company specializing in water supply, water rights, and water facility design, construction and operation. Taunton previously worked for Suncor, the company planning the Avimor mixed-use community north of Eagle.
Developing the area along I-84 southeast of Boise largely depends on getting water and sewer services there, said Boise commercial real estate broker Chuck Winder, a former Idaho Transportation Board chairman. One approach that has been discussed is to have the city provide sewer services and United Water provide water services, he said.
“In the last year or so we have heard the city talking about potentially allowing development to go in that direction to balance out transportation issues,” he said.
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To contact the author, send e-mail to brad.carlson@idahobusiness.net.