Gray Man, Inc.
- Thread starter DRIVEN
- Start date
They have stupid rules about that. Even though it runs through my property and I pay for my water rights, I am absolutely prohibited from pulling water from it there. My irrigation water comes from a few hundred yards south and gets pumped underground to the SW corner of my property. I can however divert or pump from the drainage ditch that I just had dug out...the very same drainage ditch that dumped into the canal
. That's how I'm going to water everything that's green in the last photo I posted.
. That's how I'm going to water everything that's green in the last photo I posted.
pay for your water rights? I thought Idaho was one of those states where you do as you dmn well please? is that canal on your property?They have stupid rules about that. Even though it runs through my property and I pay for my water rights, I am absolutely prohibited from pulling water from it there. My irrigation water comes from a few hundred yards south and gets pumped underground to the SW corner of my property. I can however divert or pump from the drainage ditch that I just had dug out...the very same drainage ditch that dumped into the canal
Yes. If you have irrigation water right there is an annual fee. It covers canal maintenance and pumping costs. Not all properties have irrigation rights and water rights can be bought and sold independently of land. The canal loops through the edge of my property and it's pumped from the Snake river and runs roughly 5 more miles to the west.
Here's to hoping you're upstream of the rv park and free of extra.... fertilizer.
Common? Not really. Mostly in regions where farmland would still be desert without irrigation.
The irrigation district created a set number of shares over 100 years ago and distributed them to the land owners at the time. Over the decades the land has changed hands, been divided, and changed uses. If a land owner no longer wants to pay for water rights they can turn them in to the water district where they maintain a waiting list of buyers. For example, my parents house came with water rights when they bought it. It's on the river and has 2 wells, so no need for irrigation rights. My dad turned in his shares to save $200/year for something he would never, ever use.
My place is 4.7 acres and came with 3.5 acres of water rights. That's enough to water everything that isn't covered in driveway or buildings. It costs just over $300/year.
The water is pumped out of the river to the top of the ridge above. The canals were constructed to slope away from the river, generally to the west. There's also a large reservoir about 20 miles west of me that sends water to the east. Some of the canals pass each other on opposite sides of the same field and there are tunnels that go several miles under hillsides. It's a pretty elaborate system. Very ambitious project back in the days before lasers, GPS, and computers.
The irrigation district created a set number of shares over 100 years ago and distributed them to the land owners at the time. Over the decades the land has changed hands, been divided, and changed uses. If a land owner no longer wants to pay for water rights they can turn them in to the water district where they maintain a waiting list of buyers. For example, my parents house came with water rights when they bought it. It's on the river and has 2 wells, so no need for irrigation rights. My dad turned in his shares to save $200/year for something he would never, ever use.
My place is 4.7 acres and came with 3.5 acres of water rights. That's enough to water everything that isn't covered in driveway or buildings. It costs just over $300/year.
The water is pumped out of the river to the top of the ridge above. The canals were constructed to slope away from the river, generally to the west. There's also a large reservoir about 20 miles west of me that sends water to the east. Some of the canals pass each other on opposite sides of the same field and there are tunnels that go several miles under hillsides. It's a pretty elaborate system. Very ambitious project back in the days before lasers, GPS, and computers.
The part I think gets confusing in some parts of the country is the divide (roughly the Mississippi river) between riparian water rights in the east, and appropriative rights in the west.
Riparian says you can take as much water as you want/need so long as you don't demonstratively harm a downstream user. An old English system.
Appropriative says the first person in time to claim and use the water gets priority. I can be a 1880s mine and use all the water, and a downstream 1980s farmer is S-O-L absent a contracted right to use. Same with wells. If I live in a 200 year old house, new neighbor sinks wells that lower my water table, I don't need to fix my wells they need to remove theirs. So they created coops and authorities that sink deep wells, build reservoirs etc and sold shares, where the shares give you a percentage of the water. Sometimes a share entitles you to more, or less, if drought lowers the water available for release.
That's over simplified and leaves a lot of nuances out, but maybe that helps some understand
Riparian says you can take as much water as you want/need so long as you don't demonstratively harm a downstream user. An old English system.
Appropriative says the first person in time to claim and use the water gets priority. I can be a 1880s mine and use all the water, and a downstream 1980s farmer is S-O-L absent a contracted right to use. Same with wells. If I live in a 200 year old house, new neighbor sinks wells that lower my water table, I don't need to fix my wells they need to remove theirs. So they created coops and authorities that sink deep wells, build reservoirs etc and sold shares, where the shares give you a percentage of the water. Sometimes a share entitles you to more, or less, if drought lowers the water available for release.
That's over simplified and leaves a lot of nuances out, but maybe that helps some understand
Under your rights, that ditch you recently redug, does it ever suffer reduced flow in summer?
If you could claim aquaculture could you build a small, but very very deep, retention pond and raise a couple fish, hire a BIG excavator with a long boom, dig a 40 foot deep but only maybe couple thousand sq ft surface area, store water for drought?
Again, a water rights restriction, but if not prohibited run your gutters to it to refill as well. Then if needed put a small sump pump in a floating cage to push water into some hose bibbs on the property you could sprinkler from.
