US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

                                  TITLE  42
                       IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE -- WATER
                            RIGHTS AND RECLAMATION
                                  CHAPTER 14
                         ADJUDICATION OF WATER RIGHTS
    42-1426.  ENLARGEMENTS -- WAIVER OF MANDATORY PERMIT REQUIREMENTS. (1)
Legislative findings regarding enlargements:
    (a)  The legislature finds that prior to the commencement of the Snake
    River basin adjudication and subsequent to the mandatory permit system
    provided in sections 42-201 and 42-229, Idaho Code, persons entitled to
    the use of water or owning any land to which water has been made
    appurtenant by decree, license or constitutional appropriation have,
    through water conservation and other means, enlarged the use of said water
    without increasing the rate of diversion and without complying with the
    mandatory permit system adopted by the legislature. Enlargements have been
    done with the knowledge of other water users, and water has been
    distributed based upon the right as enlarged. Junior water users made
    appropriations based upon a water system that reflected these enlarged
    uses. Thus, the legislature further finds and declares that it is in the
    public interest to waive the mandatory permit requirements for these
    enlargements in use prior to the commencement of a general adjudication,
    so long as such enlargements in use did not increase the rate of diversion
    of the original water right or exceed the rate of diversion for irrigation
    provided in section 42-202, Idaho Code, after the enlargement of use, and
    the enlargement of use did not reduce the quantity of water available to
    other water rights existing on the date of the enlargement in use.
    (b)  The legislature further finds that it is in the public interest to
    waive certain statutory provisions for the appropriation of water that has
    been diverted and applied to beneficial use to insure the economic and
    agricultural base in the state of Idaho as it existed on the date of the
    commencement of the Snake River basin adjudication and to maintain
    historic water use patterns existing on that date.
    (2)  The mandatory permit requirements of sections 42-201 and/or 42-229,
Idaho Code, are waived, and a new water right may be decreed for the enlarged
use of the original water right based upon the diversion and application to
beneficial use, with a priority date as of the date of completion of the
enlargement of use for any enlargement occurring on or before November 19,
1987; provided however, that the rate of diversion of the original water right
and the separate water right for the enlarged use, combined, shall not exceed
the rate of diversion authorized for the original water right; and further
provided, that the enlargement in use did not injure water rights existing on
the date of the enlargement of use. An enlargement may be decreed if
conditions directly related to the injury can be imposed on the original water
right and the new water right that mitigate any injury to a water right
existing on the date of enactment of this act. If injury to a water right
later in time cannot be mitigated, then the new right for the enlarged use
shall be advanced to a date one (1) day later than the priority date for the
junior water right injured by the enlargement. It is further provided that any
such enlargement of use allowed in a general adjudication shall not constitute
an abandonment or forfeiture of the original water right to the extent of
current use.
    (3)  The director shall publish a notice of enlargement of water right for
all water rights recommended under this section. The notice shall contain a
summary of the notice of claim and shall be published in the same manner as
notices for applications to appropriate water in section 42-203A, Idaho Code.
Any person who has filed an application for a water right prior to the
enactment of this act or who has been issued a permit for a water right prior
to enactment of this act but who has not filed a claim in an adjudication
shall have thirty (30) days from the date of last publication of the notice of
enlargement of a water right under this section to file a petition with the
department of water resources to assert any claimed injury from the
enlargement. No appeal of the determination of the department shall be
allowed. If the applicant or permittee is dissatisfied with the determination
of the department on any claim of injury, the sole remedy is to intervene in
the general adjudication and assert their claim of injury in an objection to
the water right.