Idaho farmers are in danger of having their water shut off. The water shutoff order affects half a million acres of farmland and about 6,400 people who use the water. Without water, their farmland is worthless.
The state of Idaho has put a water curtailment order, which is basically a water shutoff order on literally a half million acres of farmland. Many farming this land have already invested in thousands of acres, thousands of dollars per acre, to grow potatoes. It’s too late for them to survive without water.
Why is the water being cut off?
Essentially, this curtailment represents a battle of wills between the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the groundwater districts in eastern Idaho.
Idaho’s waterways are owned by the State as a public trust resource. A water right is the right to divert the state’s public waters and put them to beneficial use. A water right is a “usufructuary right,” meaning a right to use, as opposed to a right to possess.
There isn’t enough water to go around, so senior water users say they want the junior water users (farmers) cut off because they haven’t stuck with the plan. Junior water users are in desperate straits, but senior water users have primary legal rights.
The problem arose because of a difference in how water usage is configured.
If the officials don’t come up with a solution almost immediately, the crops will die.
Farmer Connie Christenson told Local News 8 that unless there is an emergency end to the curtailment order, the water cut-off won’t just mean the end to their potato crop but potentially six generations of farming.
“We wouldn’t be able to take that kind of a hit and continue,” said Christensen. “I mean, maybe you can get a bank to carry you, but it would be crazy for the banks to carry us when we don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to irrigate again.”
The Governor’s office believes there will be an agreement.
Farmer Trevor Belknap explains at the beginning of the video.
“I operate a family farm, a fifth-generation family farm in the Snake River Valley of eastern Idaho. I just wanted to visit with you for a minute about the impacts of the water curtailment order that’s been issued by Director Weaver from the Outer Department of Water Resources.
“The situation in which we find ourselves is about as bad as it gets. Not only will we be out of business, but many other businesses will be highly impacted, and you, as my friends and neighbors, will also be impacted because we’re so interconnected.
“If the agriculture economy in eastern Idaho fails, which it surely will if this containment order is in place, it can remain in place; we’ll dry up and blow away just like it did back in the dust bowl of the 30s.
“Banks will fail. Equipment dealers, car dealers, gas stations, and grocery stores all rely on the ag economy that’s here in eastern Idaho.
“The children in our schools, how many of them belong to families who work in some form of ag industry in eastern Idaho? It’s horrible. And we need to fix it. “And I would propose to you that it is not a water problem; it’s a management problem because we have water. Reservoirs are full. The mountains are covered in snow. The river’s been flowing well. So why now?
“Why, after we’ve planted our crops, we have crops in the ground that are already growing? Now, in the middle of June, they pull a curtailment order to say you must cease pumping water.
“The cost is huge. An acre of potatoes costs upward of $4,000 an acre to grow. “How will that ever be recovered? They will not grow without water. And what will that do to everyone else that’s reliant upon us in this area and the state of Idaho? “What will the counties do for roads and bridges, police departments, ambulances, hospitals that rely on tax the tax base. Property like this will become worthless. Without water, the land doesn’t have any value here.”
“It sounds like something I would say!” The closet DEM communist are at work again. Remember the Ukrainian Holodomor and the communist corporate real estate grab? the killed everybody to get the monopoly big business. The paper pusher commissar scoundrels are fixing to lock horns with GOD Almighty.
Bill Gates salivating. Game the government, trash the property by stopping the water, scoop up the acreage for pennies on the dollar.
Sow and reap, you devils.
Another ATTACK, on food production.
The obliarchs believe they will survive the great starvation die off, they have been working to create.
They are dead wrong. Sadly, they are pusing forward just the same. If citizens do not stop them, there will be a great starvation die off world wide.
The leftists will make you land worthless, then buy it up cheap and turn the water back on.
That right there is the game.
Great post, but I believe they plan to allow the Chinese to buy it up.
Why wouldn’t a republican governor negate this issue immediately?
Because Gov Brad Little is a spineless RINO, voted into office by a voter base with an average age of 75 because “he’s a nice guy”. He’s also massively funded by big agriculture, so maybe this affects smaller farmers and not ConAgra & Monsanto?
Welcome to California North. The article doesn’t ID who the senior users are.
Spineless governor.
The Republican party needs to be purged of non-MAGA elements at all levels!
Government destroys! It’s always some scumbag in government that wrecks people’s lives!
Where we gonna get our french fries? From China? I don’t want no stinking china fry.
you have the 2A. its for times like this. why do you think they want to take it away from you.
Putting actual farmers out of business is part of the plan for the government (and the “elites” they serve) to control the peasantry. And everyone but THEY are the “peasantry”.
Putting the actual thinkers out of any sense of personal responsibility is what conspiracy mongers void of any evidence who consume fear like porn addicts love to do. “They” lurk on every message board dropping victimhood tokens and medals for any and all to pick up and adorn through repetition, virally memeing through damaged hearts and idea starved minds. Ultimately these demon puppets disable any sense of authority and action in the public reducing them to finger pointing infants.
Having a nice day are you, Mr. Gates? Just the thought of all us middle class Americans going hungry – or doing without in order to eat – just gives you a high, doesn’t it?
This kind of thing is typical for RINO Gov Brad Little, sadly. Blame his mainly over 70 boomerRINO voter base that just love smiling, lying through their teeth grifters like him, Lt Gov Bedke, Sen Crapo, Rep Simpson, Sen Risch, etc. the Idaho GOP obsession with trash human RINOS needs to end.
Spineless coward Governor.
Who benefits in the end besides the politicians lining their pockets and portfolios
China or Bill Gates?
at some point we will have to fight for our land, our traditions and way of life
or submit to theirs.
In the mean time, Idaho keep irrigating because what else do you have to lose if you don’t?
and the rest of us should be prepare to feed ourselves with out grocery stores.
Control the food and you control the people.
The Idahoans need to see why the Neocon Governor Little has not stepped in to save the potato crops. First, find out how much the Twin Falls Canal Company gives in campaign donations to Neocons like Little in Idaho. Always follow the money first, they may be a “non-profit utility”, but if they have this much power over killing tens of thousands of hectares of potato crops, what else can they control? Next, see who on the board of the Twin Falls water co-op has vested financial interests in killing the potato crops in Eastern Idaho, and FOIA the hell out of these corrupt bastards because my guess is they do have taxpayer funds granted to them making them a public/private partnership. Are there members of the canal board or executive committee with stakes in Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street, J.P. Morgan, or are they being bankrolled by shell companies from China or the CIA? Chicken farms being blown up, tens of thousands of cattle dying in Texas, food plants catching fire across the U.S., train derailments, planes falling apart, our supply chains are under attack by either the Chinese or domestic enemies that reside in Manhattan, New York, Washington, D.C., and Langley, Virginia because nothing in this country, I fear, is happenstance post 9-11. It’s almost like we are being subjected to Operation Gladio, yet we are told not to believe our heuristic experiences.
Third, if Boise does not immediately take action to save the potato crops, what interests do they have in tanking the economy? Buying farms and land for pennies on the dollar? Kind of like Hawai’i after a wildfire that only burned down the poors’ and their homes. Cui bono (who benefits)? Like Senator Lindsay Graham saying the Russians cannot defeat Ukraine because of the 12 trillion dollars of natural resources untapped in Ukraine on June 9th, what untapped natural resources exist under the soil of the Eastern Idaho farmers? Is there lithium, nickel, cobalt, silicon, or other important elements beneath the Earth there? Follow the natural resources, follow the money. To suddenly proclaim the potato farmers in Idaho need to stop using the lifeforce that is water for their crops and forcefully stop the spigots from flowing, cui bono? Humans are nothing but transparent, especially when non-profits or NGOs are involved, and the question to always ask is who benefits? Is there a quid pro quo happening? We know good ‘ol quid pro quos are the norm in Washington, D.C. under the current occupiers of the White House, but how often do they occur on the local level? For the farmers in Eastern Idaho, something is rotten in the State of Idaho and it might very well be in Boise.
The fight is between Clear Springs Trout and farmers around Aberdeen. TFCC has nothing to do with it.
I will believe these climate change cretins when they start selling their seashore mansions.
Exactly my answer to every climate nut I run into.
Of all of the pervs in this world, you chose that one as your BF?
The fight between spud farmers and fish farmers has been going on for 50 years and not likely to end this year, either.
There is a war on agriculture started by WEF globalists who believe world population is too high so these unelected leaders are using their clout to destroy agriculture. Why are fertilizers banned in some countries causing low yields, starving populations and destroying their agriculture based economies? Why were farmers in EU countries told to destroy most of their cattle herds? Why are we suddenly seeing cattle feedlots, chicken & egg producing along with other food processing facilities suddenly engulfed in massive fires killing millions of livestock? Why is the government pushing fake meat that few people want and globalist and WEF member Bill Gates the largest single land owner in the US? So do I believe this attack on Idaho agriculture part of this conspiracy, oh hell yes.
Bill Gates and friends would approve of replacing potatoes with solar panels.
If there is a God – and we know there IS – a solution will come. EVERY public official involved should be removed from ottice, AND homes. Communists are sloiw learners.
Without irrigation, what season of year do potatoes naturally depend on water? Perhaps farmers could get loans to relocate to areas where potatoes grow without *groundwater* irrigation? It’d be OK to use manmade retention ponds for irrigation, but the ponds would have to be near natural year round wetlands (not in aquifer recharge areas) — a sign that the ponds would stay wet due to natural clay layer geology keeping ponds wet year round. Consult a geologist and find areas like that.
You obviously know NOTHING about farming,.
Perhaps you could take an agricultural course rather than study ballet.
Idaho farm land only grows a crop IF irrigated. Spuds don’t grow well in clay soil, that’s why its not done.
When I see the persecution of people who provide our food, I always regret not moving closer to an Amish community. No matter what happens, the Amish will survive.
That’s what guided MY relocation…
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