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The potential application of additional surface water to irrigated lands having both surface-water and ground-water irrigation rights, to benefit the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer: soft conversions. Technical completion report 2008-002 Item Info

The Idaho Water Resource Board is preparing a Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan for the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. As part of the data-gathering process for preparation of the plan, the Board and its advisory group have requested an evaluation of the potential to benefit the aquifer by delivering additional surface water to lands that currently have bot a surface-water and a ground-water irrigation right. This practice has been called "soft conversions." Soft conversions are attractive on a practical basis because more of theinfrastructure to deliver surface water to the parcels may already be in place. They are attractive administratively because surface-water irrigation rights, often with relatively senior priority dates, are already in place. The legal authorith and ability to deliver water to these lands is more certain than for other uses of water that may benefit the aquifer. When additional surface water is delivered to soft conversions, the benefit is essentially doubled; the first benefit is that ground-water pumping for irrigation is reduced, and the seciond benefit is that incidental recharge from surface-water irrigation is increased. [...] The study addressed four fundamental questions: (1) How many of these mixed-source parcels (parcels with both surface-water and ground-water rights) are actually supplied only from ground water? (2) What is the degree and cost of infrastructure improvement needed to deliver surface water from existing canals to these parcels? (3) Is there capacity in the canal systems to bring additional surface water to the soft conversions? What is the magnitude of benefit that could be realized, if supplies were to be identified and made available?

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Title:
The potential application of additional surface water to irrigated lands having both surface-water and ground-water irrigation rights, to benefit the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer: soft conversions. Technical completion report 2008-002
Authors:
Contor, B. A.; Pelot, P. L.; Moore, G. L.
Date Created (ISO Standard):
2008-02-07
Description:
The Idaho Water Resource Board is preparing a Comprehensive Aquifer Management Plan for the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. As part of the data-gathering process for preparation of the plan, the Board and its advisory group have requested an evaluation of the potential to benefit the aquifer by delivering additional surface water to lands that currently have bot a surface-water and a ground-water irrigation right. This practice has been called "soft conversions." Soft conversions are attractive on a practical basis because more of theinfrastructure to deliver surface water to the parcels may already be in place. They are attractive administratively because surface-water irrigation rights, often with relatively senior priority dates, are already in place. The legal authorith and ability to deliver water to these lands is more certain than for other uses of water that may benefit the aquifer. When additional surface water is delivered to soft conversions, the benefit is essentially doubled; the first benefit is that ground-water pumping for irrigation is reduced, and the seciond benefit is that incidental recharge from surface-water irrigation is increased. [...] The study addressed four fundamental questions: (1) How many of these mixed-source parcels (parcels with both surface-water and ground-water rights) are actually supplied only from ground water? (2) What is the degree and cost of infrastructure improvement needed to deliver surface water from existing canals to these parcels? (3) Is there capacity in the canal systems to bring additional surface water to the soft conversions? What is the magnitude of benefit that could be realized, if supplies were to be identified and made available?
Subjects:
Water budget Irrigation Water management Groundwater irrigation Surface water availability Water delivery
Location:
Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer
Latitude:
42.96
Longitude:
-115.13
Collection:
Boise Basin
IWRRI number:
200802
Rights:
In copyright, educational use permitted. Educational use includes non-commercial reproduction of text and images in materials for teaching and research purposes. For other contexts beyond fair use, including digital reproduction, please contact the University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives Department at libspec@uidaho.edu. The University of Idaho Library is not liable for any violations of the law by users.
Publisher:
Idaho Water Resources Research Institute; University of Idaho
Contributing Institution:
University of Idaho
Type:
Text
Format:
application/pdf
Cataloger:
KIT

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Preferred Citation:
"The potential application of additional surface water to irrigated lands having both surface-water and ground-water irrigation rights, to benefit the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer: soft conversions. Technical completion report 2008-002", Idaho Waters Digital Library, University of Idaho Library Digital Collections, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/iwdl/items/iwdl-200802.html
Rights
Rights:
In copyright, educational use permitted. Educational use includes non-commercial reproduction of text and images in materials for teaching and research purposes. For other contexts beyond fair use, including digital reproduction, please contact the University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives Department at libspec@uidaho.edu. The University of Idaho Library is not liable for any violations of the law by users.
Standardized Rights:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
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