WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2017
Volume 42 | Number 62 | 5 Sections | 72 Pages s u n
Feds plan work on flood-damaged roads
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WF&GINTER S URVIVAL says deer, elk fared OK Page 13
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Ketchum to revisit gas-station debate
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Shelter gets started on new Croy facility Page 6
R A N K E D N O . 1 F O R L O C A L N E W S B Y T H E N AT I O N A L N E W S P A P E R A S S O C I AT I O N A N D I D A H O P R E S S C L U B
Water call dismissed once more iDWr director determines water users association lacks standing By PETER JENSEN Express Staff Writer
express photo by roland lane
IN CAREY, LOTS OF WATER BUT NO CRISIS standing water pools in a farm field along u.s. highway 26 in carey on Friday. record snowfall last winter melted into near-record flooding in the Wood river valley this spring, but the u.s. bureau of reclamation’s regulation of outflows from the little Wood river reservoir above carey largely prevented flooding there. according to mayor randy Patterson, carey lake, which is typically marshland, is currently full to the brim. “actually, it’s not really flooding,” Patterson said. “it’s full, and it’s not very common that it’s full.” nonetheless, some low-lying agricultural lands have been covered by water.
Hailey residents persevere in flooded areas City could face challenges in paying for damages By TONY TEKARONIAKE EVANS
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Express Staff Writer
t’s been nearly two months since the Big Wood River first jumped its banks during what will almost certainly be a record spring flooding event in Hailey. The waters have now receded well below flood stage, yet numerous homes remain surrounded by water that continues to flow through neighborhoods in the southwestern part of the city. “At this point, I’m starting to get angry,” said Frank Silvoni, a resident of Della Vista Drive who was without electricity for seven weeks as water 2 feet deep surrounded his home. He ran four pumps 24 hours per day to keep water out of his house, borrowing power from a next-door neighbor. Silvoni and a contingent of his neighbors appear perplexed at why the city or county has not taken steps to reduce the
flooding, by trenching, removing debris arates Heagle Park from the home of War Eagle Drive residents Al Hackel, 85, and from the river or by some other means. “So many people have helped me out his wife Brenda, 71. For two months, the during this,” Silvoni said. “But the city is Hackels have been staying at hotels or supposed to be representing the citizens of with friends. When the flooding temporarily subsided a week ago, Hailey.” they returned to their On Monday, the river home, only to be emerwas flowing at 4.8 feet, gency evacuated again well below the 6-foot a few days later. flood stage, yet acres “We were given only of land remain under 20 minutes to leave and water in the subdividid so with nothing sions near Heagle Park, Cliff Cunha more than the clothes landscapes are ruined triumph Drive resident we were wearing,” Al and cottonwood trees Hackel said. “This has are leaning over. Some have already toppled in the overly soaked been very unpleasant for us.” Hackel said that after a 2006 flood that soil. “There is a sense that the community also brought water to his doorstep, he had has forgotten about this neighborhood,” reason to believe the city was taking steps to make sure it didn’t happen again. Triumph Drive resident Cliff Cunha said. A new eastward river channel now sepSee FLOODING, Page 17
“There is a sense that the community has forgotten about this neighborhood.”
A water call potentially affecting hundreds of groundwater rights in the Wood River Valley has been dismissed. On June 7, Idaho Department of Water Resources Director Gary Spackman dismissed the petition from the Big Wood and Little Wood Water Users Association because the association lacked standing in the case. In response to a motion to dismiss the case, Spackman ruled that the association was not the proper party to bring the petition. Rather, individual senior water rights holders who are part of the association’s membership should file petitions, Spackman ruled. “Because the individual water right holders who are members of the association are indispensable to proper resolution of this contested case, the holders of individual senior priority water rights must petition for delivery of their water rights,” Spackman wrote in the ruling. “The association does not have standing to petition for delivery of its members’ senior priority water rights and to seek a general remedy for all the senior priority water right holders.” The association filed the petition in March, asking Spackman to regulate junior water-rights holders upstream. An attorney representing the association, Joseph James of Gooding, did not return a phone call seeking comment on whether the petition would be refiled. The association’s first petition was filed in 2015, but was dismissed in 2016. A district judge issued an order that the association had not properly filed the case or properly served the parties involved. A curtailment order affecting groundwater users in the Wood River Valley was possible if Spackman granted the 2017 petition. The cities of Ketchum, Hailey, Bellevue, two groundwater districts, Sun Valley Co., the Sun Valley Water and Sewer District, farmers and ranchers in the south valley and others joined the case in opposition to the petition. The association represented irrigators in the Gooding and Shoshone area, who divert water out of the Big Wood and Little Wood rivers and have water rights dating to the 1880s. The See WATER, Page 16