Transcript

Keys: Ways to do it around the water right

The state of Idaho has a program where they can have instream flows also. The Water Resources department holds the rights, but in reclamation, the thing we try to do is build in the instream flow with the other uses, in other words, where we are moving water from one place to the other, such as the south fork of the Snake River. You have water in Palisades, you are using water in Palisades for recreation, for fish, for power heads. You then generate power with it when you let it out and then you keep the flow up in the South fork, for recreation, for fish, for water quality control until you get down to point of diversion and in most cases that is past that good stretch of river that you are trying to keep a flow in. I can't count the number of times down the river that that happens again where you are picking up return flows, where you have got water being moved from one storage to the other and you are protecting the flow at the same time. The end result is that we finally ended up delivering it for salmon down the river. There are ways to do it around the water right, and I do not mean that in the wrong way. All our projects are built within a state's water rights and we operate them within those state's water rights. But there are ways to provide that water and accomplish the original use at the same time.

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