The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1919-07-03
SNAKE RIVER SHY
OF WATER
Loss to Crops May Reach 40 Million
Dollars.


Snake river is nearly dry, saccordins
to Tuesdays dailies, and a group o.
Shelley farmers have appealed to Gov
ernor Davis to take charge of the dis
tribution of water in southeastern
Idaho.
! The trouble has arisen over the
shortage of water, which comes as a
result of light snowfall in the noun
tains of Wyoming ahovt Jackson lake
reservoir last winter. 1t is now frank
ly admitted by state officials that the
crop loss on all the irrigation projects
! in southeastern Idaho and the Twin
Falls district will be appalling. In
some sections almost total failures are
certain to result, it is said.
Estimates of the loss to farmers as
a result of their inability to get water
for their crops when the beets, hay
and grain need it most, have been fix
ed by some as high as 1000 900.
That would mean almost a two-thirds
loss of all crops grown annually in
Idaho. Those figures are high-very
high-but the farmers of the south
east are facing a crisis.
The state reclamation commissioner
water users of the southeast that
there would be shortage of irriga-
ton waters, but he believed at that
time that the distribution of available
water could be so handled that the
loss to crops would be small How
ever, he does not attempt to with
hold facts, and now says that the loss
will be much greater than was at first
anticipated.
The crop loss will not be confined to
tht Idaho Falls and Twin Falls sec
tions alone, but may extend to the
Boise project.
The Twin Falls North Side project,
the Twin Falls South Side, the Salmon
River project, the Oakley project, the
Idaho Irrigation company's project
and others in that section of the state
and practically all the water rights in
the Idaho Falls district, taken from
the natural flow of the Snake river,
are affected. No water is now going
over the Miner dam, and the river
would be almost dry in the vicinity of |
Idaho Falls if waters, impounded in
he Jackson lake reservoir were not
turned loose.
The Twin Falls North Side project
and the Twin Falls South Side project
,wn storage rights in Jackson lake,
md settlers on those two projects are
all the irrigation waters
which they are now getting from that
ource. However, the acute shortage
n the reservoir will make it impossi-
lie for the water companies to fulfill
ontracts with settlers this year The
irst cutting of hay has been put in
he stack in the Twin Falls district,
ut the second cutting is going to be
otal loss, it is claimed The acreage
own to grain is being reduced in size
the district by farmers,
'ho are attempting to save some por-
ons of their crops and brings them TO
The beet crop NAV be almost total |
ss in the Idaho Falls section. Most
the water rights in the upper Snake
yer valley are older than are the
ghts held by the Carey act eompa-
es which built the irrigation projects
the Twin Falls country, and that
i'll help the people in and about Ida
} Falls, st. Anthony, Rexburg and
her towns in the southeast some, but
e fact that the Snake is almost dr.
lgurs i'll for them.
his season is the first in 30 years
at a water shortage has been noted
the Snake river. Ordinarily the
ows in the Teton mountains of Wyo-
ing and the Sawtooth mountains of
aho provide all the irrigation waters
cessary for the successful growth of
ops. The water from the melting
ows in the Tetons is caught in the
ckson lake reservoir, but there is
tie to impound this season.