Idaho files petition to launch Clark Fork-Pend Oreille area adjudication

CLARK FORK — Idaho officials filed a petition Friday asking the 5th District Court to commence water rights adjudication in the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille river basins.

A water rights adjudication allows older undocumented water rights to be documented, reaffirms existing permits and licenses, removes unused water rights from water right records, and helps the state and its residents manage Idaho’s water resources, officials with the Idaho Department of Water Resources said in a press release.

The Clark Fork River enters Idaho from Montana and flows into Lake Pend Oreille, the largest freshwater lake in the state. The Pend Oreille River flows out of the western side of Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint and flows west into the state of Washington. The Priest River, Priest Lake, and other tributary streams in the Pend Oreille and Clark Fork river basins within Idaho will be included in the adjudication.

The adjudication proceeding will review all water rights within the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille river basins held by local, state, and federal governments, Native American tribes, and private property owners. The court petition includes a request that gives water users in the basins the option of deferring the filing of small domestic and stockwater claims.

There are approximately 2,700 water rights on record with IDWR in the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille river basins. IDWR officials expect that a total of about 9,000 water rights claims may be filed for the area during the adjudication process.

In the role as independent expert and technical assistant to the court, IDWR investigates water right claims and makes recommendations about the elements of each water right.

Before IDWR can take claims and make its recommendations in the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille adjudication, agency officials said the court must make certain findings and issue a commencement order. The court has set a Jan. 21, 2021, commencement hearing on Jan. 21, 2021, to determine whether it will proceed with the adjudication.

After the commencement order is issued, claims can be filed on a hard-copy paper form or online. IDWR will then give notice to water right holders and begin taking claims, conduct water rights investigations, make preliminary reports, and hold public meetings. IDWR will then file a director’s report with the court, which will specify IDWR’s recommendations regarding the elements of each water right.

Once IDWR files the report with the court, interested parties can file objections and responses to the recommendations. The court will hold hearings and trials as needed, and will then issue decrees that determine the nature and extent of each water right in the area.

The Clark Fork-Pend Oreille adjudication follows the conclusion of the Snake River Basin Adjudication – the largest adjudication completed in the United States – and the ongoing Coeur d’Alene-Spokane Adjudication and Palouse river basins adjudications.

The Clark Fork-Pend Oreille adjudication is the last of three phases of the North Idaho water rights adjudications. The adjudications recognize that water is a valuable resource in Idaho and that supplies are not always sufficient to meet demands, IDWR officials said.

Information: idwr.idaho.gov/water-rights/adjudication/