The Idaho Department of Water Resources is initiating a process to create a water district, or modify existing districts, to administer groundwater rights not currently in a district within Administrative Basin 2022  — the Teton River Basin in the state’s east region.

IDWR plans a meeting at 7 p.m. March 5 at Teton High School, 555 E. Ross Ave., Driggs. Department staff sent invitations to more than 700 people with decreed water rights in the administrative basin.

The Teton River is a tributary of Henry’s Fork of the Snake River.

Idaho in 2014 completed the Snake River Basin Adjudication, through which water rights were catalogued by IDWR and confirmed by a state district court. State law requires the department to create water districts after a basin has gone through a general adjudication.

Water District 1 already administers surface water rights in the Upper Snake basin that includes the Teton River.

The meeting “is really to solicit input about how to create water districts to administer groundwater diversions in the Teton River Basin,” James Cefalo, IDWR east region manager, told Capital Press. “There is a whole spectrum of possibilities concerning how districts are created.”

Surface water users have been invited to participate, he said.

At the meeting, IDWR officials will present options for including groundwater rights in a new or existing water district, discuss projected timelines to create or modify districts, answer questions, and request feedback from water users, according to a department news release.

Based on feedback at the meeting, the department will develop a proposal to create or modify water districts. A public hearing on the proposed action is to be held later.

The proposed action will affect Basin 22 groundwater rights not currently included in a water district, according to the department. People with domestic or stockwater rights will not be affected by the change or included in any proposed water district.

The 2024 legislature expanded the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer water rights administrative boundary, known as the area of common groundwater supply, to include tributary basins. Creation of new water districts in the state’s south-central and east regions thus is required.

Information: IDWR eastern regional office, 208-525-7161.