Water users across the Snake River Basin will not face curtailment this irrigation season, state officials announced Thursday, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether the region’s severe drought would force cuts to agricultural water rights.
The decision came after Idaho Power agreed to forgo pursuing mandatory water reductions for more than 4,000 trust water users in the state. Governor Brad Little accepted the utility’s proposal and directed the Idaho Department of Water Resources to secure additional storage water to maintain required stream flows near Swan Falls Dam.
2026 Drought Threatens Historic Water Agreement
The Snake River Basin faced its most serious water shortage since the landmark 1984 Swan Falls Settlement Agreement took effect. That accord resolved a decades-old dispute between Idaho Power and the state by establishing minimum stream flows at Murphy Gage near Swan Falls Dam while allowing both hydropower generation and agricultural water use to continue.
The agreement created special “trust water rights” held by thousands of farmers and water users throughout the basin. However, the severity of this year’s drought threatened water levels at the critical monitoring point for the first time in four decades, raising the prospect of state-mandated curtailment.
In June, the Department of Water Resources notified trust water users that curtailment could become necessary if conditions worsened. The minimum required flow stands at 3,900 cubic feet per second at the gage near Swan Falls Dam.
Agreement Sidesteps Mandatory Restrictions
Instead of triggering the curtailment provisions of the 1984 agreement, Idaho Power officials reached out to Governor Little with an alternative approach. The utility indicated it would voluntarily refrain from demanding water cuts this year if the state could find storage water to offset the depleted stream flow.
On June 26, Little sent a letter to Idaho Department of Water Resources Chairman Jeff Raybould requesting that the agency secure the necessary storage water. The department subsequently arranged for additional water supplies to maintain compliance with the settlement agreement’s flow requirements.
“Under their proposal the Snake River will not run dry of water for trust water right holders this season, but I want to be equally clear that this is a bridge, not a fix,” Little said in a statement regarding the arrangement.
What Comes Next
The governor’s characterization of the agreement as temporary underscores the broader challenge facing the region. While this year’s curtailment crisis has been averted, water managers acknowledge that long-term solutions remain elusive. The Snake River Basin’s water supply challenges continue to intensify as drought conditions persist and competing demands from agriculture, hydropower, and municipal users strain available resources.
State water officials and stakeholders will likely need to pursue additional strategies heading into future irrigation seasons, particularly if dry conditions continue to affect the basin’s snowpack and runoff patterns. The 1984 agreement, while effective for four decades, may require modernization or supplementation to address the realities of changing climate patterns and population growth across Idaho.