Increasing Demand for Water Strains Upper Snake River System in Idaho and Wyoming
Upper Snake River Faces Growing Pressure as Drought, Demand Collide
IDAHO FALLS — The Upper Snake River system is straining under the weight of rising water demand and shrinking supply, a challenge laid out in stark terms at the Snake River Headwaters Symposium held last week in Jackson, Wyoming. Experts, farmers, attorneys, and scientists gathered for the all-day event warned that the region faces an intensifying water crisis — one that mirrors the well-publicized collapse threatening the Colorado River Basin to the south.
Idaho farmer Jeff VanOrden put the stakes plainly. “It’s pretty serious for the area because our economy is built around agriculture,” he told symposium attendees. “I take great pride in being a grower, knowing that the potatoes I grow end up on dinner plates all over this country.” That agriculture, and the broader regional economy, depends entirely on water that is increasingly spoken for.
VanOrden noted that Idaho’s Water District 1 oversees the distribution of more than 4 million acre-feet of water stored in nine reservoirs stretching from Jackson Lake to Milner Dam near Twin Falls. Yet demand has grown faster than supply can keep pace. More water-intensive industries have moved into the region, and disputes over water rights have multiplied. “The fight is only intensifying,” VanOrden said.
The situation is compounded by Idaho Governor Brad Little’s recent declaration of a statewide drought emergency, reflecting the broader conditions of record heat and low snowpack hitting the region this year.
No Water to Spare — And Wyoming Won’t Send It South
One proposal circulating amid the Colorado River crisis involves tapping the Snake River Basin to supplement the dwindling supply feeding Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam in Northern Arizona. That idea was firmly rejected at the symposium.
Wyoming Senior Assistant Attorney General Chris Brown told attendees he consulted the state engineer — who holds general supervisory authority over all waters in Wyoming under the state constitution — on the question. “He is not entertaining any proposals to transfer water out of this basin into the Colorado River Basin,” Brown said, drawing applause and whistles from the crowd.
Brown also noted that a 1949 compact between Wyoming and Idaho would require Idaho’s approval before any Snake River water could be diverted into the Green River Basin, which flows into the Colorado. An evaluation conducted as far back as 1971 considered pumping, piping, or tunnel diversion options — but Brown made clear those concepts are off the table. “I obviously can’t speak for the state of Idaho,” he said, “but my legal opinion is they would say either ‘no’ or ‘hell no.’ That’s my guess.”
The remark underscored what nearly every speaker at the symposium emphasized: there is simply no surplus water available in the Upper Snake system to send elsewhere. The same pressures crushing the Colorado River — rising demand, falling supply, reduced snowpack — are already bearing down on the Snake. For Idaho, where agricultural water rights represent some of the most valuable property in the state, any proposal to divert that water would face fierce and well-founded opposition. Readers seeking context on recent water-rights negotiations closer to home can review coverage of a recent agreement between junior and senior water users to temporarily suspend curtailment in the Big and Little Lost Basins, a sign of just how tightly managed Idaho’s water allocations have become.
Warming Winters, Earlier Runoff, and What the Data Shows
Bryan Shuman, a geology and geophysics professor at the University of Wyoming and a member of the WyACT Project Team — funded by the National Science Foundation — presented historical temperature data showing a meaningful upward shift in average temperatures across the Snake River watershed, particularly after 1990.
Shuman said that from 1990 to 2020, eight out of thirty winters recorded unusually warm temperatures, compared to eleven out of seventy winters in earlier decades. The increase in baseline temperatures means that winters once considered average now register as cold. Crucially, warmer nighttime temperatures prevent snow from refreezing, causing snowpack to melt faster and pushing peak runoff earlier in the summer season.
Despite those trends, Shuman offered a measured note of context: the Snake River watershed has performed slightly better than other western regions, receiving somewhat more snowfall than surrounding areas. He described the region as “a warm refuge” — one that is still warming, but not as rapidly as other parts of the West.
Native fisheries are also under increasing stress. Diana Miller, a fisheries biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, noted that fishing represents a multimillion-dollar industry, and altered streamflows are threatening it. Idaho State University researchers are currently studying the effects on fish and aquatic life when releases from Jackson Lake Dam are reduced, disconnecting the river’s floodplain and drying side channels in the braided Snake.
That research will feed directly into the work of the Snake River Headwaters Working Group, formed in 2023 and now involving more than 100 organizations. The group narrowly averted a crisis that same year — one that would have reduced the Snake to a mud flat near the scenic Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park. For broader coverage of Idaho water and infrastructure policy, visit Idaho News.
What Comes Next
Idaho and Wyoming officials, farmers, and water managers will continue coordinating through the Snake River Headwaters Working Group as the 2026 irrigation season gets underway under drought conditions. ISU research into the ecological impacts of reduced Jackson Lake releases is ongoing and expected to shape future management decisions. Governor Little’s statewide drought emergency declaration signals that state agencies will remain on heightened alert throughout the season. Property owners, agricultural producers, and municipalities across Bonneville County and the broader Snake River Plain should anticipate continued scrutiny of water allocations as demand continues to outpace available supply.