Hello friends. Recently, I received in the mail a noticed, which is included at the bottom of this blog, that notifies those of us who have a well that we must follow some procedures to ensure we continue to have our water rights included with our property. There is a deadline of April 30 and since I have learned that friends of mine in the Palouse have yet to receive this notice while those of us who live in Moscow and are far less likely to have a well and be affected, I thought it wise to pass this along ASAP so those that it does impact can act quickly.
If a property owner has a well, there is a good chance that the water source the well taps into pulls from the Palouse River Basin and if so, then the property must file a “notice of claim”. If said owner believes the well driller registered your well and it can be identified on the Idaho Dept of Water Resources website, please verify that it IS in fact registered because mistakes can be made/have happened.
Without this claim, your water rights may not exist. According to Idaho law, if we face a water shortage, then who is permitted water is decided based on the appropriation doctrine, meaning “first in time is first in right”. In other words, who had a claim first gets the rights to the water.
Given I am not an expert on this matter, I am including the notice along with links to further information on this matter and in them, who to contact for further clarity.
Shannon May | real estate | Moscow Idaho 