Salute to Idaho Agriculture: Southern Idaho water update

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Across the state, snowpack levels have been sitting at-or-above year-over-year averages for much of the winter.

But a dry January has those numbers coming back down toward levels of concern for the Twin Falls Canal Company.

According to General Manager Jay Barlogi, the Canal Company has a complicated summer ahead if winter storms don’t continue in a massive way.

Currently, all eyes are on the reservoir system.

“Sits at about 42% of capacity. It’s really a result of really low base flows throughout the winter. We’re currently sitting at about 89000 acre/feet short of where we were at this time last year on the reservoir system,” said Barlogi.

With low levels in the reservoir system, the hope is that winter storms can begin to pick up some of the slack. Barlogi says hope remains that snowpack can help make up for low flows.

“A couple big storms to hit up in the water shed, put a lot of snow down, we could get that snowpack up into that 120-130 percent range. That would be very comforting to all of us to know that we’ve got a lot of snow up there to fill those reservoirs,” added Barlogi.

Further, the longer cold weather maintains in the Magic Valley, the better.

Barlogi says once warm weather hits soil and begins to dry out the land - the canals will need to open.

The sooner that happens, the more likely cutbacks will occur in the summer and fall.

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