Thursday • October 13, 2011 www.magicvalley.com • 75¢ Limited by Funds, Buhl Recharge A Century Old, Seeing Red Before, Starts Up After Yet Still Young Comm- Again unity State officials look to take School advantage of this year’s Rallies plentiful water, but sparse resources will hamper for efforts. District BY KIMBERLEE KRUESI Title.
[email protected] Page S1. Another round of water recharge has been approved in order to help re- plenish a key underground aquifer. But tight budgets will limit just how much the state can do as it seeks to replenish the heavily used Eastern 3 Free Snake Plain Aquifer. The Idaho Water Resource Board Trade met last week and approved $132,700 to fund 44,245 acre-feet of recharge. Agree- An acre-foot is enough water to cov- er one acre, one foot deep. ments This is the second recharge effort the board has led this year. This Passed spring, more than 59,200 acre-feet of water was put back into the Lake Page N1. Erie-sized aquifer. All recharge this fall will occur be- low American Falls, said Rich Rigby, senior adviser for the Idaho Depart- ment of Water Resources. The board seeks to divide recharge equally above and below American Falls. In years past, more attention Please see RECHARGE, M2 At a Glance Aquifer Recharge What is it? • Essentially, its dump- ing water into the ground to let it seep into an aquifer and build the underground body of water back up. How does it work? • Sometimes, the Idaho Water Resource Board will send water directly to a hole or pit set up as a recharge site.