Current Topics
Visit IDWR’s News Page to view Department press releases.
On July 10, 2025, Director Weaver issued the Order Revising April 2025 Forecast Supply and Continuing May 16, 2025 Curtailment Order (Methodology Steps 5 & 6).
The Order finds a water demand shortfall of 75,300 acre-feet with a priority date of October 11, 1900. Junior groundwater users are encouraged to join an approved mitigation plan.
For more information, visit the SWC Delivery Call and Docket No. CM-DC-2010-001 webpages.
The 2025 Idaho Legislature passed Senate Bill 1083a revising several statutes dealing with domestic uses of water, shared wells, and subdivisions. These statutory changes are effective on July 1, 2025.
The changes to Idaho Code §§ 42-111 and 42-227 modified the requirements for establishing a water right for domestic purposes without applying to IDWR for a permit. This opportunity is sometimes called the “domestic exemption.”
For more information or to learn if your water use qualifies for a domestic exemption, visit IDWR’s Domestic Exemption webpage.
At the end of March, the Director and key IDWR staff held five public meetings in eastern Idaho to notify water users and receive public comment and testimony on the proposed expansion of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Area of Common Ground Water Supply.
The public meetings were held in the Big Lost, Little Lost, American Falls, Portneuf, and Raft River basins.
To learn more and view the meeting materials and public comment for each of the five public meetings, visit IDWR’s Administrative Actions page and click on the links labeled Expansion of the ESPA ACGWS followed by the name of the river basin.
On November 1st and continuing until April 30th, all cloud seeding operations authorized by the Idaho Water Resource Board, and as directed by Idaho Code § 42-4301, have kicked off in several Idaho basins.
Visit the IWRB’s new and improved Cloud Seeding Program webpage for more information on cloud seeding and cloud seeding operations in Idaho.
The Department is reviewing its administrative rules, consistent with the Governor’s Zero Based Regulation, Executive Order 2020-01. For more information visit, IDWR’s Rulemaking page or follow the links below for specific rulemaking activities.
IDWR receives many questions regarding the management of groundwater resources in the state, including domestic wells. To help answer those questions and more, IDWR compiled this Groundwater Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document.
