Big Lost River Basin Hydrologic Investigation
From 2018-2022, IDWR conducted a project to characterize the surface and groundwater hydrology of the Big Lost River Basin. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided funding for the project through a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) grant. DOE participation in this project was undertaken in connection with the settlement of an enforcement action taken by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality for alleged violations of the requirements of the Hazardous Waste Management Act.
IDWR partnered with the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to complete the following objectives:
- Installed stream gages and performed multi-year seepage studies to examine surface water-ground water interactions between the Big Lost River and the aquifer system
- Developed a hydrogeologic framework and groundwater budgets for the basin
- Installed new monitoring wells to expand water level data collection efforts
- Conducted a water quality study
Additional Resources
Project Reports
| Date | Author | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 20221109November 2022 | IGS | Groundwater Budgets for the Big Lost River Basin, South-Central Idaho, 2000–19 |
| 20220722July 2022 | IDWR | Surface and Ground Water Quality of the Big Lost River Basin Report Appendices |
| 20220701July 2022 | IDWR | DOE SEP #2 Monitoring Well Installation Completion Report |
| 20220617June 2022 | BLRID & WD34 | Supporting data for “Groundwater Budgets for the Big Lost River Basin, South-Central Idaho, 2000-2019” (IGS, 2022) Ditch rider logs from Water District 34, 2015-2018 Storage balance spreadsheets from the Big Lost River Irrigation District, 2015-2019 |
| 20220222February 2022 | IDWR | Update of Ground Water Conditions in the Big Lost River Valley |
| 20210929September 2021 | USGS | Surface-Water and Groundwater Interactions in the Big Lost River, South-Central Idaho |
| 20210923September 2021 | USGS | Hydrogeologic Framework of the Big Lost River Basin, South-Central Idaho |
