If there’s a word to describe the opposite of a banner water year, 2026 was it. After an exceptionally hot and dry summer in 2025, Idaho farmers entered this planting season having endured the hottest winter and early spring ever recorded. Cities and counties faced a dismally low snowpack, with major implications for late-season water supplies. While this year’s snow drought was unusually dire, our state has, unfortunately, experienced a decline in snowpack levels over the past several decades.

That reality, as others have pointed out, demands action. It requires clear-eyed and careful stewardship from those of us who depend on and use Idaho’s water resources. It requires good-faith collaboration between water users, policymakers, and state agencies. And success will only be possible if we collectively commit to solutions that make sense.

Some have suggested that the solution to east Idaho’s water challenges is to dry up more groundwater-irrigated farmland. Here’s why that approach falls short. This year, the Idaho Department of Water Resources estimated that the Surface Water Coalition, a group of seven canal companies in the Magic Valley, would experience a 741,100-acre-foot shortfall during this year’s irrigation season. Even if every acre of groundwater-irrigated farmland — about a million acres — were dried up, IDWR estimates that it would increase this year’s flows into the Snake River by only about 90,000 acre-feet, a mere 12% of the total estimated shortfall.

If Idaho tried to mitigate droughts as severe as this one through groundwater pumping reductions alone, it would have to permanently dry up about 675,000 acres (more than 1,000 square miles) of farmland. Permanently abandoning a third of the farmland across the Snake River Plain would devastate Idaho’s economy and lead to bitter, protracted litigation. The impact to cities, counties, businesses and individual livelihoods would be astronomical.

Fortunately, there are other, better ways to address Southeast Idaho’s water reality. It’s my view that a successful approach must contain three elements:

1) Long-term actions by groundwater users to maintain the health and stability of the aquifer.

2) A drought-resilient surface water system that can adapt to variable snowpack conditions.

3) A much more robust understanding of our river and aquifer’s interconnected hydrology.

The state of Idaho, through the Idaho Water Resource Board, has worked with canals and groundwater users for several years to expand managed aquifer recharge. I’m grateful for those continued efforts, which increase our ability to capture water in wet years to the benefit of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer and the rest of the Snake River system. Their impact is not trivial. It’s deeply important, and should remain a top priority.

Groundwater irrigators also recognize the significant responsibility we bear, both as stewards and beneficiaries of the ESPA. That’s why we’ve committed to long-term limits on our pumping (amounting to an average of 1.8 acre-feet per year — about 45% of our full water right). It’s why we’ve invested millions of dollars in aquifer recharge infrastructure. It’s why we spend time and money measuring and analyzing our water usage. Living within these parameters means making tough choices — often permanent ones — about what land stays in production and what land doesn’t.

Those efforts will continue, and they play a vital role in ensuring the long-term stability and health of the ESPA. But they must be paired with efforts to upgrade our canal systems and make them much more drought-resilient than they currently are. According to the IDWR, the SWC diverts about 3.3 million acre-feet of water from the Snake River to irrigate 550,000 acres of farmland. This amounts to 6 acre-feet per acre, or about 340% of what groundwater irrigators divert from the aquifer. According to IDWR estimates, 35% of that water makes it to farmers and other end users. The remaining 65% (about 2 million acre-feet) holds the key to making it through the kind of dry years we’re currently facing.

I’m not saying any of this to criticize our state’s surface water users, but modern water demands require modern infrastructure. IDWR’s numbers suggest that, each year, we could harness up to 2 million more acre-feet of water to help get us through dry seasons without having to dry up more groundwater-irrigated farmland. That number represents significant untapped potential.

Lastly, sustained progress depends on continued investments in research, measurement and updated groundwater modeling. That’s why water users expressed support for the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute’s work to update the state’s decades-old groundwater model. It’s why our groundwater district is working with the Water Resource Board to install a network of monitoring wells across the Snake River Plain. It’s why we should all support improved measurement — on the river, in our canals and on our wells — to improve our understanding and identify areas for improvement. I firmly believe that we can protect our aquifers and rivers, maintain our agricultural economy and keep our communities thriving; but it will take all of us, working together, toward sensible, integrated solutions.