Idaho family sues after irrigation shutoff ruins crops on 1,000-acre farm
An Idaho farming family has filed a lawsuit against the state following an emergency water order that forced them to shut off irrigation, resulting in significant crop loss. The family argues that the state violated water priority laws by issuing a blanket shutdown rather than following the 'first in time, first in right' system.
Why it matters
The case highlights the growing tension between state water management, property rights, and the impact of climate-driven resource scarcity on agriculture.
An Idaho family that has farmed 1,000 acres near the Snake River for three generations has sued the state after an emergency water order forced them to shut off their irrigation pumps. The order dried their fields and destroyed their crops. Jerry Bingham and his family have grown wheat, alfalfa, and potatoes near Blackfoot since 1950. They filed a lawsuit in the Seventh Judicial District Court of Idaho in Bingham County. The lawsuit challenges an order from the Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) that stopped groundwater pumping across large areas of the Eastern Snake River Plain. The Binghams are represented by the nonprofit public interest law group Pacific Legal Foundation. They argue that state regulators broke Idaho's long-standing water priority laws and effectively took their private property rights without paying them.Emergency order cuts off groundwaterThe dispute began with an administrative order from IDWR Director Matthew Weaver.
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