Idaho Water Science Center
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Water Use Information for Idaho

Water Use Data

Water Use Data
1985 View data in Adobe Acrobat View data in Microsoft Excel
1990 View data in Adobe Acrobat View data in Microsoft Excel
1995 View data in Adobe Acrobat View data in Microsoft Excel
2000 View data in Adobe Acrobat View data in Microsoft Excel
2005 View data in Adobe Acrobat View data in Microsoft Excel

Idaho's data is compiled through survey or data requests from several Idaho agencies. Withdrawals from ground- and surface-water sources for the defined water-use categories are collected by few State agencies. The Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) compiles measurements of surface-water diversion for irrigation in counties with large agricultural activities, and ground-water withdrawals in areas known as Ground Water Measurement Districts (GWMD). The latter are areas where ground-water resources are in demand or ground-water levels are declining. IDWR provides USGS only measured surface-water diversions but did not make available any ground-water withdrawals for GWMDs.

The Idaho Division of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) maintains limited data from drinking-water systems. IDEQ collects water-quality information to comply with the Clean Water Act but does not collect data for withdrawals, or deliveries to domestic, commercial or industrial users. IDEQ provides information about population served by purveyors, but the data is sometimes inaccurate or outdated. The Idaho Agriculture Statistics Service (IASS) reports annual county acreages for the largest irrigated crop types as well as some specialty crops, but no withdrawals are collected. Withdrawals for other types of water uses such as industrial, mining, or livestock are either not collected at all, or are not reported in a manner that easily facilitates a statewide compilation by county. There are additional documentation files for the 2000 and 2005 compilation that are available upon request. Contact us for information and documentation of Idaho's water-use data.