Commentary: Trump administration’s lawsuit claiming ‘supremacy’ over our water is a gut punch to all Idahoans

Throughout history there has been one thing all Idahoans agreed on — water is the lifeblood of Idaho. Water has made our southern Idaho sagebrush country bloom with farms and ranches, and water has been crucial for the protection of our wildlife and our outdoor way of life.

Protecting Idaho’s water rights from outside threats has been an article of faith — almost a religion — and any attempt by outsiders to get their hands on our water has been fighting words for all Idaho politicians regardless of political party or persuasion.

Federal government sues state over Idaho National Laboratory water rights

That’s why the Trump administration’s lawsuit claiming “supremacy” over Idaho’s water serving the Idaho National Laboratory is a gut punch to the people of Idaho.

But our current political leaders, unlike those throughout history, have played a role in giving the Trump administration the notion that Idaho is a lap dog for whatever the president wants by their silence and eagerness to partner with the federal government regardless of the consequences for Idahoans, their economy and their way of life.

Last summer, without informing the people of Idaho, Gov. Brad Little signed a memorandum of understanding with the Trump administration hoping that the Idaho National Laboratory could become a Nuclear Lifestyle Innovation Campus and accept 33 percent of all radioactive waste generated in the country.

Little has not explained how this campus and taking the waste will affect our precious water supply nor how it will impact the Snake River Aquifer, which supplies a significant amount of water to our southern Idaho farms, ranches, trout farms and cities. Other than a few comments for a story published by the Idaho Capital Sun, the governor has said little about how this major initiative will affect Idaho.

Our congressional delegation has also remained silent on this issue except to say the campus will bring economic prosperity and jobs to eastern Idaho.

Now, through the lawsuit the Trump administration has filed in U.S. District Court, we know that the federal government views the water it receives from Idaho as its water and that Idaho has no legal right to curtail water to INL even during one of the worse drought seasons in the state’s history.

The Trump administration argues that federal installations like INL are “shielded by the supremacy clause” from state regulations unless “Congress has provided clear and unambiguous authorization for such regulation.”

The Trump administration also argues, as it has while promoting the Nuclear Lifestyle Innovation Campus and the radioactive waste repository, that Idaho’s decision to curtail INL’s water has “safety, economic and energy consequences.”

Moreover, the Trump administration says that “curtailment of INL’s water right would disrupt this national nuclear energy momentum,” another way of saying it would disrupt President Trump’s quest to build nuclear reactors across the country.

But the Nuclear Lifestyle Innovation Campus is but only one issue where our water could be in jeopardy and where our governor and congressional delegation have remained silent when the future of Idaho is at stake and should be debated.

In September, the Washington Sun revealed that a Nevada company was eyeing plans to build a 4-million-square foot data center complex on 3,700 acres of public land in southern Ada County. This complex would be 5.5 times bigger than a data center Meta built near Kuna.

Rhea Data, a subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Arevia Power, said the preliminary design for the complex would include a natural-gas power plant, electrical infrastructure and rights of way expanding into Elmore County.

In addition to the Ada County data center, the Idaho Statesman reported this week that Copia Power, a California-based company, wants to build a data center on 3,700 acres of public land north of Twin Falls. The so-called Falcon Data Center would be built on land where the Lava Ridge wind project would have been built before getting killed by the Idaho congressional delegation and the Trump administration, both of which oppose clean energy projects.

These two Idaho-based data centers on public land are two of the dozens of data centers the Trump administration wants to build on 17,600 acres across the West on public lands.

Data centers proposed on federal land in eastern Oregon, Idaho and other Western states

In states from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Washington, the construction of data centers has been one of the hottest issues during this election cycle. But in Idaho, there has been no debate on whether using thousands of acres of public lands to build data center complexes is a good idea.

Again, neither Gov. Little nor our congressional delegation has said a peep about whether we should use public land — historically, designated for multiple use — and convert it into one use for private companies.

Again, the governor and the congressional delegation have not explained how the 4-million square foot Ada County data center will get its water or how much water it will consume even though we all know that data centers require significant supplies of water. And now yet another data center, this one in the heart of Idaho’s agricultural area, will also likely consume massive amounts of water. Where will that water come from?

This fall, Idaho’s U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, who is seeking a fourth term in office, has declared his opposition to selling off our public lands in both his television ads and his mailbox pamphlets. But he has not said a word about giving 3,700 acres of public land in the state’s most populous county to a for-profit company to build a data center complex.

He has said nothing about how the Nuclear Lifestyle Innovation Campus could affect Idaho’s water supply. Silence from such a prominent member of the United States Senate is like writing a blank check to the Trump administration to do whatever it wants in our state.

Had Gov. Little and the congressional delegation shared more information with Idahoans and allowed Idahoans to voice their opinions regarding these issues in open forums and debates, the Trump administration might not have felt so bold as to file a federal lawsuit to grab our state’s water just weeks before the November election.

One hopes that Idaho can win this water grab by the Trump administration. Water is the most precious gift mother nature has given Idaho, and it is only going to become more valuable because of how our climate is changing.

Idaho must control its own water because every drop is precious and every drop is crucial for the future of our great state.