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OAR Changes

The Department has a limited number of management options available to address the groundwater declines.  A Rule Advisory Committee, consisting of representatives from municipal, junior and senior irrigation water rights holders and tribes, convened in 2016 and 2017 to assess potential rule changes. Based on groundwater declines and input from the Rule Advisory Committee, the Department implemented actions 1 and 2 shown in Table 1 to limit continued groundwater level declines and to facilitate additional water use data collection in the subbasin. Options 3 and/or 4 will be considered in the future to achieve reasonably stable water levels in the basalt aquifer, with changes not likely to occur before 2021.