05/27/05 Study to look at new water storage

The man who wants to be Idaho's next governor says he wants to preserve and protect the state's water. That's why Congressman Butch Otter has introduced a bill that authorizes the Bureau of Reclamation to conduct feasibility studies that will help ease some of the chronic water shortages brought on by drought. OTTER "During the spring runoff instead of letting that water just run past our head gates and on down the river and into the ocean or into the economies of Washington and Oregon we can direct that water into off stream storage, additional storage in dams." Otter says it's not just about building new dams. He thinks raising the height on existing dams is an option that has to be explored. OTTER "It was estimated that if we could add six to eight feet, something like that to the top of each dam we would, now we can't do that, it would double the water capacity in the state." In a growing state there's only a limited amount of water but what seems like an unlimited demand for irrigation, power generation, industrial and municipal uses as well as fish recovery and other federal requirements. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott