The "can't we all just get along" award goes to Pioneer Irrigation District. The good people at Pioneer Irrigation and their attorney Scott Campbell have squared off on the issue run off from Caldwell city streets and subdivisions and where it should go.
Your property rights for drainage are at stake with this lawsuit. The outcome will be felt statewide if PID wins.
The short version of the argument goes something like this. PID is worried about contaminants from city streets and private property ending up in irrigation canals. PID has not defined where or what the "contaminants" are coming from but want it to cease immediately. The city maintains runoff has been allowed to go into the PID canals forever and reflects decades of "past practices". Mr. Scott Campbell, the attorney for PID, successfully ran the meter with Settler's Irrigation District to the tune of $650,000 dollars for their rate payers only to have this same issue tossed out of court this past May. Mr. Campbell is the only person that will benefit from all the legal slings and arrows about to fly. PID rate payers and city residents will get stuck paying legal the bills. You may have seen the news release on the PID increases to pay for this legal scam.
Contamination is the crux of the issue raised by PID. Forget about the fact that the stuff they use to control weeds along their canal and ditch banks creates exposure to the public of category III herbicides and pesticides labeled with a skull and crossbones. Oh, and let's not forget about the stuff routinely used by farmers that goes into the irrigation water as runoff from their fields. Toxicity of the stuff used to grow our food requires a license before you can buy or apply most of this stuff at the poison stores in the valley.
We are all charged with being good stewards of the land and environment. The city of Caldwell is doing is what has gone on for decades and continues to be practiced all over the State of Idaho uncontested. What needs to happen. You need to get involved with the next board election that will take place this fall at Pioneer Irrigation.
The only problem is that PID does not operate with a "one man, one vote" set of rules. It goes like this with PID, one acre, equals one vote. They stack the board and write the rules with a few sympathetic growers and us city folk can just fagedda bout it. Caldwell Finance Director, Eljay Waite tried to get on the board at PID and he simply did not have the "acreage votes" to make become a member of Club PID.
Editor note:
You can go to the PID website and they have all the goodies on this lawsuit posted. Including a couple of photos of the alledged contamination problem, news releases, and filings. Court records indicate Caldwell has filed a motion for a jury trial. Pioneer Irrigation has filed a motion to not permit a jury trial.
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